From Superficial Alignment to Better Decisions: Cristian Gonzalez on Productive Disagreement

Most leadership failures don't begin with bad decisions.
They begin with good people staying quiet.

In this episode of Proof Talks, host Ashley Smith sits down with capital project leader and author Cristian Gonzalez to explore why silence is so often mistaken for alignment — and how organizations can create cultures where people speak up before small problems become expensive mistakes.

Drawing from more than two decades leading complex industrial projects across North America and the Caribbean, Cristian shares a real-world refinery case study that fundamentally changed how he thinks about leadership, communication, and decision-making.

Ashley & Cristian Discuss:

• Why silence is often a warning sign — not agreement
• How productive disagreement leads to better decisions
• What leaders can do to encourage honest conversations
• Why "bringing the bad news early" is one of the healthiest habits a team can develop
• The simple question that helps teams find clarity before making important decisions

Whether you lead a company, manage projects or mergers, or simply want to build stronger teams, this conversation offers practical lessons on communication, trust, and professional judgment.

Connect with Cristian Gonzalez

💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/cygonzalez
🌐 Website: https://cristianygonzalez.com
📘 Book: What Everyone Knew: Inside the Failures Organizations See Coming and Don't Stop https://cristianygonzalez.com/whateveryoneknew 

Episode Time Stamps 

00:00 When agreement isn't real
01:29 Meet leadership expert Cristian Gonzalez
03:47 Why silence in organizations is a warning sign
06:02 The refinery incident that changed Cristian's perspective
10:40 Why productive disagreement leads to better decisions
15:20 Creating a culture where people feel safe to speak up
20:20 When leadership teams disagree
25:23 One question every leader should ask
27:50 How to start changing organizational culture
32:10 Learn to respond instead of react
33:47 Cristian Gonzalez’s book + where to connect

Episode Topics

Leadership • Organizational culture • Decision-making • Productive disagreement • Communication • Executive leadership • Capital projects • Engineering leadership • Change management • Team alignment • Organizational performance • Professional judgment • Workplace safety • Risk management • Leadership and risk • Corporate governance • Corporate culture 

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About the Podcast
Proof Talks explores the real stories, decisions, and lessons behind professional judgment. Through candid conversations, each episode unpacks a real-world scenario with experienced practitioners across business, leadership, technology, and beyond to better understand how complex decisions are made — and what others can learn from them.

Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@Proof_Talks

About the Host
Proof Talks is hosted by AI Visibility Strategist and speaker Ashley Smith. As founder of Show Your Proof, Ashley helps experienced professionals turn their real-world expertise into visible online proof so they can become more discoverable, trusted, and recommended by search engines and AI tools.

Learn more:
🌐 showyourproof.co
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ashleysmithnow
▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@ShowYourProof

Transcript

When agreement isn't real

Speaker 0:00

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Proof Talks, where we unpack real-world expertise through the stories, decisions, and lessons that shape professional judgment. I'm your host, Ashley Smith. Today's conversation starts with a problem almost every leader has seen. Everyone in the room appears to be aligned, but something important is not being said. And when that truth doesn't surface early enough, the consequences can be costly. I'm joined today by Cristian Gonzalez, a capital project leader who spent two decades inside complex industrial and organizational environments across the US, Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean, shaping or delivering over a billion dollars in capital investment, from major retrofits to significant joint ventures. Cristian is the author of What Everyone Knew, Inside the Failures Organizations See Coming and Don't Stop. His work sits at the intersection of technical execution, leadership, and organizational performance. He focuses on what separates teams that uncover problems early from those that get caught off guard when it's already too late. This is a topic that spans industries and organizations of all sizes. Today we'll unpack why silence can look like alignment, why disagreement may just be essential for better decision making, and what leaders can do to build the conditions where capable teams actually perform. Cristian, I'm thrilled to have you here today. Welcome to Proof Talks.

