IS Psychological Safety the KEY to a Happy Workplace?

[0] Gute Nachricht für alle, die jetzt ans Haus bauen denken.

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[8] Alle Infos zu Ihrem Traumhaus und zum Energiepaket auf wolfhaus .at Hello, everybody, and welcome to The Advisor.

[9] I am Lisa Urbanski, co -host of The Advisor, and here with me today is a very special guest.

[10] I am so excited to introduce you guys to him.

[11] His name is Richard Cruz, and Richard is a musician, a professor at all the things.

[12] Richard, do you want to tell us a little bit about who you are?

[13] Because you have about eight different titles.

[14] Yeah, I'm a little bit of a mess, aren't I?

[15] Thanks for having me. I think it's great.

[16] Well, thanks.

[17] Primarily, I'm an organizational development consultant.

[18] I'm with Harmonious Workplaces.

[19] That's our company.

[20] It's a division of my...

[21] Ich habe ein paar Jahre alt, was ich habe, das ist Greater Chicago Consulting.

[22] Ich teach.

[23] Ich teach at Trinity Christian College in Little Palos Heights, Illinois.

[24] Ich habe viel Spaß mit dem, teaching Management Principles und Advanced HR.

[25] Ich habe das Thema HR before, taught Marketing.

[26] Ich bin zurück zu school ein paar Jahre ago.

[27] Because I looked at what my life was.

[28] And I talked about this in Stacey's show before.

[29] In 2019, I said, I'm 40 -something years old.

[30] I'm doing marketing for the last almost 20 -something years now.

[31] It's like this is everything that I want to do.

[32] And so I did some soul -searching.

[33] I did a lot of...

[34] Wow, amazing.

[35] Was there a moment or did you have an experience that kind of sparked your interest in this type of work?

[36] Or you just started learning about it and you found a lot of interest in it.

[37] And then you're like, I want to make a change.

[38] I want to see if I can help other organizations.

[39] You know, that's a great question, Lisa.

[40] And, you know, I think what it really came down to is throughout my time in marketing, right?

[41] There's always this.

[42] where I end up bringing in a new piece of software or a new process or something that just wreaks havoc across the whole organization because everybody has to change the way that they were thinking and acting and doing this or that and the other thing, right?

[43] So you go in and you put Salesforce into someplace, right?

[44] And like everybody just is like, I don't understand this.

[45] I don't want to understand this.

[46] There's all of that, right?

[47] Just panic.

[48] And so that...

[49] It makes sense, like there's a researcher Bridges that has this change model that says that people go through the stage of letting go at this first start, right?

[50] So it's the ending, right?

[51] It's the ending of status quo.

[52] There's literally like these feelings of whether or not the system worked before, right?

[53] There are these feelings of grief.

[54] So they have to go through these stages.

[55] And then there's this neutral zone where people are like, I'm unsure about what's going to happen.

[56] And then they finally get to the new beginning.

[57] And now it's like, oh, I get this.

[58] We're in this.

[59] I may not be completely comfortable, but at least we're accepting.

[60] We're at that acceptance stage.

[61] I find that stuff infinitely fascinating.

[62] So going through that with several different companies.

[63] And going, was it really the marketing part that I liked the most?

[64] Or was it really that part?

[65] And that part sings to me. It all plays into how effective marketing is.

[66] But, you know, I think that's really where I went with that.

[67] What changed my life.

[68] Wow, that's pretty cool.

[69] And I know I've worked in many organizations.

[70] And you introduced something that you see.

[71] You see it changing the future of the business.

[72] And then you have your employees and you have to get them on board.

[73] So I love that.

[74] I love that so much.

[75] Do you want to talk a little bit more about that?

[76] I know we were going to talk about some psychological strategies today.

[77] But I feel like part of the getting people to buy what you're selling.

[78] You know, in order to get them to that next stage and growth in the company, there's all that psychological process along the way.

[79] So we can kind of tie the two together.

[80] Absolutely.

[81] For sure.

[82] Yeah.

[83] Well, so very recently, you know, I started while I was in school.

[84] I met Cheryl Volpe, who is in Pennsylvania.

[85] And we hit it off in class.

[86] We said, we need to do something after this.

[87] And so we got together and started Harmonious Workplaces, which is our consulting company.

[88] And then we brought in Ben Kleinman, who is a Northwestern grad.

