July 28, 2026

That guy sounds amazing. The right conversation at the right moment can change everything. I love that quote. It is a quote from the book that you all have a copy of. I would encourage you guys to take that home and read it. The book has influenced myself as a leader, as a parent, as a communicator, but it's also really helped shape even some of the content today. So I think you'll find some relevance. With it. I'm gonna begin today with a story, story about a guy named Kevin. So Kevin, his organization, when he first came into it, he— his organization had lots of different identities. His organization's identities many times seem to lack some consistency across their identities. Customers of his organization felt that the brand sometimes was fragmented. There was a lot of times that the creative decisions of the organization seemed disconnected. And many leaders thought the idea of Kevin's organization being fully connected and aligned was really unrealistic. It was very risky. They felt that it was one that customers wouldn't embrace. And what was interesting is that the biggest obstacles that Kevin faced was not actually competitors. It was not industry dynamics. It was actually these very intentional conversations that he needed to have internally with coworkers, with people that didn't report to him, with people that worked in different parts of the world, different parts of the country, different parts of the organization. Some people even outranked him, and he needed to have these conversations that were very very purposeful, they were very intentional, and he had to have these conversations to push back on assumptions, to push back on kind of cultural norms, and to really push back on just this fragmented thinking that existed. He really had to advocate for vision of the organization over short-term comfort. And he had to repeatedly say this phrase, that if we keep operating independently, people are going to feel it. Now, you can imagine these conversations were not easy. Some of the conversations maybe even created a little bit of discomfort. Sometimes they created even a little bit of friction at times. And some honestly, leaders in the organization even resisted the conversations. But over time, what happened was, is that these difficult internal conversations caused something to happen at Kevin's organization that really transformed it. And what that thing was, that outcome, was this really increased sense of organizational alignment that had not existed in Kevin's organization. And now that sense of alignment has created one of the most powerful brands that many of you all will recognize. If Kevin's story is not familiar to you, or if Kevin's not recognizable to you, You may know him as the president of Marvel Studios. It's Kevin Feige. So Kevin leads a small little creative firm called Marvel Studios. He's the president of them, and that is who our story is about this morning. If you don't know, a couple of fun facts about Marvel Studios. They have generated over $30 billion at the global box office. It's estimated that 30% of the North American box office revenues in recent years have actually came from Marvel Studios films. And one study showed that 63% of US adults actually consider themselves Marvel fans. So is 60% of this room Marvel fans? So, okay, awesome. Rob, appreciate that. Okay. Doesn't surprise me. So, and by the way, for the true Marvel fans in the room, did anybody see the Doomsday trailer that came out Monday? Please tell me. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. So if you have any inclination about Marvel films at all, you know, there's been lots of debates about which was the best one and Endgame and all that. But there's one coming out December the 18th. It's Marvel Avengers: Doomsday. And in my opinion, it will be the best one ever. So that's a little, little teaser for you. Feel free to Google the YouTube trailer. Now, while Marvel Studios still has its challenges, as many of us maybe know, It's one of the most successful storytelling and branding achievements in modern history. And a couple of things about Marvel, if you don't know this, back in the 2000s, so about 25 years ago, around 20, 25 years ago, there were some things that were happening at Marvel Studios that many of us today maybe not have— don't have enough information about. The different studios actually owned different characters. So many of you guys maybe know some of that, that history. The movies seem to lack a lot of consistency across the films, and their brand identity was fragmented to a lot of people who were like customers and fan bases. Creative decisions were disconnected, and internally many people thought the idea of there ever being this kind of fully cinematic universe— they just thought it was really unrealistic, right? But Kevin believed something different. He believed that every story He believed that every character, he believed that every creative decision, and every audience touchpoint needed to feel this sense of connectedness across the brands. And not because it was easy, and not because it was even comfortable, but because he was willing to keep initiating these courageous conversations we're going to talk about today around vision and around collaborating, because he really wanted to just help his take his organization to that next level. And that's really what we're here today to do, is how do we go to the next level as UT System by leaning into some of these moments that I'm gonna talk to you about? So just like Marvel in the early 2000s, part of what we know about many university systems is that we've got different audiences across the university institution. We've got multiple priorities to support. We've got diverse communication goals and independent communication efforts across units. And there's a lot of campus-specific needs and approaches. So does this sound relevant? Am I in the right room here? Okay. All right. So like Marvel, it's not necessarily that there's a problem, but part of why we need to lean into these moments is because if we don't lean in when these moments happen, our students can feel it, our faculty and staff can feel it, our donors can feel it, our legislators can feel it, and the public feels it, right? So any of you guys ever had a moment where you know that maybe others in the room are doing really good, talented, very well-intentioned work, but maybe it isn't quite the right message at the right time in the right way? And all of a sudden you realize that maybe something on the screen here that somebody's going to feel that, Right? And so part of what we have to do as communicators is lean into those moments so that we can help take ourselves and the organization to the next level. Now, to be really, really clear, today, this workshop is not about solving a problem that exists. So this is not