Lean By Design
Lean by Design explores how organizations can fix what’s predictably broken in their operations — starting with the systems, decisions, and behaviors that shape how work gets done. Hosts Oscar Gonzalez and Lawrence Wong speak with leaders from biopharma and beyond, drawing lessons from industries that share the same pursuit of clarity, efficiency, and sustainable execution. Each episode breaks down real challenges into practical insights that help teams align better, think smarter, and move faster. Produced by Sigma Lab Consulting, Lean by Design helps organizations design for what works—and eliminate what doesn’t. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Lean By Design
0210. The Real Bottleneck Isn’t the Process - It’s the People You Ignore with Hanna Bauer
In this episode, we sit down with Hanna Bauer, CEO and Founder of HEARTnomics Enterprises, to talk about a challenge many organizations don’t see coming: the human cost of hyper-focused process improvement.
Hanna’s worked across manufacturing, education, and organizational development, and now partners with leaders to build systems that perform—not just on paper, but in practice. She shares why organizations often miss the mark by optimizing processes without addressing the cultural friction, burnout, and misalignment that quietly erode performance.
We explore:
- Why so many operational excellence efforts fizzle out—despite sound process design
- How to recognize the “invisible waste” of human potential
- Why system redesign must go hand-in-hand with leadership and communication
- How Hanna's entrepreneurial journey has shaped her frameworks like HEART, BEAT, and CORE
- The tension between designing a scalable business and building one that fits your life
Whether you're in biopharma, operations, or leading your own company, this episode challenges the idea that better processes automatically lead to better outcomes. True excellence comes when systems are designed with the people who power them.
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Welcome back to another episode of Lean by Design Podcast. I'm your host, Oscar Gonzalez, with my co-host Lawrence Wong. We are excited today to present to you a guest that we have, Hannah Bauer, CEO and founder of Heartnomics Enterprises, where she integrates operational excellence with human-centered systems design. A Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and a Maxwell Leadership faculty member, she brings over 20 years of cross-sector experience in manufacturing, education, and organizational development. Her heartbeat and core frameworks help leaders reduce friction and reclaim human potential. Hannah, welcome to the studio.
SPEAKER_02:Why, thank you so much. Thanks for having me, Oscar and Lauren. So excited to be here and to be able to discuss some potential abilities to be able to help people because really that's what we're here to do, which is going to be help and be efficient with what we do.
SPEAKER_01:I love it. That is what we're here for. And that's, you know, that's part of what the reason why we created Lean by Design, because we really wanted to give people a medium to bounce ideas and hear from leaders like yourself on how they can make change and how they can really drive that change to make it stick and to make it last. So while we explore so many organizations who invest in optimizing systems, we also notice that they can fail to align the people who power them. As you share how process excellence and can sometimes unintentionally create human waste, let's start off by understanding what led you to focus on this intersection between systems and the human element.
SPEAKER_02:I failed. I broke the system. Here I am. It's not like uh I didn't have the skills or the knowledge I have been doing, like doing, okay, that was my problem, doing leadership for a long time. So, you know, when we're talking about well, navigating change and things that we need to look into the future, sure thing, I can do this. And then realizing that uh it wasn't a matter of even balancing uh of, hey, we're gonna do one thing here this way, and but we do this other thing, I realized that I was just draining myself. I was draining my team and really draining resources because I was not efficient. Um, didn't really have a good way to measure the outcomes, the progress that we were making, or really had clarity on the vision of where we need to go. And that's because just like everybody else in my industry at that time, we were just scared. Uncertainty is scary. When not knowing where you're going, it's just flat out scary. And I got caught up in that. So for me, um, it was a wake-up call because as a leader, really being that listener, open-minded, is what got me through a very uncertain time. Although I had the credentials, I had the processes, I had the systems. Um, and honestly, I had a great team, but I had not taken the time to know my team. And um, I remember specifically this one time when it was in the middle of all this, we had just lost most of our accounts because the budgets were frozen, that we were working with schools and they didn't know when the budgets were gonna be open because of the budget freeze. And they had also just started requiring new things like digital products that we didn't quite know how to deliver that. Neither did they. They didn't know one of the things that they didn't have to broadband to receive. Okay, well, I can't even sell them something. Even if I create something, is there gonna be money there for it? And how much money is it gonna take to create this? Caught up in all this, I remember walking to in my in my company and seeing this guy particularly walking working so focused in what he was doing. And when he saw me, he came and shared with me how grateful and how excited he was to do the work that we were doing. And that was the moment I realized that he had what I was missing. And that was hope. I had lost the hope in the middle of all of that in our place in the market. I had lost the hope and the value ad that we brought in. And I knew that I had to learn to tap into that for myself to be able to grow myself and my team. And honestly, that was um in the midst of knowing all of these skills, right? In the midst of knowing how to do a product and actually having been competitive for over 20 years. I mean, we knew what we were doing, but at the same time, we didn't know who we were doing it with or really what we were doing it for. So that's where the hard part came in, really coming with the solutions for the future for me.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I think you're highlighting something that I know Lawrence and myself, the first thing people ask, how did you get here? Well, we found a lot of different ways that just didn't work. We tried to do a lot of things that just failed miserably to grow an organization or to grow within a team. And it's sometimes really hard to find that missing piece because you're right, there is sort of this leadership checklist of do I have a procedure? Did I create the boundaries for what we're doing? But you're you're ignoring the choir to your song. You created the song, the lyrics, the notes, the tempo, and you forgot about the people that are supposed to sing it for you, sing it as part of the team. And it could be a very easy miss that um really cascades down and sort of creates a sense of doubt in people that we can actually do this because they don't see, you know, to your point, when there's no clarity of vision, even at that layer, people start to lose interest and say, Well, I got work, I got other stuff to do. I can do the workarounds, you know, which is anti-what we want.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and this is true because you know, we get cut we get cut up and to do the task, right? I mean, and we do we we have the KPIs and the strategic plans, and we have these things, you know, like you said, this checklist of what we're supposed to be monitoring, but then at the same time, how we monitoring these other parts are just as important, which is monitoring the purpose. I know we can do this and we're really good at doing this, but should we be doing this at this time? Maybe there's a time for this. There what that's the this whole other part that goes along with it, especially in atomic change, to the relevancy of what we're doing. Um, and it does take courage to take a look. I mean, like for anybody who's ever done a current state uh who's on a SWOT analysis, that's just brutal. Can be just like, ah, this is where we're at.
