Crucial Talks Podcast

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.

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...  

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

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!

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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