Episode 250: How to Take Ownership of Critical Change Part 1 With Dr. David Rodgers

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This podcast will give independent insurance agents all of the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromsol.

Greetings, everybody. Welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This podcast has been brewing both inside our minds, inside our businesses, and out there in the world via our bicycles. As we're pedaling along, thinking about, talking about, discussing how we can best help business leaders, entrepreneurs, business owners out there in the world. And I want to welcome to the podcast Dr. Dave Rogers. Dave, good morning.

Hey, thanks for having me. It's great being here. And if you guys don't know, Mike and I are pedaling, bicycle pedaling buddies. And we just can't help but sure ideas while we do it.

Exactly. And it just fuels everything. And you know, out there when we're, we're pedaling in the air and the sunlight, sometimes in the cloudiness and everything else, it just spurns great ideas. And there's always one, two or three big, big, big aha's that come from our sessions. So super, super exciting. But one of the big ideas that was born out there on the bicycles is what we want to talk about with you today. In addition to that, it's so deep, we're going to do part one and part two. So this is part one. And before we go there, I just want to give everybody a little bit about who Dr. Dave Rogers is. He is an accomplished professional dedicated over 35 years to propelling business leaders and entrepreneurs towards their dreams into reality, swiftly, with speed and effortlessly. He's got a unique ability to bridge thoughts and processes and ideas into actual action within businesses. He's outcome driven. He makes implementation easy. He bridges these opposites and opposing sides into one common goal and initiative. And we're going to talk about that in part one and part two of our topic over these next two sessions. And more importantly, he gets measurable results. Not over years, in weeks, in many cases. So, Dave, congratulations. And you know, you've worked, you and your companies have worked with significant organizations and just to drop a few names, Experian, General Dynamics, Apple, I don't know if people have heard about that. You may have that in your pocket or going into your musical ear from time to time. Amgen, Genatech, hp Michelin, Shell, Chevron and many others. So no.

Slouch here. Dave is a extremely high performer, generally dealing with middle size to large companies. But the basic business principles Dave applied to every business, is that accurate?

Oh, absolutely. And you know, I also dip down into the five or six person businesses which. It's the same principles. We're all people, we've all got the same challenges. And as leaders, we have the same challenges. No matter how big our group is. Sometimes it's a group of one and we have the same challenge.

Sometimes that's the biggest challenge. Right?

Yeah, yeah.

Mean, the affectionate mirror of truth circling in our UPB circle. So Dave, the topic that we want to dive into is buyin versus ownership. And you know, if anybody's been in business for a number of years, you know, there was a concept that was possibly been flying around for years that you got to get people to buy in. But yeah, like we talked about early, you bridge opposites and opposing sides and it's okay to disagree. So why is ownership maybe more important or better than getting people to buy in? Take us down that road.

Well, if you start from the beginning, buy in. If you're going for a change as a leader, boom, trying to get, you've thought about the change for a long time and all of a sudden you present it to your people like this is the greatest thing since light spread. And you want their buy in and you want to get their conversation and stuff with it, but really it's your idea, it's not theirs. So trying to get Brian is fraught with problems. And one of the problems in, if you think about it, some of us are a little bit critical and we don't buy in until we see results. So to try and get buy in first is like, it doesn't give you the leverage. And you know, think of today's world. We're being pitched to so much of the time, you know, in marketing, in Internet, in whatever it is, that we just don't want to buy anymore.

Right.

Just, just quit pitching me. And you know, your people are the same way. Don't pitch me with your ideas. I know what your ideas are. You're just trying to sell me and get me to do something. Even if your, your heart's in the right place, it's, the impact is different.

So the, the world is more knowledgeable than it's ever been. I mean, frankly, it is the information super highway. So.

So really it's about engagement and ownership. How do you get them to be a part of the picture and paint themselves into it. And that's why, and this came up in our, in our conversation because I said, somebody asked me this question, you know, how do I get, how do I get by? And I said, I wouldn't suggest going for it. I'd suggest starting with involvement and ownership of your people. And here's the, here's the problem. When, when I'm elite, when I talk to leaders about this, they say, but how do I. They don't really know what I know. I need to get them to shift. If I, if I just give them the ownership, they're going to recreate what's comfortable for them. And I'm saying, yeah, that you don't want to give up your own, your leadership position, but there's a way to do it where you can engage them and they can own it.

They.

And you can do that literally in one meeting, in three steps. If you have a particular change you're seeing a need for. And, you know, that's what I'd like to share today with that with you on that. And it really comes down to three simple steps. First, you prepare by crafting your story. I mean, you do your preparation. That's, that's important. But then what you do is you don't make that story perfect. The second step is you bring it to the team to engage them in the story and catch them up to speed on your thinking and add their thinking to it. It's the adding their think. And I'll go through this in a minute, but I want to give you the overview.

