Welcome to the Faith Based Business Podcast with your host, Pastor Bob Thibodeau.
Speaker AOn this podcast, we interview fellow entrepreneurs who are willing to share their stories, their trials, and their triumphs in business, all in an effort to help you avoid the same obstacles and to achieve success faster.
Speaker ABut at all times, continue to rely on our faith to see us through to victory.
Speaker ANow with today's guest, here is your host, Pastor Bob Thibodeau.
Speaker BHello, everyone, everywhere.
Speaker BPastor Robert Thibodeau here.
Speaker BWelcome to the Faith Based Business podcast.
Speaker BWe are so blessed that you are joining us today.
Speaker BOur guest today is Stephen Falk, CEO and founder of Switchback Systems, a safety leadership consulting firm with a global reach.
Speaker BI mean, for over 35 years of experience.
Speaker BStephen's journey started in marriage and family therapy where he honed his ability to connect with people on a personal level for over 20 years there.
Speaker BAnd over time, he kind of transitioned his expertise into helping organizations reduce workplace fatalities, improve team dynamics, and that's resulted in his tremendous success.
Speaker BAnd Steve is also a sought after speaker and the author of the Switch Down CEO how to Think Like a World Class Leader.
Speaker BThis book is awesome, folks.
Speaker BIt's a practical guide packed with strategies to strengthen leadership, resilience, communications in any organization.
Speaker BToday, Steven joins us to share his insights on creating safer, more dynamic workplaces and leading with purpose and effectiveness.
Speaker BGet ready to take some notes.
Speaker BThis is going to be a conversation full of actionable wisdom today.
Speaker BPraise the Lord.
Speaker BHelp me.
Speaker BWelcome to the program, Stephen Falk.
Speaker BStephen, it is a blessing to have you join us today, brother.
Speaker BI've been looking forward to today's conversation.
Speaker CBob, you're hired.
Speaker CThat was some pretty good marketing.
Speaker CI would like to meet that guy.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BWell, the first question though, I always start with is this.
Speaker BOther than that brief information I just shared, can you tell us in your own words, who is Stephen Falk?
Speaker CSure.
Speaker CI'm a west coast Canadian.
Speaker CSo from the very far edge of the west coast.
Speaker CI live in a community that's like, full of like fjords and mountains and glaciers.
Speaker CAnd so the primary industry is logging.
Speaker CWe eke out a little bit of farming right where I'm from, I'm from an ethnic background where, where like our little country church was mostly relatives.
Speaker CSo if you can just picture that in your mind, in our view, we thought like there was us and then everybody else we just called the English.
Speaker CAnd so it's a real journey for going from being sort of in an ethnic enclave to having clients, like you said, around the world.
Speaker CI've a Father, I've been married for just about four decades, and I know this sometimes drives some people crazy, but I already have 11 grandchildren, so.
Speaker CRich man.
Speaker CAnd by every stretch of.
Speaker CBy every metric in my mind.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BNewlywed.
Speaker BWe just celebrated our 47th anniversary.
Speaker COh.
Speaker BAnd.
Speaker CWell.
Speaker BBut.
Speaker BBut you beat us in.
Speaker BGranted, we only have seven.
Speaker CWell, stay tuned.
Speaker COut of our control.
Speaker BNo, not.
Speaker BNot yet.
Speaker BNot yet.
Speaker BYou know, I was born and raised up in Michigan.
Speaker BAnd with a name like Thibodeau, you know, there's that French Canadian connection there.
Speaker BAnd all my family hails from London, Ontario.
Speaker COh, wow.
Speaker CI.
Speaker CI felt something in my heart with you.
Speaker CI could tell.
Speaker CHey, man.
Speaker BAnd it's funn right now.
Speaker BWell, we've been living for.
Speaker BI say right now, last 20 years, we lived in Baltimore, Maryland area.
Speaker BAnd we got about 8 inches of snow here past few days.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BAnd cold.
Speaker BIt's like 20 degrees and stuff.
Speaker BAnd people are, oh, it's so cold, this weather.
Speaker BI say, you know, up in Michigan, they call it Wednesday.
