The Power Of Adaptability: Navigating Life's Curveballs With Resilience With Ken Tripp

Wow. Okay. What's the one thing outside of my bio? Let's see, from a professional aspect, I guess I dove in to be a communications specialist. in business and wound up in finance, right? And I was trying to follow along the way, uh, the fact that— I guess a lot of people don't know this— is that when I was in the Navy for the first 11 years, I was a cryptologic technician. So I was working for NSA and did all kinds of interesting things back in the day as far as intel and analysis and things along those lines. So it was, it was a part of my life for the first 11 years that I was part of the Navy and the Navy Reserve. But I got to dive into that world. It all started at the age of 17 with a recruiter asking me if I wanted to be James Bond. Well, I couldn't have been further away from James Bond, either in looks or mission, but it was certainly cool to me. So I dove into it. I had a lot of fun with that. I really did. It was a great experience. But I would say, yeah, that I was really into cryptology and understanding that and its history. It had a lot to do, I think, with my love of history and diving into— in our conversation, we talked a lot how I was a history major as well. And I really studied all aspects and facets of the war in the South Pacific or the war in the Pacific during World War II, which obviously crypto analysts had a lot to do with, especially with the Battle of Midway and forward and on. So that put 2 pieces together that was very unintentional, but pretty cool.

Yeah. Interesting. You know what? I didn't expect to go here, but I want to. I'm feeling called to do it. I'm imagining there's a lot of people that are listening to this, some people watching it on YouTube as well. that don't really know what cryptologic technology is. They may have heard of crypto today because of cryptocurrencies and things. Maybe they're going, oh, so is this like the precursor to all of that? You know, and, and so I want you to, if you could, share a little bit of what that history that you referred to was, this history of, of how cryptology and that technology was used in World War II as a part of how the war was ended and the like. And you spent 11 years in that space. So before we get to what came after the 11 years, I want to just help our people understand a little bit more about what that thing is.

Yeah, you know, it's, it's funny you say that because I couldn't even pronounce the word cryptologic, even though it, uh, at 17 when I, when I knew that that's what I was going to be going into. And so the, the whole field has to do with being able to encrypt or encode your communications, right? So that you can send sensitive information from one space to another. and people don't know— the enemy cannot figure out what you're transmitting or understanding what you're trying to do. And there's different sequences, obviously, that's embedded in those codes. If you think about World War II Atlantic side or the European war, I mean, they talked about going after Enigma, and that was driving to understand what the Germans were saying. Well, that same thing was happening with the Japanese, and there was a team of crypto analysts that the US had developed really coming out of World War I. I mean, if we think about this back then, even the idea of having radio transmissions wasn't even 50 years old. I mean, it was crazy, right? You think about it. And these cryptoanalysts were doing their best to read and figure out what, even in peacetime, what potential enemies or even whatever, to try to understand what their next moves were going to be. And Prior to Pearl Harbor, the U.S. had actually broken pieces of the diplomatic code. They knew the Japanese were up to something, but they didn't know exactly what it was or the timing of it. And after war broke out, it became a very high priority to work on being able to break, or at least begin to understand and piece together, the coded transmissions that the Japanese were putting out. I think it was JN-25 at the time is what it was called, not to get too geeked out, but Now, what had happened was, which is really interesting, and I love this piece of history, is that after Pearl Harbor, as you can imagine, there were many ships that were destroyed and many of their crews didn't have any place to go initially. So this individual by the name of Commander Rochefort had a team of cryptoanalysts in a basement somewhere in some building in Pearl Harbor in that area. And he brought in people from Wall Street, people who were familiar with reading and predicting and trying to understand modes and things like that. And he brought in musicians as well who could, I guess, identify notes or certain key letters. And so he had all these individuals coming in to break pieces of the code so they could figure out specific letters and what they would mean, because everything would have a designation. And the code AF, they kept seeing transmitted quite often, and they were able to figure out that AF was Midway by having the folks on the island of Midway send a transmission in the clear that their freshwater condenser was down. And the Japanese reported that, and they were able to piece together why they were talking about Midway, and then, you know, understanding that they were building quite a fleet to go after it. So— There's a lot more to that, obviously, and there was also a team in Washington that was doing the exact same thing. And they actually disagreed with the analysts in Pearl Harbor for quite a bit until that transmission was caught in the clear. I mean, they were both arguing what the next step was going to be. So many, many years later, in 1984, when I was graduating high school and going into the Navy for a reserve stint so I could have money to go to college, and I wasn't thinking anything along those terms, I didn't know what exactly I wanted to do in the Navy. But you take this test, this ASVAB test, and you get certain scores. And I also learned that I was colorblind. I didn't know that before I went to take my physical. And they said, this is definitely a job that you're rated for, and you can be colorblind to do it. So, do you want to be James Bond? And there it was. So, that's— I don't know if that's helpful or whatnot. That's good marketing.

I mean, you got to hand it to them. I mean, you know, give— how do you hook a guy? How do you hook a 17-year-old kid? Well, give them the opportunity to be James Bond, right?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. A geeky, uh, pimples-faced kid at 17, you want to be James Bond? Sounds pretty cool to me.

Now,

you know, and what was funny about that, Adam, was when I finally got to school for cryptology and they wanted to make sure that people kind of kept that low key. They don't want you out there telling people you have top secret clearance or anything like that. So they're saying, well, just, just tell them you're a cook. And I was thinking, I don't think I'm going to get many girls with that. But anyway, that's, that's how it came full circle.

That's not, not what I'm going to say. I'm going to come up with something better than that. Right. But yeah, that's an old World War II expression is loose lips, what?

Sink ships. Yep.

That's it. And you know,

absolutely.

That's so, it's so, it's so interesting. And you said 11 years you spent there in that work. And I know there's a pivot story in there, so we might as well just dive into that because you, 6, after 11 years, you had done well in that arena. I know that a little bit. Yeah. Because I, I know part of your story already, but for our folks, you had done well and then there was a change that was kind of on the horizon. I'd be curious to know how that manifested. Was that something that started inside of you, or did it come from outside?