Meet leadership expert Cristian Gonzalez

Speaker 1:32

Thank you. I know that your expertise is really built around these like pretty complex industrial capital projects. But I'd love for you to maybe unpack a little bit more about your background and then we'll start diving into maybe some scenarios you've seen in real life. And hopefully some folks can take away some learnings that can apply regardless of what sector they're in.

Speaker 1 1:54

Sure. Absolutely. Look, um so as you mentioned, I've been yes, 20 years, mostly industrial. I started my career working for a refinery in the Virgin Islands, in the US Virgin Islands. That was my first exposure when I realized everything's so different from school. And you realize you really know nothing when you go to from out of school to the real world. So that was my my first goal. It was the first time I got exposed to really complex. As you can imagine, refineries are incredibly complex. It's amazing how you get to turn oil into gas for the cars. For those who are not familiar, it's a very intricate process. Um, but that taught me a lot of how um how these things come together um in to to to make make it happen. And from from there, I moved to the mainland in the US and uh I've been based out of the mainland for forever since and and worked in in steel industrial, but uh uh chemicals and distribution and back to energy as well. And from there, I've I've been working in other countries as these companies tend to be global and then internationally rich. So I spent quite quite some time. Um, but for throughout all that time, what I really realized is that regardless of the size of the company, I work with with smaller size, all the way to Fortune 200 companies. And some of these issues are like seem to be universal. And uh no matter who I talk to, whether they're in the in this kind of industry, or I was gonna say my wife, she comes from a totally different background. Every time, every now and then I'm complaining a little bit, and she she she comes out and it's like the same thing happens in her industry. So at some point I figure, you know, it's maybe it's it's worth spreading the word and trying to get everybody to a to a more productive state.

Why silence in organizations is a warning sign

Speaker 3:47

I'd love to break down, you know, if there's a specific scenario that you've helped uh a team navigate. You mentioned this uh concept of folks being pretty silent or not not seeing, not seeing where disagreement may exist, like where leadership might think that their teams are on the same page, so they spend time on a strategy, and it turns out something that maybe should have been obvious was missed. Can you help introduce maybe a scenario where you've walked in to help an organization? And um, what were the what were the circumstances? Like what did the situation look like and and how did you help them start to see what was missing?

Speaker 1 4:31

And then this has happened at as walking in were as also being uh an employee, and when I started getting some agency over this kind of kind of thing. So I'm the example I'm gonna give you, it's it I I was an employee at the time, not working independent yet. When what you mentioned, the silence, silence is one thing, and and these disagreements are are another. And and it's very important not to confuse silence with agreement or understanding. That that does first and foremost, and and that's uh uh I always say to a leader, uh, and it it doesn't matter the level you're in an organization, whether you're a manager all the way to the C-suite, but you're still probably talking to a handful of people at a time. And if you're proposing whether it's an idea uh or a strategy, if you're a CEO and and your team stays silent and just not so long, take that as a yellow flag, as a warning flag, because what but most it's a human behavior thing that that that people are either intimidated or or maybe the culture around your organization has taught them that it's safer to stay silent than to openly disagree. And right now, what happens when you get to disagreement, then that that's a whole other issue, right? You either either foster it in a respectful way or quell shit. And and and what happens often is that that if you're leading it, it it is very easy

