Leo & Randy On Best Teams (Season 2020 Episode 8)

Welcome to the What Anyone Can Do podcast with Leo Battari and me, Randy Cantrell. This show picks up where our previous show, You're the Peer, left off, highlighting the simple truth that who you surround yourself with matters, and that if we enlist the support of others, give back to those who give to us, and pay it forward for the next generation, we can do anything. Author and keynote speaker Leo Battari and I talk with a diverse group of thought leaders who will share stories, and insights that will help you succeed in business and in life.

How?

By doing the things anyone can do, but most of us never will. Well, I meant to look up and see what number this was going to be. It's season 2020. I can tell you that because it's year 2020. What Anyone Can Do, the podcast. He is Leo Battaglia. My name is Randy Cantrell. And today we decided ahead of time that we wanted to, uh, we want to talk about teams, kind of some favorite team stuff. Kick us off.

Yeah, you know, I've been having a ball, by the way. I've been like totally heads down into the book and into peer innovation, which has been an absolute ball. And in one of the chapters, and I won't get into a lot of the things that are necessarily in the book right now, but it just prompts a great question, you know, from the workshops where I'll talk with, you know, these CEOs or cross-functional work teams or whatever, and I'll ask them what's the favorite team they've ever been on and why. Um, and I think it's not only something that I'd like our listeners to think about, um, like what was the team and what was so great about it, right? Um, it's— and then also maybe I think we can talk about some teams maybe that we weren't on, but just teams that we admire, you know, maybe some teams from sports or business or things like that that we've, you know, encountered. But what I What always cracks me up is this, you know, the real aha for me when I ask that question is you can't believe the number of times someone will reach back and it's like they picked their team from like Little League or Pop Warner or, you know, CYO basketball or something like that. And these people, by the way, on average 40 to 60 years old or whatever, in their 60s. You know, so I'm thinking, all right, so you, you got to go back to like 12, you know, to a good team. Like you haven't been on a team since that's made kind of an impression on you. That's a little bit unfortunate. But the other thing though, I think it really shines a light on is imagine that that team made such an impression on them that they just never forgotten it. That that experience was so meaningful and so powerful that they can talk about that Little League baseball team as if it were yesterday. And I think that's really kind of cool, you know, and just shows us, I think, the unbelievable impact that being part of a really great team, you know, can be, especially when I think most of us recognize that what we are capable of doing together, you know, is just so much more than, you know, what any of us could do alone. And you also see, I think, that when we have a team, we need different people with different skills, right? I mean, so I always think about it like if, you know, the days when you had like, you know, a dozen-plus kids in the schoolyard and all of a sudden it was like, all right, we're going to play a game of pickup basketball and you'd have two captains and now you're picking players. Right? So as you're picking players, you know, even back then, even though you may weren't thinking about it consciously, you know, I mean, in the back of your mind, you're thinking, all right, I need someone who can bring the ball up. I need someone who can shoot. I need someone who's tall in the middle. You know, I need someone who can rebound the basketball. I mean, just, I'm looking for these different kinds of skill sets that we can bring forward because if I don't have people that can do all of those things. We're just going to get killed. And, you know, and, and for most of us, we weren't necessarily the person who could do it all. Um, so, um, so, and I don't think it's any different, obviously, in the workplace or in any team that we see. You just see people who are capable of making really good contributions. And maybe the scary part of being on a team is that it comes with a lot of responsibility. You know, being on the team isn't a spectator sport by definition, right? I mean, you, you have to be willing to step up no matter what it says on your jersey. It is you on the floor, you know, or you on the court, or you on the field, or in the office, or wherever it happens to be. You are the one in that position making that contribution that time and have an incredible responsibility not only to the overall but to, to the others, you know, on your team. But I don't know if in terms of like, what's a favorite team you've ever like been on? And then we can maybe talk about some other teams that we like.