Speaker BThat's shortcake.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BWhat's the problem?
Speaker BYou know, I was.
Speaker BI went.
Speaker BI took my wife.
Speaker BMy daughter, one.
Speaker BOne of my daughters lives about half mile from us, and.
Speaker BAnd my wife wanted to go down, visit us.
Speaker BI was, okay, come on, get in the car.
Speaker BTake you down there.
Speaker BNo jacket, just, you know, just.
Speaker BJust like this.
Speaker BAnd how come you're not wearing a jacket?
Speaker BBecause I wasn't planning on being outside for extended periods of time.
Speaker BAnd this is just.
Speaker BI'm just walking to the car.
Speaker BThis is nothing, you know.
Speaker CTrue story.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CWe have a.
Speaker CWe have four kids.
Speaker CAnd one of our kids, he's a.
Speaker CHer husband is a medical doctor in the subarctic city called Yellowknife.
Speaker CAnd so when we watch her get her four kids ready, they're like long jobs, no pants, and then mittens and gloves just to get to the car.
Speaker BOh, my goodness.
Speaker CFor us, where we are, it's very mild.
Speaker CWe're in a.
Speaker CWe're in a temperate rainforest.
Speaker CAnd so literally, I'm pruning my trees right now.
Speaker CAnd we could mow the lawn if we wanted to.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BPraise the Lord.
Speaker BThat's in Canada.
Speaker BThat's saying something.
Speaker CThat is.
Speaker CWe are the Hawaii of Canada.
Speaker BThat's awesome.
Speaker BThat's awesome.
Speaker BNow, in your book, you share how you suffered from meningitis, and that helped you to.
Speaker BTo shape your calling.
Speaker BCan you explain that for us?
Speaker CIsn't that a crazy sort of origin story?
Speaker CSo it had nothing to do with me.
Speaker CBecause I was, like, 2 years old.
Speaker CWhat I'm saying is I didn't make it happen.
Speaker CSo there was.
Speaker CThere.
Speaker CMy mom and dad had felt.
Speaker CI basically called the Lord to go to college with the intention to become missionaries.
Speaker CAnd so when they.
Speaker CWhen they got accepted to, like, wrap up their four kids and move to, like, Manitoba to go to college, he was a school teacher.
Speaker CAll of a sudden, this.
Speaker CThis small pandemic happened, like this meningitis outbreak in our community, and a number of little kids died.
Speaker CAnd wouldn't you know what?
Speaker CI got hit hard.
Speaker CAnd on the way to the hospital, the Catholic hospital, like, I'm completely paralyzed.
Speaker CI can't even get in.
Speaker CThere weren't.
Speaker CThere weren't car seats in those days, but I wouldn't even be able to fit into a car seat because I was like, as stiff board and silent, like, just done.
Speaker CSo my parents are bawling their eyes out on the way to the hospital, and they're.
Speaker CThey're saying almost like.
Speaker CLike.
Speaker CLike Abraham and Isaac going, like, really?
Speaker CThis is the cost of following.
Speaker CLike, this is the cost of discipleship.
Speaker CWe have to give up one of our kids.
Speaker CLike, this is.
Speaker CThis doesn't seem like this is really true.
Speaker CSo they said, okay, God, he's yours.
Speaker CWe give him to you in a dedication I think was quite a bit more sincere than you see in the normal church service on Sunday morning.
Speaker CThis is like a hardcore dedication.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CSo I.
Speaker CWe arrive at the.
Speaker CAs they tell the story, they live actually in my suite in my home right now.
Speaker CSo I verified the story a number of times.
Speaker CThey're in their late 80s.
Speaker CAnd so they.
Speaker CThey get to the hospital, and it's a Catholic hospital.
Speaker CSo there's these nuns there, there, because there's a dying child.
Speaker CSo the nuns are hovering.
Speaker CThe family doctor puts his.
Speaker CPuts his hands on me in Christian terms.
Speaker CHe lays his hands on me and he tries to adjust my neck.
Speaker CHe touches my.
Speaker CMy head, and I just scream bloody murder.
