Maxwell Executive Leadership Podcast #135: Changing the World by Changing Your World

John Maxwell published a new book recently called, Change Your World, but this is much more than a book, this is a movement and a story about transformation. Today, Perry and Chris talk with Tricia Gleghorn about the Change Your World movement and how you can participate. 

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Perry Holley:    Welcome to the John Maxwell Executive Leadership Podcast, where our goal is to help you increase your reputation as a leader, increase your ability to influence others, and increase your ability to fully engage your team to deliver remarkable results. Hi, I’m Perry Holley, a John Maxwell facilitator and coach.

Chris Goede:     And I’m Chris Goede, vice president, John Maxwell company. Welcome and thank you for joining. Before we get started today, and I’m super excited today because we have our number one listener with us here.

Perry Holley:    Number one.

Chris Goede:     Number one. Yeah, number one. And a good friend, long time friend of ours and mine personally, Tricia Gleghorn. Before we get started and talk about what we’re going to talk about today and how that can help your culture inside your organization. I just want to remind you if you have any questions for Perry, I, you want to learn a little bit more about some training that we’re going to bring to organizations or even some of the coaching. We talk a lot. We were just talking before we got started about the impact of coaching in the cultures of organizations. Don’t hesitate to visit johnmaxwellcompany.com/podcast. And you can see all that information there and you can leave a comment or two.

Well, as I said, just a minute ago, I’m super excited because I have a dear friend that is here recording with us. I think maybe somebody said they got tired of just hearing our voices and they want to bring in a nicer voice-

Perry Holley:    I think it was heard.

Chris Goede:     It might’ve been heard, our number one listener that actually submitted that comment. So I want to introduce you to a young lady named Tricia Gleghorn. And Tricia, I don’t know, we go back probably… She’s just shaking her head. She’s like, “Do not say the number of years that we go back.” And we’ve worked in John’s World some 20 years ago together. And so we’ve done a lot of work together. We’ve done a lot of life together. Today, specifically, I really want to spend some time where Perry and I want to hear a little bit more about the initiative that John and our team has you on, which is really this movement.

It’s the Change Your World movement for those that are familiar in John’s World, it’s a book that he’s just recently released, but it’s more than a book. It’s completely about a movement that John is going after. And so Tricia welcome. Thank you for joining us and tell us just a little bit as we kick off about this movement that you’re working on. I say working on, it’s consuming you. I know that because we’re friends. This is something that she thinks about every single day, all day long. Tell us a little bit about it. And we’re excited to kind of dig in with you today on that topic.

Tricia Gleghorn:            Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. And you’re right. This is something I am so excited to be able to get to be talking about today because Change Your World really is an invitation for anyone who’s willing to learn and live good values. To collaborate with people and to value others, to step up and change your world. We don’t have to wait for anyone to give us permission. This is your permission to jump out there, make a difference.

Chris Goede:     And just that one statement. The first thing I thought about was, “Man, do we need that in our world today?” And in your organization, Perry and I spent a lot of time talking about application in the organization. I want our listeners to think about that today of this movement inside your organization and the impact that it could have. Now we talk about Change Your World. We talk about it being a values-based conversation and round tables. And we’ll get into that in just a minute. And I know John talks about being bigger on the inside than you are on the outside. Is that why we’re going after values? Talk a little bit about that.

Tricia Gleghorn:            Sure. Absolutely. Because as John says, “The only way that we can truly be great on the inside is through values.” And so these Change Your World transformation tables, give us the opportunity to really dive in and develop these foundational values.

Chris Goede:     So when you talk about diving in and unpacking the values, how do we go about doing that? And I asked that as a question of which I already know the answer to. And the reason I know that answer is Perry. And I actually, along with my team, we have some new team members. And we’re actually going through this experience. This Change Your World for our team-

Perry Holley:    We’re at the table.

Chris Goede:     Yeah. We’re at the table as Perry just said. Yes, we’re at the table. And we’re going to share with you a little bit about some of our impact and takeaways of going through it. We’re halfway through it right now and the impact it’s had on us as organizational leaders. But talk about how does that happen, we’re at the table. What does that mean when we say we’re at the table or a round table and we’re discussing the values?