about we're here to fix something. Today is about elevating ourselves, elevating our team, and elevating our organization. Does this make sense? And the way that this happens is, if you say, okay, we talk about courageous conversations, my assumption is, is that some of you all, if not many of you, have been in some sort of training or workshop like this where maybe you've covered things like Crucial Conversations and that kind of stuff. And this is a little bit different slant because this is more about how do we as colleagues and professionals not just accept status quo, but when something isn't just done exceptionally well? How do we lean into those moments and look for ways to be even better? Right? So that's the idea behind this. So some examples of when these courageous conversations might be helpful is, if you ever are at work, and you sense that something you just saw, something you just heard, something you just experienced, might be maybe a little bit more disconnected than what I thought, then this might be an opportunity for a courageous conversation. Or maybe You sense that the teams might be just unintentionally competing, right? Not by design, but just by default, we tend to have a little bit of competition between ourselves. Or maybe we sense that maybe we might be protecting a silo instead of serving our audience, right? So when those things happen, that's what today's for. It doesn't mean that someone's bad. It doesn't mean that someone's doing something wrong. It just means that if we're going to be exceptional, that we have to lean in and have better, more effective conversations at that moment. So, fair enough? All right. So today's learning objectives, couple things we're going to do by the end of the time, our time together, is we're going to elevate our conversation skills. So I'm not here thinking that you guys never even have these conversations before. I'm here thinking that you probably already are. So the question is, is are they happening as effectively as you want?? And could you leave here today with a little bit more skill sets around those conversations? The second thing is, sometimes it's not even the conversation itself. Sometimes it's just how you approach it, that's going to make the difference. And so we're going to talk about some things that can help you with that. And then the last thing is, is how do you really focus your conversations on the observations, and the impact of those observations instead of making conclusions about someone's intent or motive? So that's really what we're going to really drill into today. My commitment to you all as a presenter and facilitator is I will make today as fun as I can. It's going to be interactive. There's going to be opportunities for you guys to do some polls on your phones. So get your phones ready. I'll have you scan some QR codes. There'll be some opportunities for you to not only take some notes, but I've got a couple of deliverables on your tables in front of you where you'll actually have a chance to kind of journal with yourself. They're not tests. They're not things you have to turn in to anybody, but they're an opportunity for you to reflect. Part of what I've learned over the years is that adults learn best, not by listening to me, but by writing, by talking, by discussing. So I'm going to make a lot of space for that and have you guys reflect on things that we're talking about. And at the end of the day, leave here being just a little bit better than we are when we got here. So, sound good? All right. So today also is about taking your B1 UT values to the next level. I was prepping for this and I was thinking about, How do I make sure that this doesn't feel like kind of an odd, just record scratch kind of piece of content? How does it feel like— make sure that this is actually really well aligned to who you are as an organization? And there was two of your B1UT values that really jumped out at me. One of them was around embrace differences, and the other one was around transparent and trusted. And when I think about the content that we're going to walk through today, those two are really going to really come to the surface. And if we're really good at these courageous conversations, you're going to see that those two values are not only important in those conversations, but these conversations are also going to be a great opportunity for you to live out those values as well. All right. So we're going to tie it to those values. And the other thing I want you to appreciate is that if we're going to be here together for a couple hours, it's important that this work that we do actually contributes to advancing the organization itself. So I don't know if you guys know this or not, but you all have this strategic framework with 4 strategic priority areas and 4 priority enablers. So if I was going to do a pop quiz, how many of you guys could answer what all those are? Anybody? Okay, Melissa's like, y'all better raise your hand. Okay. So I will give you a tip on some of them. So some of them that specifically connect to today is number 1 is you've got this strategic enabler called developing talent to advance our mission. And so by the time we're done here today, we're going to make a meaningful contribution to this idea around how do we get better as an organization of attracting, retaining, and developing exceptional talent, and anchoring those things in the values. And so that's our meaningful contribution. And then we're also going to contribute to things that are measurable, because as you all know, there's things that we're looking at from a metric standpoint about how are we measuring our mission, how are we measuring our values, And so we're going to look at how does this work contribute to moving the needle on things like your faculty net satisfaction score, your professional development rate, some of the things that Tommy and Kelsey talked about. And so this is all going to be tied together, and you guys are going to see how this really actually is helping not only you be better, but help the organization be better. So that's my intro. So let me tell you a little bit about myself. So I have been a Tennessean for 49 years. That is exactly how old I am too. So you can be thankful for that. I did some post-grad work at UT, but I did my undergrad at East Tennessee State University. That's where I met my wife. And my first real leadership job was actually at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, one of your sister organizations. And I— they, they made a horrible mistake there. I was actually not clinical by any background. But I found myself at some point being responsible for about 150 FTEs at UT Medical Center. I think they were really bad judgment of character. And I led clinical and non-clinical areas there. But that was really my big kind of launch into supervisory leadership