In this episode, we're gonna talk about how do you apply this framework, this new paradigm, whether you're an individual contributor, a manager, or an executive. What does it look like to practically apply this to make work not suck for yourself and for the people around you? Make work Not Suck. Our podcast that 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.

All right, Daniel, we've had several episodes so far.

Yep.

We've talked about the paradigm, the wheel. You've talked a lot about what vision, journey, culture, results looks and feels like. We've given examples and we have a podcast called Make Work Not Suck, All True Things.

Okay.

So I think there's several things and people are probably wondering, you know, what does this mean to me? How do I use this? This all sounds good, but I don't, I don't, how do I use it?

Right.

What do I do with this? What do I do with it? How do I use this in my organization? And I think there's a couple of things we gotta level set on. Is, is, is the other thing, is like, that all sounds great, but how does this make work not suck?

Yep.

So I think let's level set on one thing is, is what does make work not suck about?

Okay.

Do you think maybe we should have started here?

Probably, but that's okay. I think we've talked about this a little bit, but I think this is probably like, now that we've kind of gotten through stuff, this might actually stick better.

Okay.

Is, is everybody is an employee of an organization. Technically even the owner founder is an employee of the organization.

Yeah.

And you can smash there. Especially in like larger organizations, you know, fortune five thou, or fortune 100, 500, thousand, et cetera. Usually CEOs are hired guys and he's got a boss, he's got a board, a board or shareholders, something like that. And so, you know, inside of an organization, you know, a lot of times when we think employees, we just think the average per worker.

Right.

But the reality is the managers are employees, of course, and the leadership team are employees.

Yep.

And they have the same struggles and problems with their boss as the person downline does. And so the thing is, is, is we talk, we're gonna talk all across the spectrum here. There's gonna be some episodes that are gonna be geared for the average employee, the guy that works at the cashier, the fry cook, the person in finance, the mail room, you know, all those, those individuals.

Right.

The first job outta school in a cubicle.

Yep.

Yeah. The whole continuum. And whether you're in retail, manufacturing, services.

Yeah.

Technology, vehicle technology, et cetera. You know, there's, there's the individual contributor.

Yep.

Right. And I think we talked about this in the previous, so a pre individual contributor, then there's the managers, but a manager is, is in Multifacet, right? Because you've got a, sometimes you have a manager of managers.

Sure.

Sometimes you used to have a manager. Right. And sometimes that manager has three people. Sometimes I've seen organizations where one manager might have, you know, 16 direct reports.

Yikes.

And, you know, each one of those, excuse me, has multiple direct reports.

Oh, yeah.

So a manager is what a manager really is, is a person that has a boss and is a boss. There's people above him.

Okay.

And people below him.

Yep.

And then there's, you know, executive leadership, which, you know, typically is just below the leader or they're the top influencer of the organization. And then you've got your, you know, owner, founder board, et cetera.

Right.

And so I think, you know, as we talk about the wheel, we've talked a lot about from a business perspective, and, but then there's also the personal perspective.

Yeah.

We've talked about both sides of individual versus corporate. There's, and there's the paradigm. You know, there's vision journey, cultural results, which correlates to the brain, four major categories going again, simplified psychology. And then we've said, you know, what we're trying to do with this framework or the paradigm shift is using this, this psychology into the organization to understand how the organization ticks and bringing that balance.

So I think one thing that we can do to help work not suck, is there's, there's two major directions we can take with this. And we'll, we'll rabbit trail, in, in various episodes as we, we navigate these is one is there's what can I do as an individual?

Okay.

You know, where, what is my founding pillar? What is my dominant pillar? And how can I better myself? How can I make better decisions just in my job? In my life. And so, you know, again, if you better yourself in those areas, you will in fact help make work not suck for you. Which is good. That's, that's good.

No.

Which is great. But, you know, the podcast isn't, you know, make work not suck for one person ever.

Right.

It's, this is, this is a, you know, maybe we should talk about this again, going back to the vision, right? The vision is this is how do we make work not suck for millions of people?

Yeah.

How do we do this at scale?

Right?

Well, and we go back to one of the first episodes we talked about, you know, two thirds or, uh, one third of our life has been working. If we can make an impact at work, then therefore we can make, you know, better sleep, which is one third. And then, you know, the rest of your life is better personal life.

Right?

So then there's the other paradigm of, okay, if I go and I take this assessment and I understand what it is, then it's, but this is too much about my organization.

Right?

So we, we, there's, we, we want to, we wanna take this in three ways. One is what can you find your finding pillar?

Yep.

So that you know where you are individually, right. And how you can apply it. Then there's what is your finding? What is your founding pillar? What's your perspective of your organization independently?

Okay.

And then there's, there's what is, what is your organization look like in, in, within this paradigm? But in order to understand what an organization looks like in the paradigm, you have to have many perspectives. You have to take.

Sure.

You have to take, let's say a company of a hundred people. You really need about, you know, 75 to 85 perspectives to really understand where that organization is.