Yeah, well, I guess, I guess you could label me as a patriot. I don't know what the right term is, and there's so many people and so many different labels for things, but—

You were committed to service, is that fair to say?

Yeah, I really wanted to serve, and I wanted to do my part. And like you said, I mean, I was, I was a pretty good cryptologic technician, I thought, and I was, uh, I moved up at about the appropriate space, as you do in rank as you move along. And then Desert Storm, 1991. First, it was Desert Shield started off. When Desert Shield started off, they started recalling a bunch of reservists back to active duty. And it was pretty interesting because it was 3 or 4 years after the wall came down and the military at that point was shrinking on purpose. The budgets were getting lowered and people were trying to figure out what were our missions going to be. It was just an interesting time. So when all this went down kind of suddenly with Iraq invading Kuwait, I was like, okay, the bell's going to ring. Here we go. For a lot of people, maybe people do know or don't know, but the Navy and the Marine Corps are one department, right? So it's Department of the Navy and you got 2 branches, the Navy and the Marine Corps. And so we had Marine cryptologists that were working with us side by side. Okay. When the bell was rung, the Marines deployed and they didn't need us. What was really interesting was when things really started getting heated up, that they really didn't need many people doing what we were doing because they wanted communications to minimize. They wanted the circuits in the comms that were coming from Saudi Arabia and the fleets around those areas to be able to communicate directly to DC, to the director of NSA at Guernsey, we used to say. Right. Without any unnecessary traffic. So we were all put on minimize. There wasn't anything to do. And at the same time, as I was watching around me, people in different ratings and things, I saw a lot of people trying to get out of serving. And that bothered me as well because we actually had an active mission when we showed up to the Reserve Center. And that was pretty cool. So we were busy from the time we got there till the time we got home. And we had our own equipment and things, and we were doing our stuff. And then a lot of folks would be reading the paper or doing courses or doing whatever they were doing in other units. But some were busy, some weren't. But I saw an awful lot of people trying to get out. That really bothered me. I think too, because I was mentored by some really great leaders in the crypto space. A lot of them were Vietnam vets. And while I wasn't looking to go fight or kill anyone or do anything, I just wanted to be part of the show. I wanted to get into the action. When that didn't happen, I decided to go back to one of my other things that I really enjoy, which is being on the water. I always enjoyed being able to pilot boats, and there was nothing better to me as far as being as fun as going fast on the water. And so they were just starting to bring back units that had been left to kind of dissolve after Vietnam, which was the brown water Navy, the riverine Navy. Now there were special boat units and they were separate and they worked with the SEAL teams and whatever, but they were bringing up more of a reserve presence for riverine and coastal warfare. It was called Inshore Boat Units at the time. I had a friend of mine who was a Russian linguist, BT, best rated in the Navy, went over to one of those units for a very similar reason. I was like, my goodness, this guy, you know, is brilliant. And he's like, Ken, you would enjoy this. So I went into I cross-rated to a bosun's mate from a cryptologic technician, which is quite a leap. I still remember my commanding officer looking at me going, are you sure you want to do this? And I said, yeah, I want to do this. I want to, you know, so we trained hard. We were in a commission unit. We had boats, you know, we PT'd and we learned, I had to learn, you know, engine repair, navigation, how to fire weapons, all that stuff. Like I was starting from brand new.

Right. You literally had no experience at that point in that you had 11 years. In one particular area, and now this is a completely different endeavor. Yeah.

Huge change, huge difference in mindset and a lot of learning. And what's interesting is too, Adam, when you move over like that, you keep your rank, but there were many people junior to me who knew a heck of a lot more than I did. And so you really had to humble yourself and step back and learn, right? I knew I could drive a boat and I knew navigation, I didn't know weapons. I didn't know a lot of the electronics. I certainly am not the guy you want jumping in and fixing your engines, but we had to learn and qualify all those things. Was was quite a change, and I would say that was probably the most difficult aspect of getting my qualifications. Wasn't the the physical fitness. It wasn't the weapons. It wasn't the navigation. It was the engineering. Yeah, I'm just it's not a natural for me, and got through it and and loved it. And then right after well, you know two things happened. First, in October. Of 2000, October 12th, 2000, the USS Cole got hit by terrorists in Aden Harbor and started to deploy some of our boat units after that event to go into areas where they thought the risk might be high for suicide boats. And then after 9/11, literally about a month later, our unit was called up to go. So twice for a year at a very much more senior and much older with kids and a family in a different world. I deployed for Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. So, it was quite the adventure. And then, in 2009, I finally retired from it all after 25 years. But it was a great time working with great people. But, yeah, a lot of challenges, a lot of change, and a lot of resilience. Let's put it that way in terms of going off and being away from your family while at the same time kind of moving up in the business world. So, you had kind of two very different— Yeah. world's going on. And fortunately, I worked for a super company that took good care of me and good care of my family when I did deploy. So I had some things a lot of other folks— I had some things a lot of folks didn't have, which was that kind of a foundation and working for a company and people of good character, you know, watching your 6 when you were away. So it was great.

You know, I want to ask you, what are some of the more enduring lessons? But I'm sure there's so many of them. So maybe we just pick up One or two, but the enduring lessons of being, spending 25 years in service. And, and I think just to be clear for the audience, some part of that 25-year period you were in kind of in dual, you know, had dual careers. As you said, you were in business at the same time that you were also on, were a, a senior reservist. So there was— That's right. Yep. And when you get called up, it doesn't matter if you've got a baby that's on the way. You're like, you didn't have a baby, but let's say your wife had a baby on the way, right? There were things going on in your life, you know, that you get baseball games on a Saturday, you're a coach, doesn't matter. When you're a reservist and you get called, everything drops and you go to duty. Yes?