The refinery incident that changed Cristian's perspective

Speaker 1 6:02

to once you start seeing disagreement, once to take it personal, and second, to try to manage that disagreement. And and when by doing that, all people are is hearing, listening, or interpreting from it, it's stay quiet, which which kind of diffuses is exactly what you're trying to accomplish, usually, which is getting feedback. So I I wanted to to unpack that a little bit there. So now to the example though. Um I worked with this company that uh well one of the most interesting jobs that I that I had, and it was as a project manager, but this particular time, the company had had just had an accident happen. Fortunately, nothing really happened, nothing serious happened, but it could have been catastrophic, right? So they were loading a truck with flammable material and it blew up. And uh now I said blew up, but what really happened was as it was blowing up, the lid on top lifted, so all that pressure went off. So the left failed, but that failure prevented the entire truck from blowing up. Now, what happened is that this company has these kind of facilities throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico at the time, and they all worked the same way. So that was an immediate we have to stand down until we figure out what happened, right? And naturally, everyone's looking for what happened to blame, etc. This company had some exceptional leaders that uh still to this day I respect and and try to avoid that and try to get get it on the on the right path. So fast forward, I got sent there and I got assigned to figure out what happened and and and a solution. So that was very intense uh because it needed to be solved quickly. Um in the meantime, all plants were shut down, right? And so we had to put together a team. It was a makeshift team from people that I could point and bring together. We spent a whole week and Saturday, Sunday, about I'll say probably 12 hours a day trying to sort this out. So it's a lot of effort to then present a solution. And that's where what it all happened. I'm sitting there tasked with presenting this, and then the within the first two minutes of me trying to explain how we got through it, I started getting interrupted. And unfortunately, it it was not a nice interruption by any means. Imagine you're like I I'm the engineer at the time, I was wearing two hats and uh trying to explain this uh along with my team, and then I had in the same uh in the same room, there were the directors responsible for these plants, the VP of operations, VP of engineering, but it was very high stakes. So, what I quickly learned there was that um one work working in a vacuum is difficult. Like you may think you have a great solution there on until it faces reality, the people that have to live with the solution that you tried to come up. As these um objections started coming in, something interesting happened, and it was because uh the leaders that were there among them, uh the one that was my boss at the time, he was very skilled, and I learned a lot from him that day, in trying to let it keep going, and to like signaling me to shut up and like let them talk and uh and keeping the guy rails on. And by that I mean when you're in in passionate disagreement, and and which it's what I'm advocating here for, you also have to be careful to make sure that that disagreement always stays, remains about solving the problem, not attacking anyone or the person proposing any idea. So every now and then things got a little heated, he had to come in, but the way he came in was basically reestablishing the the guardrails, like okay, let's remain focused. This is the problem, this is what we're trying to solve, let's make sure this is what gets solved. And and that lasted for hours. This was not a five minutes, that that lasted for hours. Bottom line was that the solution that we had was technically correct. There was nothing wrong with it in theory, but if when you face the reality of the people that were there, what happened is like they started bringing up real life issues that we couldn't think of because we're not there. But they're like, okay, well, that may work in Kansas, but it won't work in California because X or Y Z. And through that discussion, discussion, it things started moving somewhere until

Why productive disagreement leads to better decisions

Speaker 1 10:40

at some point we we came up with an answer that was not what we proposed, but was considerably better uh than what we have. So the result was that if we wouldn't have that disagreement and everybody would have been a yeah, Cristian team, bravo, what would happen? We would have spent the millions of dollars deploying this and it wouldn't have survived the reality on the field that needed to survive. Ton the resources would have been wasted.

Speaker 11:05

I mean, obviously that experience helped shape how you see the sort of dynamic when it comes to leadership and sort of decision making when it's outside of the trenches versus in the trenches, right? And so now today, when you're working with teams, how do you apply that understanding to first recognize that there's a gap in the first place? Or is it more about just making sure there's a culture that really, like you said, encourages and fosters this really purposeful type of dialogue, even if that might mean disagreement at first.

