Crucial Talks Podcast

Crucial Talks Episode 25 They Wanted To Blow Up My Town - Groupthink and Identity

Groupthink happens in cohesive groups where the people involved seek consensus above all else. It is the negative outcome of good things. Good things like team cohesion and members liking each other can lead to groupthink. It's like bacon, too much of a good thing could be a bad thing.  You also don't want a group made up of different individuals each using separate identities to make decisions and guide behavior. A shared identity is important to group behavior. What we want to do is balance between the two. We want to stay in the middle. There are tools we can use to reduce the chance of groupthink.  These tools do two things: 1. Protects the group identity while 2. allows for positive conflict. To contact me about the podcast, speaking to your organization, or if you have any questions, please visit www.crucialtalks.com

Crucial Talks Episode 24 Buford T Justice and the Social Power of Identity

Power is not a bad thing. It is part of the social interactions that occur within and between groups. Some people talk about power as a negative part of existence: that it is based on an individual's selfish needs. This is a little too easy to describe a complex social process that drives behavior. This episode lets us put on a positive lens to view power in a social way. We get to see power is based on the roles people play, the power assigned to those roles, and the way power is used toward in-groups and out-groups. This helps leaders figure out if coercive power is being used in their organizations and what the danger is with that. It shows us all that organizations made up of in-groups have trust and are healthy while those where bosses treat their employees as out-groups creates a toxic environment.

If you would like further information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com and contact me. I would love to talk more about this or present the information to your organization.

Crucial Talks Episode 23 Rocky vs. Thunderlips - Roles and Rules

The roles we play and the rules we think are guiding an interaction drive our behavior. In this episode, we talk about how roles, stereotypes, and rules guide what people do. We also get a chance to talk about how the groups people belong to impact how they experience life. At the micro level, we can see people, but as we back away, we see how individuals are merely the pieces that make up groups that are categorized so that we can make sense of situations we are in.

This episode is valuable to understanding how people interact in different situations and gives some tools people can use to help them understand others and analyze situations they are in.

As yourself:
1. Who is playing what role.
2. What stereotypes drive their behavior.
3. What game do they think they’re in?
4. Who is making the rules?
5. Who knows the rules?

Please visit www.crucialtalks.com to contact me. If you have any questions or would like to know more about the presentations I give to organizations about these topics, please contact me! Thank you for listening.

If we want to understand behavior, we need to understand what drives people...

 

Crucial Talks Episode 22 Swiss Cheese, Little Ninjas, and Capacity Building - Appreciative Inquiry

Building capacity in a positive way can help us make better lives, create better businesses, and impact our organizations.  In this episode, we blend the concept of Reason's Swiss Cheese Model with Appreciative Inquiry so that we can learn techniques that can help us build capacity.  In this episode, we talk about three concepts from Appreciative Inquiry that can help us:

1. Adopting optimism over pessimism

2. What we observe, practice, and study is what we change

3. Visualizing the future it causes us to move in the right direction.

For more information, to contact me, or to hire me to speak at your organization or function, please visit www.crucialtalks.com

Crucial Talks Episode 21 Changing Behavior - Coaching and Categorization

Coaching and self-improvement require that behaviors are changed. This episode uses the self-categorization process to explain some tactics and theories on how we can improve the behavior of others or ourselves.  When there is a mismatch between the role we are playing and the role we should be playing, there is an increased chance that we will not perform at an acceptable level.  In addition, when we adopt the right role with the right behaviors, we can not only do well, we can excel!  Please visit www.crucialtalks.com for to contact me with any questions or if you would like me to speak at your organization.  Thanks for listening!

Crucial Talks Episode 20 Crowds, Conflicts, and Compromise - They're not zombies, they're just fans

In this episode, we talk about the power of in-group/out-group relationships.  By looking at extreme group behavior, such as those that occur during riots, we can see that group behavior is not mindless.  People behave because of the expectations of the group.  Even in cases where we think the behavior is irrational, people still must have a shared identity before behavior takes place. The behavior we think is irrational isn't cause because people lose their sense of self, or aren't thinking rationally. It's because of identity, not mindlessness. Finally, if we can figure out a way to bring our group a little closer to a group another group, we have a better chance of impacting behavior.  If you would like more information on my presentations or any of the podcasts, please visit www.crucialtalks.com and reach out to me.  I'd love to hear form you!