Yeah, no, that's absolutely right. And you know what's interesting is really since 9/11, that has become part of the understanding. I would say prior to 9/11, other than Desert Storm, you never heard of reserves mobilizing very much. You might hear of the National Guard being called up during a disaster or whatever. That's very, very common, right? They work for the state. A little bit of a different mission there. They're dual-hatted. They report to the governor as well as the president. It's very unique. But in the Navy and the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard and others, it's not as common to get deployed unless there's a big-time emergency. And it's almost like if you haven't done 1 or 2 tours in a reserve capacity, even today with things winding down, I know of folks— I've got colleagues at work now going away for 6-month deployments. And they're reservists. So the game has changed dramatically. But back then, it was very uncommon. And I think a lot of companies and whatnot, obviously, they stood up, especially after 9/11, and did their thing. But I think it gets much harder for businesses and other organizations, which have to support by law, there's no doubt about it. But when these folks constantly go, you're kind of thinking, yeah, you go once, maybe twice. I know folks that did 4 or 5, Deployments. I was amazed they still had that resiliency. The companies had the resiliency to make sure they had a place for them and all that, because that's not easy, especially for a small business.

Yeah.

So yeah, it was definitely a different world. So I would say that the tougher aspects of it was just being away from home. I think the stress at home was much harder than it was for me. I knew a few days in advance what we were going to be doing, what, you know, what boats or ships we were going to be escorting, what we were going to be circling around, whatever it was, whatever, whatever our Our tasking was, I knew what it was, but the folks back home had no idea. Day to day,

you're

completely in the dark, right? You're in the dark. And technology was changing. That was great. You know, you could email, you know, finally. And then I think on the second deployment we had, it wasn't Zoom, but I forget what it was called. Skype. Skype was very, you know, was coming online then and there weren't great transmissions, but at least you could see each other more often. Uh, but anyway, still all in all, I would say that the toughest part was, was on the home front, uh, with, with the kids and all, um, you know, back there wondering. That I remember very innocently ending a video that was being promulgated at the time, and it was about the Navy and Marine Corps team, and a lot of shots of you know the Marines going in and doing their thing, and the Navy doing their thing, and the aircrafts and all that stuff. And I thought it was kind of like a motivational inspirational video, and it came back. It's like no no no no you can't. It's making them upset, and I didn't even think about it. You know, and you're just like oh yeah what a dope. If I was watching it now, it would be kind of rah rah go forward, but. you have to understand your audience. And I was only trying to show them that we were doing pretty good stuff and it didn't go over well. So yeah, even your mindset changes from where to where, and sometimes you need that slap to get you back into reality.

So I want to go back to this sort of, call it a pivotal moment, pivot point, shamelessly use the word pivot since I wrote a book with that title. Although, man, that book was early to say the least. I was ahead of the curve. And so at that time when that book came out, that word I think was seen as more of a pejorative thing. Like if you pivot, it means you've made a mistake. It's an error. It's a, you know, like you've run aground. And today I only wish I had a nickel for every time that word pivot's been used since 2016 when that book first came out. Although we did reprint it in paperback, we got a nice new cover and graphic and all this from Simon& Schuster. They decided, yeah, maybe we should have a pandemic version of this book Pivot. And I was like, yeah, what a— I've been pitching them to do that for like 2 years, you know, like let's update this thing. And they finally came around, which was great. But so the pivot sort of 11 years into your naval career.

Mm-hmm.

You said some things that I, I think just to tease out some of the lessons for people that are in various areas of their life. But let's think about the fact that what's, what is universal, whether it's personal, your personal life, or it's your professional business career, entrepreneurial journey, whatever that might be, there are, are times when the change, when change is upon us. You know, like, because you're a waterman and so am I, you and I have that very much in common. You know, the water is a very interesting thing. Lakes and rivers and, and the ocean, they're very different bodies of water. You know, but there's signs, there's always signs of a change that you can observe. And it's based on, can be based on the tides, it can be based on wind. Often a lot of it has to do with the wind, things of that sort. So there was a period 11 years into this thing where, where you began to feel that there was signs that a change was upon you, right? That, that you would either sort of, let's say, buy into the sunk cost fallacy, like, which is to say, I've got 11 years invested in this thing, I'm an expert. In fact, you're— I think your superior officer said, hey, are you sure you want to do this? You want to make a change and start from— start in a different area knowing nothing when you've built up all this experience, credibility, etc., right? So you had a— that was, that was not a A small decision to make. I'm sure you consulted with those around you and your, and your wife in particular about that. But, but you must have seen the writing on the wall. I mean, to just consciously go, I'm gonna take a step back here, as you said it, take a step back and become humble. You know, the humility to become a learner, go back to the beginning. What was that like for you and those around you making that decision?

Well, those around me, you know, I, I think external to the Navy just said, oh, he's just doing something else in the Navy. 'Cause I think everybody kind looks at it like, well, that's what you do, right? You're a sailor, even though every sailor has a different job. But I think for me, it wasn't a nerve-wracking thing, to be honest with you. It was— I just really wanted to make a difference. And I felt like that as a CT, there were plenty of them and there were a lot of good guys and women that were very good at what they did. So it wasn't like that, you know, I could have gotten out of my next enlistment and Hey, the Navy keeps going, right? So there's so many of you. It wasn't that big a deal. I guess we stayed friends with all the folks that were involved. I think it was afterwards that I kind of learned that, boy, there's a bit of a sacrifice here. And that is that when you— when I was a CT, I would be going to places like Rota, Spain, or London, or Homestead, Florida, or Key West. So like all these spots, and it just so happens to be where we had our stations or our listening posts were in kind of cool locations, right?

They didn't send you to the North Pole.