Yeah, yeah. And the ones that, the ones that leap to my mind first Um, my son started playing hockey and the roller, the inline hockey craze hit 20+ years ago, probably close to 25 years ago when inline skates really became popular here in the DFW area. Not a lot of ice. This is back before the Dallas Stars came to town and they built ice arenas around town. And I was involved, especially in the inline hockey world, and, uh, took an appointed volunteer position with USA Hockey out of Colorado Springs. They, they started an inline division and wanted me to kind of COVID the, the South Central territory, setting up leagues and working with rink owners that had rinks that could facilitate inline hockey. So I started coaching. And, um, my son's team was, I don't know, they were 11, 12. So that was kind of the first, that was the first team. And it was, and I wasn't a player, I was, I was a coach. But to your point, you're part of the team. Exactly.

Sure.

Exactly. Which is kind of why my head goes there as opposed to being a player, you know, being somebody just kind of helping these kids learn. Well, I ended up keeping a group together kind of through high school. And the team that stands out for me, there's a local university, University of Texas at Arlington, UTA. And my son went there and they had a club team, a collegiate inline hockey team. There is a, there's a whole league. There's a national championship. It's, you know, it's a big deal for a club sport. And of course the university is somewhat behind it as a club sport. And that team asked me to coach them. And so I coached them for 4 years and we qualified to go to the nationals every year. You know, the best we ever did was 8th in the country, but you know, I've got these group of guys and these are college guys and now these guys are all pushing 40 and, you know, we stay in touch. They had great success. They absolutely loved each other, uh, and I pushed them really hard, drove them really hard. But it was just— yeah, when I think about team, everything that would epitomize the way I, I believe an ideal team should function, we absolutely did it in spades, you know, with that, with that group of guys. And watching them through their college career. And, you know, some of them are, you know, they've got their own business. Uh, you know, I mean, that guy's a dentist here. A guy's got his insurance agency. My son's got a home inspection business. Other guys are, you know, firefighters. And it's just now in retrospect to see where they've come and to see, you know, all the late nights and all the road trips and and all the hotel stays and stuff that we did when these guys were 19, 20, 21, 22. In hindsight, it's even sweeter, you know, to see. So that's the one that comes up for me.

Well, it's definitely a certain discipline you get out of being on a great team that you carry forward. And, um, it's not, um, you know, completely unusual that people were part of really good, high-performing teams, um, earlier in their life are able to take that experience and bring that forward in a way that is really powerful. You know, one of the three elements that, you know, talk about in terms of high-performing teams is you've got to have a real common purpose. Like, there's a reason you're there. There's something that you're looking to do. And, you know, we think about whether it's trying to create the— in business, that you want to create the greatest product or the greatest service in the world, or you're trying to win an a national championship or a world championship, whatever that happens to be, there's a singular thing that you're— there's a reason you're all there that connects you all in a really powerful way. You know, the other is that this notion of, I think, shared values and behaviors, right? What does it take to really be a contributing member to this team? What does that look like? You know, you talked about the work ethic maybe that you would have had to have in order to be able to endure those practices and be able to be challenged in that way. You know, and there's just so many things there that you have to share. If you're not willing to do the work, if you're not willing to do this, if you have an attitude about that, then you probably don't belong on that team. Right. But then I think the third thing, because we speak to kind of how you're the same, right? You share this collective reason you're there. You share these values and behaviors. Yet the hope, of course, is that you're— the players are also really different, not only in terms of the skills that are necessary to make a contribution to the team, but the perspective they bring, their experiences, where they're from, what they look like, where, you know, all kinds of things that inform richness that creates this closeness among team members as well, especially if they're open to learning from one another, which I think also gives them the permission to challenge each other to be better. We've talked about this before about great teams. It isn't just about the coach pushing the players. It's about the players who are pushing one another and supporting one another. Right? It's that yin and yang of challenging people and supporting people. You know, people think that yin and yang are about opposing forces. They're not opposing at all. They're actually complementary forces. They actually hold each other up, you know, when you really think about, you know, what that looks like. And I think that powerful combination of being willing to challenge someone, but for that person to know that they're not flying completely without a net. You know, that there is some support, there is some, you know, help for them when they need it, you know, is great. Of course, you talk about hockey, and I think we did touch, maybe touch on this in the last show too, but here we are, 40th anniversary of the Dream Team. Not the Dream Team, excuse me. Well, it actually is really the Dream Team, but when you think about But Miracle on Ice, yeah. I mean, just an unbelievable— God, they played that game 100 times, they would have lost 99 of them, I swear.