Right, right.

It's, it's, it's the adding their thinking to it that creates their ownership, better together concept.

Right?

Better together, yeah. And you're not, it really is true. They're going to come up with things you didn't think of. You go right on. And it's a way to acknowledge personality.

Swirling around a business.

Yeah, something like that. So, you know, and then the thing is, you can't leave it at there. It's really pick the highest leverage action for change. And this is where you can engage them in picking that action. And I'll tell you why it works. When we get into it, I'll have to set it up, but it's, it's a funny thing that happens. If you get them engaged in painting the picture and they pick one area that they think is important, it's going to affect all the other areas too. So it doesn't matter which one. What you've got is you got their ownership and that's what you're going for. And that's what most people are looking for when they say the words buy in, but it's no longer.

Don't realize it.

They don't realize it. Yeah.

And so painting the picture, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's more of a vision. Right. You want them to see the vision along with you as maybe the business. Business visionary.

Well.

Or correct me if I'm wrong, case.

We're talking about a specific change. So I, I look at the vision process as different. Okay. And, you know, and important. You know, I'm assuming you've kind of painted that vision first. If we want to do a vision painting thing, that's another. That's a part three, I think, but.

Got it. That's fine.

And, and, but let's just say there's.

Okay in business, it's okay to disagree, right?

Absolutely. That's where we get all the good ideas. That's what we do on our rides all the time. And then we figure it out.

It's important.

Yeah. But let me tell you about what this is like. It's like crafting the story of the change that you want. So there's. You're seeing, you may be seeing, oh, there's this thing coming up. We're going to have to make a change to respond to it. It could be competition, it could be anything else. It could be an opportunity. But it's going to take a change on our part. And you want to engage them in the change to make sure they own that now. So this is the funny thing. The way you can engage them without selling them is start by looking at what are the drivers for the change. There are external drivers that you and your people don't have control over that you need to respond to.

When I say external drivers, what I mean is it's just outside of our control. It could be there's been changes in the regulations that we have to respond and change to. It could be there's changes. You know, there's a competitive group that came into our area that we have to really do something different. So take a look at those and really just brainstorm a short list of what are those things so that you've got them. Because I'll tell you, your people will know those things too, though. They will have heard them. This won't be strange. And they'll go, okay, great, I got that. I can think at that level. And then what you do is you say, okay, based on that, what are the maybe 3 to 5 critical shifts we need to make in our group, you know, what are they? It could be like, well, we're used to working heads down.

On our own people, on our own role and just pushing it through. But now we've got to work heads up and coordinate and talk to each other before we start talking to our clients. So that's a shift. So shift from our current state to our future state. Get a couple of those down. Don't perfect it, don't worry about thinking it completely through because you want to leave holes in it. So you can involve your people in filling the holes. Even if you know what they are, leave a few holes.

Right. And so that's the leadership position, correct?

That's the leadership position. You're doing that in your preparation. That shouldn't take too long. I mean it's a little bit of quiet. 20 minutes, 30 minutes to think it through and map it out and write a few notes. That's all it is. The second step then is, and you can do this all in one meeting, is call a meeting with your team. It could be virtual, it could be in person. Whatever is your methodology is fine. And make this one a one topic meeting. Doesn't have to be long, but what we're going to be doing is doing what we call some strategic thinking together. You don't want to mix it with all the other, you know, immediate things that you want to do. You just want to make this on this topic so people can get absorbed in it. And again, doesn't have to be long, could be 20 or 30 minutes. That, that's all it is. Could be a stand up meeting for that matter. But you want to give it the time, the, the, the dedicated time.

Right, the focus.

Then what you do. Yeah, focus time. Then what you do is just share your story. So here's what's going on. There's these things happening out there in the industry that are affecting us. It's really going to cause us, you know, we don't have control over them, but it's something we're going to have to address. And then you pause and you ask them any questions on this? Do you have any things that you're seeing that I didn't include here? And you make it a dialogue and start adding to the list essentially. So now you're engaging them now, now they're inputting into it. Very shortly by doing this, this is going to be their idea, not yours. Just by adding their pieces into it and you're going to figure out some things that they're Going to say about they go, that's good thinking. I wish I would have thought about that one. And good to mention that too.

100.

So then when you get that one done, then share. Okay, so based on this, what I'm thinking is we're going to make. Need to make some shift how we work together to. To actually address these and still win like we usually do. So here's a couple that I'm seeing. What we do, how we do things today is this way, you know, maybe our current state and how I'm seeing we're going to need to change is here. And you know, you might write these down. Especially, you know, write them down so people can see them visually. If you got a flip chart pad or a whiteboard or if you can do a whiteboard on the Internet, that way people can play off of it and think about it. Do one or two of those and just say, what are the shifts you see? Let them ask questions, let them add to that. And now you've created the picture together of the shifts. And the bigger thing about this that I get really excited about is not only have you done that, you've helped increase their critical thinking about the business at a business owner's level.