No, they did have one place in Adak, Alaska, which would have been interesting to see. Adak Island, Alaska. But they did have those things. So I was going to places like that, and all of a sudden it's like, yeah, we're putting a convoy together, we're going out to the woods. It was very, you know, we went to Korea, to do an exercise out there. It was probably the coldest, most miserable environment. But, you know, it allowed me to grow, I think. And, you know, one of the things that was eye-opening for me is I wouldn't say I was the most resilient person in a lot of things. I wasn't a tough guy. You know, I was in decent shape or whatever, but that changed me holistically going into this unit in the sense that I could do things I didn't think I could. You know, I think about things that may rattle me or get me tired today. And then I look back at that, I'm like, this is— I'm just not the same person, right? You got— you were doing all these crazy things before. And there's a lot of people today, I think, that if they were challenged or pushed, would be amazed to realize what they could truly do. What they— Yeah. You know, and, and I'm not talking about even being close to like, uh, you know, special operations or a SEAL, none of that stuff. Just the stuff we were doing. was enough to say, hey, you know, this is, this is a pretty good challenge. You know, I never had to climb up a long rope on an obstacle course, you know, so far up and look down. Oh my, okay. Or climb up the side of a ship at night with all that gear on. Crazy things. And yet we did it. And everybody in that unit did it. Nobody— we were all trained well or whatnot. But you start— I'm not saying you've got this belief that you were superhuman. You just realize— and I used to, I guess, always rationalize in my head, if so-and-so can do it, or if this, or so many people can do it, well, why can't I do it? Right? So push yourself a little bit. I did talk to myself a lot. I still do about those types of things. You can persevere. You can push. It's okay. Everybody has limits. I get it. And there are times when people hit those limits. I just, I'm just not sure if people really understand where those are sometimes. Yeah. So that was a great learning for me. And I think it set me up for success in the business world. I

was going to ask, what are, what are some of those carryover lessons? But before we get there, I want to say that part of what I've observed, and I got the good fortune to spend a bit of time with some members of your team over the last couple of months, some quite a bit of time, and more recently got to visit one of the facilities where Zimmer Biomet has quite a number of employees, thousands of employees, and many people in leadership roles there. And I I was able to observe you working or just being present with, is how I would put it, some of those senior-level leaders. And I wanted to say part of the reason that I was really excited to have you even come join in this conversation today was that I haven't seen that many people in leadership roles as comfortable as you seem to be to me in giving people proximity and seeing those leaders be that you'd invite them into your world the way I observed, and that you were as present as I saw you being with them. Because we know it's every day, it's a bit of a slog. I mean, I just don't know an industry today that people are not grinding. I mean, our philosophy about resilience is that the grind is something we have to recognize is not the thing that will carry the day. So it can't be the dog. It has to be the tail, if anything. And so in the midst of that context, to see you sitting down with people And giving them your time and just relating to them and being present is the only way I could put it. Whereas a lot of times what I see with people that are at your level of leadership, you know, they're just constantly on their phones. They're constantly perpetually in motion. They don't sit still too long and, and with too many people. And, and just on a number of occasions, I got to witness you in, in and around your team. And I thought, well, is that you, Ken? Is that who you are as a person? Are you that way in every arena, an area of your life, or do you make this an intentional— is it in this instance even more intentional because you know what your team is dealing with and how vital it is that you get time, you get face time with your commanding officer, if you will, right? With the person that you, that you call your, uh, your boss or your mentor. So again, giving you a compliment, I just more or less want to get the sense of, of what's your mindset around Around that observation. Am I off base there in what I'm saying?

No. Well, first, thank you. It's fine when somebody's pointing out the behavior that you don't think about very often. It does make you reflective. And I think I've been very fortunate. Blessed would be the term I think I would use, is that for whatever reason throughout my whole life, I have been exposed to some of the best people of good character. I'm 56, and I don't know what it is, Adam, but sometimes you fall into things And you look around and, you know, I think about the boot camp class I was in, won every award, we won every flag and dot, dot, dot. And then every unit I seemed to be in had folks that were great character. Not every leader was and whatnot, but there were some that were just spectacular and you watched how they operated. It's very easy to fall into that military hierarchical type mindset, especially as you move up in rank because you kind of feel like you've earned it. But I think the difference with me was in the military, I was an enlisted guy. And that's rare to see an enlisted guy here and then an executive there. So I was always with the troops. And when you go to make chief in the Navy, one of the things you go through is an induction period. And it's not a lot of fun. They've done away with a lot of hazing and all of that. But the whole idea of that for 2 months or maybe longer, it was— some of the most humiliating things that they make you do was to make sure that when you took over and you took charge of your sailors in whatever unit you had, that you could honestly say to them, there is nothing that you're doing that I haven't done. Right. At least in terms of this is very difficult or it's sloppy or it's messy, disgusting, whatever it is. I'll tell you, we were put through that. And I think that that was one aspect of it is that that muscle that was built to never ever ask anyone to do anything you wouldn't do. And I think that's key. And then the second piece is, and I didn't think about it till you were asking the question, but my last few years in the service coincided with the exact time I started getting into senior leadership with a company called Covidien. And I was working with guys from West Point and former naval officers, and then some folks that just did very, very well in business. And they were pretty tough. Good, fair, but tough. You know, you'd go to them for counseling, for example, and you'd ask the question, hey, I've got this situation. I could either do this, this, or this. And they'd look back at you, especially this one senior leader, and he would say, yeah, geez, I guess you got a tough decision, and walk away. Right? It would always be on your toes. As I was finishing up my career in the Navy, I happened to work for a captain, which is very senior in the Navy, one rank below admiral. He was a Commodore, actually. He asked me to come down to Little Creek, Virginia, which was a pain in the neck going back from New England back and forth. And this guy, the way he operated was non-conventional. Yes, he was a senior leader. He got all the bells and whistles and circumspect, you know, the salutes and the, and all of that. But he was very, very grounded. And he was right out there, right from the front, you know, with his guys. And I watched him a lot and, you know, he's one of my closer friends today, which is really funny. And because usually, you know, you get out of the service, most of your Your friends are pretty much the same level that you were when you got out and whatnot. Here's a captain and all of his best friends are like chiefs, senior chiefs, and master chiefs. It's just the funniest thing. And I watched how he operated. Nobody would hesitate to do anything for him. And I'm trying to build that character that folks will do it for the company and they'll do it for all the right reasons, but they'll do it because they know that I do it for them, right? That I've got your back if you do it right.