Speaker CAnd it's gone.
Speaker BWow.
Speaker CAll the symptoms are gone, like, instantly.
Speaker CAnd in our little ethnic, sort of Mennonite world, that was not a normal phenomena.
Speaker CYeah, we were.
Speaker CWe weren't in the custom.
Speaker CWe were in customer having barn raisings, not healing.
Speaker CAnd so it was Christianity, but it wasn't.
Speaker CIt was Christianity without sort of the supernatural sort of a connection to it.
Speaker CSo when I.
Speaker CWhen I.
Speaker CMy parents brought me home, the doctors sort of checked all my limbs and brought me home and said what?
Speaker CThey're kind of like, I guess we got our Steve back, but When I look at my pathway versus, let's say, my siblings and my cousins, I don't think they got him back.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CAnd so there was something different about how the veil between heaven and earth was cornered kind of messed up in my life.
Speaker CAnd so as a kid, I would be able to.
Speaker CI'd be driving the school bus to school, be looking at a house and go, there's bad people that live in that house and go buy another house.
Speaker CThere's a, There's a little girl that's in trouble in that house.
Speaker COh, that's a.
Speaker CIt was like, what is that?
Speaker CWhat is going on?
Speaker CAnd there was no framework for it until finally, you know, as an adult, I, you know, I, I broadened my perspective.
Speaker COh, this is like the regular ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker CSo an interesting beginning.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BAnd you were labeled as an underachiever.
Speaker BI read what's going on.
Speaker CLike age four and a half, five.
Speaker CLike I could make my uncles and aunts fall off their chairs laughing at family gatherings.
Speaker CLike I was that kid, you know, that rooster.
Speaker CBut then all of a sudden I show up in school and I cannot read and write.
Speaker CIt just makes no sense to me.
Speaker CI'm reversing numbers and letters and back then, you know, with a bit of help, probably being four or five days of neuroplastic training around visual closure.
Speaker CAnd I would have gotten on the path, but, you know, they're just not aware.
Speaker CAnd so in my 40s, I sorted it out through some really, really good training to be able to really capture that my discipline, my eyes to focus on what's actually in front of them instead of having a quasi visual panic attack.
Speaker CYeah, I have a lot of empathy towards like, even kids and parents that are like some.
Speaker CI mean, Canada is probably the same as states, very quick to medicate, you know.
Speaker COh, this kid.
Speaker BOh, yeah, man.
Speaker CI just think.
Speaker CNo, no, no, think neuroplasticity.
Speaker CPeople can change.
Speaker CLike for me, it was literally holding up, you know, holding up two different views, viewpoints into practicing having my eyes track back and forth, standing on a, on a bal, maybe with a beanbag, doing some cross patterning.
Speaker CAnd I was able to retrain my brain.
Speaker CI mean, it's a tragedy that I did in my 40s, but nevertheless, here I am.
Speaker CI now write for a living, for part of my work, which is kind of crazy.
Speaker BYeah, yeah, that's a good, that's proof.
Speaker CAnd I thought I'd have, I'd have, I would just breeze through life and then all of a sudden, boom.
Speaker CYou hit school and now you're the underachiever.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BSo what did you learn from that?
Speaker BTo encourage people as you continue on with what you're doing today?
Speaker CYou know, I, I, I.
Speaker CNot everything is like a silver lining, but I think something like what I had around the learning disability, maybe dyslexia, whatever it was as is, it is for me, it became a superpower because I ended up with fairly hyper vigilant situational awareness.
Speaker CLike, plus with what I think God was trying to develop in my life, I would just have these nuanced, like if, if someone started just like scratching a part of their, their hand in the crossroom, I go, what's that?
Speaker CWhat's happening?
Speaker CWhat's going on there?
Speaker CWhat's happening there?
Speaker CAnd so I was very outer focused rather than inner focused.
Speaker CAnd I think that became so, so important to me as a family therapist.
Speaker CI would, I really believed in a model where if I could get people into a helicopter, looking at their problem, looking as a third party, it would be, then you get rid of a lot of that, say, the emotional reactivity.