[89] So we went to Purdue.

[90] He went to Northwestern.

[91] He has an MBA.

[92] And we started doing this podcast, the Harmonious Workplaces podcast.

[93] As we're going through 47 episodes into this thing now, we've had a few guests and it's been great.

[94] But we're really, some common themes have come up.

[95] And one of those is psychological safety.

[96] And so around the whole organizational change.

[97] The part that I was talking about there, right?

[98] Where we put a software piece in.

[99] We put a new process in, right?

[100] People are afraid.

[101] They're afraid to make mistakes.

[102] They're afraid that there's going to be some repercussion, right?

[103] So anxieties go high, right?

[104] During all of that.

[105] And so it's coming to conversation.

[106] I mean, psychological safety has been around for a while.

[107] And, you know, my colleague Cheryl actually wrote a white paper on this.

[108] So it's a little bit on our website.

[109] But we talk quite a bit about this.

[110] People need to be able to feel like they can express themselves.

[111] If you just let somebody express their concerns, as simple as that is, the feelings of fear start to dissipate.

[112] We don't often allow that space.

[113] It's just like, we got a job to do and we got to just do this, right?

[114] But if you look at companies that really have survived the test of time and do well, you'll find that some of them have, and that's all of them, not all of them, but some of them have this in common where innovation can happen and mistakes happen.

[115] And then they learn from them and they move on.

[116] I think it was even Peter Drucker said something about if, you know, it's going to be very rare.

[117] I'm totally paraphrasing this, but it's rare that you are ever going to make it on the first try.

[118] Right.

[119] I think it's powerful.

[120] Yeah.

[121] So we need to, in our workspace, we need to be able to have people feel like, okay, I made a mistake.

[122] I'm okay.

[123] The company is okay.

[124] We've got fail safes for that.

[125] I mean, I'm not saying, you know, go and have a big risk and, you know, just risk it all.

[126] You know, I mean, go into things with a plan.

[127] But, you know, to have some degree of support in all of this is just super important.

[128] So, Rich, why do you, what is through your studies and, I mean, being involved in all this, why are people afraid?

[129] In the workplace, like what is the number one reason?

[130] The number one reason, I don't know if I can ever point to a number one reason.

[131] However, something that comes to mind pretty often, and I think the Gallup State of the Workplace survey supports this.

[132] There are other surveys by other consulting companies that support this.

[133] The relationship that people have with their manager.

[134] With management, yep.

[135] Okay.

[136] Right?

[137] I mean, we spend more time with our managers than we do our spouses and oftentimes, right?

[138] And I think it was Gallup that said like up to 70 % of the employee sentiment of their satisfaction with their job is their relationship with their manager.

[139] Right?

[140] Yeah.

[141] So you've got some...

[142] You know, these best places to work and those types of places, those types of lists that are out there.

[143] Right.

[144] But I just think that that that that one thing.

[145] Right.

[146] That if you can have a manager that and it's it doesn't have to be like inherent, like it doesn't.

[147] There are people who are naturally agreeable and conscientious and and open and empathetic.

[148] Right.

[149] There are those.

[150] But that stuff can also be to a large part.

[151] and developed over time with people.

[152] But I don't think a lot of companies put a ton of stock into that.

[153] I mean, some of them do, but I think there's room for growth on that.

[154] Let me just put that right.

[155] Yeah, you hit the nail on the head in my personal opinion.

[156] It comes down to leadership, right?

[157] The leadership in the company, your relationship with your employees to empower them.

[158] Right.

[159] To make them feel heard.

[160] And it sounds like that's what you guys are trying to get out into the world and help people do.

[161] So how does that work?

[162] Like harmonious work workspaces.

[163] Sorry, harmonious.

[164] Harmonious workplaces.

[165] Workplaces.

[166] Did I say workspaces?

[167] Oh, my gosh.

[168] Same kind of thing.

[169] But we want our listeners to know exactly what it is.

[170] So it's harmonious workplaces.

[171] Gute Nachricht für alle, die jetzt ans Haus bauen denken.

[172] Das neue Wolfhaus Energiepaket ist da.

[173] Mit einer Luftwärmepumpe sowie Photovoltaikanlage gratis.

[174] Zu jedem belagsfertigen Haus samt Unterbau.

[175] Und dank der Bauherren mit Hilfe können Sie zusätzlich bis zu 20 % Baukost sparen.