SPEAKER_01:I sometimes I don't make friends when those things come out, as you can understand. You know, you're starting to go through and you find the gaps, you find deficiencies. And it's hard to not look at those things and take things personal, especially when you're dealing with leaders that that was their responsibility. Build a team, create this, optimize and deploy things, and you start to point out these gaps or you start to recognize those gaps, it could be a hard pill to swallow.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, 100%. Um, and and that's where also the culture has to come in, right? Because yes, we want to find those gaps, but we also need to be very intentional as leaders that we are encouraging and that we are celebrating just as much of the gaps. Um, I can tell you firsthand, when I was trying to implement change, the environment that that changed that needed to happen, I mean, it needed to happen, we needed to do something. But the environment, the culture where that was happening was not the conducive one for change. And as a matter of fact, anything that was even gonna be helpful that made sense was met with resistance. But it wasn't because it was a wrong solution, it was a bad solution, it was because the culture, the sense of exactly that, we're gonna find something wrong. And if it's something wrong, you know, what's what's gonna happen with me? You know, they become fearful in the position, fearful of what's gonna go on, and the blame culture comes in. So I realized too that it wasn't just a matter of like, hey, let's come to the table and come up with solutions. Before the table, you know, what does that room temperature look like? How am I taking care of that? Because of course we don't want to bring defects, we don't want the client to find the defects. That's exactly what we want to prevent. But we can easily get caught in celebrating those defects that are caught, in essence, like, oh, a good thing you caught. And you know, we really encourage that versus encouraging the other 90% that went right, and we don't celebrate that. And it does take, you know, remember for everyone, um, point of correction. You know, remember we have the sandwich thing where you have either your things are group, right? Three to one because it's a real thing. So if we're gonna implement change, you're gonna have to look at this data. This data is not gonna necessarily look good. That's why we want change. I mean, we we just know that. But in order to be able to really take a look at it and be receptive and objective, we also need to be very intentional at that time to inject the positive culture, the positive behavior by modeling ourselves, the the environment, as we bring these changes and solutions to um to the table.
SPEAKER_00:Right. These these themes that you guys have mentioned about uncertainty, risk, culture, these things are often intangibles and they're very difficult to measure in a certain way, right? They're not like numbers and things that you can necessarily add up and and point out. Why do you think so many companies still struggle with this problem where you know you're trying to improve something, but there's always issues with maybe there's no buy-in, maybe people are leaving these efforts. Um, and and it's still, for some reason, whether it's it's logical or not, there's still some disconnect with the the overall performance of the organization. A really famous uh restaurateur, his name is uh Danny Mayer, and he's the founder of Shake Shack. One of the his quotes is business like life is all about how you make people feel. And I feel like there's something about that that is woven into this idea of process improvement, creating a safe space for people to be able to speak out and maybe even for leaders to entertain some of those ideas that they necessarily won't get access to from people that are on the front lines. You know, I'm interested in hearing your perspective, Hannah, on on why do you think that still happens. We have all these resources, we have all these tools, but yet we still struggle from these same problems.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's 100% what you just said. I mean, we we really do, and we do have the tools. If you look at the whole systematic digitizing of organizations, 71%, I think, believe that's this last statement I heard from McKinsey, fail. All of these things fail, and not because we don't have we have a lack of tools, not because we have a lack of technology, not even a lack of talent. We have the people that prepare, but it's exactly what you just said. It's the emotional component, which is what makes us human. It's that leadership component because leadership is not an easy like input-output. We want to see the task is gonna give this. If I do this task, it should give me this result. We're not humans, are not linear, we are complex. And anytime that you inject a human into a process, whatever