So now they're thinking these things with you. Just to give you an example, I just met with a team yesterday and the leader had started this process like we were do. We're showing them how to do this. And leader started the process but had to leave. So they left it to me. And I said, well, what do you. What do you think are, you know, some of these things we need to do and everybody like, look like. I don't know, they just look like what deer and heads lights that what it was.

Right, right.

Well, okay, let's. Let's do these steps. Tell me what are some of the things that are happening today that you think are going to affect us? And all sudden, boom, boom, boom, they started. They started putting them out and we put them on. And so one led to another and we put them on the list and it was easy for them to do. And I said, well, based on that, what do you think the shifts we're going to need to make need to be. And they just started, boom, boom, boom. Well, therefore we'll do this. So they went from deer in headlights with two simple questions to now I'm thinking like a business leader. And that part right there, if you stopped right there, that would be precious.

Yeah. Because you've got them into a whole level of thinking together about the business. And that really is the thing there. But then the next thing is I would say don't stop there because I think now, I haven't talked to Mike about this, but I know him. I would think anything he tells all of you is a concept, is great, a thing on paper is great, but where it really happens is where you.

Take action on it 111%.

Yeah. So I wouldn't stop the meeting there. And at the same time, I wouldn't make it too overwhelming in the action. I would just move it to. Okay, let's. So imagine this. You've described three to five shifts that are going to be critical for maybe the upcoming three months, six months, year, to be successful, to go work, to hit our goals in the business. Wherever you are, and you've got those, what you use is you ask, you set some criteria and ask the team, what do you think would be the highest leverage one for us to work on first?

Like what's the one that's most important? The next one to three months. I mean, this is really how we get fast change and fast results is pick a high leverage one and have them pick it. Now, some people say, Dave, here's the thing. What if they pick the wrong one? I know what the right one is. And the thing is, when you're talking about changes that are shifts like that, what I've discovered over 35 years is even if you pick the wrong one, it affects all the other ones positively. If we have to communicate better, is our performance going to go up? You know, if, if we improve a process, is that going to improve our community? See how they're all linked, right. So you don't have to worry. What you have to do is get them into motion so that they can get the success. When they get the success now they have the buy in and they're not going to let it go boom.

They've had the experience.

They've got the experience and it's come from them. So now they're really stoked.

More importantly, because as leaders, we want to build up other leaders around us.

Yeah.

Hence the ownership.

Hence the ownership.

Yeah. And, and one of the other things that I, I mean, I just want to add two things from the agent trenches. I had an agent here, it was a couple months ago, and she said, how can I get my team to think more like business owners? And that statement is right up the alley of exactly what you're talking about. So I hope everybody's taking copious notes about what Dave is sharing. Thank you, Dave. Just Absolute gold nuggets. And the other little nuance of your sharing with the team within the last couple days that you just referenced is the law of familiarities in effect. Right. You, you are the authority from the outside who's coming in and promulgating change, which am I accurate in thinking? Probably 80% of people in business organizations don't like change.

I, I think you're, I think you're right about that. In fact, I don't like change when you make me do it.

Right, right. I mean, we're. A lot of people are in their comfort zones, right?

Yeah.

But it's getting out of your comfort zone, which is really where the huge progress steps are made. So. Because three things are certain in life.

Death, taxes, and change.

Absolutely.

So change is the driver and is uber, uber important. Fantastic. So, Dave, crafting your story and then through the story and you know, having dialogue with them and I 100% agree, have the flip chart out, have the whiteboard out, have the virtual whiteboard out, whatever lends to the situation and get their ideas that, number two, engages the team. And, you know, it really sets the tone for number three, the highest leverage action for change. And while, you know, it'd be awesome in the mind of the leader or the entrepreneur that it's the highest priority, it doesn't always necessarily have to be that because, you know, if something gets done, especially if the team owns it and it's moving us forward, that's a good thing. Right?

That's a good thing. And I'll tell you there, there are little tricks to this too. Like if you as the, the leader say, I really need them to take this other one too. You have leadership privilege to let them pick the first one, you pick the second one.

You can, you can work on two at once. That's not too much. So let them go first. Let them, let them take that. And I'd like to just re. Emphasize something about improving business ownership. How. What's the trick of that? The trick of it is asking good questions.

Aha. So the question, the better the result.

Absolutely. But you know, we think as leaders, what, you know, number one, we're there to train them to do, you know, to get them to a higher level. And if they are novices at what they're doing, they're going to expect that that's going to create the safety for them to learn and grow.

If they've been around a lot and they're ready to think at a higher level and, you know, that means they've got the basics Down. Now you have to ask questions where they have to think of the answers.