Speaker CSo often I'd have a, I would just have a coffee table between us and, and just a blank piece of paper and say, say what?
Speaker CSay, so what's good?
Speaker CAnd I'd be just drawing, say, so does it look kind of like this?
Speaker CIt'd be like some sort of like a sketch, like not a sketch of what's going on, just a dynamic like circles.
Speaker CAnd it's this thing and this big arrow and then they grab the pen, go.
Speaker CI don't know, it's more like this.
Speaker CAnd before long, we'd be all up in the helicopter looking at the situation from a strategic point of view.
Speaker CThat was the superpower, what took place, because the written words were blocked from me, so the visual representation was available to me.
Speaker CI bet you I haven't spent any time in the Orthodox Church, but I bet you if I went to the Russian Orthodox Church, I go, these are my people.
Speaker CBecause their whole theology is in paintings and in stained glass windows.
Speaker CIt's not theology of written word, it's theology of pictures.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BThat's awesome.
Speaker BThat's awesome.
Speaker BNow you start off your book, the Switched on CEO.
Speaker BYou start off by sharing that the CEO is probably the loneliest person in the entire company because they have almost nobody they can confide in and share things with, but yet everybody's coming to them for feedback and support.
Speaker BWhen did you receive this, let's just say this divine revelation about this.
Speaker BAnd what motivated you to start making changes in this area?
Speaker CBoy, those are a bunch of loaded questions.
Speaker CI literally stumbled into this.
Speaker CI had no grand plan.
Speaker CAnd so just, just the full, the full disclosure.
Speaker CI, number one, I married well, so I married someone that was really hurt and could read and write and was funny and had great situational awareness.
Speaker CAnd so all of a sudden, when I tricked her into marrying me, that was the, that was the power of team that gave me the pathway into higher education.
Speaker CSo that was this piece.
Speaker CAnd then when I got into, there was a seminary that accepted me in, in California, and I probably shouldn't have been accepted because of the path that I was on, but they took me on and they're the department head.
Speaker CHe was fascinated rather than frustrated by how my brain was wired and just by God's providence.
Speaker CHis son was struggling with some of the same things that I struggled with.
Speaker CAnd he was in his high school, his senior year in high school.
Speaker CAnd so rather than kicking me to the curb, he brought me in to team.
Speaker CAnd that's, I mean, there again, it's like almost I was giving him every reason to kick me out of the, out of the program.
Speaker CAnd then he coaxed me back in, almost like a raccoon that's cornered.
Speaker CHe came the raccoon, which is amazing.
Speaker CAnd, and I went from basically worse to first.
Speaker CLike, I went, I was the most least likely to succeed in graduate school to being their valedictorian of one of three.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CIt was like ironic of ironic.
Speaker CAnd then it's like, what should I do?
Speaker CAnd I said, should I go get a PhD?
Speaker CHe goes, oh, Steve, please don't get a PhD because why?
Speaker CHe goes, a, school's hard for you, but B, you actually like people.
Speaker CMost people that get PhDs that they like ideas or like, they like, like the scholarly process, they don't actually like people.
Speaker CAnd so if you get a PhD, you're going to get stuck in some research project somewhere.
Speaker CIt's going to be terrible.
Speaker CYou need to be a clinician.
Speaker CWorking with people, that's your gift.
Speaker CAnd so I just said, okay.
Speaker CAnd, and my friends were like, steve, you're, you can become a family therapist.
Speaker CI don't see that because I wasn't very affirming.
Speaker CBut, but it was actually amazing because I really was cut from a different cloth.
Speaker CI, I, I enjoyed that strategic challenge of trying to find people's what's going on and getting behind the veil.
Speaker CI really enjoyed consulting with God while I was working with people, whether they're People of FAI and.
Speaker CAnd getting that spiritual sort of like intuition, insight into their lives.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CSo I was just behaving myself, but my wife and I, like, I had always wanted, like, I felt God's call in my life already in great age too, right.
Speaker CThat there's something big.
Speaker CAnd my brother and sister, like, say, well, you know, there's nothing big for you.