simplified process you had just became complex because of the human element. So, first of all, acknowledging that, but then what is the development that I'm doing as a leader? Um, that is one of the things that I found in having to overcome a lot of adversity. And 100% I learned what love could do in the midst of really hopeless situations. Um, for me, it meant sustaining me, sustaining me alive while a cure was being developed that would help a terminal diagnosis I had as a child in heart disease. But there was no quick answer. There was a lot of failure in that point. But even as a I heard my doctor after, you know, 20 years after that, um, that innovative surgery that saved my life, what he described was that they needed to keep me alive long enough for technology to catch up. When I heard that as an adult, looking back at what happened to me as a kid, that's where really that that was for me the birth of harnomics, because it does take the love, that human aspect, it takes the care, it takes all these complexities, you know, it takes that motivation, inspiration, grit, um, ambition, uh, humbleness, all of these things uh that go along with the love, the emotion, but also it takes the excellence, you know, which it means that the failure points, the being able to catch the learning, the processes, the systems, because being able to learn from it is gonna require a process and a system. And that's where I realized the way to make great processes and systems and great people work together, which is the love, the heart of organizations, is leadership. So as we raise our leadership, because you're not gonna know a leader, what does a leader do? A leader knows the vision, right? I like I said, one of my main things was that yeah, I can keep the tasks, but with the purpose, we need purpose in those tasks. You know, how does this fit into the big picture? It's gonna take a visionary, it's gonna take not only that, it's gonna take clarity. That's leadership. It's gonna take the ability to ask those hard questions, to be able to take the moment and be able to see, like, hey, how are my people doing? It's gonna take that emotional IQ. That's leadership because we're looking at complex creatures, complex beings. So when looking at change management, when looking at implementation of tools, we can't just think of again linear. If I use this tool, it's gonna give me this. We gotta think of the end user and the one who is implementing the one who's putting that into place and be able to nurture that. I mean, and it's not because we're cutting slack. I mean, we know that we can't cut slack on standards. We can't. We do that, projects don't get done, people get hurt. I mean, we know that with safety, so it's not about that. It's about how do I promote the ownership, the learning environment and failure spot of learning. How are we dealing with that? How am I both encouraging the behavior I want to see, the behavior that we need, but also be able to bring clarity to when we don't meet the mark or when there's a failure point because those are failure points, those are defects. You know, how are we dealing with that? And it does take growth in leadership. So, and I've seen that again and again is we have the processes, we have the systems, we have the resources. We're lacking in leadership. One of the main things with leadership is trust and being able to wear a leader to know how to grow in trust and utilize that trust currency takes work.
SPEAKER_01:You're you're spot on. I mean, that that trust is paramount because you're steering the ship, you know, and the trust is not developed from a single incident. It builds. And I think sometimes that's what we tend to forget. But your point about adding a human and adding that layer of complexity, we're not binary. We don't have on and off. We're not yes and no. It is yes, maybe, well, it kind of depends, etc. etc. You know, there's such a there's such a point of humility that has to be developed, you know, that even if we did everything the right way, it may not be perfect. And that's okay. You know, I there's as you're talking, I'm drawing so many parallels to parenting my four-year-old that he's looking for me to well, now he doesn't want to listen to me. Maybe there's a little bit there uh to that, but uh, you know, there's how we approach that, how we try not to make him feel like an outsider for not knowing something or not, doing something the right way, and coaching and having that leadership mentality of, okay, that was a really good try. What we missed was X, you know, and uh again, not skimp on any standards, because the standard in this household is that we don't throw food across the table. That's the standard. But what is it that we can address and how can we can we work through that? Finding a lot in parenting that that parallels really leadership and and the way that we hope that leaders are really positioning themselves within organizations.