Speaker 1 11:48

There's a lot to unpack there too, right? Uh, but if you ask me, ultimately it's gonna lead to culture. Because there's no other way that you can have an environment that allows for that. Because to have that culture, there's many things that have to happen for that. So for instance, if I walk in today and and an example, I once walked into a company, and uh, and to me it was the opposite though. What I realized is that everybody was was nice, almost too nice. And and and whenever they they had a uh a meeting, everybody seemed to agree. Everybody walked out very like great, it's just happy. But to me, that was a red flag immediately. It was like something here is not now. These these were really legitimately good people, they weren't faking it, but the culture had taught them that it was safer, more valuable to agree than than to surface the real issues. And and and that's exactly what was happening when when I started probing, things started surfacing everywhere. And it was kind of frustrating because once I started probing and seeing the dynamics, we could be in a meeting and and get to an agreement or or see agreement between the parties and and totally disregard it the moment they were out the door. So I was like, so what is it worth? And uh and and that led to some serious consequences uh uh in in in that particular company. All that to say that that creating that culture is much more than just having having a mission statement, vision, and all these postulates or employee manual. You can have that, and you should, as a matter of fact, you should. That's just kind of written evidence, but at the end of the day, it's the the culture is what happens in the moment. When somebody comes to you with with bad news and uh and everybody else is watching, or even if nobody's watching, for that matter, and how do you react that exact moment is the culture? Are you taking it with curiosity? Are are you are are you trying to extract more information? For instance, if I come to you and and say, hey, production shut down, it's your first instinct to to get upset and yell and scream like whose fault it is? Or is it what do you think happened? Um how could we solve this? And uh what do you suggest we do? Um, even if you already had uh a solution in mind, but making it safe for people to surface that um it is the first stage to allowing them to talk, right? And then then on top of that, you build the trust. And once you have the trust, then you can have a team disagree in front of each other or challenge each other respectfully. But until that trust is established and by your own actions, it it just won't happen. Uh you you could have it everywhere is safe. We do that. You know where you see that that kind of distrust in in year-end uh evaluations, all right? Uh it's it's the promotion process that that that nobody trusts, that everybody knows is rigged or everybody thinks it just doesn't work. And it's because there's there's not a trust established there that people feel confident that either being listened to or or their situation

Creating a culture where people feel safe to speak up

Speaker 1 15:20

at the dress properly.

Speaker 15:21

I feel like one of the signals that there might be a challenge you've mentioned, like sometimes you step into an organization and you see maybe just a sign that folks are being a little too polite. And that's kind of the culture. I'm thinking, I'm wondering what other signals there might be that something is wrong and that you've that you've seen in real scenarios. And I'm I'm also thinking about the different levels of sort of uh seniority within an organization, right? So, like if you're if you have an important hands-on role in in an organization, especially in something with like really high stakes, uh, like you know, industrial projects is an example, or something related to like chemicals, like there's obviously lots of safety issues and things, as you mentioned. There's also cost and like redundancies and things of that nature. But I'm just thinking about that communication flow, you know, if someone's inside an organization and realize, you know, there's the culture isn't quite prepared to invite like the sort of help that it needs versus someone in like a management role versus someone in a CEO or even board role. Like, do you see? I know that it's like top-down, bottom-up, right? Um like how I noticed on um some of the stuff that you you you work um that you showcase on your site and whatnot, um, you talk about bringing the bad news early. Yes. And so, you know, how do you foster that from different levels depending on where you're at?

Speaker 1 16:54

That that's a that's a very good question there. Um it it goes back to the culture, right? It and it's the culture that you create, right? You just by saying bring the bad news early won't make people bring it back early, the bad news early. What make them do that is what do you do when the first person brings the bad news and early, right? Uh and uh that what you do is what will change the course of everything. In my experience, and we with a boss again, I wrote about him because that had a major impact on how I operate today and how how I advise today. Um, he said that that was he he told you off front, like bring the bad news, me and the team bring the bad news early. And and I I I go through an example there, and that I'll share here now. It's is that I recall one of my uh co-workers at the time, Greg Guy, still talk to him today. He made a mistake, like a serious mistake, and uh and and but this is not to talk bad about him, and and this this was the whole point, right? That no one would judge him for that. And and it and there was that truth because that could have happened to any of us, right? Whether that exact mistake or any other mistake at that level or that scale. And and he brought it up as soon as we realized, and and he didn't hide from it. He came to go slowly, yeah. So I'm getting called from the client managers. This is what's happening, and we got to fix it. And what happened immediately was that he called me. Oh, he mean meaning the boss called me at the time. I was more of a technical expert on on those some of those issues. Called me, looked at the situation, and then we called part of the team and figure out how to solve it and put it together. So um on his end, he he learned his lesson, obviously, right? And and he knew better after that. Um, and we all learn from the experience, but the big, big point was that nobody made a big fuss about it that made him feel any less than anybody else. On the contrary, the whole point was that we're all in here together to solve the problem and make sure that it doesn't happen again, right? And when when everyone sees that happening in real time, in real life, what does that teach us you? Right now, that doesn't mean you know we're gonna allow like people that are not competent to carry on. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about legitimate things that could happen and and and how to address them properly. And even if it was an incompetent person at X or Yz, because I have dealt with that, also you gotta treat that with dignity and respect because everybody else is watching, and and everybody will be afraid of falling into that category and then being humiliated or or whatever else. So um, even in that same group, um the we we had situations when when something like that, some somebody was not a good fit, they got handled with much care, much dignity, and respect as we could, uh, so that the person could live with you know with his head held high and and everybody still respect that person on the way out. So that that's how that's that's created. It's it's not doesn't happen overnight, but having when it matters, you gotta show up and and and show everyone what you're made of.