Yeah, but I think they acknowledge that tonight. They're not gonna beat us tonight. Yeah, you know, I think back of my, of my little college team and playing at a ridiculously much lower level, obviously, but cool stuff and important, important to me, important to these guys. And we invested a ton of time and a ton of effort, and the skill set was all over the board. I mean, just absolutely all over the board. Uh, one of the guys that I was absolutely leaned on the most was not at all the fastest skater, but played such a pivotal role in every situation And, um, you know, he used to, used to lament all the, all the time that he would lose being able to play if a teammate took a penalty. Because if a teammate took a penalty, you know, Eric probably wasn't going to see much, much on the floor just because you're down a man. Uh, and yet, man, he's so made up for it in so many other ways, you know. And I could, I could say that about anybody and everybody on the team. And not everybody made the team, and not everybody stayed on the team. I had some players that came in and they had great skills, but it just— they didn't fit. They didn't fit. They clearly didn't have the commitment. They clearly didn't share the same values. And not just me, but the team, the other— the guys wouldn't tolerate it. They just wouldn't tolerate it. That culture made a big, big shift in our ability. We won every year. We won this region of the country. We won the championship in this region of the country, which would include schools from Louisiana and Oklahoma and Texas. The team accomplished quite a lot, but yeah, the standard that they set for themselves I had a small part to play in it, just kind of guiding them and showing them the way and expressing belief initially because they were very dysfunctional when I came in. I got summoned to come to a team meeting where they were asking me to coach because the wheels were almost literally off and the talent was there. They were just— it was chaos. And infighting. And we got that turned around, but they, they needed somebody to show them, y'all don't, y'all don't have— this doesn't have to be this way. And once that clicked, I mean, it was Katie bar the door.

It's easy to see, you know, when you, you tell a story like that and we think about how, how challenging it is, but how important it is just to get people to believe in themselves, to see what's possible, to imagine that they can, you know, they can be better than they ever could be left to their own devices, right? And part of that starts with just your mental attitude about everything. I mean, think about it, whether it's business, sports, or whatever, the, you know, this idea of people pushing one another to be better. And when that happens and when they see the results of that, and then that inspires confidence in themselves and the process and the team and everything else when they can start producing or winning or whatever it may happen to be that they're trying to do. But yeah, I think that that role, which really runs counter to, you know, I think a lot of the complete command and control you know, don't care about really the culture or anything like that. It's completely task-oriented and task-driven. I mean, you just cannot build unity around that, you know, in a way that's particularly effective and certainly not sustainable. You do it for a while, you want to scare people, you want to do whatever, but, you know.

One of the first things that I did, I had an opportunity, there were some problems with the university, and the university had some problems with the prior leadership, which was a big part of the dysfunction. And I fought like a demon for these guys, and I knew some of the guys, but I didn't know all of the guys. And I think, I think me going to, to into war for them with the university and winning, I think that was a big deal. So I really had an opportunity to very instantly prove that I cared, if that makes sense.

And I think it's a really great example also. Anytime a team has to deal with adversity, it's a real opportunity to bring everybody closer together. And, you know, it's what can happen with teams when they, you know, experience a loss. It's what happens, you know, can happen in all kinds of circumstances where they're in a tough spot and they have to now, they've got to rally. They have to summon whatever it is to kind of get them through it. And when they do that together and they prove to one another they can do it, you know, they talked about the, You know, we're talking about Miracle on Ice. You know, I think for a lot of people who didn't live through that and hear about it just, you know, years later, they thought that was the gold medal game and it wasn't. You know, it was the semifinal game. But it was interesting, you know, after 2 periods they were down to Finland in the gold medal game. And what they knew was not only obviously they weren't going to be in a situation where they beat the Soviets in the semifinals and then lose to Finland. I mean, that was not acceptable. However, what they really drew upon, I think, was if you remember, they came from behind in every single game in the medal round of that tournament. They were always behind and always came back, and they drew on that belief in themselves that, yeah, coming from behind, we can do that. We've done that. We've proven to ourselves that we can do that. And, and that really inspires, you know, a level of confidence even when you are behind. You know, in their case especially so, where they could actually play at their very best.