SPEAKER_02:You understand that a four-year soul, what you require is different. It's gonna be when you require a 14-year-old, it's gonna be different than what you're the requirements as a newborn, right? I mean things, yeah. I'm not ready. Some things you gotta give it time. Trust is not one thing. Some things they take time, and we gotta be building, and that's one of the main things in leadership. I mean, it is a journey. It's like you don't ever just arrive if you think you have arrived. You know, big warning signs because the environment changes all the time. That means conflict. What is there? Like we were just talking about the weather, right? My expectations, I wish I could just walk outside and not have to put on like a huge coat. But no, now I did I bring out my coat already? No, I mean I have to look at it because I didn't expect it to be this cold right now. So it's gonna cause conflict. What I thought was gonna take me a minute to get out the door. Now it's may take me five or ten minutes so I can be properly ready, you know. And there's that that internal, oh, then I can get frustrated because hey, it didn't happen the way I expected it, but then the environment was like that. So I have to be, again, one patient. And is was there anything I could have looked at that could get me ready for this moment? Yeah, I could have looked at the weather before I stepped out the door, you know, look at the signs, um, talk to people that may have stepped out already today that told me, like, hey, you might want to put on a jagged. There's certain things that we can do because they're they're gonna happen. That's gonna be my environment when I go out there, it's not always gonna be my expectations. And in leadership, it's the same thing. We get frustrated because, hey, it didn't happen a specific way, or it was supposed to happen this way. Last time I stepped out the door, for example, it just it everything was fine, and I was not. Well, there's things outside of our control, and it's gonna be like that. That's one of the things about life. That's what makes it beautiful. In every one of those, it's opportunities. Every one of those, in every part, even in the frustration and the conflict, there's always room for growth. And really, for leaders today, it looking at this and the attitude in which we look at it is with that curiosity, really looking at what novelty can we have. It's gonna make it that so much easier because it's gonna happen. The environment is changing. Our clients' world changed last night, our employees' world changed right now, and we're going sometimes minute by minute on what's the newest thing, compliance issues, breakdowns, you know, budget things, the leadership changes. There's environmental changes that maybe working expected to have now, and you can't because it's a typhoon coming. Who knows? You know, so it's part of that, I think, as a journey and as a leader is really taking that as curiosity. Okay, I wonder if, or I wonder, you know, uh what if we do it this way? What if I look at it? Does this open an opportunity for something else? That and that's really a big part of what's going to get us through and enjoy it. Because leadership can be joyful. We should. It's part of like what makes us fulfilled. It's not one thing I do, it's an expression, another expression of who we are.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for sure. I think with with leadership too, you guys are talking about trust and patience, right? The thing with trust and patience is that it takes time, it's not this thing where you show up and everybody automatically will trust you and have patience with you. You know, Hannah, from from all the leaders that you've seen and that you've come across, and even in your own experience, what separates a good leader and a bad leader when they're trying to diagnose when they enter an organization? What are those things that they might see on paper that looks fine? But when they start talking to people, they start noticing things, right? What what what are those things that a good leader would be able to see that you won't be able to find on paper that like when they come into an organization, they're gonna notice?
SPEAKER_02:Well, the first part is the listening. At good leaders, they approach things as curious, curious. So when you're curious about something, that means that doesn't mean I know the answer. I'm just finding out. Having that attitude, and that's gonna take a lot of listening. We first come into an organization, that's gonna take a lot of that, more than hey, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that. But I've come to learn that the more you listen, um, and is this hilarious because I keep on, I don't know how many times, how many classes I've taken on active listening. Like, oh my goodness, I've led so many facilitations.
SPEAKER_00:To actively learn about active listening. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Um, and honestly, it is a skill. It's not, I know we both have it, right? Two ears, one mouth, use them accordingly. You know, uh it's because it's true, right? I mean, we gotta listen more than what we talk. But even in the listening, not just because I'm nodding and I'm understanding, it's like really, do I understand how I listen? How do I know I'm listening? How do I know I'm being present in the moment? And we hear a lot about this, right? Being present. But I find that those leaders, the best ones, are the ones that are honestly present in that moment that they're listening. They're not already thinking about what they're gonna say next before the person finishes talking. It takes discipline, it takes practice, it takes cues. I've seen leaders intentionally having things in front of their computers, having writing on the top. Make sure you listen first because we tend to forget. It just happens. I mean, we we we like to talk many times. Hey, I want to be the first one that comes with the solution, but I've seen the best ones time and time again is listen, number one.
SPEAKER_01:I love that. It's I'm I'm pointing at this up here. This was something that was given to me by um a coach at a company that I had that came in. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. And I think that's what you're highlighting there is that you brought it up in the previous question. Part of that humility is recognizing that regardless of how much time as a leader you have had, you don't know the people, you don't know the company, you don't really know the product or the service. Like you need to have that level of humility so that you can start to gain trust, you can start to build those things and those relationships because now you're not trying to impose a solution to a problem you know nothing about.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That you are able to take the time to talk to the people at the organization, to talk to other leaders, to talk to, you know, who was there before you came on board, um, to really understand and find the heart of the problem, which can drive you to the right solution. Um Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So if I can say something, because I, you know, this is not something we've heard. I know as leaders we hear that a lot, like, hey, you gotta listen, I get it, you know, people first, all that stuff. But when I come to find why don't we listen? We're in a leadership deficit. That goes back to I cannot get what I don't have. And a lot of times what I find is the leader themselves don't know how to listen to themselves because they don't take the time to listen and understand. I cannot seek to understand you if I haven't taken the time to seek and understand myself before I go into work. Why am I doing this? Or who am I serving? What is the change I want to see today? What is the what is the one thing I want to learn today? Um, and not taking that time as a leader first, right? We hear that put on your oxygen mask first in an airplane, right? Before you help the others, it's the same thing. I can't expect to go into a whole room of people and I'm gonna listen and I'm gonna take my little heart out and take notes if I'm walking into that room feeling already misunderstood, not listened, and not valued. Many times as leaders, we may not get that from our environment, and it's something that we do have to learn to give to ourselves. We have to take the time to care for us. And that's that goes back to that self-aware leader. Understand when you are feeling that, when you are not feeling listened, because you have to nurture that as well. Again, can't expect and I hear a lot of great leaders, and it's not because they don't want to. I know they want to, but they're already in the deficit, they're in complete burnout. I was like, man, you're you're asking me to sit there again and listen. Well, who's understanding me? You know, it's okay to take a time out and take care of this. Lining yourself first so you can go in. And it takes preparation, it takes that that care, it takes that um humbleness, really out of to it and saying, Hey, I have needs too. I'm not expecting other people to meet them. I have to learn to meet my own needs. I have to learn to vocalize and listen to myself, give myself a break so that I can give other people a break too.