[176] Hilft der Umwelt und der Geldbörse.

[177] Wolfhaus.

[178] Rundum wohlfühlen.

[179] Alle Infos zu Ihrem Traumhaus und zum Energiepaket auf wolfhaus .at So you guys can help organizations with development and all that.

[180] Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

[181] Yeah, sure.

[182] Yeah.

[183] I mean, we are, by and large, what we try to do is help companies navigate change.

[184] Okay.

[185] Because, I mean, and that is assessing, you know.

[186] what the current situation is and assessing the culture of the organization.

[187] All of that is very, very important.

[188] People need something that's stable.

[189] When we look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, stability is the number two thing on it.

[190] They need to know that they're going to have a job and they have money coming in and that they have a day -to -day of some kind.

[191] So that's important.

[192] Change is going to happen.

[193] It's going to disrupt it.

[194] It's going to disrupt the way we do things.

[195] And we have to be able to be resilient enough to change.

[196] So what we really do is try to work within some frameworks in organizational development.

[197] So that involves assessment, that involves making recommendations, and that also involves some of the implementation part of that.

[198] It has to do with, you know, people lump it into human resources, but it goes a little beyond human resources in a lot of respects because you have to look at the business processes.

[199] And I think that's one of the things that kind of helps to differentiate us from some of the other firms that do this is that we do look at this from both a quantitative.

[200] What are sales like?

[201] What is production output like?

[202] Literally looking at some of those facts and figures, regressions over time.

[203] What does our current work design look like?

[204] Through work analysis and then job analysis and then try to quantify that.

[205] But then there's also this qualitative aspect of the squishy stuff.

[206] Trying to really understand how people are talking to each other, fitting in with each other.

[207] You're talking about workplace culture?

[208] Is that what you're talking about?

[209] Workplace culture, yeah.

[210] Right, okay.

[211] But then we take that and we understand the as is.

[212] Like, how are we doing this now, right?

[213] What's the difference between that and how it's going to be in the future, right?

[214] There's going to be nuances and try to really help to quell the fears among the people, give them an opportunity to express themselves and talk and foster communication, right?

[215] So I think some of us in this group, we have experience in change management.

[216] Some of us have experience in communication and marketing.

[217] Yours truly, right?

[218] So we try to employ.

[219] Ich finde, es geht darum, die Veränderungen zu geben.

[220] In der Ende, es wird wirklich um die Veränderungen, die Veränderungen zu machen.

[221] Aber unser Job ist zu machen, dass sie völlig informiert haben, dass sie die Tools und Techniken brauchen.

[222] Und dann, wenn wir fertig sind, dann...

[223] We try to make sure that there's a really good handoff and we're always there to help support along the way.

[224] And, you know, some of our clients retain us and we love that.

[225] We love when that happens.

[226] Right.

[227] Yeah.

[228] So that means that you retained for a long period of time.

[229] So you can see the changes go through and help them throughout the process.

[230] Is that correct?

[231] For sure.

[232] Yeah.

[233] So it sounds to me like every little piece, you're able to go in and see all the pieces of the business.

[234] You can get a feeling of what the workplace culture is like.

[235] And then you take all that data and you develop a strategic plan to help them grow and go through change.

[236] That's right.

[237] That's right.

[238] As I teach in my class, you've got to do strategy before you do strategy.

[239] And I think this is one of the things that a lot of change models actually kind of omit, which is kind of weird.

[240] You got to do the analysis, right?

[241] And you got to take a look at where we're at now.

[242] Then you build the strategies and you build the tactics to reach those strategies, to reach the...

[243] Actually, I should say this.

[244] Analysis.

[245] From the analysis, you're going to get your objectives, your goals, right?

[246] Smart goals.

[247] As everybody...

[248] Probably knows, but I'll say it again because it's always worth saying, class, listen to this.

[249] Listeners, are you listening?

[250] Listen up rich right now.

[251] Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time -constrained goals, right?

[252] You're going to hear that through your whole life.

[253] I tell my class that every day when I walk in, they're tired of that acronym, except you should never get tired of it.

[254] Stop calling us smart.

[255] Yeah, that's right.

[256] That's right.

[257] Exactly.

[258] But when you do that, you can develop strategies to reach those goals.

[259] You develop the tactics to reach that.

[260] Now you can allocate your resources to make all that work.

[261] Right.

