Fixing the Culture in Your Office

Hello and welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am the host Thomas Anglero, and my mission for this podcast is to share with you those private thoughts and reflections that I have being one of the top keynote speakers around the world on technology, motivation, and innovation. I hope you truly enjoy all the lessons I share, all the dots I connect that sometimes are just really difficult to get out but it's all for you. I truly hope you enjoy this episode. Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and I want to talk to you about the cultural problems inside of your company. Every single company, I don't care what industry, it's been the resonating thing over the last few weeks that have been coming into my life from friends, from family members, and myself. Company cultures are broken. So let's talk about it, and then let's talk about how we can fix the damn thing. But let me paint the picture to you exactly of what's happening inside your company. When I paint this picture, find who you are or where you are— sorry— inside, right? And then let's fix this whole damn thing. Okay, so we got the millennials, right? These millennials, you know, they want everything. They want a promotion as soon as they start the job. They want to be on the coolest projects. They want to work with the coolest tools. They want, they want, they want. And after you give them something, they want more, they want more. They think they're so damn entitled, right? We know about the millennials, and I disagree with Simon Sinek. I think Simon is like almost close to God. I think Simon rocks on everything, but this is the one place I disagree. It's not our fault. There's a famous YouTube video out there with Simon saying that the problem with the millennials is our fault. That's crap. I'm Simon, you're wrong on that one. The only thing you ever been wrong on, I think. But it's not our fault, because I believe that everybody's got to own the damn thing, and millennials got to fix their own problem, because nobody's gonna fix it for you. There are no handouts in life. You gotta fix your own thing, right? That's what the whole damn part of this podcast is about. Stand up, call your own BS, fix your stuff. So that's the millennials. You guys want, want, want, want, want. Now Now let me call out the biggest group that nobody's talking about because they're hiding behind their experience and their years, and that's the older group. The older group, say people will say 55 and above, right? These people, they're also entitled too. We got entitled groups on the front end and the back end, the young ones and the old one. The old ones think they're entitled because they've been working so hard for so many years. I'm entitled to go home early. I'm entitled to not work so hard. I'm entitled to look at my newspaper when I come in in the morning until about 9:30. And I'm entitled to go home early at around 2:30. I'm entitled to take an hour and a half lunch. How much time you actually were working? I'm entitled to— God, I'm so tired of it. The older group, no one talks about because the people who complain about the millennials is usually people from the older group. But we have— the problem is that we have entitled people on both sides, and then you have the group in the middle, the group who's grinding and doing everything they possibly can. But the problem is corporations, your company cannot exist with this dynamic that's happening there because the group in the middle who's doing so hard and working so hard is actually carrying way too much weight is out of balance. It's out of balance culturally. I'm only talking about culture, all right? It's out of balance culturally. It's like living at home and you got 3 people in the house. Oh, you got 2 kids and you got 1 parent. It's out of balance. Over time, that parent is going to get burnt out, right? It's a single, single, uh, single mom, single pop, single father is a burnt out parent. They could do it, but for so long to support that, those two kids. And that's what we have in the office. We have a single mom, single dad, single parent situation, and it ain't working. How do we fix this damn thing? Here we go. I got to be careful because the older group pisses me off the most, but, um, Millennials, I know how to handle. Let me see if I can tell you how I'm gonna handle Millennials. Talk to them. Millennials don't get enough attention. I mean, yeah, they get a lot of attention. The whole soul group is based on attention. The social media is all about attention. But let's look at that. Social media is all about attention, yet they want more attention because social media is fake attention. It's absolutely fake attention. You ever see them in a movie theater right before the movie starts? When I was a kid, we would go to movie theater right before the movie start. All we're doing, we're throwing popcorn at each other. I mean, we made a mess. People were yelling at us, we're misbehaving, but boy, we were throwing everything we possibly can. And then the movie would start, the theater would go dark, and of course you threw a couple more popcorns because then nobody could see who threw the popcorn. And then we would stop. I went to the movie the other day, and just as the movie's about to start, I'm looking around, I'm all excited, and everybody's on their mobile phone. Everybody. What the hell happened to the popcorn? Maybe I sound crazy. Maybe that's like bad. Oh, this guy threw popcorn in a movie theater, made the place dirty. I was a kid. Damn, you're supposed to throw popcorn at each other. You're not supposed to sit there when you go to the movie theater with a whole bunch of friends and sit on your damn mobile phone. It's a social event. The problem today is that the definition of social event has been defined by kids who whose parents haven't taught them what a social event is, what it means to be social, social without the device, just social. I'm not picking on the mobile phone and I'm not picking on the millennials, I'm picking on the damn parents, right? Teach your kid the beauty of visiting someone without having called that one, without having instant messaging that person, and showing up with a bottle of wine. Showing up with, hey, some Coca-Cola, 7-Up, whatever you want to drink, and a bag of Doritos or bag of popcorn, and smile when they open the door. Don't even say the word surprise. Teach your kids that. Teach the millennials that. If you're a millennial, learn what I'm saying. You want to have a beautiful moment in life? Surprise a friend. Just show up. You, something to drink, something to eat, some ice cream, even better. And just smile. They'll welcome you in. You'll have a better evening than you would where you are right now, playing on your mobile phone, sending some snaps, sending something, hoping somebody likes it, thumbs it up, do something. That's not an evening. An evening— an evening is when you share and bond with someone, when you can feel their presence in the room, when you agree with someone, when