roles. Learned a lot of lessons. I'm gonna share with you some of the big mistakes that I've made here in a few moments. Right now, you heard Melissa share, what I really spend most of my time doing is working in healthcare. So I am what's called a human experience executive for healthcare organizations. And I currently focus a lot of my efforts around physicians and how do we make the healthcare world better for physicians. And so if any of you guys are interested in that topic, happy to nerd out with you on it. I do do a lot of executive coaching, speaking, small business owner in Knoxville with my wife. And we did have the nonprofit. If any of you guys ever heard, any of you guys ever watched the show Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien? You ever seen that? So our nonprofit got a chance to be featured on there. It was a really cool opportunity for some local organizations to be highlighted on a national level. I'm also Katie's trophy husband for 24 years. She would agree with that. She would not. And father to Team Linkous. I've got 6 kids, as you heard Melissa say. Madeline, my 22-year-old daughter, her and her husband live in Brooklyn, New York. Julia, her and her husband live in Knoxville. And then you've got Elijah and Gabriel. We just sent Gabriel off to Morehead State University up in Kentucky. He'll be playing football up there. And then we've got Bella and Jeremiah, our two adopted kids. So big family, we do lots of work with them and travel extensively with them. So if any of you guys want to talk about kids or pets, I don't like pets. My wife has dogs, I don't have dogs. So, and then the other thing is, I know you guys have your leadership t-shirts on. So if you'll notice, my leadership t-shirt is Roadhouse. So if you guys have any movie favorites there, I will tell you about this a little bit later in my content. So more to come. That's a hook for you. All right. So let me tell you about some of the times that I've messed up. So early in my leadership career, I was not as intentional not as purposeful about some of the things we're going to talk about today. So I did things like I used to avoid and delay a lot of the courageous conversations that I should have had. I used to put them off. I dreaded them. And so I didn't do them well. I also found that instead of just having conversations, I found myself just becoming like critical and contemptuous towards people instead of just leaning in and having those conversations when I needed. I also used to get really defensive when someone tried to have some sort of courageous conversation with me. And sometimes I would even withdraw if someone had tried to have that conversation with me. And then the last thing is, is I did not realize early in my career how important just intentional and purposeful relationships were. I thought that, hey, these people are my coworkers and we don't necessarily need to build this deep relational, emotional, connection with each other. And fast forward today, relationships are everything. And so I spend a lot of time just intentionally building relationships with people because I realize how important, how valuable, and how meaningful they are. So those are some of my big mistakes that I made. I don't know if any of that relates to you all, but part of what I want to ask from you all— and this is where I want to invite you into the conversation— if you guys will grab your cell phones and scan the QR code, and this is where we'll start getting a little bit more interactive. Is when you think about courageous conversations at work, based upon what you know so far, if you had to describe how you feel about those courageous conversations, what word would you best choose? So we'll see your answers come in there immediately and have a chance to unpack them. I can— you can see up in the upper right-hand corner how many people have responded. So we'll give a chance for majority of the room to weigh in. I appreciate y'all's responsiveness and urgency. So we have about 40 people responded and it looks like our results are kind of normalizing here. So nervous. I love that because that's honestly how I feel most of the time around them. It's a little bit of anxiety, a little bit of nervousness. Some people say, hey, it just depends. And my guess is, is that when I say it depends, it probably depends on the history with that person. It probably depends on what kind of relationship I already have with that person. Probably depends on, you know, when I've had maybe conversations with in the past with that person, whether I've been the initiator or the receiver, how have they gone. So some of that depends. And then curious to improve. I love that. One of the values that I try to live by is to always be humble and always be curious, is try to figure out any moment, like, how do I realize that I don't know everything and that I could be wrong? And so how do I always show up in that way? So curious is great. A small group of you say confident. And what I would just ask for you, if that's you, is by the end of the day, is look for a nugget of how you could maybe be even more confident, right? Like, how can you be even better by the time you leave here today? So hopefully This content today will meet you where you're at. Small portion of you say, hey, I just like avoid them, right? And I can relate to that because that was definitely part of my background as well. So here's where I want to ask you to kind of take your own reflection of this topic to the next level. If you'll go to your handout, and the first handout I want you to think about is what's called this business case for courageous conversations. Now, this is not a group project, so it's also not a test. You don't need to cheat off your neighbor. This is an opportunity for you by yourself to just take a few moments and write out your thoughts to these questions. Now, I know you can read, but just to have us kind of thinking about this, I'm gonna read these out loud and then we're gonna make some space for you to walk through them. So the first question is, is why do we as a team need to be better at this idea of courageous conversations based on what you've heard so far? The second question is, what are the positive impacts that would be experienced as a system if we get better? The third question is, what are the costs and consequences to the system if we don't get better? And the fourth question, you got to pay attention to the words, is what must I change about myself so that we can get better? Make sense? So take a few moments, write down your answers. You will not have to turn these in, so you can be as unfiltered as you need. I am going to have you in a few moments share some of your reflections with your neighbor, and then we'll hear from a couple of you you guys out loud before we move on. So take a few moments, fill that out.