Crucial Talks Episode 19 Selflessness and Sacrifice Lessons from Parkland, FL Be For Someone or Something

This week we honor the 17 people who were killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. I will not mention the shooter's name. This is in honor of:

Alyssa Alhadeff

Martin Duque

Nicholas Dworet

Jamie Guttenburg

Chris Hixon

Luke Hoyer

Cara Loughran

Gina Montalto

Joaquin Oliver

Alaina Petty

Meadow Pollack

Helena Ramsey

Alex Schachter

Carmen Schentrup

Peter Wang

And the two heroes this podcast will focus on:

Aaron Feis, a 37 year old security guard and assistant football coach who literally put himself between kids and the shooter.

Scott Beigel, a 35 year old teacher who was shot when he was helping students into his room.

The decisions made by Mr. Feis and Mr. Beigel were not rational.  They were emotional.  These two heroes played the role of protector. They acted on behalf of the students, the community, and the school.  They acted for a purpose higher than themselves.  They were selfless and they sacrificed for others.  They exemplified what makes humans special.

www.crucialtalks.com

Crucial Talks Episode 18: Acting As If - Comparative and Normative Fit (Lessons by Ferrell and Wahlberg)

People react to situations based on fit.  How well do they fit given a set of circumstances? How well do others fit? Are you only grabbing round pegs because you only see round holes?  Is your lens limiting your decision-making?  In this episode, we get to listen to a couple of fun audio clips from the movie, "The Other Guys," starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. They show us what happens when gaps between people are too large, and they also show us how trust and belonging can help people get through anything while backstabbing and gossip results in groups who can't stand up to the lightest breeze.

Crucial Talks Episode 17 Fear, Feelings, and Failure - Bullying is Bad

Workplace bullying is an awful, immature, and unsophisticated way to run organizations or groups.  In this episode, we are introduced to a case where decisions were made by a person that resulted in his own death and the deaths of others.  It shows the power of social motivators and the absolute destruction that can be caused by social punishments. Treat each other with respect, have open communications, learn from mistakes, and think about the need all people have for esteem.  This is episode is based on a presentation I give to organizations.  If you would like more information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com and contact me.  I am also happy to provide more information outside of presentations, so please connect with me via email, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

Crucial Talks Episode 16 Generating More Than Electricity - Diversity Lessons from a Geothermal Power Plant

Diversity is valuable.  There is no question about that.  It is also hard to measure the benefits of diversity.  Although it's easy to measure different nationalities and languages, we also need to consider workplace responsibilities, education, experience, and training as diversity.  It is hard to measure how diversity benefits our organizations.  In this episode, we talk about three important points:

1. Diversity is great when it doesn’t cause silos in our organizations. 

2. Diversity allows us to harness each person’s individual strengths toward larger common goals.

3. Diversity lets us solve problems in the right way at the right time. 

For more information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com.  Presentations are available.

Crucial Talks Episode 15 To Err is Human, but not SAC Policy

People should not be treated as parts of a machine that can be replaced.  Curtis Lemay pioneered long-range bombing tactics and the Strategic Air Command.  Lemay cared about his people and lead from the front.  He didn't ask anyone to do anything he wasn't willing to do himself.  However, he also did not differentiate between "the incompetent and the unfortunate."  This can create a lack of trust and can stifle communication.  It can also make us blind to system issues because we are looking at people as problems.  For more information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com and feel free to contact me.

Crucial Talks Episode 14: Risks and Roles, Sense-making and Decision-making - R-100 & R-101

The roles we play in our organizations, our society, and our lives can impact the decisions we make and how we make sense of the world around us.  On October 4, 1930, the R-101 airship collided with the ground resulting in an inferno killing 48 of the 54 people on board.  In this episode, we'll use the R-101 as a case study to discuss the impact of the roles we play on our decision-making and sense-making.  For more information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com and feel free to contact me.