And the Kansas City Chiefs did it this last, you know, in the NFL. You know, you got the same kind of a confidence factor there. So what about you? What's your favorite team?

Wow. So there's one that I mentioned in the book that is a really fun story, and I'm going to let that, you know, go in the book. But there's another team I talk about as well, and this is a little different. In that it was our learning team at Seton Hall, LT21 as they like to refer to it. We were the 21st learning team to go through the Master of Arts in Strategic Communication and Leadership programs back in, you know, 2006 to 2008. And it was awesome. It was an unbelievable— now, So, you know, this is where we were kind of—

Explain for those of us that don't know. I mean, explain how the hell learning team in that kind of a situation, how does that work?

Well, it works because, or it was designed in a way where, you know, typically when we'd go to school or certainly when we were going to school back in the elementary school and high school in the '60s and '70s or whatever, We would be, you know, in a classroom, you'd have the teacher there, you take your test, you do your thing, and it was very— there wasn't a lot of group work back then, you know. And so all of a sudden you're in graduate school and you've got a lot of mid to senior level executives as students, and the faculty wisely realizes, wow, there's a lot of intellectual capital in this room. There are a lot of experiences to be shared and a lot of things that these students can learn from one another as opposed to just learning from the material or learning from the professors. So they kind of flip it on its head. They— the idea is that we believe they can learn from one another and they will learn actually more from one another. And, you know, if they can follow through with maybe learning some material and maybe the professor can throw some things in here and there, as opposed to the other way around. Again, they just recognized how powerful a model that could be. So our learning team had a lot of really talented, smart people who— and we were really dedicated to one another to help each other do well and do better. It's kind of funny, it kind of more fits the definition of a group when you think about the fact that we all had individual outcomes, yet at the same time as a large group we were forced to work together in teams when we had singular work products that we had to submit, whether it was a project, a of some sort. It could be a presentation or it could be a paper or whatever that happened to be. So we worked as a large group and we worked as teams to produce certain work product. But, you know, I think— and by the way, one of the things I admit in the book, because it was such a shift for me to be in an academic environment that was a team setting, I wasn't a great teammate when I started. You know, I think I got a lot better as I, as I went along with some, you know, good lessons from, you know, instructors about maybe how I might do things a little differently. And same thing with my fellow students and their being patient and all that. But I think overall, when I think about having gone through that program, you know, I don't really think of it in terms of my getting a 4.0 through that program. I think about everyone helping me make that possible. I did not do that by myself at all, not a chance. And I like to think that because I helped others do the same, uh, that that's the more gratifying part of the experience. So I think people were genuinely, uh, respectful, um, understanding of one another's, um, differences. We learned a lot. I mean, there were people that were came from really different circumstances, backgrounds, industries, all that, than I'd ever even really been exposed to. And it was extraordinary. It was just a great experience in that regard. But I think everyone rooted for everyone and they were ready to pitch in and help everyone. And, um, over time, I think we developed a lot of trust there, even if it was kind of rocky at the beginning. You know, we, We lived the Tuckman's version of, you know, forming, storming, norming, and performing, you know. There was a storming period in there. But then actually, as we went on and did more team projects, as we get deeper into the program, those issues become less because now we know how to work together. We know what the rules are. We have expectations of one another that are common and clear, as opposed to somebody's definition of what submitting something on time and someone else's definition is different, you know, because they have a more casual relationship with deadlines, you know. So, but once you get all of those things, um, you know, on the table and you agree that, you know, we're going to be way better at this if we do this together than if one person just goes off on their own, or that, you know, I mean, so I think for me that was an incredible experience. And, you know, I stay in touch with several of those team members. Oh yeah. Yeah. And this was, this is a while ago now, you think, and, and, you know, and the real irony, and I never would have anticipated this, but, you know, I graduated in March of 2008. It was kind of a, kind of was kind of off the academic calendar if you kind of think about it. It was like early March of '08 and I was actually invited to teach in the program and actually taught the September '08 learning team that came through and it would have been learning team 23. Actually was the first learning team that I was ever involved with teaching. I taught in that program for 7 years and you guys were what, 21? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I did get the head of the program to admit that we were by far the best learning team that ever went through that program. In action, there are certain actually metrics that support that really other than—

Oh, good. Other than just a vanity metric.