Tricia Gleghorn:            Sure. Well, first let’s start off with what those values are because I know some people might want to know, well, are they your values? My values? Whose values are they? But these are fabulous because they’re foundational values that I think everyone could agree with. We start out with hope, which everyone knows we need, moves on to listening, then goes to valuing every person, which is a lesson we wrote specifically for this. Because it’s so incredibly important right now. It goes from there to integrity, and then to forgiveness, and to multiplication. So as you can see, anyone who can develop those, you’re going to be better at whatever it is you do just by learning to be better at each of those values.

Chris Goede:     You know what I love about those values is, Perry and I talk a lot about making sure that we are developing and adding value to people personally and professionally. We talk a lot about the fact that we spend more time with each other. The four of us here in the room, spend more time than we probably do with our family members. Well, I mean, except for Perry. Perry doesn’t work much, but the three of us do.

Perry Holley:    Other than that.

Chris Goede:     Yeah. Other than that, but what I love about that, is that this is something that we’re going after the heart, we’re going after the individual first to improve them personally. And then by the way, we help somebody do that. And we want to talk about increasing our influence and adding value in the impact that we can have. It is done through those values.

So thank you for pausing there for a minute and explain the values of what that means. So when we say at the table, when we talk about having discussions, what does that look like? Just give us some structure around what that looks like. And if you don’t mind, because I know you’ve experienced both in the organizational world, also the nonprofit, the faith. You’ve seen it everywhere, right? Different countries. Talk about what does that look like, and what could somebody expect as they ask somebody to be at the table with them inside their organization.

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Tricia Gleghorn:            Sure. I’d love to because we’ve really embraced this metaphor of the table because growth happens when we come around the table. It can be virtually, or it can be in person. But really it’s that intentionality to set aside some time, one hour a week, for six weeks, to really come together. And you’re going to get to spend some time learning about these values-based, people-centric leadership development principles. But it’s more than that, because it’s with your teammates or with people who you’re getting to know, you’re getting to know them at a deeper level. You’re getting to hear what’s important to them. In the examples they hear, you’re just learning so much about the people who you’re interacting with.

Chris Goede:     Yeah. And that is a tremendous connection point. We talk a lot about understanding the values of people that you work with. And when you understand, and you hear those stories, man, that connection there to be able to influence them and lead them.

Perry Holley:    It was one of the big things when we do a 5 Levels Workshop. We have a place in where we talk about you, the leader, what are your values? And we go through an exercise to determine, kind of boil it down to three to five values that really drive you. But one of the exercises toward the end, there’s a place, there’s a space on this action plan about what are the values of your teammates? What are the values of the people on your team? And it’s crickets in the room. People don’t know what that is. I think what I’ve been most impressed about, coming to the table for this initiative is our team is sitting at this table and we’re talking about, we started with hope, as you said. And then we looked at listening and we’re sharing. And it’s an hour that goes by really in a quick hurry, but we learn about each other.

And Chris and I was talking the other day, how people have been so transparent in saying, “Yeah, I struggle with that. And hope has been something I don’t get.” And then listening, we had a couple of big laughs about many of us confessing that, “Yeah. I don’t listen like I should.” And how do we do about that? How do we hold each other accountable for that? What’s your action plan for that? So I’ve kind of been, I think when I came into it I go, “Yeah, we’ll see.” I’ve been stunned with how much I personally have taken away from each of the time that we’re at the table.

Chris Goede:     Yeah, absolutely.

Tricia Gleghorn:            And what’s really awesome about that is one of the things that being around the table does, is one of the steps is, it draws that out of people. Because it asked them to say, who do you know that exemplifies this particular value? And I’ve probably been in a hundred of these tables. And I can’t tell you how many times they name someone who’s around that table.

Perry Holley:    Yeah. We keep hearing Chris Goede.

Chris Goede:     Thank you, Tricia. I’ll pay you on the way out. That was awesome.

Tricia Gleghorn:            So just what a great opportunity it is to be able to hear that about your teammates. And even if it’s not that, it’s a learning lesson. As I’m hearing them talk about someone like that, I’m thinking, “What would I have to do to be someone that they would name to be like that?”