[262] So we don't do the operational part of it per se.

[263] Right.

[264] We are more of like the facilitators to make sure that the company can put together the operations.

[265] So we'll do the project.

[266] And do the operational handoff, if that makes sense.

[267] So it sounds to me like you have a conversation with all the players in a business.

[268] So you must have some pretty interesting conversations.

[269] All the time.

[270] I can only imagine.

[271] I can only imagine.

[272] You know so many secrets about so many people's bosses.

[273] Yeah, there's some of that for sure.

[274] You certainly learn that.

[275] And it's interesting because you always have to be...

[276] It's one of the nice parts about doing this type of work is that you have to keep a little bit of a distance there and make sure that you are keeping things both being ethical on how you're doing this, also being transparent, but at the same time...

[277] You're not oversharing.

[278] The whole idea is really asking questions.

[279] You're going to get answers.

[280] Taking that down.

[281] I know I'm doing a lot of talking here, Lisa.

[282] You're doing great.

[283] It's mostly asking questions.

[284] Like what you're doing.

[285] Asking questions and then eliciting the responses.

[286] Yeah, you're gathering data.

[287] Yeah, that's right.

[288] And what I'm also hearing is that you're going in and you're mirroring or you're showing them leadership.

[289] So by going in and having those meetings and keeping personal information and not oversharing and listening, you're showing them the skills.

[290] that you would use in a workplace, right?

[291] So you're going in there and modeling that for them and showing them what appropriate behavior is, showing interest in humans, asking questions, hearing, letting people be heard, right?

[292] And that's so important in a workplace.

[293] And to create that culture for a workplace, that's magical.

[294] That's amazing.

[295] Yeah, well, we like to think so.

[296] But you're right.

[297] I mean, we do have to...

[298] Um, we have to be.

[299] We have to be responsible how we do that, right?

[300] But we all have an opportunity to, how do I put this, to be influential in a positive way by being internal consultants, if that makes sense.

[301] You know, if we have an idea.

[302] Well, if we have an idea, right?

[303] And let me put it this way.

[304] If we are...

[305] Und wenn wir eine Idee haben, ich kann das besser machen kann, und ich bin ein Internal Employee.

[306] Let's just sagen, ich bin auf eine Produktion, und ich habe eine Idee.

[307] Die Veränderung kann starten mit der Person sagen, ich denke, wir können es diese Weise machen.

[308] Hier ist wie wir es jetzt machen.

[309] Aber wenn wir es diese Weise machen, wir haben es diese Weise.

[310] Aber wenn wir es diese Weise machen.

[311] Ich meine, wir haben auch schon gesehen, das type of Ding.

[312] Aber in reality, das...

[313] This can happen on any level, right?

[314] Whether a manager or an executive.

[315] Where we're observing what's happening, we're saying, we think we should move in this other direction.

[316] If you can rally support around that, if you can gather evidence to support your change, and if you can have an environment that...

[317] so that there is the ability to have innovation, your company is going to be able to make money.

[318] I'm going to quote Peter Drucker once more, and it's not a quote because I'm terrible at remembering quotes, but paraphrase.

[319] He said that marketing and innovation are the two things that make money in a business.

[320] Everything else are costs.

[321] If you're marketing, you're communicating your value.

[322] Gute Nachricht für alle, die jetzt ans Haus bauen denken.

[323] Das neue Wolfhaus Energiepaket ist da.

[324] Mit einer Luftwärmepumpe sowie Photovoltaikanlage gratis.

[325] Zu jedem belagsfertigen Haus samt Unterbau.

[326] Und dank der Bauherren mit Hilfe können Sie zusätzlich bis zu 20 % Baukost sparen.

[327] Hilft der Umwelt und der Geldbörse.

[328] Wolfhaus.

[329] Rundum wohlfühlen.

[330] Alle Infos zu Ihrem Traumhaus und zum Energiepaket auf wolfhaus .at Safety for people to do that, right?

[331] To come up with those ideas and make a few mistakes and break a few eggs, but you'll ultimately come up with something.

[332] I think companies, especially in this market now, right, where they need to differentiate themselves, you have a huge opportunity.

[333] Wow.

[334] So you were talking about it right there.

[335] You said challenges.

[336] Why don't you share with our listeners some of your biggest successes and maybe some of your challenges?

[337] Walk us through what the process has been like, what you've been able to do for companies and how that translated so our listeners can fully understand.