Oh yeah. Other than my own just personal—

Yeah. Now how many, how many How large is this team? How many people were in this team?

There were 26.

Oh, so a big team.

Yeah.

Yeah. You said big.

So yeah, yeah, there was one. And actually there was only one student. It initially began with 27. There was one guy that dropped out after the first couple of weeks. He just, in fairness, he just was kind of feeling like, ah, this program is not for me. This isn't exactly what I'm looking for. And he kind of did his thing, but everyone else, did it and did well. And, and I think it also speaks to— remember the, the old-fashioned, you know, that you'd get into a program like this and they'd have you sit there and they'd have, look to your left, look to your right, you know, one of you're going to fail, or however that ridiculous, you know, um, thing goes. And this was far more about, you're all here for a reason, you were all accepted into this program because you have something special to contribute. And because we believe you are going to be successful. We are going to help you. You are going to help one another no matter what life throws at you. And it was true. People, I mean, you had people who had, you know, babies born, parents die, family situations and all kinds of things that would have absolutely, you know, been legitimate excuses for people to go, hey, I need to take a break from this or I need a timeout or I need to quit the I need to do whatever. Every one of us helped each other pull everybody through. And I will say that really felt great that everybody did well. Actually, there were more 4.0s in our particular learning team than in any other prior or any since. And actually, there are 3 or 4 students that absolutely just out of some you know, you know, fluke, you know, didn't join the people who did get a 4.0 there. I mean, they were like, what, 3.9 or whatever. Yeah. And it was just— it could have been one paper, one little stupid thing, one whatever that, you know, um, but really, really, um, really just great people who were committed to one another and had fun. And, and by the way, most of the time we spent together wasn't in person. It was online. We had residencies. We had 3 residencies. They were full weekends. So we really got to know each other the first weekend, and then we work on online. Then all of a sudden we go to a mid-residency, as we called it. Now you bring, you know, and you think that it's like you're just, oh, the first time to the second time, that mid-res, but you realize how much you grew together and how much you learned from one another and how much better you got to know one another, even in the time that you weren't together. Now all of a sudden you come together again and it's a whole other level. And then by the time you go to final residency and where graduation was wrapped into it and all that, and you're meeting people's families and you're doing— I mean, it was really powerful and a wonderful experience, which is why even today, you know, I think online Courses are amazing for a lot of reasons. There's a lot of advantages actually to what you can do online versus even in the classroom. But I think that— I think hybrid courses are really, really the best way to go. I think if you can have at least some face-to-face interaction, and it's what we do at Rutgers right now. So, you know, I've been teaching for Rutgers now for the last 5 or 6 years and There's a course that we do that basically we insist, the professors insist that we do a residency as part of it. And we feel so strongly about it. It's not anything we get paid any extra for or whatever. We get our, you know, basically our flight and a hotel, you know, but we are happy to essentially contribute our time for a whole weekend there because the value of that is so powerful to kick off the online experience we have with them that it's just a can't-miss kind of thing. Students love it, we love it, and it just sets a completely different tone when you can combine those two things.

I'm curious, something came into my mind while you were talking about this group, this team, and that's expectations. What role do you think expectations play in not only the formation but the ongoing existence of a really good or great team?