Crucial Talks Episode 13 Three Legs of the Burnout Stool: Avoiding Dissatisfaction, Fatigue, and Apathy

Avoiding employee burnout can be accomplished by thinking of it as a three-legged stool.  The three things that make up employee burnout are: 1. Feeling a lack of accomplishment, 2. Fatigue, and 3. Apathy.  By using social identity (group belonging and team esprit) we can build the capacity to avoid employee burnout.  This episode uses scenes from the movie "Office Space" to discuss the affects of burnout and how we can avoid it.

For more information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com and always feel free to connect via email, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

Crucial Talks Episode 12 Eustress, I Stress, and We Stress. Social groups can build the capacity to deal with stress

Eustress is positive stress while distress is negative.  In many of our organizations and in our general lives, people look at stress as an individual phenomenon.  The reality is that stress is more impacted by groups and social belonging.  If we start looking at stress as a capacity that we can manage we can begin to develop positive ways to handle stress.  For example, with group belonging, what may be considered distress to an individual may actually turn into eustress when dealt with by a group.  In addition, if we build a group's capacity to deal with stress through positive in-group belonging and esteem, we also increase social bonds between members of that group.  In other words, it becomes a positive cycle where stronger group bonds lead to better stress management and better stress management leads to stronger group bonds.  For more information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com and make contact with me.  Thank you for listening.

Crucial Talks Episode 11 Use Identity to Build Relationships: Christmas Presents, Presence, and Snickers Bars

In this episode, I tell a story of going to buy my wife a Christmas present.  It started as a clear in-group/out-group matchup between the sales associate and me.  However, I pivoted.  I became present in the moment and began to think about the identities that the sales associate played in her life.  That allowed me to gain empathy.  Because of that empathy, I communicated in a way that brought us into the same group.  I also found a way to become an ally and not build trust.  I didn't expect a discount, I merely wanted to see if we could develop a short-term relationship based on a shared identity.  We did and I was able to transition from a "customer" to an ally.  This encounter lasted mere minutes, but shows the power of using identity and the roles we play to understand others and understand the world around us.

Crucial Talks Episode 10 Lightning Strikes Twice: Goals and Storytelling

In Episode 10 of the Crucial Talks Podcast we talk about lightning striking twice.  This title came form the interesting story of James Otis, who felt he would be killed by lightning, which he ultimately was.  He was struck by lightning two times in his life. We use the story about James Otis, a man John Adams credits with planting the seed of revolution in the American Colonies.  We also listen to part of a TED Talk by Nancy Duarte where she talks about stories and her outstanding work to determine a pattern followed in many of the greatest presentations (www.duarte.com). We see that James Otis did the same thing that Nancy talks about.  He talked about what is and gave people a vision of what could be. 

In our example, lightning strikes once with goalsetting and again through storytelling.  These two lightning strikes help us draw people together and overcome differences.  By setting superordinate goals, we can help groups set aside their difference and work together.  The more superordinate goals we develop, the more we build collaborative capacity. For more information or to contact Mike Sedam, please visit www.crucialtalks.com 

Crucial Talks Episode 9 #metoo - Strength in Numbers and the Power of a Goal

#metoo was started in 2006 by Tarana Burke.  In October 2017, Actress Alyssa Milano used it on twitter and the #metoo movement took off.  This episode looks at the #metoo movement as an example of a superordinate identity and superordinate goal that can bring diverse individuals and diverse groups closer together.  It is an example of how differences can be overcome when people can share an identity.  It also shows how a goal that cannot be rejected, cannot be ignored, and takes more than a single person or small group to reach is powerful.  If you would like more information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com

Crucial Talks Episode 8 Stories - Blueprints to Reality

Storytelling has been around as long as people have banded together.  It's how we pass on information, create emotion, and change behavior.  People are social creatures and there are a lot of things that are similar between us and other social creatures.  We depend on each other for protection.  We live together to produce food and shelter.  We need validation from each other.  What differs people from all other social animals is the fact that we can fabricate reality.  We can share information in a way that allows us to make sense of the world around us.  This episode talks about the importance of storytelling to social construction and also discusses the characters we adopt for ourselves in the stories of our own lives.  Please visit www.crucialtalks.com for more information.  Thank you for listening!