There you go.

Yes. Wow. That's what it is.

Yeah.

Yeah. You know, and you're allowed to fail, you know, but just fail fast and learn from it. Move on. But don't— if you're constantly making the same mistakes, you know, obviously we've got to be held accountable. We've got to do all the right things. I'm not afraid to change talent if I don't have the right talent or talent that's going to negatively impact the culture that we're trying to build. Right. It's really critical. It's really critical. So, and when you were saying, you know, I genuinely feel when I'm with my folks, whether I'm in Warsaw, Indiana, or anywhere around the world, I've just been on several trips going back and forth, that we build a camaraderie that's built on the fact that we have a mission that we want to succeed in. And if you're in supply chain, like you said, in any company in the world, it is horrible out there. It is horrible. So if they're going to work for somebody who just screams and yells all the time and demands all the time, so you're just going to make a miserable environment even more miserable. So, let's be constructive, let's be creative, let's be innovative, and let's find ways to win and do it together. You know, I'm probably waxing a little bit more philosophical than I expected with that question, but that's how I see it.

I really hope you're enjoying this episode of the Change Proof Podcast. If you've not yet gone out and gotten your own copy of Change Proof, It's not too late. You can get your copy right now by going to changeproof.com and not only getting the book and all the bonuses there, but getting access to our proprietary resilience assessment tool. It'll just take you 3 minutes to do, and it's something that will really help you to utilize the book even more effectively to create practices and rituals and habits that will increase your mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual resilience for the long term. Again, go to changeproof.com to get your copy today. Yeah. I mean, I'm really glad you brought up the, the having each other's back piece because, and I want to just probe that a little bit further to even be You know, not so much more granular, but outside of just the philosophical implications of it, what does it look like to have each other's back in that context, in a business context today? What are some of the things that you feel show that you have your team's backs?

Yeah, I think that if you look at when we started to come out of COVID and things radically shifted, we were as an organization, like many companies, were kind of like shocked. And how fast everything kind of sprung back to life in our world, right, in the surgical world, in the orthopedics world. And through no one's fault, we had to do an awful lot in a very short amount of time to get operations running at a much quicker pace. We really had to go and we needed to drive people to another level. But at the same time, in asking these folks to do it, we also had to make sure we were Taking the best care we could, right? So if you look in, in a lot of organizations right now, you know, you have a lot of people that are working a tremendous amount of hours and they are doing everything they can. I mean, one thing that I love about being in the medical device industry and orthopedics in particular is every product you make is going to have a positive impact on somebody.

Yes, for sure.

But it can be a very negative experience when you haven't had, you know, 2 days off in 30. Or you're churning and burning. So I'm very fortunate that we have strong leaders in our organization as well that recognize that, right? So, you know, we wanted to make sure we were paying people fairly, or that instead of time and a half, we were doing double time, or making sure that, you know, we're doing the little things that could help them— help people weather this, even though it probably— no matter what you do, it may never be enough, but you always got to try.

Right.

And for the folks that I'm asking to stand in the front and do this level of work, sometimes something might go wrong, right? I mean, we might push too hard or whatnot, and we have to let people understand, yeah, you can make those mistakes. You know, catch your breath. It's okay. You know, and if something— we just need to make sure that we're not doing anything that brings harm either to our people or to our patients, right? And find that balance. So, I can tell you that the team that I have, Again, like I said, it's always been— I've been kind of blessed like that for a long time, for many years, to have people of great character with super chemistry that are very, very committed. I want them to know more than anything else that, look, if you're getting tired or if you— one of the things I would rather people do, Adam, honestly, I'd almost rather have them call me, yell and scream, than to do it down to the troops, down to our folks. Right. I mean, if you got to vent, vent up. Right. Don't vent down and ensure that you have a space where you can just kind of let loose. Right. Because I find myself getting into those circumstances a lot where I'm getting frustrated because you're overtired, you're working hard.

Yeah.

And I know that if I really needed to, I could talk to my HR business partner or whatever and just let it go.

Right. Well, that's what struck me was the idea that when you give people proximity to those who are decision makers, and most of those people are themselves decision makers, but it models something really important. That you're willing to give a person the opportunity to put their guard down for a moment, take down the facade, and have a conversation about what's real and true. Because without that space, as you called it, to speak, to feedback, to vent, whatever it might be, it's pretty lonely. You can feel quite isolated, which I suppose there are— there's some benefits to be had in being self- that level of independence that you, you know, and able to find your way out of situations without assistance. But, you know, frankly, I'm struggling to even say it because to me, the value in all this is that you— it's the exponential value and quality of a team. Like nobody trying to go it alone. The go-it-alone mode, it doesn't work in times of great disruptions in any arena, and certainly not in business. We are so much stronger as a unit than we are ourselves individually. In leadership roles, I think you really, you really do have to convey with much more than words, but with actions that you care greatly about, not just again, whether we achieve a KPI, but how do we do it? Did we leave anybody behind in the process? Did we need to leave anybody? You know, like, because the best of all worlds is we, we hit our targets and we don't leave anybody behind, that we have, we truly have each other's backs. And I think that I do get that having not been in, had not served in the military, But observed and spoken to so many people in that arena too, that's a core concept, right? You don't leave a man in the field. You don't leave a person behind. And I think in business, that's a great way to do it if you can. And we use that from our standpoint. We talk about it that in resilience terms and how it is that when you build resilience individually, it's like a link in a chain. Every link is strong. And then the whole organically is is stronger as a result of that. So I want to— this, before we finish, I know we got a couple of minutes here, but I got to ask you this. So you and I are both— we both have a love of movies. We share a love.

