Vision, journey, culture and results does a really good job of explaining why work sucks. But in this episode, we're gonna talk about how to use that framework to make work not suck, Make work, not suck. Our podcast, it talks about exactly that, our process, vision, journey, culture and results. We present real-world business solutions that make the difference. Our goal is to make work not suck. Hosted by Ryan Hodges, co-host Daniel Steere. Join us each episode and make work not suck.

Welcome To the Make Work Not Suck podcast.

Welcome back to the Make Work Not Suck podcast. Uh, so Ryan, let's just kind of orient ourselves to where we've been. We've talked through in detail the vision journey, culture and results. Yes. Uh, and in each of those conversations we've at least hinted at, if not specifically, talked through the details of how it can suck to work at a company that is too focused on any one of the four. Right. Uh, but this is not the Why Work Sucks podcast. It's the Make Work Not Suck podcast. So how does this new paradigm, this new framework, vision, journey, culture, results, how does that actually help make work not suck as opposed to just describing why it does? Like how do you use this to make work better?

Uh, it's simple. Just use it in in magic. In magic. It's just, it's, it's an experience. It's very, How would you even use it? Like, what would that look like? Do you, is there a T-shirt that I buy and wear? Like what, what do you do? Uh, you just send a hundred dollars to this Dress that's gonna flash on the screen.

Don't ask questions. And magic. Perfect. No, it, it's, it. So it's a framework and it, it, it helps you whether, you know, when you're running it inside of an organization, it helps you see the blind spots and the, the gaps inside the organization. And this is constantly evolving, right? So you're constantly pulsing, you're constantly looking, and you can also apply this, uh, personally as well.

Okay. So it, it applies to, oh, I mean, really you kind of think through this in every decision you make. And the more cognitive you are in the decisions you make, uh, through the four pillars, the more successful you, you're likely outcome. Doesn't mean every solution's gonna be guaranteed success, right? But you're more likely to have success in an organization when an organization looks at the vision journey, culture results, um, from, you know, what I would say top to bottom, which is from executive leadership down to, uh, the, uh, the frontline employee frontline. Yep. Yep. And from, you know, marketing to finance.

Okay. So when you look at it in, in from top to bottom, left to right, uh, and you look at where you know where things are going, uh, synergistically, are they moving through the organization? Where are the gaps or where, how's communication going down the vertical, even horizontal or, you know, uh, diagonally through the organization.

Okay. And so when you use this to assess the organization, you can find the gaps. And when you use it to solve the problems, it ensures that the problems are getting solved. 'cause the reality of it is the organization is made up of many people. Right? Right. Every one of those individuals sits in one of those quadrants as their primary.

So let me rephrase that. So every person in every company sits in one of those four boxes. Yes. Interesting. Okay. Now here's, here's now this, there's, there's multiple ways of slice and dice. This right? Now, we’ve been talking a lot of this in two dimension. It's actually three dimensional in a spear, but, we'll, good, Because this wasn't complicated enough. So take it to the next level.

Gonna, we're just gonna keep it in a two dimensional plane. So when one thing is, as an organization, especially like, uh, let's just call it results heavy organization, right? Okay. We talked earlier about the results and a lot of track teams, right? You know, we call 'em the A players, they're like the Dallas Cowboys, et cetera, et cetera. We just wanna win.

But we're not sure how, Well, I think I saw a meme today that says it's been like 10,082 days since they won a Super Bowl. So how's those results working for you? Ouch. And I'm a Dallas cowboy. And they're your home team. Yeah, Exactly. So the, uh, when you get a results heavy organization, we tend to hire more results, uh, focused people. 'cause they like us. We re we They feel like us. They feel like us. Yeah, yeah. But We don't need results. He's gotta be awesome. He's like me. Well, Then six months later we fire him because they, they don't fit. Right? And some, you know, maybe you're the manager, right? That's had to been had to fire that person.

Or maybe you were the person that got fired. That Got fired, Or you got Frustrated. So, hold on. Why does they, why didn't they not fit? If they feel like if it's a results person in a results organization, why would they not fit? Because The organization's outta balance. Oh, okay. And so when we look at an organization and we go, okay, we, where we, where's our vision? Where are we at in vision? Where are we at in journey culture results? And we go, you know what? We're missing a lot on the journey piece. We don't have SOP, we don't have our, our, uh, or sorry, we don't have our journey strategy, and it doesn't connect to SOP mm-Hmm.

That connects to people. Well, when the organization goes, oh s**t, we've missed that. Yeah. Then they come back and they start trying to fix it. Well, what they'll find is we need to hire those people. Sure. Remember in one of the other episodes you talked about that result heavy organization where they ran out, They fired all the process people, they fired All the process people when they realized that they fired all the process people and why they did it, they start hiring process people back.

And you start building balance. Now let me, let me give you a scenario. This was, this is something we did years and years ago, is if you put a bunch of, uh, you, you take a group of people, let's say 16 people, okay? And, you know, you hand select these and you go, uh, one vision, one journey, one culture, and one results person and a group.

And you give them a, uh, let's just say straws. And you say, build a tall tower. Mm-Hmm. You'll find if you do four groups like that, so 16 people, four, one in each quadrant, four. Right? What you'll find is they'll all build relatively tall towers that, uh, and and they'll work together as a team. Yep. That's 'cause the visionary will take charge.

The journey person will map out and, and coordinate what needs to be done. The culture person is making sure everybody's aligned, playing Nice Together. They're playing nice, holding people accountable, making sure everybody's got their parts And the results. Guys watching the clock and making sure that you get it all done on time.

Well, he's the, you sometimes those are the engineers. They're actually ones doing some of the structure stuff, right? Oh, right. Yeah's really good, good structure be. And so what you'll end up with is a real balanced team that builds a tall tower and there'll be one that's taller than the others, but they'll all be fairly tall.

