Episode 072: Juliet Funt, Dr. Henry Cloud, Patrick Lencioni & Craig Groeschel on Trailblazing in Uncertainty

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SUMMARY:

On April 30, 2020, the GLSnext Event Series hosted a high-impact online event with top-rated Summit faculty Juliet Funt, Patrick Lencioni and Dr. Henry Cloud, hosted by Craig Groeschel. During this event, they discussed ways to lead and move forward during this season of uncertainty. “We’re in an in-between time,” said Dr. Cloud. “Like the moment on a trapeze when you are going from one trapeze to another.” Drawing from their expertise in organizational psychology, organizational health and productivity, you are not going to want to miss this conversation. Get ready to gain new insights and practical tools to thrive during this season and come out stronger on the other side.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Dr. Henry Cloud

• All of you leaders out there, you have two jobs. You’re now a leader and a psychologist. It’s hard.
• We have a map for how life works, and when something changes it registers as an error. In a crisis, the change is drastic, and you need to get the brain back to normal.
• The human brain needs four things in order to thrive:
• 1) Connectedness
  • Our relational connections knit us together.
  • The pandemic has blown apart our connections.
  • Schedule time to connect with people who fuel your life.
  • Connect with employees and stakeholders and communicate with clarity and authenticity.
    • Share honestly how the organization is doing.
    • Talk about your connections to a larger network.
    • Let your staff know they are part of a bigger narrative.
• 2) Structure
  • God wired people’s brains to work in a structure.
  • The pandemic has interrupted many of our structures.
  • Create structure for your team. People calm down with structure.
    • Schedule regular meetings. Set priorities.
    • Define roles and responsibilities. Set mutually agreed upon expectations.
• 3) Control
  • Our brains are designed to have choices.
  • In a pandemic, our choices are limited.
  • Develop a list with two columns. Identifying the things you can control relaxes the brain.
    • Column 1: Write down all the things you can’t control and give yourself 10 minutes to worry. Then, surrender them.
    • Column 2: List all the things you can do to drive the needle. Look for ways you and your organization can be productive and helpful at this time.

• 4) Accomplishment
  • We are designed to accomplish good things.
  • In a pandemic, we may have lost our ability to accomplish.
  • Identify what is going right with your team. Brain chemistry changes when people feel good about what they are doing.
    • Let your team know they how they added value.

• Leaders right now are psychologists. We have to help people feel connected and structured.
• You are the author of the character called you. What do you want that character to look like?

Juliet Funt

• Whitespace at Work has been virtual from its inception.
• I have worked from home for 24 years full-time.
• I want to take the work from home efficiency element of the conversation to a new level.
• I want to give you a repeatable work-from-home framework that will make you more productive.
• Set Up
  • 1) Envision the route for your day
    • Envision what you want to accomplish each day.
    • Reflect on the route you want to take and the attitude you want to have.
  • 2) The paper anchor
    • A paper anchor lists out the 5 most important things you need to address today.
    • It sits on your desk as a visual reminder of your priorities.
  • 3) The visual groove
    • Design a visual arch on your desk—coffee, pad of paper, computer, etc.
    • If you move locations, move your visual groove with you. The similarity cues your brain that it’s time for work.
• Rhythm
  • 1) Create a wedge of whitespace.
    • Take a strategic pause of thoughtful time.
    • It can be inserted anywhere in your day.
  • 2) Create an email-checking schedule.
    • Choose intervals to check your email.
    • Between those times, you create space for deeper, richer work.
  • 3) Create a kids’ “parking lot”
    • Have a whiteboard next to your workstation.
    • Kids write what they want or need. Check in with them every hour or two with complete focus.
    • Reduce stress by having an explicit conversation with your boss about expectations.
• Closure
  • 1) Put things away in a physical compartment.
    • Put work away in a drawer or room and walk away.
  • 2) Make a promise out loud that you are done with your day.
    • To your family or a friend. This is your boundary.
  • This efficiency system works whether you are working from home or at an office.
• A study by Bloomberg says that 45% of employees say they are burnt out. And the average workday has expanded by 3 hours since COVID-19.
• We need a reductive mindset.
• What can I let go of? What can you do less of? Delegate? Vendor out? Reduce?
• Email Efficiency
  • Use the acronym WAIT. Whose Action Is This?
  • Email should be a request for action, not observation. Don’t CC too many people.
  • Email should be functional, practical and brief. Ask yourself, what do they truly need to know?
• Take an assessment to find out how your team is doing at com.

Patrick Lencioni:  

• How do we re-emerge from this stronger than they were before?
• 1) Deepen Trust
  • The key is to spend more time together and be personal/effective instead of professional/efficient.
  • If my team didn’t slow down and connect, we were never going to become productive in this time.
  • Gary Kelly, the CEO of Southwest Airlines, spent 30 hours with all the executives to find out how they were doing. He spent 30 minutes with each of his top leaders.
  • I cannot expect us to perform at our best if I’m not consistently pouring into the people I work with.
  • The challenge is, when we go back to work, will we bring this back or go back to the professional boundaries?
  • Inefficient connection should be the new and better normal.
• 2) New Forms of Meetings
  • We discovered the best Zoom calls are what we call hangouts.
  • We keep Zoom link open to work independently to recreate the idea of being together.
  • It’s not purely social. It’s socialized work.
  • Zoom is not just a meeting tool. It’s a platform for social interaction.
  • When we went from efficient meetings to more effective inter-personal ones, productivity went up.
• 3) Create a Rallying Cry
  • Be clear and healthy.
  • Patrick’s team’s rallying cry is: “Let’s become more cohesive and innovative for as long as this last.”
  • Our productivity and our affection for each other has gone up.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. Henry Cloud talked about how the human brain has four key needs: Connectedness, Structure, Control and Accomplishment.
   • Which one of these is most missing in your life right now?
   • How could you implement one of his strategies to move yourself forward in this time?

2. Juliet Funt talked about implementing a work-from-home framework of Set Up, Rhythm and Closure to make your day more productive.
   • Which part of her framework would be most helpful to you right now?
   • How could you implement one of her strategies to be more productive in your work during this season?

3. Patrick Lencioni described three ways leadership teams can emerge stronger than they were before: Deepening Trust, New Forms of Meetings and Creating a Rallying Cry.
   • Which of these three would be helpful to your team right now?
   • How could you implement his advice in this area?

4. If you were to only change one thing coming out of this podcast, what would it be? Make a plan to make that change today.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

COVID-19 Crisis of 2020

Bloomberg Article

Juliet’s How Is Your Team Assessment

Gary Kelly

Southwest Airlines

Open Network: Church Online

RELATED LINKS:

Craig Groeschel

Life.Church

Dr. Henry Cloud

Churches that Heal

Juliet Funt

WhiteSpace at Work

Patrick Lencioni

The Table Group

The Global Leadership Summit