Speaker BBut you have all that.
Speaker CNo, I think there's something big.
Speaker CThere's more like.
Speaker CAnd.
Speaker CAnd so my wife and I, we looked at each other and said, hey, you know, we've committed to.
Speaker CWe got four kids and we're swamped because it was basically just with parenting and looking after kids.
Speaker CShe said, steve, there's going to be a season.
Speaker CWe actually took a.
Speaker CStole a page out of Stephen Covey's book, you know, that where he's saying, you know, begin with the end of mind.
Speaker CSo she asked, how long do you want to work to.
Speaker CI said, oh, probably 80, 85.
Speaker CHe goes, okay, then we got time.
Speaker CYou could, you can go make your big splash, but let's raise our kids first.
Speaker CSo I really throttled back anything that looked like an opportunity to, like, become, you know, more nationally recognized or something.
Speaker CI just kept it humble and did our thing.
Speaker CAnd then our youngest is like 16 years old.
Speaker CMy wife basically slaps me in the rear end, says, steve, it's now.
Speaker CThe season is now.
Speaker CSo be ready.
Speaker CBe ready for God to open up the doors.
Speaker CAnd then, wouldn't you know, the door that opened had basically nothing to do with what I was doing for work.
Speaker CIt came out of minor hockey coaching.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BExplain that.
Speaker CSure.
Speaker CI was just coaching, like the house team, like one of one of the eight house teams, right?
Speaker CIt's 14 year olds.
Speaker BLet me interrupt for a second, folks.
Speaker BHockey is the Canadian national pastime, okay?
Speaker CIt might even be our religion.
Speaker CYou always want to know what, what faith country is.
Speaker CIt's probably the faith hockey.
Speaker CSo I was just doing my Canadian thing and coaching hockey and loving it because again, what a social experiment to work with crazy parents and kids.
Speaker CAnd because I was involved in my profession, I would have kids coming out of the foster system joining my program, kids coming out of juvenile, you know, detention on.
Speaker CMy kids had never skated before on my team.
Speaker CSo we had a ragtag team.
Speaker CAnd there's this one kid that was supposed to be going all the way, right?
Speaker CHe was amazing skater by that terrible, terrible attitude.
Speaker CSo he, he was cut from the evaluations of the travel team, like, the team that's like the high, the, you know, the team of a real talent.
Speaker CAnd they thought, who are we going to parachute this kid into?
Speaker CBecause this kid could ruin any team because not only is he good, he's got this terrible attitude.
Speaker CSo I said, well, Steve, you're the only one because you're the therapist, right?
Speaker CAnd so I got this kid on my team and.
Speaker CAnd we say people can change in the power, successes and team.
Speaker CThose are the pillars of our.
Speaker COf our work.
Speaker CAnd wouldn't you know it, three days into being on our team, he was loving it.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker CJust loving it.
Speaker CAnd finally had to tune up his dad, who was not loving it.
Speaker CHis dad was still standing at the far end of the rink like, this is bs.
Speaker CI can't believe the politics of this organization.
Speaker CYou know, I should probably sue them.
Speaker CHis dad was a powerful man in the logging industry.
Speaker CSo he watched the team that his son was parachuted into, and he watched how his son joined the team, how his son changed even how he spoke, his attitude, his language, how he passed the puck, you know, became a team player.
Speaker CHe went.
Speaker CFascinating.
Speaker CSo they had a big problem within their union, and they were just coming up with ideas like, who should we get?
Speaker CWe should get this university's leadership program or this and.
Speaker COr Stephen Covey or some organization come and help us.
Speaker CSo he's kind of cheeky because loggers are right.
Speaker CHe just put up his hand and said, I think we should give my kids coach a try.
Speaker CSo I didn't.
Speaker CThere was.
Speaker CI had no business card or nothing.
Speaker CIt was just a, what we call a red phone moment, which means the divine and humans connecting up.
Speaker CAnd if we can, if we can, if we can be tuned into those red phone moments and actually then go all in, that is the game.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BI love.
Speaker BI love that story because, you know, like I said, I grew up literally two miles from Canada, right?