Now if you take that same group of people and you put all the visionaries together, all the journey people together, culture and the results, people together Disaster. Well, what you'll end up with is you'll end up with all the visionaries talking about what the vision of the tower should be, and they haven't touched a thing.

Mm-Hmm. You'll talk about, you'll have all the journey people talking about how they should think about building the tower or how they should arrange all the components and pieces, but not actually build it all. The culture people will be, um, they'll be and Group hugging. Well, I don't know if I'd say group hugging, but, you know,

Not a culture person, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not the culture person, But they, but they will, they will all be making sure each other's taken care of and Yeah. And trying to serve each other. Yep. But never actually getting traction on anything and all the results. People will pretty much be over engineering it to the point where there's nothing gets built.

And if anything gets built at all, it's, you know, a third or a quarter Of what, Of what it was. Yeah. And so we've done those experiments before and it's kind of funny to watch. Sure. Uh, and actually, But, but so many organizations are like that. Yes. Right. They, They, they have a bent Mm-Hmm. They keep hiring more and more people like that and they wonder why it's not working. And it just creates a lot of frustration. Right. That's it.

Yeah. So one of the things we've been kind of hinting at, and I think it's important to maybe just put this out on the table, is, is that not only is it true that every person in every organization kind of lands in one of those four quadrants, but, but what we can say is that when we, when we take this framework and we look at how those, that, those four quadrants intersect, uh, in terms of solving problems, it's important for organizations to balance that out. And not only just organizations, but individuals, too.

So that each person, like I can think of, uh, I can think of a few people that are in an organization that are going to be primarily visionary, you know, and that's what they're, that's what they're focused on, that's what they do. But the best leaders, and really the best people who are able to make work not suck, are people who learn how to flex between the quadrants.

So you have to have a vision, sure. But then you also need to understand how the journey is gonna get you there. Sure. And then you need to be able to communicate and work with others in a healthy culture, right? And then you need to be able to see results and hold yourself accountable to delivering results.

Right. Uh, and so that's where it gets a little complex because, you know, we talk about an organization being unbalanced. Uh, when it comes to people, people can be unbalanced, too. And that is just as detrimental to an organization as it is to an individual. Right. And so finding that balance within the individual and in the organization, Uh, that’s when you start to make work not suck.

Exactly. And, and so it's, it's important to recognize, you know, the, the, the core of this framework is, is balance. And, and so when we're talking about vision journey, culture results, it's not just about looking at them in isolation, but it's about how do they interact with each other. So it's a very integrative framework. And, and when you, you know, in one of the episodes we talked about that every single person has a predominant quadrant.

But they need to be able to flex into the others. Yep. And so it’s, you know, it's one of those things where as we’re working through this in our own businesses and in our organizations, it's important to recognize that the more balanced we can be, the more balanced our teams can be, the better we're gonna solve the problems and the more we're gonna make work not suck.

So you, you need to be able to, as a leader, as an individual contributor, flex between vision, journey, culture results, and not just in your own role, but in your interactions with other team members. Yeah. Absolutely. So let's break that down a little bit more. How would you, in a practical sense, if you're an individual contributor, how do you start flexing between these quadrants?

I think it's a matter of understanding where you're primarily focused and then making a conscious effort to recognize when you're not fulfilling other areas. So if you're, you know, if you're primarily focused on results and you, you’re, you're, you’re delivering on time, but you’re not thinking about how that’s affecting the culture or the journey, you need to be able to recognize, you know, hey, this is something that I need to address. So, um, so there's a, a, a level of self-awareness that comes with it.

And, and understanding, you know, where, where, where am I, where am I off balance? Right. And that’s where, and that’s where feedback from your peers, feedback from your leadership is gonna help you understand that. So if you’re a culture person, uh, you know, you might be, um, really good at, at making sure everyone’s getting along, but not necessarily holding people accountable to results.

So if that’s the case, you need to be able to flex into that results quadrant a little bit and recognize, okay, I need to, I need to get people to deliver as well. Sure. And so it’s about recognizing where you, you might be lacking in your own approach, and then making a conscious effort to flex into those other areas. And you’ll also find that as you do that, others will be more willing to flex into the areas that you're strong at.

And, and so you can start to create that more balanced approach across the team. But it does, it does require a lot of self-awareness and, and also a willingness to adapt. Right. And it’s not, it’s not gonna come naturally for everyone. Right. And it might be uncomfortable at times, but it’s a process. And the more you do it, the more natural it’ll become. Sure. So if you, if you think about it, you know, everybody, let's just say you're in a team meeting and you’re working on a project.

You know, we talked about the tower example. It can be very easy to get stuck in one quadrant. Right. But if you’re conscious of the fact that you need to bring in vision, journey, culture, results into the conversation, you’re gonna start seeing more balanced outcomes. Right. And then that becomes a positive cycle. You’ll start to see better results, you'll start to have a better culture, you'll start to have more effective processes, and that’s when work really does start to not suck.

So a good practical takeaway for listeners would be to do a self-assessment of where you primarily land. Yes. And then actively seek to understand and improve your weaker areas. Yes. And don’t be afraid to solicit feedback from others about where you could be better. Absolutely. And as a leader, you should be facilitating that for your team as well, right? Yes. You should be helping them understand their own strengths and weaknesses and how to flex into those other areas.

Absolutely. And, and if you can do that well, you’ll see your team start to function more effectively and make work not suck. Great. So as we wrap up today’s episode, just remember that the vision, journey, culture, results framework is a tool to help you balance those different aspects of work and ensure that you’re addressing all the necessary areas to be successful.

Uh, so thanks for joining us. We’ll see you next time. Make work not suck.