One person's paradigm of the organization doesn't constitute the whole.

Yeah. So like, maybe to make that practical, if I'm the only culture person in a very results oriented organization, I'm a probably gonna feel pretty lonely. I'm gonna feel like nobody understands me and work is probably gonna suck for me. Um, and so knowing that I'm a culture person is a good first step. But what I think I hear you saying is that it's also important to then understand that I'm in a results company. And in order to do that, I gotta get a lot more data points.

Correct.

So when, when we sat on this mission roughly 10 years ago, the, the one thing I never wanted to do is I didn't want to recreate another personality test.

Right.

'Cause 'cause there's tons of 'em out there. There's many of 'em are great and there's pro and cons with, with all of them. But they do a great job of talking about you as an individual.

Sure.

And not, and, and some of 'em do talk about how you, how you play well in the sandbox, but it's not in correlation to the organization.

Right.

It's just kind of to compared to other people who have also taken this assessment. Right. It's, it's a very culture heavy, uh, paradigm, if you will.

Sure.

Because you're, you're, you're assessing yourself against a control. Somebody else is assessing themselves against a control. And then you're, you're talking about social, emotionally how you work better together. Right? I'm a red, you're a blue. And so here's how red and blues work together. This is how we, this is how we make purple between the two of us.

Right.

And I know how much you love purple.

That that, right. But, but let's touche. But that doesn't, but that doesn't say how we actually make the company better.

Right.

It's just how you and I work more effectively. So in, in, in the, the, the stage setting for this episode is to talk about those, those different uniques and those paradigms.

Right.

And then as we progress forward, it's the tools and stuff that we'll be talking about that we'll be offering on the website and, and, you know, the simplified platform, et cetera, where, you know, those are, can help you under individually.

Mm-Hmm.

As an individual in your day-to-day life. Uh, which again, if you apply those, it'll help work not suck. That's what you can do from within your organization. If you assess, uh, your paradigm against your organization, it'll better help you in your actual job. And then there's, there's actually doing it at scale within an organization.

So,

Okay.

So tell me more about that second one. 'cause I'm hearing you say, if I know my own profile, that's good, but I need to understand how my profile fits within the organization and not just from my perspective.

Correct.

So, so the second step is to understand your organization's profile. So if I am a, an employee at the fry cook, if I am the CEO, I need to understand where the organization falls within the paradigm.

So maybe, maybe we're talking about, okay, vision journey, culture results. But how do I understand where the organization is?

I think one of the ways you can do it, which is great and that's exactly what we're talking about is, is when you're, if you look at your organization from, from a lens of vision, journey, culture, results. And it's understanding where, where are you as a culture as an organization, right?

Because that really defines, is this a vision company? Is this a journey company? Is this a culture company? Is this a results company? Or, or is this a multi-faceted company? Right. And, and if you're in a multi-faceted company, what is the dominant pillar? Is it culture? Is it results? Is it vision or journey?

Sure.

And so then, then it's understanding, okay, now that I understand where the organization is, how do I work effectively within this organization? How do I take my personal paradigm and adapt it to the organization paradigm so that I can make a better impact on the organization? And so that, that way, if you're, if you're a culture person in a results organization, and you need to understand, okay, how do I adjust my perspective, right? How do I fit my culture within the results organization? So that I can best make a difference. And then, and then from a, a senior leadership level, it's understanding, okay, I have a dominant pillar, but I need to understand where, where does the organization fall? And then how do I adjust and adapt as an executive to make this organization as efficient and as effective as possible?

Got it. So if I'm in the results oriented organization and I'm really more of a culture person, one thing I might try to do is I might try to frame my cultural ideas in terms of results. And I might say, look, if we increase our morale, we're going to see these productivity increases or whatever, right? And then the executive level or the organizational level, understanding the overall framework might help with decisions and alignments and initiatives.

Exactly.

Okay.

And then, and then, so, so I think the key here is that when you're at the executive level, you need to understand how to drive the vision and how to be open to the journey and how to enhance the culture and how to make sure that the results are being optimized. And then at a middle management level, it's, it's, it's understanding, okay, if you're in a results organization and you're a culture person, it's how do you drive that culture into the results mindset of the organization?

Got it. All right. So to, to, to make it clear then. So the three steps, if we're going to use this paradigm, one is understand your own profile.

Right.

Two is understand your organization's profile.

Yep.

And then three is figure out how to adapt your own profile to the organization's profile or how to make sure that you and the organization align.

Exactly.

And then to take it a step further, there's the implementation at scale, right? Which, which we've talked about is at the organizational level. How do we, how do we scale this out, but that requires a lot of perspectives, right? To make sure that we’re really representing the entire organization.

Exactly.

Perfect. So in the next episode, what we're gonna do is we’re gonna dive into practical tools and tips for these three steps.

Absolutely. Great.

All right. I’m looking forward to it. Thanks, Daniel.

Thank you, Ryan.

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