[338] And then just maybe for some fun, tell us about some of your challenges.

[339] Sure, sure.

[340] So, I mean, certainly a couple of successes.

[341] I'll just highlight a couple of successes.

[342] We've been able to help a nonprofit organization to bring in a, you know, they brought in Salesforce as a new system.

[343] You know, people think of it as just a CRM, right?

[344] But in this case, it handled like everything.

[345] Like how are we?

[346] Take in money, accounting, everything.

[347] So it really acted like an ERP.

[348] For not -for -profit, that's huge.

[349] It is.

[350] It is.

[351] And it was a huge undertaking.

[352] And it actually, you know, it became demotivating at first because it sucked away so many, you know, they have a limited budget, right?

[353] And it just sucked away so much of that budget to get this thing implemented.

[354] But in the end...

[355] After working out the kinks and getting people on board to change from the one system to another, now you have people where their self -efficacy went up, their confidence level and how they can do things went up, and now they're able to be more confident in providing service.

[356] When they can exude that, the customers feel that they can trust the company.

[357] You saw a little dip in productivity and then it shot back up.

[358] The learning phase, right?

[359] The learning phase.

[360] Implementation.

[361] Yeah, exactly.

[362] So that's one.

[363] We helped a law firm recently kind of do a similar thing.

[364] It was not Salesforce.

[365] They had a new system.

[366] Nobody was using this thing.

[367] Everybody started using Excel files and doing it on their...

[368] So they put...

[369] Tons of money into this management tool that they had, and nobody was using it.

[370] Oh, no. We came in and just, yeah.

[371] And that's not uncommon, right?

[372] People go, oh, I would rather use an Excel file or a Google Sheets file, or I'm just going to write this down on my little iPad and remember this.

[373] We had some of that.

[374] Ich habe eine Einführung mit einem Stack von Büchern mit ihren eigenen Nöten, die nicht in die System haben.

[375] Wir gehen zu einer Meeting und sie sagen, oh, es ist meine andere Bücher.

[376] Und ich sage, was?

[377] Das Person kommt in nächste Woche.

[378] Wir brauchen das in die System.

[379] Ja, genau.

[380] So we found out what the problems were.

[381] And it really came down to training.

[382] That was part of it.

[383] There were some systematic changes that happened that should not have happened.

[384] So we went back to the software provider and said, can you take a look at this?

[385] They fixed that.

[386] And so now everything's running smoother.

[387] The data's flowing.

[388] People feel comfortable putting in the inputs and all that.

[389] And so when that happens, again.

[390] Your self -efficacy goes up.

[391] People start to feel more aligned to what are we supposed to be doing here?

[392] And they understand that their inputs in this case, especially their inputs, were valuable to understanding the client, right?

[393] Because in law, the client is uneasy oftentimes, right?

[394] Even if it's something like wills and trusts, right?

[395] They're still nervous about this.

[396] They have to trust who they're working with.

[397] When you can have a system where they know that their information is accurate, where it's secure, those types of things, your practice is going to go up.

[398] I mean, they were doing a pretty good business.

[399] Don't get me wrong.

[400] The owner is a remarkable, just a remarkable person.

[401] She's a dynamo, really.

[402] But, you know, the practice needed some help in putting their systems together.

[403] So we came in, helped them out with that, took just a little bit of work on our parts for a few months and they were zipping away.

[404] Wow.

[405] Systems are powerful.

[406] So powerful.

[407] Absolutely.

[408] Not only that, but I guarantee you, you like made a ton of legal assistance lives easier because you cut down on admin work.

[409] People don't understand the level of admin work there is in stuff like that when you don't have proper systems in place.

[410] And that can be exhausting.

[411] So it sounds like you gave that law firm new life.

[412] We hope so.

[413] That's what it seems like.

[414] Oh, you do?

[415] Okay.

[416] Amazing.

[417] Now I forget what I was going to ask you.

[418] You were going to ask me about challenges if we have.

[419] I was, but I had a thought after about that.

[420] That's okay.

[421] We can talk about challenges.

[422] Yeah.

[423] What is one of your challenges?

[424] Oh no, I have it now.

[425] I was going to ask you.

[426] So if you walk into a company, you guys can also pinpoint the things that they might need, right?

[427] So they might not even know what they need.

[428] So you guys go in there and kind of suggest things as well.