Speaker 20:16

What do you see when you notice um

When leadership teams disagree

Speaker 20:20

uh maybe competing um or conflicting voices, particularly on the leadership side? Like people who maybe carry similar seniority or weight. Um, maybe when one leader really wants to like recognizes there's been a problem, they really want to lean in and shift the culture to start inviting, you know, inviting the problems when appropriate. And and maybe um uh another senior person is just not buying in to this way of looking at things. Have you seen circumstances where uh different styles or different um principles um might challenge one another and how organizations have resolved that, or is it just a recipe for disaster?

Speaker 1 21:08

Well, it it it it it depends. It depends how how how off it is. That happens all the time, and and sometimes happens for political reasons, people have their own interests, um, and sometimes it's legitimate, and then sometimes it's just toxic. So what I'm getting at is that that that the company or the organization usually will have its own set of values, right? Sometimes the conflict falls within that set of values, and that's a legitimate thing to resolve. But if one of those parties is acting in bad faith or or outside of those values or accepted values, then yes, I will say that's a reason to well get the bad apples out. Um one not too shy about that. Uh, you know, you got an organization to protect, and and it's incredibly how quickly a bad potato rots the rest of the sack. It it it it is. And so the faster you can get. Rid of that, the better, as as crude as it may sound, but is is the best way out for all parties. Now let's assume for a moment that it's not, that is uh that it's really a legitimate disagreement. That is a tough uh tough uh way where to solve it. The way I approach it is usually systematically, uh as what are we really trying to accomplish? Right? Is there a clear guideline uh uh as to what are we trying to accomplish? Like, for instance, in a project, it happens a lot. Like I can't tell you how many times engineering wants something and operational wants something, and they're both right. But if you don't have something that states what's the goal in very clear terms, yes, you could be bickering back and forth, and then ultimately whoever wins is the one that's best at persuading. And often, as screwed as it may be, is whoever's holding the key to the resources, to the money. You know, it's like okay, well, we won't fund it, and and there, and there it goes. Now, is that the healthiest thing to do? No. Um, I would say the best thing to do is to to negotiate it with between both parties and and find common ground that still serves the organizational goals. And I'll give you an example for that. Was uh one of the projects I was doing, uh, I was the engineering manager for the project. This is about you know about an $100 million project, fairly large. So we were putting our engineering packet and we had clear goals as to the what's driving the project. Sometimes it's the cost, sometimes it's the schedule, sometimes you just want it fast at any cost. Um, in this case, we had we have very strict cost restrictions to make it work. And operations, as usually, they want the best possible thing because they're the ones who're gonna live with it. And the fact that we had very clear goals, what that is, that it allowed to funnel all the concerns through that. And uh in in that particular case, they wanted some uh some redundancies, etc., that that require an additional cost. So what we ended up doing was that while we couldn't install everything that they wanted, we could set up the design in such a way that wouldn't impede them from doing it once they own the asset, right? So we delivered, we designed it so we could be delivered, and then they could have a minor project for a minor cost once they were cash flowing to install it fairly quick, right? So it was a for our cost. So they were happy, pleased with it, and then it worked for us and for our goal. So that's what I'll see that I always started like we need clarity, first and foremost, clarity before you embark in a complex effort, whether that's a main capital project like I'm used to, or say uh a merger of two large organizations, or have clarity, have clear, crystal clear objectives, and because that would generally make this type of decision making considerably uh simpler and easier.