Crucial Chat: The Phalanx - Stronger Together

The Phalanx is a close formation of warriors made famous, at least in my mind, by the movie 300.  The Spartans would form up densely in close ranks and interlock their shields, which made their ranks difficult to penetrate.  There is also an example in the movie Gladiator when the gladiators are being attacked by a superior force using chariots and long range weapons. Maximus has them form into a phalanx and they end up being victorious.  Without their close ranks, they would have been massacred. Social belonging works in much the same way.  The closer the group is, the better they can deal with external attacks.  The looser the group or, even worse, having no trust and internal strife allows people to be defeated easily. 

 

Please visit www.crucialtalks.com for more information.  Thank you for listening!

Crucial Talks Episode 7 Maslow's Motivators - Social Needs at the Top of the Pyramid

Most of us understand Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  It is easy to visualize the triangle with physiological needs at the bottom and esteem needs at the top.  However, even Maslow himself admitted each need does not need to be 100% fulfilled before moving up the hierarchy.  People are complex and nothing is 100% or linear in our social systems such as in families, at work, and in society. This episode talks about how to split Maslow's hierarchy into social vs. money market motivators to help us drive behavior in a positive way.  Please share the podcast with anyone you think might want to be part of our community of practitioners.  Also, feel free to reach out to me via www.crucialtalks.com if you'd like more information.

Crucial Chat: Appreciative Inquiry - Building Capacity for Long Term Success and Performance

This chat is about appreciative inquiry.  Appreciative inquiry pursues changes to human systems with a focus on strengths. It is ultimately a method that takes a positive view of making changes to human-based systems.  Think of your team or company as a system.  Most systems are stable, which means they exist in the middle of the bell curve.  They're average.  There are two ways to look at issues.  One is as a problem to be solved.  This will get your "system" back to average.  The other way is to look at your strengths, values, and best practices to address issues.  This can get you to the right of the curve and make the system above average to exceptional!  For more information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com. 

Crucial Talks Episode 6 Stronger Together - Building Resiliency Through Groups

This episode talks about resiliency as a capacity, much like safety can be managed as a capacity, not just a program.  Human beings belong to systems that are human-based, which means they are not linear.  They are complex.  When bad things happen, people deal with them through psychological processes.  We can use theories such as Social Identity to develop techniques to build the capacity for resilience in our organizations, our families, and our communities.  We can also use the same theories to respond after a traumatic event.  This episode is not only valuable when thinking about resilience, but try to also apply it to other organizational capacities such as leadership, safety, or communication.  Please visit www.crucialtalks.com for more information.

Crucial Talks Episode 5 The Few. The Proud. The Way To Get Different People To Work Together.

In this episode, we look at a three-step process to create an identity that will guide how people make decisions using the Marine Corps as an example.  This can help you when trying to establish behaviors in safety, leadership, and communication.  This helps us when we are trying to figure out how to integrate a diverse workforce and how to knock down silos that might exist in our organizations. Visit www.crucialtalks.com for more information or to connect with me.

Crucial Chat: Motivational - Keep Moving Forward - Audio From Episode 4

This is a short motivation audio clip made from Episode 4.  It's for fun, but has a good message. Keep Moving Forward!!!

Crucial Talks Episode 4 The Path to Success - Importance of Failing Forward

We all face difficult times.  Bad things happen to us. Bad things happen in our organizations.  In this episode, we talk about the importance of failing forward.  It is a positive view of failing.  We need to all keep moving forward.  The important thing is not to look at the path behind us, but look in the direction we want to go.