[429] Like, cause I know systems is a huge pain point for a lot of people.

[430] especially in new companies, because not everyone has that brain, right?

[431] So do you guys also suggest certain things and have those tools for them to offer?

[432] Yeah, yeah.

[433] I mean, we've had, you know, where, and it's been more than one client I've had where the...

[434] The customer's like, I don't know why I can't keep my employees.

[435] Literally, the words were, I can't understand how my competition keeps poaching my best salespeople.

[436] Right?

[437] And so you go in there and you take a look and you start talking to people and finding out what's going on here and all that.

[438] I mean, sometimes it comes down to they got a better deal somewhere else.

[439] Right?

[440] I mean, that happens.

[441] Particularly at sales.

[442] But oftentimes it comes down to what's the culture?

[443] Do they feel supported?

[444] As I mentioned before, there's this manager component, right?

[445] Perceived organizational support, POS.

[446] That is a very important part of how employees need to feel about the company, right?

[447] If they feel that they're supported, they're going to stay there.

[448] And if they don't...

[449] There's other places they can go that at least purport that they're going to support them.

[450] Right.

[451] So, yeah.

[452] And so it's one of the challenges that I've had in that respect oftentimes is, well, you know, our culture's been good.

[453] This is the way that we do business.

[454] And we've been doing this way for, you know, two generations or whatever.

[455] Interesting.

[456] We've got people who have been here for 30 -something years.

[457] And then you go talk to the people who have been here for 30 -something years, and they're like, yeah, yeah.

[458] But, you know, when those rocky times happen, we just kind of lay low until it gets better, you know.

[459] Right.

[460] So.

[461] That's a scary way to be, though.

[462] I imagine them, like, hunkering down under their desk or something right now, you know.

[463] It could be.

[464] Could be.

[465] You know, sometimes.

[466] I'm not going to lie.

[467] Sometimes.

[468] But, you know, all in all, I mean, usually.

[469] Es ist eine kleine Veränderung.

[470] Ich weiß nicht, dass ich immer ein Veränderung habe.

[471] Es ist eine schlechte Veränderung.

[472] Das ist nicht der Fall.

[473] Das ist nicht der Fall.

[474] Es ist mir so, wie Sie sind.

[475] Sie sind.

[476] Because what you're involved in, I know in my previous company, you don't see those things because you're just in that culture.

[477] You bring someone new in and they're able to pinpoint the things that you might not be able to see.

[478] It's like looking at it from a different perspective.

[479] So you're able to go in and give companies a different perspective because you're not there all the time.

[480] That's right.

[481] Yep.

[482] Absolutely.

[483] Is that fair?

[484] Is that fair to say?

[485] I think that there's a lot of validity in that.

[486] You know, I used to own a business.

[487] You know, I had a signed company years ago, like before the recession here in the States and all that stuff, right?

[488] And, you know, it was like my second year and I had a coach that I hired, right?

[489] And it was always helpful to have.

[490] That third party perspective like that, you know, for that, for somebody else to come in and look at what's happening and be, I mean, I'm not going to say completely objective because, you know, there's a certain framework that somebody uses.

[491] So, you know, there's some bias to it, but to some extent, I mean, I, in all honesty, we use a variety of different types of frameworks to do the work that we do.

[492] And it's based on, you know, what the customer needs, you know.

[493] But yeah, when we can come in as a third party and say, hey, this is what we're observing, oftentimes it's like, oh, I didn't think about that.

[494] Or I didn't think about looking at that metric, you know, like, what's my return on human capital spend, you know?

[495] What's my revenue per employee?

[496] Some of these things that are about organizational effectiveness.

[497] Those are things that we don't often look at.

[498] We look at a P &L, but maybe we're not breaking it down to the human level part.

[499] What can we do to enhance that, if that makes sense?

[500] For the listeners who don't know, what's a P &L?

[501] Your profit and loss statement.

[502] The statement that says, here's how much we made in these different categories.

[503] Here's how much we spent in these different categories.

[504] Here's my earnings before taxes and depreciation.

[505] And then we have our gross profit.

[506] And then we'll have our final profit in the end.

[507] So that tells a story.

[508] But you can put it into the context of the people.

[509] And then you start looking at, you know, the organization from an individual perspective, like on a role basis, right?

[510] And then the people themselves.

