Innovation's Renaissance

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. This— I am Thomas Anglero. I know my name, and I want to share with you something, and we got to put an end to something, and that is what's going on with senior leadership and companies. This— I've been traveling around Europe for the last few weeks meeting with top leaders presenting at some of the biggest conferences in Europe. And the one thing that jumps out at me, because I'm talking to them and they repeatedly say it over and over, is that innovation— they are petrified of innovation. I mean, true innovation, because they are so worried about their legacy. That's it. The baby boomers, those people who've been in power, those people who have scrambled up, who have said yes to people who they didn't want to say yes to for so many days, months, years, some of them so sadly decades. All these yes people, all these people who did all the right things, all these people who did all the wrong things for themselves but the right things for their career, all of them now are in leadership positions and sometimes maybe even worse in middle management position, which causes even bigger bottleneck in corporations. Corporate culture— I don't care where you are in the world, um, of course there are exceptions, but if you're saying no, no, not mine, then you're not that exception, sorry— are full of people, of people who are between, say, 50 and up. The more older you are, the worse you are. In not wanting to change a damn thing. The last thing you want to happen to you is that in your remaining years or months or weeks is that everything goes to hell on your watch while you're at the helm, while your name is associated to some piece of paper. So what has happened is that no one's doing a damn thing. They're doing everything that they're supposed to do to keep everything running, but no innovation. No risk. No thinking out of the box. The last thing you want is thinking out of the box. And it doesn't work. It doesn't work. You have the millennial culture that is by default thinking out of the box because the baby boomers, who are their parents, have spoiled the hell out of them, right? The millennials are the entitled generation. These kids are so spoiled. They're brilliant. But they're spoiled in that they're coming into this corporate culture and because they're entitled, they don't give up anything. They don't care. And they're tearing at the seam, they're tearing at the moral fabric of these corporate cultures that don't want to innovate, that these top leaders who don't want to innovate. So these millennials are leaving them and these top leaders are feeling more alone than they have ever felt in all the years of them working. And that was not working. So to you top leaders, you guys need to listen to this, you women included as well, is that you're not doing anything because you're so damn worried about yourself. You're worried about what people are going to think about you. This is what people are going to think about you, is what they're thinking about you right now. Why haven't you done anything? You keep waiting 2, 3 years, maybe 5 years for some of you, till you retire, 10 years on the very maximum. You're known as a person who doesn't do anything. You're known as a person who hasn't come up with a damn one new idea in probably your damn lifetime. You played it safe all along. It is time for you to do something. Your legacy should be the following: She took a chance. She was a great leader. She took a chance. It was better than all the other ones. Or he went for it. He believed in an idea. He believed in something that he didn't do before, that one of his colleagues came up with, one of his minor colleagues, subordinates, and he went for it. He may have not been right, but he has my respect for the rest of my life. Isn't that a legacy worth fighting for? Your legacy now is you don't do anything. You haven't done anything. You risk nothing. You play it safe. You're boring as hell. That's who you are. And I'm pissing off a lot of people, but so what? That's what this damn podcast is for. Not to piss you off, but is to call you bullshit. It is so important to call you bullshit. Life is about living. Life is not about playing safe. Do you hear what I'm saying to people out there listening to me? Some of you may be the people that I'm actually talking about. Some of you probably work for the type of people I'm talking about. And it's your job, if you work for these people, to call their bullshit politely. I mean, you never want to disrespect any of your colleagues. You never want to disrespect your boss. But the financial crisis that is spreading throughout the entire world and will be here for quite some time because that generation of people blew it and brought it upon us all. You don't want to have to go without a job. But in parallel, call their bullshit. Make their life uncomfortable because you know what? The only thing to get us out of all this is innovation. Cultural innovation. Changing the culture of our companies. Changing the culture of the office. Damn it, you know, when I was a kid, when I was a kid, we were all told and taught that when you come in the office in the morning, that you say good morning to every single person and you put a hand on people's shoulders. Who the hell does that today? It's gone. Corporate culture, where I see you, you see me, we exist together, we're going to spend a minimum of 7 hours, if you live in Norway, maybe 5.5 hours per day, but in the United States we spend 14, 16 hours a day, and in Asia as well, together, working together, and I'm not gonna— and I'm gonna make believe I don't see you. In theory, if you do the damn math, you're gonna spend more than 50%, probably closer to 60 to 70% of your adult life with the people in the office, and you're making believe you don't see them. You're making believe that your life is not affected by them. Let me tell you something, you're spending over half your adult life with these people in the office, and you, and you want to have a life with them? You don't want to, you don't want them to see who you really are? Excuse me, I'm sick, but I'm not dead, and I still got energy to yell. I think he's insane. I think you're insane. Do you see this perspective? When you go to the office Life ain't about what you do outside the office. What you're saying indirectly is life is all about the 30% of time I have. What the hell is that? Life is all about the time that you're at the office, if you are those people spending that much time at the office. So why don't you connect with the people at the office? Why don't you call their bullshit? Why don't you be their friend? Isn't that what a friend does, right? I spoke about this before. A friend, a true friend, goes up to somebody and tells you the truth that you don't want to hear. Be a friend. Isn't that what life's all about? We need innovation. We need cultural innovation. We have technological innovation that is spreading everywhere because of artificial intelligence, because of blockchain, because of all these millennials who are doing some crazy stuff. If you look at the amount of startups that are coming out, it's not as many as the dot-com era, but boy, is it approaching. But it's a totally different time. It doesn't seem like it's an innovation bubble bubble that way. This is a very different bubble, and this bubble is based on sustainability and the environment. So it's not a dot-com bubble, but it's a renaissance. Let's call it that. It's a millennial renaissance that's changing everything. And this renaissance is necessary. It is fundamental for the survival of all of us, for the survival of innovation itself. And it's your job— you, I'm talking to you— who's listening to me right now, it is your job to bring innovation into the office. It is your job to call people's bullshit, and it's your job for you to have a life and to live your life in its fullest, including when you're at work. And when you're at home, embrace the loved ones that are around you. I'm calling Everyone's bullshit today, including my own. Think about what I'm saying. If we don't innovate— innovate requires sacrifice of yourself, it requires you to feel as an outsider because no one else understands the clear picture that you have in your head. It is worth it to be an innovator. That's a true innovator. An innovator is not a person who comes up with an idea. The innovator is a person who actually does something. That's you. We need you to innovate. We need you to innovate your life. We need you to innovate the people around you at work and at home. It's fundamental. This is Thomas Anglero, and I get it. I get these messages are tough, but they're necessary. You are necessary. Go forth and spread beauty and light. Until next time. Love you.

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.