SPEAKER_00:I I think we answered the the next question was is what's the root cause between this disconnect between people and processing a lot of it has to do with like this active listening and then them not being self-aware, and all this kind of ties back into ego, right? I think people um not just leaders in general, but I think when people go into work, they have and I'm not saying this is all industries, but I I know especially in biopharma, this means a lot for people to have a certain title and they they walk into the office, like I'm this person, so therefore I have these powers uh or responsibilities. And it's it's often respect, right? Difficult for them to admit that they might not know the answer, right? I think the the amount of times that we see people say I don't know is actually very rare in our industry, unfortunately. I think that's something that the really good leaders and the really good listeners are not afraid to say because that is the truth. There's not a single human being that knows all the information in the world, and it would be nonsensical for you to know everything that's going on. And and I think that allows the other people that are part of your organization to say, oh, if my leader is also communicating that they don't know everything, it's okay for me to say that as well. So let's figure out where the gaps are and then start to move towards a place of understanding so we can develop something better. But if you're coming in the room and saying, Oh, I know all the answers, and like we gotta do this, this, and this, okay, well, what do you need? Why why would I even say anything? What what does my voice mean in in this in this conversation?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, you've said so much right there because it's true. Um a leader doesn't only know the way, but shows the way and guides the way. So we model, right? It's not do what I say, it's really do as I see. So if I'm seeing my leader that comes into a room and they expect themselves to have an answer to everything, well, guess what? When same thing, it's gonna be with the team. They're gonna reflect the same way. Either they all have one answer, so they're not either not gonna receive back or forth. So then you just create this huge barrier that disconnect that we're talking about. Because if they show any vulnerability, that may look bad in front of the person in charge. If you're not willing to show vulnerability, you're the person in charge and you can't be vulnerable. I definitely can't be vulnerable because if you think you're in danger, think about that. So when we're asking about honest feedback, we're talking about, hey, we really want to hear your solutions, and I'm not willing myself to show what does that look like? What does it look like to give honest feedback? What does it look like to be vulnerable or to even say when I'm not sure about something? What does it look like for our team? My teammates are not gonna be able to behave in a way that we can have a functional conversation. It's gonna be dysfunctional because everybody's gonna be fine and everybody's just gonna go back and there then things are not gonna get done. And we don't know why didn't you say something? We were at the meeting together. Well, it's all of this part. So it's very important for the leader to be able to be that vulnerable and to create that culture. Um, and that goes back to psychological safety, right? Because it's not just why is the leader feeling that it's the safety, the leader support at the different levels. What does the direct line look like? What does the fear line look like? You know, it's a support system. We need one another. So a leader is not a system on himself with just this one department, it's a system among systems. So understandably so. Why are some leaders even walking on eggshells? Because maybe the other system is not working right. That's when we're talking about transformation, organizational transformation is um, it might take one, right? That stands up and can we be honest here? You know, can we be vulnerable? Like, what can we do to do this? But the other part is culture. Do we understand how to be vulnerable with one another at the different levels of leadership? What does that look like? It definitely is time well invested. It is time well spent. Because if we're talking about having to come up with complex solutions in a complex world that's consistently changing, it's gonna take that vulnerability, it's gonna take that trust, it's gonna take that ability to have conversations that actually lead somewhere, not just a pretense of everything's okay, everybody goes back to their own thing. And then when it breaks, oh, we'll fix it. How can we be proactive? It does start with the leadership, it goes with psychological safety, it goes with making sure that we are meeting the needs and it does take work. I mean, for those of you that are listening, like, oh my gosh, that sounds complicated. Yes, we're complicated. It's gonna be intentional, but you know what? It doesn't take much. It takes a how are you and really caring. It takes, you know what, guys, or girls, I don't know. So let's just do 15 minutes of whatever idea think take and just be able to engage with that. But then you have to find some different ways to be able to get not only the leader to be able to be open, but also get the people around the room to be open. Because if you're not and you're leading a team, you're not gonna be able to get that from your team. And if you're leading from position, that's exactly what you're gonna get. You're gonna get a leader leading from position, you're gonna get teammates leading from just the paycheck that they get and not the ownership that you want.