Speaker BSo we're always going back and forth across the border for hockey and all this other stuff.
Speaker BThey come over, you know, the youth teams and all that stuff.
Speaker BSo I understood the power of hockey.
Speaker BI love that story as.
Speaker BOh, man, we got to talk about this.
Speaker CI think the point is that we prepare our mindset by what we think essentially God has called us to do.
Speaker CBut we don't necessarily have to push the rope on this.
Speaker CYeah, we.
Speaker CWe wait until you.
Speaker CYou prepare yourself.
Speaker CLike a master's degree certainly helped, you know, and.
Speaker CAnd having 22 years of really solid business, you know, business development under my belt.
Speaker CBut as far as opening up the Big old door and, and letting you through.
Speaker CThat's.
Speaker CThat's not always our work.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CThat's something that, I think it's good because it keeps you more humble.
Speaker CJust realize you sort of stumbled into it and might not even being God's first choice.
Speaker CLike, you might have gone through the list and you were number 14 people.
Speaker BHe was like, oh, this one might work.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CAnd I sort of maintained that attitude all the way through.
Speaker CI'm going, you know, I'm, I'm willing.
Speaker CI'm willing and available, but I may not be God's first, first pick.
Speaker CAnd that.
Speaker CI think that helps.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BNow, in your work, you've seen how unresolved trauma can impact workplace behavior.
Speaker BIs that what you call the subconscious X's that we all have in our brains, according to your book?
Speaker CYeah, it's a good question.
Speaker CSo for those of you that from a strategic point of view, when we started delivering, when I started delivering training in industry, it was in logging, heavy industry, wildland, fire.
Speaker CThose were the, those were the folks and, and most like mostly men.
Speaker CAnd I just was like, I just can't afford to use words like, like wounded or emotional trauma or the little, the little boy inside.
Speaker CLike, those kind of like psychobabble terms would just, you'd be thrown off, you'd be thrown off the dock using those kind of terms.
Speaker CAnd so I thought I need to come up with language that grown men that run massive pieces of equipment out in the bush can freely use to describe complex things with each other.
Speaker CAnd so I came up with a term called memory X's.
Speaker CSo literally like a black X that we draw on a white page in front of the room.
Speaker CSo a memory X is something that your front brain operating system is not able to store because it's, for whatever reason, it's not compatible with your general success.
Speaker CSo it needs to be stored in what we call your back brain.
Speaker CAnd it's stored in isolation, essentially in a limestone cave.
Speaker CAnd sometimes there's even vault doors that are put on front of them, and sometimes there's a collection of X's, but often they're just individually stored there.
Speaker CAnd they're stored for good reason so that you can carry on with your day to day.
Speaker CHowever, with the right stimulus, those, the code on those vault doors are known by adrenaline and cortisol.
Speaker CThey know the secret code.
Speaker CAnd so if you have a shot of adrenaline and cortisol, what happens is you can end up with what we call.
Speaker CYou can switch, you can switch to the back of your brain, you can end up in what's called the battle of the brains.
Speaker CSo your intentions are to speak respectively to your spouse, or answer the email in an appropriate way, or talk to your staff in a reasonable way, or not shout at the board of directors.
Speaker CThat's your front brain.
Speaker CAnd for sure, 95% of your life is going to be run and managed and regulated by your front brain.
Speaker CBut under the wrong circumstances, if you have memory X's that have not been harvested out of the back brain and repositioned in your front brain, they become the independent, an operating landing pad for the neurological process of being inappropriate.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CSometimes to a devastating level.
Speaker CSo, so the question is like, does everybody have memory access?
Speaker CThe answer is yes.
Speaker CIs everybody aware of their memory access?
Speaker BNo.
Speaker CAnd do CEOs have memory access?
Speaker CTons.
Speaker CDoes you know, someone running heavy equipment have memory access?
Speaker CYes.
Speaker CAnd so the fun thing in our model is that we've created language that people can freely talk to each other about on a daily basis.
Speaker CWe sit in sometimes 31 stories up in an oil and gas, in an executive boardroom.