[511] And then you look at it as the organization, like how is the organization working together to achieve what we're trying to do?

[512] That's awesome.

[513] So you're able to kind of see all the pieces and put it together.

[514] That's really helpful.

[515] I love that.

[516] Now, I know we can't fully discuss this, but I want the listeners to know.

[517] So let's talk about this book that's coming into production.

[518] Okay.

[519] We'll talk about the book.

[520] Okay.

[521] I'm going to show a prototype of the book.

[522] So this is our little hermit crab character, right?

[523] And so the book came out of, it's written by me, Cheryl and Ben.

[524] And Cheryl came out of the entertainment industry.

[525] And again, Ben came out of management consulting.

[526] And I always wanted to be a cartoonist.

[527] Actually, my undergrad is actually in visual art for the University of Chicago.

[528] And I wanted to.

[529] Draw a cartoon.

[530] That's what I wanted to do with my life.

[531] And then we said, you know what?

[532] Maybe we can do something that, you know, adds some value, but it's fun.

[533] And so, you know, in this little book, we've got, you know, every, there's 10 different gags that are in this book, right?

[534] They're all illustrated.

[535] And then there's a lesson to be learned at the end of each chapter.

[536] um we are going to be republishing this book it should be it'll be coming out in just another couple of weeks maybe a week um okay so we're just relaying out some things but uh yeah if you if you hear tales of an hr hermit crab that is going to be yeah that's going to say the name i promise i won't say let's not say the name yet But I promise it's going to be great and you're going to love it.

[537] And we've gotten some really good feedback from the people that we've been sending this to and who have gotten the first edition, right?

[538] The limited edition of first editions here.

[539] So it's an adult book of HR lessons.

[540] Is it funny?

[541] Is it helpful?

[542] Is it like something that every office needs in their lunchroom?

[543] Like what would you say?

[544] I would say any HR professional, any manager, for sure, any manager, to put this into, you know, I think it makes a great birthday gift, stocking stuffer, you know, anything like that.

[545] White elephant present, you know.

[546] You'll also find that we're putting out Webtoons.

[547] So we're trying to put out a Webtoon at least a couple of times a month on our website at harmoniousworkplaces .com.

[548] We have a little puppet of him, like a digital puppet.

[549] So some video that is being produced.

[550] Oh, that's so fun.

[551] It's so fun.

[552] It's a lot of fun.

[553] I get to be a cartoon character voice.

[554] Are you kidding me?

[555] I'm so...

[556] Yeah, no kidding.

[557] Well, you're also a musician, so I think those kind of tie together, right?

[558] Yeah, yeah.

[559] I was very pleased that my co -hosts on the podcast, they agreed to let me write our background music.

[560] You know, so a little garage band.

[561] But yeah, I play harmonica, bass, drums.

[562] And we actually, silly little thing, little unknown thing about Harmonious Workplaces.

[563] We do facilitate drum circles.

[564] Maybe that's something to talk about, not the next show, but the show after that.

[565] I love that.

[566] Because we've been doing that for leadership groups.

[567] And it's a lot of fun and really impactful.

[568] Yeah, the listeners got to come back for the next show to hear about your drum circles for sure.

[569] Oh my God, I'm excited.

[570] I'm excited to hear about it.

[571] You're just like a jack of all trades.

[572] You got all the things and you make workplaces sound fun.

[573] I mean, I don't know, people hear about the workplace and it's got like this negative connotation to it, but really it's not.

[574] Like workplaces should be fun.

[575] If they're functioning properly, they should be a good place to be because you're right, we spend so much time there.

[576] Yeah, exactly.

[577] I mean, if we know, right, that we are playing a part in creating something that helps somebody else, how can you not have fun with that, right?

[578] But when you don't and you just feel like you're a cog in the wheel or, you know, I'm just doing this to do this.

[579] But, you know, it's a different ballgame, right?

[580] So if you have purpose, like just this, you know, living this kind of purpose -driven career.

[581] That's what we need to do as managers, right?

[582] Is figure out how do we make the purpose of the company and align that with our own life's purpose.

[583] Does that make sense?

[584] It does.

[585] You need your values in there and you need to know what your values are, right?

[586] And then you need your employees to feel that, to feel your passion.

[587] And that's so cool.

[588] So Rich, what are some takeaways you want to leave our listeners with today?

[589] No pressure, no pressure.

[590] No pressure.