SPEAKER_01:I love that you put it together so succinctly. There's responsibilities from the leader for helping develop the culture, creating the safe space, integrating conversation with people on their teams, not leading from a position, but leading as a member, as a facilitator, as a coach almost. I think that sometimes it's very easy to forget that when to your previous point, you're going based on the tasks. Well, what's next? We have this next, and then this, and then next month here, and then next month here. You're just chasing, you're constantly chasing, and you're ignoring the impact to your teams. You're ignoring poor process, you're ignoring things that demand attention because you're not allowing yourself that room to breathe. I worked and continue to work with merging leaders that struggle to find time to breathe. And our engagements, when we have our one on one sessions, become that. That become that ability for them to reflect on what's happening so that they can have a better dialogue with the with their teams, so that they can have a better dialogue with leadership. It is so critical for us to stop, pause, and reflect. Lawrence tells me all the time, go for a walk, go to the gym, go do this, because he knows I can, and I'm sure you you have felt this way, Hannah, and in developing your business, that there's a lot of things that need to happen. And they're also gonna be there tomorrow, and you're always gonna find something new to do. So giving yourself that grace and giving yourself that pause, I think is super critical to form those connections. You hear about it all the time. Your brain doesn't work as much during the day as it does when you're sleeping. I'm not saying to sleep, but if you need that afternoon nap, take the afternoon nap.
SPEAKER_02:No, but think about that because the human body is amazing. Regenerate, we just regenerate all the time, even like the human brain, right? Every day you literally have a new brain between the cells that are created during the night. That's why you we call it restorative. It rest it restores you, it refreshes you. It's new. Um, and we can really align with that. It's not stuff that we have to make the brain do that. It does. What we do have to do is give it an environment where the brain can do that. It's the same way we have to give the environment, we have to be conscious and giving it the rest. We have to be conscious and giving priority in a hey, no, this is what I'm gonna do for myself. I need to regenerate, we need to restore. So, can we push through stuff? Absolutely. I see people do it all the time. We're gonna push through, push through. Like I've only had two or three hours of sleep in the last week. Sometimes we carry that as a badge of honor. And it's like, well, and then we wonder why we have struggles with mental illness, we have struggles with relationships or struggles with like I'm just not enjoying my life. Like if we have to make an environment, there's certain things that happen naturally. The same thing is in an organization. You don't have to make people work with each other or like each other. You make an environment where people can't interact with one another, they're gonna find a way. We've been able to do it. Priorities are a big deal because um a leader does put the pace in priorities. And what I see in so much of the dysfunction organizations is the conflicting priorities from one place to the other in what's coming in from either one department because we're so siloed, or from you know, the expectations from this um this the stakeholders versus the people that are actually doing the work. The the difference and priorities start creating, like where everything's a priority, everything cannot be a priority. There's certain things that have priority, and that's a big thing. And you know what? Even coming up with that is gonna create conflict. One of the things when I was going through my heart disease as a kid, my problems were that my heart would go super fast. So it would be like suddenly from my resting heart rate 60, 64 to go all the way to 220. It will go super fast. That would be my resting heart rate. It would go for you know, minutes, sometimes hours, and then sometimes days. Imagine at 220. I mean, like at that point, I'm completely exhausted because the entire system is working at that, uh at that level. But it wouldn't just be fast, it would also be arrhythmic. So that means that it will go to 220, 190, 250. No, it's not even like steady. So it was those moments when it was going a little fast, a little low, it those would be even the word, that's when I would experience this chest pains. Suddenly it would flatline my heart just trying to reset. So I will say this there is a time for your heart to go fast when you run, when you're exercising, you need it to go fast, but it cannot be all the time. Just as much as it hurts when you start going fast, for those of you that you're in the heart zones and you start realizing, like, hey, I need to regulate my breath. It also feels funky when you start decreasing. Like, okay, as you're catching your breath, right? We say catch your breath. I had to do learn to do that in the middle of all of those things that were going on. One of the things I had to do as a child to be able to put my heart back into trying to see if it will reset, it will literally be holding my breath and pushing down as much as I could to make like my heart slow down on purpose and stop in hopes that when it restarts, it would start beating at a normal beat. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. But I realized that that even that in leadership, I had to learn to do the same thing. There were some things that suddenly, like, okay, we were, we started a good day, and then there was one fire here, one fire there, and suddenly it wasn't just one department, it was all this, it became like the same thing: tachycardia going fast in a rhythmic because everybody was going in the same thing. And it was a time where it's just like for me, the same way. We had to heart stop and but you you hold it, you're there, and then in that moment, it's like you you push at the same time, like, okay, what where do we need to go? I said, Where do you align right there with the purpose in hopes again? Sometimes it will start, sometimes it won't, but you do it again and you do it repeatedly, you start getting in a rhythm with each other. And I noticed that that works so much for the organization because things happen. And again, there's a time for going fast. There's a time for going slow. There's no shame in going slow. You can't make turns. We talk about companies to be adaptable. You cannot adapt when you're going fast. Look at the weight when you drive, look at career, look at race cars, it's precision. If they're not precise, they're gonna die. But in going fast, you have to understand there's different speeds that they go when they go fast because they have to be adaptable. When we talk about agility, we have to be able to go fast and go slow, but we're going together. And also, if you notice in a race car, you have to pull over and get your tires changed. You got to get alignment no matter how good you are, no matter where you're at, if you're in the front, if you're in the last, you're gonna have to pull over, completely stop, get your tires changed, get all your things and keep going again. But this is something that as leaders, we have to know that we have to know when to go fast, we have to know when to go. So we have to know when do a heart reset because of the health of our people. Otherwise, disaster happens. For me, a heart attack can happen naturally. For businesses, you can have people leave, explode, and even some tragedies that we see. So we have to understand that it's very important. It's not like nice to have, oh, I wish I had the time to stop. No, you have to stop. You have to know. Otherwise, like I told you, I broke the system because I wasn't taking the time to really nurture the human side of my people.