Speaker CAnd once they're aware of our model, like they've adopted our language, it's amazing.
Speaker CThey'll go, okay, everybody, says the cfo, I'm about to give you our quarterly results.
Speaker CAnd before you all leave your front brains and land on giant X's in the back brain, I just want to let you know, buckle up because it's not going to be pretty.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker CSo they actually.
Speaker CAnd then away they go.
Speaker BThat's awesome.
Speaker CAnd, and the cool thing, it's not as if it doesn't exist.
Speaker CIt's that if you can expose that dynamic and make it common language within the workplace, then, then you end up with what we call human agency.
Speaker CYou have the ability to not only build amazing team, but you have this transparency and openness and it's, and it's.
Speaker CThe dynamics are, are completely reversed.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BYou know, when I was reading that, I had a saying, you know, back when, let's just say before I was born again and give you that idea.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker BBut I had a saying back then and, and when I read this X's in the back of the brain, like you said, secluded under lock and key.
Speaker BWell, my saying was that they were pushing all of the right buttons and in the right sequence.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker BThat brought me out where I would.
Speaker BYou know, they opened it, they opened this can of worms and now we're going fishing.
Speaker COh, I got, I can write that down.
Speaker CI'm going to Use that, by the way.
Speaker BAnd I, I'd give them a piece of my mind.
Speaker BI mean, all these things that, you know, when I was reading your book, I was like, that's me, that's me.
Speaker CAnd your back brain is saying, attaboy, Bob.
Speaker BYou get, oh yeah, I was enjoying it too.
Speaker CYou need to stand up for yourself and demolish your career right now.
Speaker BAnd it happened.
Speaker BAnd it happened.
Speaker BIt did.
Speaker COf course, nobody gets triggered, let's say with a military or a policing background, right?
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BI remember one that my daughter worked as a dispatcher for our department and I was on a traffic stop and this guy was just say, let's say not being cooperative and says, your front page.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAnd I just keyed up the microphone.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAs I start me another unit.
Speaker BThat's all I said.
Speaker BYeah, that's all I said, just start me another unit.
Speaker BBecause I knew it was going to get real, real quick.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BAnd my daughter is like, oh, somebody's about to get their butt kicked.
Speaker BAnd what.
Speaker BHe didn't say anything about fighting her.
Speaker BI know that voice.
Speaker BShe knew she, she picked up on the tone of voice and just, you know, and, but yeah, and that's.
Speaker CAnd I think like if we are fully aware that we're accessing some adrenaline and cortisol in order to achieve a specific result, go at her like, have fun with it.
Speaker CBut if, but if it is something that is, it becomes out of our control, then it becomes a massive liability.
Speaker CSo I think the message has to be really clear from, even from our company's point of view.
Speaker CWe're not asking people to just become vanilla, like to, to become like this somehow where they never get upset or they never develop, you know, have, have like, like strong opinions.
Speaker CIt's, it's on the contrary.
Speaker CThe cool thing is if you can have a self and situational awareness to regulate your two operating systems in your brain, what happens then is your brain actually gives you more opportunity to grow.
Speaker CI'll give you an example.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CSomeone, let's say you and your wife go to Mexico, have a great time, but you know, it's after hours, you go to the marina, it's 11 o'clock at night, and you and somebody wants to steal your phone.
Speaker CSo you have your big switchback moment, you save the day, you end up with an X because you say, hey, we just spent $5,000 doing this trip.
Speaker CAnd you know, it could have been, could have been bad.
Speaker CIt could have gotten poked with a knife.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CSo if you don't process that X that was a surprise attack during your nice holiday in Mexico.
Speaker CNext time your wife says, hey, let's plan a trip, guess what?
Speaker CMexico is off, off the list.
Speaker CYeah, you'll be going somewhere else.
Speaker CYou'll be going to Hawaii, to Costa Rica, somewhere.
Speaker CSo if you multiply that as adults, we, our lives can get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller.
Speaker CSmaller, smaller.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CSo we need to process that scuffle in Mexico, harvest that X in the back of our brains and come back down so that we can actually go back to Mexico.