Yes, we do.

Couple particular— couple movies in common. All right. So I thought I wanted to get a couple of your, you know, just the thoughts on a few of your favorite movies and what is it about those movies that informs some aspect of your leadership, your role as a leader. And 2 of the movies that you and I have discussed that we both really love, one is On Golden Pond and the other one is Jaws. Very different movies, although they are water movies.

So water is the common denominator here

for both

of us. Yeah.

So Ken, it's a bit far afield, but I want you to just for a second sit with this question of like, so what is it about the movie On Golden Pond, Henry Fonda and other people in that movie perhaps, or the theme or the through line that informs some aspect of your role as a leader? Or it could be Jaws or some other movie even.

Yeah. You know what? You work hard on these questions. I'll tell you that, Adam. That's a good one to ask. I don't know about how it helps me as a leader. I think they help form character. And I guess when I think of On Golden Pond in particular, when you're younger, right? I've heard this recently and I can't say I remember who to attribute it to, but when you're younger and if you're going through rough times or whatever, you kind of watch certain movies and it kind of becomes that place that you can go because you know how it's going to end. Yeah.

And

when you're younger, you're kind of yearning for that, right? You're yearning for that, okay, this is going to end in a good way. And both those movies end in a good way. One's a horror movie, one's a family movie, but When I think of On Golden Pond, the reason I'm so connected to that movie is because I grew up in that same area of New Hampshire. And my brother, sister, and I, and all our cousins or whatever, lived on the lake right next to it. And I told you that certain aspects of the film were filmed on that lake that we were at too. And so that drove a connection right away. And I think the piece about it that I really enjoyed was watching the older couple. Even as a young person, there was something to to that dynamic that I really appreciated. And then the final connectivity that was made between Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda. And we mentioned this when we were talking, I was no fan of Jane Fonda. A lot of people weren't, and neither was her dad. That was a big deal. And from what I understand, and this may or may not be completely accurate, I always have to— you hear things or maybe you read them a long time ago and then in your mind you create things, but But from what I understand, she actually sought and produced and maybe even solicited the financing to earn the rights to that because it was a play. I don't know if it was a novel before that, but I know it was a play and really wanted to do it with the sole idea of casting her dad and using that as a bridge to bring them back together. So, the movie was reflecting life and that was kind of a neat thing. And, that just tells you that you can heal, you can recover, you can rebuild. Yeah. You can put relationships back together and you can do it in a spot at some of the most beautiful places on earth up there, right? So, it just had all of that. On the Jaws side, which is very interesting to me, that movie, seeing that it— let's see, that was 1975. I was 66. I was born, right? So, 9 years old, probably 8 because I was born later in the year. That movie messed me up, man. I didn't want to go swimming in a swimming pool after that movie. Nope. I just kept watching it. I don't know how many times I saw it even as a kid and then kept watching it. It is one of the best-made films ever. And I think a lot of the attraction to the movie was learning what it took to make the movie. Exactly. Like this young guy, Spielberg, gets— he's in this, he has no idea what— they build these mechanical sharks and they're thinking that, hey, we're just going to do this. We're going to do this in 2 months. It winds up being 5 or 6, not even understanding what the saltwater would do to the different mechanisms or whatnot. All the delays and the trials and how, because of those issues, the movie became very different from what they thought it was going to be. And they made it a better movie because less became more, right? I think that was a part of it. And then the other part of it was just taking on that big challenge that they took on. And obviously it didn't work out for everybody. At the end, they figured it out. But I just thought the chemistry of those 3 actors was amazing.

Yes.

The storytelling was amazing. The shots that were made, just the different aspects when you see the different documentaries and what they came up with in order to make it happen. So I think that movie, the challenge of it was was making it, and then they took a book that was just so so because I read the book and I was like, really? I read it after the movie. Yeah, kind of was okay. But man, this is one of those times where the movie was far better. I thought than the novel. Thought the Indianapolis story that was told was very. I don't know. It was amazing. It it had only been recently declassified within a few years, like the total aspect of what went down. And that, again, kind of brought me even closer to the Navy in that aspect too, just that understanding and that story of survival. But yeah, Jaws is funny. You know, I was telling you, I've got a whole library back here on how they made the film. There's so many books about it. And I've got the original hardcover of the novel, all that stuff, and a great piece I'll show you in New Hampshire when we get up there. But it's— I don't know.

It's resiliency at its core, right?

Because— It is. It is. The whole thing is. Yeah.

The whole thing is. I mean, they— you know, it's amazing we don't see— you know, They don't see the shark till very late in the movie, and it wasn't by design, as he said. It was just because the thing wasn't wasn't

working,

you know. And he's clearly kind of over his head. I mean, he's a very young director at this time, you know. And and this is like his big actually really entry into superstardom in that arena because of what he was able to to just pivot pivot pivot is what happened throughout that filmmaking. And my connection to it is that when I was a kid, we used to go on these summer vacations. My dad was a civil servant. He worked for the City of New York. He got a couple of weeks off in a row, and we would drive up into New England from where I grew up in Queens, New York. And, and that was a, you know, it was a day trip. We didn't even stay, couldn't afford to stay on the island. But we day tripped over to the island. And on one of those particular day trips, they were filming that movie in the pond, you know, in the pond, you know, it's like—

That's what you saw. You actually saw them filming that scene.

I don't know. I don't know if it was that scene. I just remember—

Oh, okay.