So I think it's a couple of things. Expectations shouldn't always be about the end result. And I think that's really key. I think the expectations we have, and we've talked about this like great sports teams, right? I think when you really think about a lot of great sports teams, they're, you know, they don't start the season only focused on winning a world championship or winning a national championship. What they do is they focus on, are we getting better every single day? That's their expectation, should be daily in that way. And, and every day they say, we got a little better today. You know what, we didn't get any better today and we need to make sure that doesn't happen. So we need to show up to practice tomorrow and work a little harder or do what we need to do. Those are the teams that, because they create those small wins and because they celebrate that along the way and evaluate that along the way, set themselves up to actually be able to compete, to meet an expectation of winning a national championship or a world championship. And that's kind of what that's about. And I think so when either team members or leaders or coaches or, you know, whomever needs to get the team focused on that. And I think about, you know, going out to play golf and I'd love to be thinking, sure, I'd love to shoot par today, but you know what? I'm on the first hole right now. And I, right now I just got to put it in the fairway. And when I do that, I'm going to put myself in a position to hopefully get it on the green in regulation. And, you know, and it's one at a time. And by the way, just because I hit a great drive doesn't mean I'm going to hit a great second shot, or just because I hit a bad drive doesn't mean I can't get myself back into play and save par. So, all of these kinds of things where, you know, it can help us not get too confident maybe sometimes or not get too down on ourselves when we realize that this is a one thing at a time. And the next one usually, you know, what you did the last time isn't going to be any indication of what you're about to do next. And so, I like to think about it like that. And I think about things like winning accounts or winning national championships or producing great products as the reward versus the goal. You know, the goal is how do we get better every day.

I mean, I think of, I think of the business context and the, and the, and the sports, like the hockey team that I mentioned. And for me, this is just for me. I mean, the relationships, the relationships, the collaboration, the connectivity, the communication, all of that came way before any of the other stuff. And without that stuff, the other stuff would have frankly been pretty stinking empty. I mean, who cares if, who cares if you've got the trophy, but you know, the relationships just for, for me, the relationships really made the difference. And all of the teams that I'm, that I think about that I've ever been even remotely a part of that were the most enjoyable were ironically enough, the most accomplished, got the most done, but that's not why I remember them so fondly. I remember them so fondly. Here in Dallas, of course, it's a pro sports town, and anytime a pro athlete, especially a high-profile pro athlete, retires, you hear them say it, and you hear them say it in every, every market on the planet. You know, the thing that they miss are the guys. The thing they miss are the play. The thing they miss is the locker room. It's those relationships. And I feel very much the, you know, the same way.

Yeah, no, I think there's, um, there's no question about that, you know. Um, you know, one of the things, speaking of that, was I had been involved in a Vistage group for a number of years and really enjoyed that. I mean, thoroughly recommend that to anyone as far as being part of a Vistage group or part of an in-person peer advisory group. Of course, more recently when my travel schedule has put me in a position where it's so unpredictable and I'm such an unreliable participant in those groups, and at the same time such an advocate for people who are part of groups that when you have your group meeting, you need to be there, you know, because it is 80% of life is showing up. And when you're in a peer group, it's that and then some, because your physical presence matters. And when you're there, the fact that you're prepared and engaged and all of that thing, you know, is so crucial to the experience. So it's been difficult for me of late to be part of a group where I can take a whole day and know that I'm going to be in town, number one. Um, so, you know, recently I've gotten involved and hope we'll have Alexander Keenan on the show at some point soon where he leads, uh, uh, what he refers to as these win mastermind groups. He uses the Circles platform. We touched on it a little bit at the end of the show last week. Um, with Dan Hoffman, uh, has this platform called Circles, which is really extraordinary conversation platform for these, uh, groups. You've got Alexander facilitating the meeting. You've got people who are coming together. It's 1 hour long, which is kind of amazing what you can accomplish in an hour. But the agenda and everything that's done is so tight and everyone gets equal time. They're smaller groups. But I get done with the hour and I'm like, wow, is this powerful? You know, and I'm thinking about all the notes I took and the things I got out of it. The action items I have for myself and how I can help other people who were part of our virtual call. And by the way, the people are from, you know, the Netherlands and Romania and from, you know, just different places from around the world. U.S., of course, as well. It's kind of just getting started in terms of what he's been doing, but But it's a fun way for, and a reliable way for me to be able to get the group experience, which obviously I believe in and espouse so much for others that I wanted to make sure obviously that I'm in a group, um, and able to, um, you know, to do that and then have exposure also around people who aren't just in my specific geography, but who again, it's just broadening my perspective and getting much more of a worldview, you know, about things. And by the way, there's not always like super consistency about who is coming to every single meeting. And I think that's another little paradigm shift for me in terms of, you know, on one hand, building these in-person groups like Vistage does or YPO Forums or EO, or which I think are are great. And it's— what it is though is just a slightly different value proposition, you know. It's just, uh, it isn't one's better than the other. It isn't anything like that at all. It's just, um, one of them is a different value proposition, and they also just provide different, um, levels of accessibility, you know. Um, and, you know, they've been great. So yeah, definitely a shout out to, uh, you know, all the peer groups out there, and if you're not part of one, you— I think you should really look into it. And whether it's an in-person group in your own community or a virtual group that you can find online, it's a valuable experience and something that I'm really looking forward to for 2020 and beyond as we look to take peer innovation and take a lot of what we're doing with groups and teams and and really extend our reach.