Speaker 25:08

In order to have that clarity, are there any sort of go-to types of questions that people should be asking themselves and each other? Like, are there obvious things, obvious questions that should be asked that are often kind of overlooked or missed?

Speaker 1 25:22

Look,

One question every leader should ask

Speaker 1 25:23

I uh this is gonna sound overly simple, but it's so overly powerful in my opinion. I just keep going back to what are we trying to accomplish? And and and I think that's even the first chapter in my book. It's uh so not not trying to put a plug, but it's so important. And then that's a question that I keep asking. Sometimes you ask that repeatedly until it finally clicks, right? So, what are we trying to accomplish? So you could say, uh, okay, well, we're trying to build a plan. No, no, no, but what are we trying to accomplish here? So is is the goal for you to walk out with this? Are we trying to accomplish what is it that the main thing that we're trying to solve? And it look, there's a I I see it as uh there's a technique for root cause analysis. I don't know if you're familiar with that. Um, for analyzing when something goes wrong. Um, I think it was the Japanese that came in with this is very famous now, now very widely used. It's called the five whys, right? See something happens, like why that happened. But why that happened? Why did you ask that five times? And usually by the fifth time, you reach to the real cause. So I see it a similar way. So what are we trying to accomplish? Yeah, what are we trying to accomplish? Okay. And so by the five, fifth time, you're usually getting to the real heart of the problem of what you're trying to accomplish. I know it sounds overly simple, but it works like a charm, right?

Speaker 26:42

So that well, it it sounds like that's often the issue is that things are often overcomplicated. Um, they're caught they're made more complicated than they need to be. And sometimes, you know, really peeling back and looking at these fundamental things and make sure you're, you know, that helps you get on actually the same page. And it's all yeah, no, I do appreciate that. If there's someone listening to this right now or watching, and as particularly, let's say a senior leader type of person, and they're thinking about this in the context of their organization or company, and they're like, you know, haven't really intentionally thought about this, like or put anything in place in a meaningful way that invites, you know, invites people to bring the problems early. Or they might notice, okay, maybe there are some flags, maybe there's some signals that we're getting nodding heads when inside their inside voices are saying, yeah, but right. So what's the first thing, like a simple first thing, like if they want to do something differently tomorrow that that they could think about doing that that would be accessible for them?

How to start changing organizational culture

Speaker 1 27:50

Start doing. I mean, see, if you're if you're a senior executive, you're probably bombarded all day long with all these kind of issues that people want you to help solve and and and start there. And if if you're a middle management and and you're and you feel like you're not being heard and you're trying to to change things, start with your own group. And and uh start implementing this like clarity uh among your group, clear objectives, and and start fostering that that different culture within this own bubble. And and just to make sure that that you can make the right decisions, that the the team brings and surfaces these problems. It may not go all the way to the CEO because maybe the company you work with is just not as fast-changing. But one thing that will happen is that you back within your sphere of control, the moment that starts giving you results, people will start asking. And I've seen that uh multiple times, groups side by side, and then one starts moving faster than the other. And the first thing that happens is like, how come you are being able to achieve that? And that's your opportunity, and to say, Well, this is what I do, and that's what people will actually start hearing. So that's a contrast. If you're up on the top, then just just start doing, talk to your team, start that change yourself. It's start with yourself. Um, you you can't tell them, bring it to me, bring the bad news, and and respect magically happen. It's just one single moment that that's it. One single moment sometimes comes we're have the hair on fire. Company is about to to to go, okay, and and then change your response. Ask yourself, am I responding uh as the leader that I want them allowing them to talk to me, or am I shutting that conversation down with my own facial expression? It's like these things are increasing. Oh my god, no, no, welcome, welcome it. Ask more questions, extract the information from them, let them talk, and often they'll have the solution themselves. You just gotta allow them to say it, and uh make me feel make them feel more empowered, and and you'll see how things change from there for the good.