And that's where you get them to think as critical business leaders. So don't ask them a micro question. Ask them questions like we're talking about here. What are the drivers that are making this tough for us? And then make them think.

To reiterate something you said right in the beginning, External drivers.

Right, external drivers, yeah. So that's the, that's thinking of the business versus thinking of the internal workings of the business.

Yeah, and. And the insurance industry, the PNC insurance, insurance agency industry, as an example, we're talking insurance carriers, we're talking vendor partners are probably the two leaders. Yeah, yeah, those are the external drivers. And yeah, to an extent. The, the other thing that just came to my mind is this may or may not be accurate as it contributes to this effort of ownership versus buy in. But the SWAT philosophy. Right.

The threats.

Right, right. That becomes the threats and the opportunities. You know, an opportunity is a driver just as much.

Yeah, thanks for redirecting me. That's what Dave does.

Yeah. So, yeah, they're both, they're both valid and they both can be scary.

Opportunity can be as scary to, to your people as a threat. Because what does it mean? It means change.

So when, when that fear comes into play or people are scared, just a quick hit, what do you recommend? I mean, how do we redirect people in their, their mindset when they get into the scared fear area?

Well, I think there's a common quote out there, and I don't know who said it, probably a thousand people said it, which is the only way to deal with fear is to take action while you're in the fear.

So our role as leaders to help people through their fear is to help them take small steps where they can, where they can experience success while they're in the fear. You can't. There's a thing we say, we talk about safety and accountability is the key to high performance.

You have to have the safety to take a risk, and that's why the small steps work. But you have to have accountability to actually take the action. If you don't take the action, you can never create more safety. So you can't.

You can't create safety. Like I was on a ski hill, by the way. Another thing I did at one point was I was a high, high level of professional ski instructor, but I hadn't skied for a long time at the top of a very difficult slope with a bunch of people. It the skis like this the slope looked like this to me. It wasn't. It was more like this. But it looked like this, right in your mind? In my mind. And I was afraid. Well, there were 20 people up there. Nobody wanted to make the first move. And I decided I was going to do it. But all of a sudden I realized the first safe step was I could make a turn up the hill. And if I didn't want to make another one, I just stopped. So I planned three turns and I planned a bailout at each one. And so I, I started and my skis started to go down the slope. And in those days they would rebound and come up around by themselves. If you did it right. Well, I did it right and I made a good turn and I thought, okay, I'll do one more. And I did it, did it again. Pretty soon I'm going down the slope like this, just screaming out loud. I'm so happy that I'm doing it right. But I had to that I couldn't talk myself.

Or make it safe enough until I took an action and had the experience that I wasn't going to, you know, slide down that hill and get just all wrecked up. So it's, it's taking us, it's taking a step, a small step to build the confidence to take another small step. And pretty soon they're going down the hill screaming. This is fun.

So a series of small guesses lead to one big yes.

Yeah.

Fantastic. Great stuff. So, Dave, this has been awesome. Thank you so much.

Re to restate, craft the story, engage the team to implement the highest level action for change. And we're going to dive in in part two of this series, this podcast series. It's coming up on the next episode. Dave's going to share how to install change for ownership in your business. Dave, I am super pumped and excited. Anything else to add as we wrap up part one?

No, I, I just really appreciate it. I mean, I, I can. You and I can talk about this stuff forever, but what's really fun is just implementing it. So what my encouragement to you is give it a try. You can't go too far wrong with this, 100%.

I, I completely agree. Dr. Dave Rogers, thank you so much. Thank you for the wisdom, the experience, the knowledge that you've dropped upon Unstoppable Nation. And I super, super look forward to part two.

See you there.

Fantastic. We're going to help everybody in part two, how to actually install this in your business. And to wrap up this series, this episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I want to remind everybody, if this is your first time on the podcast, welcome. My name is Mike Stomo. I'm widely recognized as a leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency industry. You can learn more about what we do atunstoppable profit producer.com and if this is your first time on the podcast, again, I want to welcome you and encourage you to go to unstoppable profit podcast.com that's our podcast website, unstoppable profit podcast.com make sure you go up to the top and click subscribe so you don't miss one valuable episode of the podcast. Because we bring people onto the podcast that will promulgate change that will lead you into the future, that will give you the latest strategies and thought processes to grow your business, create wealth so you can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. And again, if you got great value out of this episode, please share it with somebody else, you know, another agent, a business colleague to help them as well continue to grow and flourish in today's business environment. So you can find us out there on all of the channels, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, our YouTube channel, Amazon and more. So thank you for joining us in this episode of the podcast and make sure you keep your eyes peeled for next week's part two session with Dr. Dave Rogers. Dave, thanks so much, bud.

Thanks, Mike.

All right, everybody, until next time, you got this. We believe in you. Be Unstoppable. We'll see you on the next episode.

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