Well, and that's the, uh, that's the good thing is the technology is really affording us, to your point with your Seton Hall experience, I mean, that opportunity of that kind of a hybrid thing, that's a relatively recent phenomenon that wasn't available in the traditional days of, of our going to college, for instance, in the pre-internet world. So It's a great time to be alive and one size doesn't fit all, but there's something out there that probably is suitable for most anybody and whatever your situation is.

Well, when you think about, you know, I mean, growing up with a landline, we actually did dial your phone. And when it was black and white television, or you listened to a transistor radio as you were running around and you see the, the, the, you know, the unbelievable, you know, gulf between that and where we are today from a technology perspective and where we're going and where we're going fast. It is really like not to be believed. And it's an— it is an exciting time. Um, you know, you have to be, I think, willing to not fight change. You've got to be willing to embrace it and be excited about it. Sometimes it's quick, sometimes it's exhausting. You know, I feel like sometimes I'll get to a certain point and then there's another new thing I feel like I've got to learn. And it's— and like, I want to, but sometimes I have to take a breath, you know, sometimes it's exhausting, you know, to constantly try to keep up with, with what's next. But it's certainly worthwhile. And it's also something that I credit my, um, you know, the kids that I'm around in terms of our own adult children, but also the students that I work with at Rutgers who are decades younger than I am, who grew up in a completely different world and shaped by entirely different experiences and have different views on things and different ways of thinking about things. And what I get to learn from them is so awesome. And it speaks to the line that I've mentioned before, but Pat Hyndman, who was a former Vistage chair, who was always asked— I mean, by the way, he started being— he started the job as a Vistage chair at 73, and he did it for 25 years, regarded it as the most meaningful work of his life. But when he was asked, like, how are you so vital? And so, because he was— I mean, 98 years old, there was nothing frail about this guy. I mean, he walked in a room and he owned that room, and he had the strength of presence and voice and all of that. But he basically used to say that, he said, um, he said, uh, you don't grow old. He said, you become old when you stop growing. And I not only have never forgotten that, but I really try every day to be thinking about how can I continue as best I can to keep growing. And if I do that and keep thinking about what's next as opposed to what's been, And that kind of keeps things exciting and keeps things fun.

So, well, and you're growing because you're cranking out the words by the thousands on the new book. Let's hawk the two. I'm holding up The Power of Peers. That's book one, and What Anyone Can Do, book two. And the man is now in the throes of writing book three.

That's right. We're going to talk about peer innovation, transforming A-players to an A-team.

And that's how you grow. You just keep writing, you keep writing more words.

But, and those words, you know, are a function of spending a lot of time with a lot of people and learning a lot from them and just trying to provide a narrative that I think reflects all of those things. I mean, these, you know, none of this is, you know, just all kind of sitting in a room and coming up with it out of thin air. You know, this really came from a lot of experiences with a lot of people and, you know, all of these groups and teams that we're all part of in our lives, including our family, which should be our number one team, right? That should be our A-team, our dream team.

