#17 - Shifting. How do you react to shifting in work and life?
Mike Domitrz and Sam Silverstein discuss how leaders can intentionally shift culture and strategy instead of reacting to crises. They stress clear definition, transparent planning, and flexibility, and warn against waiting for certainty. Listen to employees directly affected for ideas that drive real change.
Chapters
And hello, welcome to Mike and Sam.
Uh, you know what, Mike?
Hi, Sam, how are you today?
I'm great, how are you?
That's awesome. I hope everybody watching is having a good day. And I know sometimes— yeah, sometimes it's not true though, because sometimes things are shifting in our world, and that can make our days good and bad and difficult and challenging and fun. So let's talk about shifting. Sam, this was your idea. You said, Mike, let's talk about shifting today. What sparked you to talk about shifting?
I don't know. You know, that just came to this, to me this morning. And I'm not talking about shifts that are forced on us and, and things that come our way. Where I wanted to go today was, how do we, how do we purposefully have a shift in our organization? How do we purposefully shift our culture? How do we purposefully shift where we're headed as a, as a company? How do we purposefully create shift in our organization? Because if we just, If we just go on the same path, a lot of times that's not going to get us where we need to be. And so, we can identify a new target or a refined target, but we need to— something's got to change if we're going to make a shift and then move in this new direction.
Yeah, and pronunciation is really important there because if you don't pronounce shift correct, you're going to make something else. And that is what happens when people are not prepared for a shift. It can get messy. And it can get ugly because if you don't have a foundation and a plan that is transparent and it's simple to follow, shifting becomes chaos. And so, it's really important to be able to be flexible and be open-minded, like we talked about yesterday, for the shift. You also have to have a really well-thought-out plan if others are involved. And that's what people, they'll be like, well, we got a plan. We'll work out the details. Well, then don't be surprised if people get lost in the lack of details. They get confused in the lack of details. Shifting requires detail.
Yeah, I think it starts, though, with really having a foundational understanding of really what our purpose and mission is as an organization. And then laying that on top of the direction that we're going and evaluating all of that with respect to what's happening today. Whatever that is, whether it's today with our current situation or today with whatever situation is when someone's actually watching this video. Because maybe you're watching this video 5 years from now. There's a current situation, whatever that is. And what do we need to be thinking about in order to refine our target? Because maybe the goals that we set a year ago or 2 years ago are no longer realistic. So, I think a good quality shift in an organization starts with an assessment of where you're trying to go and laying that on top of your purpose, your mission, And the current challenges that we may be facing.
Yeah. You know, Sam, yesterday I was, I was being interviewed by Odell Bazzell and he had brought up about, you know, how we adapt. And one thing that I was talking about was the fact of, look, it's not a choice whether you're going to do virtual work. If you're a subject matter expert or you're an author, you're a speaker, it's a matter of how you're going to do it. Because if you're sitting here going, well, I don't know if I need to shift to that. I mean, I'm just going to be patient and things are going to come back. You're failing to realize shifting is not an option, and you're going to be left behind because you weren't willing to shift to what was happening in the world. We are in a new realm. And by the way, five years from now is your example. We will be in a new realm again in some way, in some capacity. Shift is going to occur. So the question is: Are we saying to ourselves, "Am I ready for this shift?" If I'm not, what is it going to take to get ready? And what do I need to do right now that could propel me ahead of the shift? So that I'm not constantly stuck behind the wheel every time we shift.
Right. And this puts new challenges on leaders because not only do leaders need to focus on what it is that they're trying to achieve, the strategic objectives that have been laid out, that they have laid out for their organization, but it also requires analyzing what's happening in real time that we need to adapt to and trying to predict what's going to happen in the future. And while we can't predict what's going to happen in the future, I do think it's critical for leaders to notice trend lines. Trend lines in social behavior, trend lines in market conditions. These trend lines are going to reveal where we need to be. And so, today, I got to tell you, today, Mike, in my opinion, it's the most challenging time to be a leader. Not only are we trying to Look out for our people, but we're also trying to predict in an uncertain time what's gonna be coming down the line. But we have to make our best guess. We have to make our best effort. And then we have to be willing to let go of things. Some things aren't working, but we have to be willing to let go of things that may be working today, but ultimately we know in our hearts they're not gonna get us where we need to go.
Yeah, it's vitally important. And the other thing we have to be very careful of is paralysis by analysis. Because in times of shift, people don't want to make a move unless they're for sure. Well, the fact is there's no for sure in times of shift.
That's not happening.
That's correct. There's no possibility of that happening because if there was a for sure, we'd all be calm and rested and we'd know how to— this life would be easy. Being a leader would be the easiest thing in the world.
Well, exactly. I mean, if we were for sure about all this stuff, well then let's just go, you know, Invest in the stock market. We're for sure it's either going up or down. Play it that way.
Right.
Make our money and go home. But life isn't that way. Nothing's for sure. There's always variables. There's always things beyond our control. And some things are more significant and some things are less significant. So, what is that threat real? How significant is it? Is it big? Is it small? These are all things that we need to be analyzing and come to our best understanding and then move forward. Because if we don't make a decision, That in itself is a decision, but more times than not, and like 99% of the time, it's a doomsday decision. It's going to fail. And so, making a decision based on our best guess, that's better most times than not doing anything.
Yeah, absolutely. And I want anybody who's watching right now or listening, post in the comments, what are things you're doing to help you shift? Because we're all shifting right now. So, what are choices you're making to help you shift? And Sam, I think you bring up something really important there. You have to make the choice. It doesn't mean you have to make it this second, but what you could do is in the morning make it so that you give yourself 24 hours to think. Shifting doesn't mean instantaneous. It means I need to move now and give myself enough time in the now to move, not a week from now, not 2 months from now, so I can still take thinking time.
Denise here.
Saying, you know, that could not be more relevant with education in the past 6 weeks. It's constant shifting. And by the way, Denise, thank you and every educator out there who has been forced into a shift they couldn't have seen coming and what you're doing for kids and parents during this time. I mean, it's, it's an awesome example of when you shift the right way and you lead with your heart and what you love, the teachers who are doing that, the administrators who are doing that, wow, the impact they're having in families and homes.
It's huge. It's huge. And now that we've, in that situation, education, we've made that change. We had that in-home education going on. We've made that shift. Now, it seems like to a certain degree, we've caught up a little bit. So now, let's take a deep breath and go, okay, what's the next shift we need to make in order to even get better at it? How do we improve the process? Because a lot of times, we start doing Just, it's survival from the get-go. But then once, once you're up and running, maybe there's some refinements. Maybe there's another shift to take that to another level to be even better at it.
Well, and so what Denise said was it's all about the students. And by the way, for anybody listening, if you're a business leader, it's all about your people. It's all about your people. For teachers, that's the students. And this is what it comes down to. If you want to get ahead of the curve, which you're referring to, Sam, getting ahead of the next shift, You've got to be asking your people, whether that's students, whether that's employees, what are we doing that you love? What would you like us to do that we're not doing? Like, we've got to hear, is there something we haven't thought of? Because sometimes they have brilliant little, one little comment that could change, shift things dramatically that they think is no big deal.
Absolutely. And that's what it's all about. It's continuously refining, making small improvements. Not all shifts need to be large. Some small shifts deliver big results, but we need to stop and ask, what shifts do we need to consider now in order to get to where we have said that we're trying to go?
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