Speaker CSo when you think about CEOs, they, they've been in the trenches for years and they have many, many Mexico scuffles with regulators, with, with, with safety infractions, with actual fatalities, with financial issues, with all these issues, if they aren't processing these X's, their world gets smaller and smaller and smaller and they become almost one dimensional.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CAnd they'll even be encouraged by legal counsel to be one dimensional, say, you know, just play in the lanes, keep it safe.
Speaker CBut at the end of the day, the CEO's job is to build trust among the executive to be able to deliver inspiration and understanding and clarity to the board of directors.
Speaker CAnd if they are one dimensional, that just doesn't take place.
Speaker CIt doesn't happen.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CAnd the problem is what happens at work happens at home too.
Speaker CAnd so that same executive, when they're driving home, there'll be one dimensional, non decisional as well, because they're just managing risk.
Speaker CIt's so popular in the corporate world to manage risk, but you manage risk to the point where you're not a leader anymore.
Speaker CAnd behind the, behind the veil, why are they managing risk at that level?
Speaker CBecause they haven't harvested their exes.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BYou know, as I was going through your book, I absolutely loved the concept of the three lane highway.
Speaker BAll right.
Speaker BBecause in your book, you know, I started to adapt that almost immediately after reading it with my assistance and stuff that I have now.
Speaker BAnd your explanation of this, you mentioned the military.
Speaker BAnd as we said before the recording started, that was basically the environment that I didn't grow up in a military family, but I matured and the beginning phase of my adult life was in the military.
Speaker BSo I guess you could say that that was the environment that I grew up in, at least mentally anyway.
Speaker BAnd it's where I learned about leadership and responsibility and all that.
Speaker BAnd as I was going through your book, I could identify some of the issues with how I was, according to your book, taught wrong.
Speaker COkay.
Speaker BI mean, for example, I might need information for a report I was working on.
Speaker BAnd I had tasked that out to a subordinate to research and get back to me with.
Speaker BAnd when I was preparing to the materials to work on, you know, I just walk as I saw something like, you know, hey, Sergeant Jones, you get that information I need yet?
Speaker BYou know, and you know, you're laughing, but that's, you know, the military, you know, thing.
Speaker BI asked you to get it.
Speaker BDid you get it?
Speaker BYes or no?
Speaker BIt's a, it's not a discussion, it's a yes or no answer.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker BType thing.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BAnd that according to your book might be considered confrontational, maybe even a bit.
Speaker COf a T bone where you're.
Speaker CIf this three lane highway is a lot of traffic flowing on, you've actually caused an accident, like a neurological relational accident.
Speaker CAnd when you pull away from that cubicle, they're like rolling their eyes going, Bob, oh yeah, what a jab.
Speaker CAnd you're not a jerk.
Speaker BThat's what I would do when they come in at me.
Speaker CIt just meant that you just what in our world, you just skipped a lane?
Speaker CYou didn't merge through the lane to get to what you needed to get to.
Speaker BYep.
Speaker BHey folks, Pastor Bob here.
Speaker BWhat time for this portion of this great interview with Stephen Falk as he's been sharing with us, you know, about the switched on CEO.
Speaker BThis is some great information.
Speaker BI know you're getting a lot out of this interview because I know I, I've been taking notes.
Speaker BPraise God.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BAnd as you can tell, his book is absolutely fabulous.
Speaker BBut we're all out of time for today.
Speaker BYou need to drop down the show notes, click the links right there.
Speaker BGet in touch with Stephen Falk.
Speaker BBe sure to order his book because it will just, it'll just open your eyes to a lot of different things.
Speaker BBut the good news is he's coming right back in the very next episode to conclude this discussion with us.
Speaker BAmen.
Speaker BTill next time.
Speaker BThis pastor by reminding you to be blessed in all that you do.
Speaker AYou have been listening to to the Faith Based Business podcast with Pastor Bob Thibodeau.
Speaker AWe appreciate you as a listener and fellow believer and want to encourage you in your entrepreneurial efforts.
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Speaker AUntil next time, be blessed in all that you do.
Speaker BSA.