Where that bridge is. So that is the Jaws Bridge, as they call it now. And I have a memory of being near that bridge while they had their camera crews out. So there must have been something like that that they were filming at that time. And I, when I was thinking about asking you this question, I thought to myself, well, I have another movie that we didn't talk about. There were 2 movies that served a similar purpose as the one you said at the beginning. Ordinary People and Chariots of Fire. And these were— my parents were, were going through some stuff with their marriage. And so Ordinary People was one of these movies that, that hit me hard, like when I was in high school or around that time. That was a movie that helped me to deal with some of that stuff. And there's a depth to that movie on the topic of suicide, which was also something that, due to some things that had happened, uh, in with, with a friend of mine that I just, I was working through at the time. So that movie was pretty amazing in terms of just the, like, an exploration into how we repress and deal with emotions and trauma that we're not prepared for, especially as a young person, but at any age, honestly. So that movie is still one that I haven't seen in a while, but I look back on it and go, wow, that was just— and that was Robert Redford's very first directorial film. So he did a phenomenal job with that. And then Chariots of Fire, just— there's a moment one of the runners is asked this question, where does the power come? Or where does the strength come to finish the race? And when your body is wracked with pain— and I was a swimmer in high school. This was about a movie about running. It wasn't about swimming. But the concept, I think, is true in every stage of my life, whether it's been, again, in being a parent, being a father, Learn how to be a husband, learning how to be a parent, a parent, learning how to be in business or lead myself, lead other people, any of these things. There's always some poor parts of it that are just excruciating. You know, they're just like you were describing when it comes to some of those tests in the military to see if you've got what it takes to keep going. There's all these moments when you feel like, you know, I could just quit. It would just be so much easier to just quit. So when they ask that question of this guy, you know, what— where's the strength come? Where's the power to finish come from? He says, it comes from within. And it's such a simple line, but it's always just stuck with me that there's so much of, you know, what we're looking for or what we need to be able to move through that pain and be on the other side of that and be able to look back on it, that it's really from this place within us where we find that strength. And that's, you know, there's something spiritual about it. For sure. But it's also just how can you create some stillness? Because it's in stillness that I've found a lot of those answers. And that's the one thing about living— I'm on the coast in Massachusetts and you're in New Hampshire on a lake. I miss that about lakes. And I was a camp counselor up in Western Mass for a bunch of years. There's something about the stillness of a lake that is just— I don't even know. You can't put it to words. It's just like being close to the divine. It is the divine. But that stillness.

Yeah, it is. I do. I, you know, I've had an uncle, he's the next generation above me, so I guess he's a great uncle, but he never really went on any other vacations than to head up to Lake Winnipesaukee. And even after all these years, I still remember him just sitting on the pier looking out, turning to me and goes, you know what? It just never gets old. Right. And I go, you know, I guess it doesn't. It just, it just doesn't, you know, and I like you, you know, traveled all over the world and see things, but he never really has. He's been to some spots, but never really. I wouldn't say outside the U.S., but that's where he went every year, and he could afford to go anywhere if he really wanted to. But that's where he kept coming. But no, it was interesting. I've seen ordinary people. It's been a long time as you were speaking and talking through that, and I was thinking about. I just remember watching it, and you know when we finally got to what happened, you know, just kind of you know stepping back, and then that ending with her essentially going away was. Powerful. I mean, it was— she will not be able to, you know, adapt, and she's just got to go, right? I mean, she can't—

She can't adapt.

She can't adapt, right? And then you're saying Chariots of Fire, for sure. And the thing I like about Chariots of Fire too is the focus in— well, the dynamics of it all. And I love the perseverance, and I was a runner, so I loved Chariots of Fire, uh, back when that came out. What was that, like '80 or '81 or something, right? Something along those lines. I know it won the Best Picture Oscar. But the other thing was, of all the movies we talked to, that was true. All of it. You know, I mean, it's a true story. I think that also has a lot of weight. You know, when you look at folks that, you know, they won't compromise on their beliefs or their ethics. And, you know, some people dealing with prejudice and all of that stuff. I mean, it was such an interesting movie and a great story holistically. But like I said, it's a true story. And that's what kind of makes it pretty neat to me.

Yeah.

But one thing too, I just wanted to say when we were talking about dealing with resiliency and whatnot, as you become more and more senior in any organization, I think there's a thought process that, you know, you're there because of your experience and that you've been able to deal with almost any— you know, there are a few things that haven't happened historically that don't come about, right? And if you're in something long enough, you're going to see different issues arise. And because of your experience, you knew You know what went wrong, so you kind of avoid that. You know what went right, so you make sure you're doing these things. But I've been saying to my team for, well, the last 3 and a half years, I said, unless you're 150 years old, nobody's led or lived through a pandemic. So this is all new, trying to figure out, and the whole world has changed. Companies have changed. Well-being focus is definitely different. It's 100 years of evolution I think might have happened in 3 years, right, in terms of how we run an organization. So, we're— I think we're all just trying to figure this out a little bit as we go and relying on our folks to make pressure tests. Is this working? Is that working, right? And I think that's a huge reason that you're working with our teams today, Adam, is we needed to be thinking about things differently and how can we build up that resiliency. And we don't possess that knowledge, so be humble and go find the folks that do have it and bring them in and help us get there. And I can't tell you how much I appreciate all you're doing for our teams. I'm very fortunate that you've come aboard, number one. But two, I'll tell you, one night sitting in a hotel lobby, dang, I felt like I've known you for years. It was that powerful, that impactful, and I really do appreciate you.