And, you know, so I will say before we, before we, we disembark on today's journey, you know, this two-man team is a really important team to me. And I've said it before, and it bears saying again, I reached out to Leo because I had read book number 1, and I got very interested in And if you are interested in this conversation, if you're interested in group learning and peer learning and organizational learning, which includes obviously behavior and all the other stuff that goes with that, uh, be, be bold. I was bold enough. I reached out to Leo. He didn't know me from Adam, but I wanted to learn from a guy who is in front of peer groups. Regularly. I don't know of another human being on the planet who is in this topic and in front of groups and taking a hard look at this and doing the degree of listening that you're doing, as well as trying to provide frameworks and tools and, and not shooting people, uh, as Scott Mordell talks about, which is, which is great. And so this two-man team, you know, that we've got in this podcast is a— would definitely make my, my top tier list. So I appreciate you and everything that, everything that, that you do. And we're just trying to evangelize. I— when Leo started the company peerinnovation.co, I my LinkedIn profile, I told him, I said, okay, I'm going to give myself the title Chief Evangelist. And that's really kind of how I feel of just aiming the spotlight on it. It's such a powerful tool and for all kinds of reasons to help people with their lives. And it transcends sports, it transcends business. It really is to your last point about our families. I mean, it's who we are as human beings.

Yeah, well, I'd echo certainly what you said about, you know, our team, but also I want to add the 1986 Boston Celtics, greatest team ever in NBA history as far as I'm concerned. A lot of people would, you know, dispute that, a lot of Bulls fans, Lakers fans, you know, Golden State fans, but hey, I don't think I'll do anything like that. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. Visit the website. It's L-E-O-B-O-T-T-A-R-Y, leobottari.com, peerinnovation.co. It'll take you to the exact same place. We appreciate you listening, watching the podcast. We hope you'll subscribe and you can check out all of Leo's work. And if your company, if your organization has any interest in this kind of a topic. Leo is performing some, some really effective and powerful workshops. And before we, before we say bye, just touch real briefly on that and I'll give you the last word.

Yeah. Um, well, the, the, the workshop really comes from everything that, um, basically from workshops with, with high-performing groups now being translated into value for high-performing teams. And it's been real exciting to be able to extend that work and bring them into, bring it into workplace teams where it can make a real difference. You know, when we think about, we're gonna be alongside AI in the workplace pretty quickly. And again, like we talked about, we can either fight it, resist it, or whatever, or we can embrace it. And I think when we do embrace it, embracing it as a team is going to make us a heck of a lot more effective than if we try to simply coexist with it as a group of high-performing individuals. So I think it's got people thinking about, if I'm going to do that, if I want to grow, if I want to double my business in 5 years, if I want to do all of these things that are these lofty goals, they're they can't. The only way they're going to do it is they're going to do it together. And they've got to— and when you want to play at that level, then you've got to be that much better together. And again, you know, this workshop isn't about trying to shoot anyone, as you suggested. I don't come in telling people what the ideal team is, what they should do, or anything like that. I give them a framework to discover that for themselves. And then we have some deep conversations that give people a sense of what they expect of one another. They can look one another in the eye and say, here, here's what I'm going to commit to this team, and here's what that person expects of everyone, um, around that table. And it also sets the criteria for anyone who may want to enjoy the privilege of being added or being part of that team in the future. Um, let you know that you've got a high bar to chin here if you want to join this team. And And it's very powerful, I think, for the people involved. And it's certainly exciting for me and such a learning experience every time, you know, I work with a new team in a different kind of organization. So, it's good fun stuff. And so, thanks for that. And hey, look forward to seeing everybody next week.

To learn more about our show and what we do, to submit questions to us, and to subscribe to What Anyone Can Do Podcast, please visit our website, whatanyonecando.com. What Anyone Can Do Podcast is hosted Produced by Leo Battari and me, Randy Cantrell. Music provided by Kevin MacLeod is Vibe Ace, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 license. Thanks for watching or listening. We hope you'll share the podcast.