[591] I think the main, I mean, honestly, I think the main takeaway is a couple of things, right?

[592] Number one, really strive for a good organizational culture that is supportive, right?

[593] One, so work on that perceived organizational support.

[594] I think that's a big part of this.

[595] Number two, Really help people to feel comfortable with change and be resilient by listening to them.

[596] Number three is allow people to make mistakes.

[597] Refocus their mistakes.

[598] Actually, come to think of that, just real quick.

[599] So Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, he wrote that book.

[600] He also wrote a book called Outwitting the Double, which is kind of a controversial book.

[601] Es ist ein Wichtigeseseseses.

[602] Potenzial success.

[603] Not necessarily success, but the potential for success.

[604] With every one of these little failures that we have are big ones.

[605] Frankly, I went bankrupt after the economic collapse in 2008.

[606] Oh, okay.

[607] It was really tough.

[608] I was working with construction companies and real estate companies.

[609] Well, they just went belly up.

[610] They were the ones buying signs.

[611] But out of that, I started doing consulting work.

[612] Out of that, I started learning how people think and act and all that.

[613] And that brought me to where I'm at today.

[614] So that failure planted that seed.

[615] So I think if we use that and think about that in the context of psychological safety at work, we have a good chance of making 2025 a pretty good year.

[616] I love that.

[617] And if I may, I completely agree with you.

[618] And I truly feel that challenges open doors for opportunities.

[619] Absolutely.

[620] Because you have to restructure.

[621] Rethink things and then learn from those mistakes.

[622] So I love that.

[623] I definitely agree with you on that so much.

[624] And it sounds like your life has evolved into something you enjoy so much.

[625] And the impact you're making is beautiful.

[626] And I just can't wait for the book to be released because I was looking at it last night and now I can't buy it because it's going to be released in a week, you said.

[627] Well, it'll be released very soon, but I promise you I will send you a copy.

[628] No need for you to buy it.

[629] Oh, I'm excited.

[630] It looks like so much fun.

[631] So where is it going to be featured?

[632] It'll be on Amazon, of course, but you will be able to find it on the Harmonious Workplaces website at www .harmoniousplaces .com.

[633] There we go.

[634] Okay, harmoniousworkplaces .com.

[635] So I did it, you did it.

[636] I blame me, I blame me. You tripped it up because I messed it up earlier.

[637] Not at all.

[638] Yeah, and just so our listeners know, what services do you offer?

[639] You offer a whole bunch.

[640] And so if they go to your website, they'll be able to find everything that you offer, correct?

[641] Pretty much, yes.

[642] So you will find it from you.

[643] First of all, you'll find our workplace culture scorecard.

[644] So that's free to use.

[645] We highly recommend that you use that.

[646] Take a look at that.

[647] We have a psychological safety white paper.

[648] That's free to download as well.

[649] We just put out a new one that Cheryl wrote.

[650] It's a really good paper on signaling in the workplace.

[651] We'll have a workshop on that and psychological safety coming up soon.

[652] I believe that's at the beginning of March.

[653] So we'll have more information about that.

[654] We have a change management framework that Ben, so Ben is like our change management guru, right?

[655] And he wrote a simple change management framework that's also available to download.

[656] We have a visioning session that we offer.

[657] It's a great way for you to be able to develop your vision and then be able to communicate that out.

[658] So we have a whole thing about the importance of vision, particularly in change management.

[659] And then finally, we have some information on those drum circles I was talking about.

[660] So you'll find all of that on our website.

[661] And I'd be remiss in not saying that we have our podcast there.

[662] So you'll find all 47 episodes of the podcast.

[663] We'd love to hear what your thoughts are on that.

[664] Amazing, amazing.

[665] So this has been so much fun.

[666] It has been so much fun talking with you.

[667] Thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show today.

[668] And I just love the difference you're making in the workplace.

[669] And I am so excited to go through your website more.

[670] And I want to see what this new crab is going to be named.

[671] Yes, I do too.

[672] I can't wait for that.

[673] I can't either.

[674] It's going to be great.

[675] We'll tell the listeners as soon as we find out we're going to release that news.

[676] Hopefully we can update the show notes.

[677] Cool.

[678] Cool.

[679] Fantastic.

[680] Okay, Rich.

[681] So nice meeting you.

[682] Thank you so much for being here.

[683] Thanks a million.

[684] Take care, folks.