you disagree. You spend the evening arguing, at the end of the evening you have greater respect for one another. This could be man to man, woman to woman, it doesn't matter. It's not about sex, it's about bonding. Putting your crap on Facebook, Instagram, and all this stuff is not bonding. Watching TikTok is not bonding. You are— is— look, that stuff is just TV. That's all it is. When you watch TV set, you're experiencing it, but you're not contributing to it. When you're amongst someone, when you visit someone, when they visit you, when you are having a conversation, you're experiencing in real time. You are creating content. We're TV, mobile phone. You're just receiving content. You were born to create. Someone has not taught you, or no one— someone has not told you that someone has shut you off. Your creative capabilities have been shut off, and you think you're really cool by posting this crap and posting this. Oh, I'm creating content. Now you're creating some— something that's digital. But you, the ultimate creator, you're not doing that. Parents are at fault. And millennials, now that you're 20-something, you've heard this. Do something because you're at fault now. Own it. All right, interact with people. Talk to the older people. Understand where they're coming from instead of just complaining about them all the damn time. Let's talk about the old people now. Spoiled. Be careful. The older people are acting too damn old. 50 is not old. 60 is not old. 70 is not old. Um, retirement age is being pushed up because people are living longer lives. People are very healthy. People are getting out. You are young. You are young as your mind tells you to be young. But if you walk around complaining, you will get old as soon as hell, and nobody wants to hear from you. Let's just be honest on the damn thing, okay? Your job after being 30 years in the damn workforce is to share your love, your experience with those people who are coming after you, the young people. Your job is not to push them away. Your job is not to complain and make life living hell for everybody in the damn office. And again, that's what the millennials are doing, right? Sounds like the same thing. This is the problem in our workplace. Everybody's— not everybody, sorry. We have two groups. We have the chocolate on the right, the chocolate on the left, and everybody's complaining, pushing, squeezing the middle piece of the Oreo. Once you see this, the job, the way to fix it is to talk to them. Talk to young ones, talk to the old ones. It's a totally different way to talk. I remember I was coaching basketball. I was coaching a women's team and I was coaching a men's team. A women's team, they were like women in their 30s, men who were in their 20s and 30s. And those, you had to talk to them totally different. The men, I could yell, scream, make them run to the ground. It was a lot of fun for me. I just tortured them, hollered at them. They loved it to death. Women, you could not do that. And in the office place, you cannot talk to millennials as you talk to older people. You cannot write a memo for the entire office and you think everybody's gonna receive it the same way. It It doesn't work that way. We are not wired that way. If men and women are completely different, then young people and old people are completely different, then what about— think about the dynamics of a young woman versus an older man. That's extremely— that's like diaposing opposites. So instead of sending the memo, instead of creating an HR program and software that I think you could fix the whole damn thing, leaders of the company Talk to them. Talk to each other. Stop hiding behind your operations and spend time talking to your people. Teach them how to talk, how to communicate with each other. And if you're a young person, communicate with others. If you're an old person, communicate. You're not entitled to spend your last few years relaxing because you earned it. Bull. You spend your last few years with more people because they've earned the time with you. Flip it around. I hope, I hope I made my point. I hope this hasn't been a ramble, but I'm trying to simplify it down to a simple picture. The simple picture is that the office, the culture in offices are broken, but it can be fixed. We gotta go back to being what we were before. You gotta go back to being who you were before. And if you've never visited a friend, if you never just spontaneously did something to make someone else smile and not you, you haven't started living yet. I'm telling you, wondering why you're frustrated, telling why you're wondering why you're unhappy, because you haven't given love yet. Just do something to make someone else happy, and there it is. That's the missing piece in your life. It ain't all about gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. It's about give, give, give, give, and you get so much back. Do that. Do that now, damn it. And then you'll find the key. Then you'll find the happiness you're missing. Then you'll find everything. Take that into the workplace. Yeah, I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated because this problem comes from the fact that we have failed to communicate. So let's do that. Let's talk more instead of talking about someone. Let's complain less and just talk to people. If you're gonna complain about somebody, go talk to them. How do you know that they are the way they are? How do you know that? You don't know that. Spend time with people, and most importantly, spend time with yourself. If you're uncomfortable talking to someone practice talking to them when you're by yourself. Practice talking. I could go on, but I like keeping these episodes short. I hope I created some powerful, powerful images in your head. I explained to you the dynamics that are going on, and if you've never seen dynamics before, it's because you haven't talked. So go out there and talk. Go out there and have a lunch with someone. You know what? Go out and go for a walk. It's never too cold, it's never too warm. Go for a walk with someone. You'd be amazed. This is Thomas Anglero. You know that. I love you with all my heart. I believe in you. I truly do. I mean, I honest to God do. But you have got to do something for you. You have got to make the move. Just do it a little bit every day. That's the key to success. A little bit every day, it adds up so quick. It's like compounded interest if you've taken those financial classes. A little bit every day, that's the key. Do a little bit every day for you. I am your biggest fan. No one, not even your parents, believe in you more than I believe in you. You ever have a doubt, go back to this podcast episode, go back to this point right here, and listen to these words. I believe in you. I love you. I trust you and I will follow you. I believe you. I love you. I trust you and I will follow you. Believe in yourself. You're amazing. Until the next time. Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com, and you can also subscribe to the newsletter, or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.