Oh my goodness. The feeling is mutual, my friend. I'm really glad we got to just steal away a little time today. I thank you for taking the time. Darwin's quote, the one— and I asked this of a group of your supervisors. I said, you know, what's that quote that Darwin— that's attributed to Darwin about how we survive? And everybody kind of goes, ah, you know, it's the survival of the fittest. That's the dog-eat-dog kind of thing. I said, but that's actually not his quote. He says, in fact, it's not the fittest that survive. It's not the most intelligent that survive, that are the survivors. It's the people that adapt to their changing environment. That is what Darwin said, that those are the people that, that are around. And so that adaptability, as you had said just, you know, a while ago, is, it's crucial because none of us have a roadmap for the future. I don't care what anybody says. I mean, in these times, I think we're hearing it. There's a bit more humility now, you know, in terms of just economics and forecast and outlook for what's happening in that space. You know, this is just all new ground, as you said. Yeah. So we have to approach it. And the word that I got, you just for me nailed it, is humility. If we can approach that with humility and be learners, and I think a lot of things fall into place because we are as a species really adaptable. That's why we're here. So are still here. Thank you, Ken. I so appreciate the conversation today. I know our listeners are going to love this. So I'll say out there to our listening audience, if you've got Someone in your life, whether it's personally or professionally, that would benefit from just listening to some of what it was that Ken and I talked about today and some of the wisdom that Ken dropped on us, please share this episode with those people around you. That is how this podcast actually grows, is through that sharing process. And I, in all humility, ask for the support. We appreciate it. So it helps with the algorithm too. Wink wink. If you rate the podcast 5 stars or whatever appeals to you. But it helps with that thing they call the algorithm and puts it in front of more people. Of course, it would be great to— if you've got comments or questions for Ken or for myself, you can go to adamarkel.com/podcast, leave your comment question there. If there's one there for Ken, I will make sure that I get it to him and it won't be a bot that answers the thing. It'll be us. So with that, again, I just want to say thank you for your time today and everything that you contributed, Ken. So thank you again.

Thank you for the opportunity. I loved it. Thank you. Take care. We'll talk to you soon.

Yes. Well, just as anticipated, I loved my conversation with Ken Tripp. He's got so much life experience having come from a background where he didn't exactly know what his next step was going to be, got to be like in his late teens and like so many of us didn't know exactly what to do and decided that he could be of service by being of service, being in the service, and started in the Navy and ended up there in the reserves for 25 years and taking on a number of different roles, pivoting in the midst of it. He tells us a bit about what that pivot looked like, kind of a counterintuitive role. I thought what was really inspiring was that even though he had amassed a great deal of experience in one particular area, in one discipline, and really was rising, and a rising star in that area. At a certain point, he realized this just wasn't going to fulfill him and where his own growth path would lie. And so to make that change really mid-career was counterintuitive. I think people, other more senior leaders around him thought kind of quizzically of that decision. Perhaps maybe they wouldn't have had the courage to do that, but he did. And Ken, as you can see, is not a guy who steers away From the difficult. I don't think he's afraid to fail. I think that's fundamentally important in any role in leadership, in all of our roles in life, frankly, in order to really find the great that we're capable of and the great that we can inspire in others. We have to be willing to fail and free to fail, and we have to create for ourselves on some level that psychological safety that you might call courage. in order to be free to fail. And that means we've got to trust. We've got to trust in ourselves. We've got to trust in the universe. I remind myself personally of this almost every single day. In fact, it's a good day when I do, and it's not a good day when I don't remind myself to trust in the universe, to trust in myself. And that's ultimately born out of a certain level of connection and connectivity that we have within ourselves. And I personally, my own spiritual practice is to, is to sit in stillness, to sit in gratitude, to sit in prayer and connect. And when I am connected, when I do feel connected to my higher self and to a higher plane, then I do have that trust. I am reminded that I can do pretty much anything, and I'm safe to fail in the pursuit of things that make sense, things that will resonate, things that are deep within my being, things that that my heart is calling me to do. And Ken Tripp is that kind of an individual. That's why he and I connected on a personal level at a retreat. I actually spent a week out in Warsaw, Indiana at the Zimmer Biomet headquarters to meet a number of their leaders, senior-level folks, as well as middle-level managers and individual contributors, and was just so impressed with that organization. They are in fact at the forefront of much of the The science and development of medical devices that make our lives better, whether we need new knees or new elbows or ankles or shoulders or any of those things. This company has been innovating in that space for a very long time. They're led by people like Kantrip who understand that you can't innovate without that freedom to try things, fail at some things in order to learn some things so that you can succeed Later on, there is no success if you are not willing to give yourself the freedom to fail. So with that, I will just say, sit back, enjoy the episode, share the episode with a friend. If there's somebody that you know, a colleague, someone else that could really use the kind of words of wisdom that we hear from Mr. Tripp, I would love for you to do that. Share that episode, share this episode with them. Give us a rating also, you know, wherever it is that you are consuming the podcast. If you could give us that 5-star rating, What that does for us, and I say this selfishly and in gratitude for your help in getting the podcast to be more widely heard and distributed so that it can have that ripple effect, that influence. That's the only reason I do it. As you know, we don't have any sponsors, and not that we might not at any point, but at the moment, this is just all self-funded. It's something that we do. It's a heart-centered moment for us to give in the way that we give, hopefully give back in some ways, create value for people. We know there's a great ripple effect in doing that, and to get that ripple effect, we really need your help to share it with other folks and to give us the rating that makes sense to you. So thank you for doing that. And lastly, if you're looking to find out just how resilient you are in this moment, right this second, all it takes is 3 minutes, 3 minutes to answer 16 very, very quick questions. Again, 2 to 3 minutes is all it takes, and you will find out how resilient you are mentally, emotionally, physically, and even spiritually. And it's a very important thing to check in and to see exactly where you are, where it is you're succeeding and where you might be not succeeding at the level. And that the ability to take in that feedback is a part of that freedom to fail. Like there's no, on some level, there is no failure because it's all fodder for growth. And that's ultimately what we're all after. So With that, sit back, enjoy, and thank you once again for being a part of our Change Proof community.

Thanks for listening. We hope you now have even more tools and greater insights to build resilience and become Change Proof. Remember to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and you may be featured in an upcoming episode. For more resilience tips and strategies, including support for building Change Proof teams, Visit adammarkel.com. To get your own free resilience assessment, go to rankmyresilience.com.