SPEAKER_00:It's such a fine line between knowing when to step on the gas versus letting your foot off the gas so that you slow down because it is very, it's one, it's very dangerous, and there's a lot of risk and consequence. And I think the the word that um Oscar and I always refer to is blast radius, right? So if you if you are going at that speed and you're trying to break things and fail fast, what does it mean to the system as a whole? Because it's not just you. I think a lot of people have this, again, it's the ego, right? Oh, I am this, and like I can achieve these things, but at the expense of what? These relationships, these things start to degrade, and and they they can't sustain the amount of stress that you're putting on these people that are around you, right? Secondhand stress is a real thing. Um people imparting that on other people is is uh is is also detrimental to their to the work. And um, I'm you know, so let's dive into a little bit of the the work that you do at at Heartonomics and the frameworks that you come up with to help leaders navigate through that uncertainty. How do you um you know what are those uh frameworks applied to and and how are they different? And when when would you work with potential clients that are looking for that type of help?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so thanks for asking. A big part for me is the values as a leader. I think we we tend to like, oh, that's just part that comes like, no, we have to be intentional in working with the values. So my first framework is actually the heart framework, and that is a values-based leadership, that is hope, empowerment, accountability, results, and trust. So those are values that I have found in other leaders as I've been working with them that we need to have a non-compromisable way to lead because that is the foundation. That's how we do everything. The way you do one thing is the way you do everything. So values is really gonna dictate to the character and then the alignment, just like the car going faster, it's gonna look different. And I'm from going down to the store, if I'm in going in the middle of a race, right? It's just gonna look different. So, how do I align? And for that, the internal alignment that I have is the beat method, and that's believe, engage, act, and transform. Actually, that was born out of the being in the hospital bed. There were a lot of things I couldn't do. I had to learn in if what happened, my wish as a little girl was that I would live. And the people around me wanted me to live too. But then the other question was, okay, what happens if I do live? What am I gonna do with my life? You know, which is the other thing. Okay, what happens if the contract does come through? And we want that big contract, what happens to that? Are we prepared? Do we have the resources in place? How would I approach it? It's the same thing for me. It was like, if I do live, and this is me as a little girl thinking that, and that's where the beat framework came to me. Um, not really calling it beat, but I realized so much of the things it start right here in the mind, not looking at the limitations. What is my belief? And if I do believe that, because what is the transformation? What do I want the end to look like? That was a consistent thing that I got in training to do. So that's what I help leaders to have that alignment with the beat. But also in organizations, it's not just about us. So we gotta be able to leverage each other's strengths. So I work with organizations to also do that alignment through my core method, which is cultivate, optimize, reach, and elevate. And it's following the same principles, cultivate being, the mission, vision, the values, how we do things, what are our identity, so that we can then optimize the systems and the processes that go in place with that. So then we can then reach. We're reaching our internal customer first and our external customer and then elevate so that we can bring that thought leadership to the marketplace. I do that through coaching, I do that through consulting, I do that through workshops, trainings, keynotes, and events. So those are the people that find me are usually the ones that are losing income really fast. It's like, ah, what are we gonna do? Uh, the ones that are like seeing a huge um loss in the talent and that talent where they're really are needing or they cannot sustain either the the thresholds that they get in in income or in talent, but also those that are looking for seeking opportunities, they don't even know what that opportunity looks like yet. So I help them with aligning to that, to what is that their purpose? It's how are we gonna do this? Who are the people? What am I doing it? Who am I doing it with, and what am I doing it for? Because again, it is a fulfillment work. And that's also the big part of me that I had to learn is to enjoy life. We gotta enjoy life with what we do, with the process of the systems. There has to be fulfillment. Otherwise, what are we doing? The big picture, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_01:That's a question I think that a lot of colleagues were asking themselves at organizations, like, what are we even doing here? What is all of what we're doing? You know, yes, it goes out to the patient. Um, yes, that's you want to develop drugs, you want to develop, you know, curatives and services and solutions to these problems for the client. But at the organization, what is really driving people to work? I tell people all the time, if you want to just go somewhere and collect a paycheck, it's not biopharma. That's not the space for you. This is a place I think that really aims to highlight the hope that people have. And for me, it it took a while to understand that recognition that I am a piece of this big puzzle. I am a piece here that's gonna bring people together as a program manager and have that, you know, line of sight. Or when I was working in the lab, I'm that person that can create the experimentation to prove or negate something that we previously thought before that's gonna drive us towards the right thing. As you were saying before, it's not just the good things, it's the bad things that also teach you. And the failures are an important piece for us to sort of change the lens. You know, I I made a comment just yesterday on the phone with my sister, and I said, Oh, Monday. And she said, Monday's a great day to start. I'm like, you know what? You're right. Monday is a great day to start. I think bringing those values, I love the heart, the beat, the core, beautiful. And I understand how those things sort of come to you. Don't necessarily come in that format when they show up, but when you listen to it and when you reflect and you take the time as the leader that you are to understand what is all of this telling me, that is where you came up with the heart that beat the core. And it's a beautiful representation of the entire package of how the leader leads, how they align the teams, and how the coordination with the organization follows. I I love that.