Speaker 30:12

It's interesting. I mean, I think that not enough people um recognize really this sort of deeply human um sort of uh psychological piece that comes with um the business side and the technical side and the operational side, like the the culture part needs to be in place so the technical stuff can be executed and you know, with the lowest amount of risk and the most amount of reward. Um I really appreciate it's an important lesson. I'm sure lots of you know senior uh leaders have felt this, um, but sometimes it just needs to be articulated, and that articulation can help people like take the night the right best next step. Does that resonate?

Speaker 1 30:57

I agree. I look, um, just really quick there, like most of the the big mistakes are seldom technical. Yes, then they have been technical disasters, but but organizationally speaking, they're generally human behavior things, and and the way to start changing that is with yourself. And and and I look, and I'm not a stranger. I got to a point in my career that I remember a boss told me, Cristian, you got here. And that's what what I was very technical. Tell me, you got here, yeah, you're smart, you got this, yeah. But from now on, it is how you communicate what's gonna carry you to the next. He told me straight that that way. It's it's not your smart anymore, it's not how could you solve this problem. It's it's how you communicate that's gonna take you to the next level. You gotta master that or you'll stay there forever. So if if anything, I'll say, uh look in the mirror, watch how you react. Uh, and and and and uh and and the way to put that in a sentence, the way I learned it, and the way I'll share with your audience is learn to respond instead of reacting. Um this is a big difference between reacting to something and responding. So

Learn to respond instead of react

Speaker 1 32:10

try to put yourself in the respond mode. Somebody comes to you with a crisis, respond to it. Don't react, respond, and and you will see a major difference immediately.

Speaker 32:20

I have to say, this just is kind of coming to me as we're having this conversation, is one of the things a lot of uh business leaders and entrepreneurs kind of talking about is learning to love to lose, even even athletes, like elite athletes, learn to love to lose because then you'll win. And this to me seems like learn to love the discomfort and the disagreement because it'll help you find more alignment and agreement.

Speaker 1 32:45

That's exactly right. It's it's the it's it's not about you, even if it is. That's that's how I put it. It's it's not you you want to to to grow, you want to to produce the best. You gotta create the opportunity for others to do that.

Speaker 33:00

Well, Cristian, I really appreciated our conversation. I think you brought some really meaningful, important lessons to the table. I really also appreciate how your experience, even in your maybe slightly earlier part of your career, that story really laid the foundation for the work that you're doing today, that lived experience and your understanding of like how things can be done, you know, poorly and how things can be done intentionally really well. So I think that was a wonderful, wonderful example that you shared. I I am gonna put your link to your website um and links to Cristian's book, What Everyone Knew, in the show notes, um, your LinkedIn profile, if that's appropriate. Is there anywhere else uh you'd like to like where do you like people to learn about you or find out more or connect?

Cristian Gonzalez’s book + where to connect

Speaker 1 33:47

Yeah, well say look uh that um either my LinkedIn profile or or my website, what everyone knew.com. Um, if I may one thing I'll say for for your audience in particular, if uh uh if you go to the contact form and put your information there and write this uh the title of the this podcast and uh put free audiobook, uh I'll give you a free audiobook to the first 10 people that that respond and uh and answer any question that you may have along the way.

Speaker 34:15

Oh, that's very generous. Thank you for sharing that. Cristian, this has been great. It was uh great to get to know you a little bit better. Uh, you're doing important work. Folks, I hope uh you got something out of it today. Please tune back in to Proof Talks, where we unpack real world expertise. Uh, you can find us on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have any any insights or thoughts around this episode, please send a message. And uh I'd love to hear your feedback. All right, everybody, have a great day, and until next time.