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you for that. It really is it was amazing because when you start looking, especially in times when it's a lot of uncertainty, there's there's patterns. There's patterns on how you do things, there's patterns to how the organization does. There's good patterns. It's not always bad. People say you gotta change the habit. No, there's some good habits you got, you know. So let's look at those two organizationally, because that's gonna be part of the core. I go, keep on going that way with the core program, and especially when in change, there's some things that are gonna have to go. Um, but there's also things that have to stay, because if they go, you lose the identity of who you are. And in the middle of change, that's something that is always at risk, right? We could change so much or change things that we don't need to change, so then we start losing our identity and we start losing our purpose or project management. We talk about the project scope, right? We have a scope risk, which is completely on the other side because we weren't clear in what the core has got to stay the core. Ultimately, the the cure that came to my heart is they had to create pathways because what I had was too many electric nodes that were making my heart going really fast. Going to tell you that you can have too much of a good thing, too. So, like they had to burn it, right? Like you could say, oh, we need more energy. My kids I had too much energy. They had to burn it because they had to create a clear pathway where then the energy and all the muscle, the heart can all work together. And a lot of times that's what that's what we need to do. We have to burn and create pathways in our companies, in our organizations, in our lives where things, some things have got to go, but you can't burn too much toward the vital things where you generalize the vitality, the identity, the DNA of what the organization and you as a leader are. And that's what I learned too, through the the cure, really, was to have clarity and paths to be able to direct the resources we already have so that we can bring life more abundantly.
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna pull a little bit from what she just talked about. I know we're running out of time, but I I love that you actually addressed there are things that you need to just burn and get out of the way. You need that clarity when we're building systems, when we're trying things. Sometimes they just seem to be layer on top of layer on top of layer. You're not painting, if you've ever been to a home or a rental anywhere in a major city, and you go to hammer in a picture, a giant chunk of paint falls off because it's just been layer after layer after layer. Just you destroy the sanctity of the wall, even in that situation. I think it's really important for us that as we're looking at aligning our teams and getting solutions to be more efficient, to find the right process to improve, we have to also be okay that you know you're not gonna have every piece of information that you need to make a decision, but you need to start going in that direction. And while your end may be there, your North Star may be there, the path to get there isn't always necessarily the cleanest path initially. And you have to be okay to sort of burn a burn a, I'm gonna say a tree limb because you're finding the right way that matches your team, leadership, and the organization. And all of those things need to be considered. Beautiful. Thank you, Hannah. Oh, you're welcome. So we're we're running out of time here. We do have one wrap-up question for the leaders out there. What is something, what is something simple that leaders can do this week to make their approach, to make their systems more human-centered?
SPEAKER_02:Ooh, okay. Well, immediately I'll have to go to the beat. If you can only ask yourself one question, is what are you curious about today? Because that will tell you a lot about your attitude. So if it's just one question, is your curiosity? How are you feeling that curiosity? Are you even are you even curious about anything? Because that will tell you your temperature right off the fat, the the fact to go into that work, go into that project. So that would be one thing. And the other one is like I said, the beat, really quick. What are you believing in that situation, even in in the novelty or the curiosity? You know, what do you believe about that? You know, how can you engage with it? We can't just like think about it, but how can I engage? Who can I talk to? You know, how can I explore that a little bit more? And it's like one small action. Remember, the smallest of action is gonna trample the greatest of intentions any day. So you gotta act. What is one form that you're gonna show up in that curiosity? What is that one act that you can do? And what is that transformation? What are you hoping to learn from it? Because there has to be some expectation. It has to be like, well, what is that expectation that I have along with that? Is this gonna uh help get to know somebody? Is this gonna help get a project done? Is it gonna help, you know, just find more fulfillment in your life? But you gotta have that expectation. What is that transformation that you're hoping to see? So start with curiosity and then apply beat to it.
SPEAKER_00:And for for our listeners that are curious to learn more about you and what you do, where where should they uh go to find more information?
SPEAKER_02:Well, you can visit my website, and that is www.heart, just like the heart, heartnomics.com, and that's the economy of the heart.
SPEAKER_01:I love it. Awesome. You heard it here. Heartbeat core, Hannah Bauer. Thank you so much for the time. And I feel I'm glad that you're here with us. I feel fortunate that we had this conversation, and I look forward to learning more about Heartnomics and the work that you're doing with Maxwell Leadership. So thank you again for joining us.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. Thank you for having me. A pleasure. Thank you.