Chris Goede:     Yeah. That is a strong statement. If you didn’t hear that, I encourage you to hit the little rewind button and go listen to that statement again, because that is key in building. Again, we’re coming at this with, how does this impact the culture of which you work in? Okay. And this is a foundational piece. Perry’s talking about it, about how we go after, what are your personal values? This is values as well, but now we’re digging in and saying, “What does this value mean to you and how you live that out?

It’s funny that, Tricia, you said that there was an individual that was mentioned in our session the other day, that I took a moment afterwards, just to text that individual and say, “Hey, we’re going through this. I just want you to be aware your name was brought up to answer this question. And here’s what it meant. And this individual will never tell you face to face, but I just want you to hear this because the impact that it’s making.” And that individual was so encouraged by that comment. That would’ve never happened, if Tricia you and your team hadn’t put together such an experience of being able to have those conversations.

So Perry and I are just sharing some raw comments from what we’re experiencing here, inside our organization. Talk a little bit about the organizations that you have seen implement this. What are some of the stories you’re hearing? Give just some of the feedback that you’re hearing from these organizations so that our listeners can relate to that experience. And then we’re going to get to a place where they can actually go in with a call to action, be able to go and experience it with their team as well. But so just share some of those that you hear day in and day out from organizations around the world.

Tricia Gleghorn:            Certainly I’d love to. I hear a lot of different feedback from, you find people who find their voice. Because the whole process, leans into everyone is a participant. You also find people who are increasing in confidence. But probably the biggest piece of feedback that I hear from teams that implement this is there’s an increased sense of engagement. It’s not only coming around the table around a piece of content. It’s really content that you experienced together. And as you’re doing that, I think it’s a natural byproduct of just learning. Like I said earlier, to get to know each other, develop empathy for what is going on in each other’s lives. And there’s also a sense that you’re being invested in.

So you walk away with this team that is more brought together because of their participation in it. But another way that we’ve seen some companies do that a little bit different, some will do it with departments that know each other. Others have been intentional to say, we want to split it up. We want people who may not actually ever get to see each other and they only get to interact via email or something like that. And they’ve said at the end of the season of doing these tables, like “It was so much fun for us to get a broader sense of who’s in our ecosystem and who we’re getting to interact with.”

Chris Goede:     You want to talk about silos in organizations and how to begin breaking down silos. That idea that she just shared is a fantastic idea. You imagine putting a sales team member in a room, with an accounting team member in a room, with a marketing who, they don’t even know each other. And then what that would do for the culture outside the organization would be powerful.

Perry Holley:    I love that. I was just thinking, even talking 5 Levels in the classroom, having a Change Your World exercise, of how do you talk value? How do you do this? And when you’re talking Tricia, about empathy with the word you use, I was actually thinking too. We talked to leaders about one thing to make great connection with others is a little bit of vulnerability is that, I don’t have all the answers, I’m learning as well, coming at it from a vulnerable point of view. And I found being around the table, it doesn’t feel awkward at all. But we’re all sharing from a point of what are we learning here? Where’s our growth in these value areas? And I think it really takes down the walls where that engagement goes up. And I see my partners, my teammates in a different light that we are in this together. Nobody’s got it all figured out, but we’re all growing. And we want to be bigger on the inside than on the outside. How do we help each other? All of a sudden connections are made.

Tricia Gleghorn:            I love hearing that because that’s exactly what the methodology for these transformation tables was designed to do. No one is the leader. No one is a coach. It’s a peer to peer process. And it sets that up, that we’re all on the same level. We’re all learning. Even the person who is the facilitator, when we’re training them, we’re telling them, “Your job is to model what it looks like to be an authentic participant.” And there’s a lot of opportunities to be able to do that.

Perry Holley:    Well, you’re doing a great job with the training of the facilitators. Because ours will not let you off if you don’t really have off the hook, if you don’t have a committed action plan that says “I, I am going to do.” I found that to be a little awkward a couple of times, but she’s right.

Chris Goede:     Yeah, she’s absolutely right. And she’s done an incredible job. Let me talk about that because I think that’s a powerful point. You may be listening and saying, “Well, my team doesn’t really have a executive facilitator or a strong facilitator.” The individual that’s leading, that Perry and I sit in and some other very competent individuals, is not an executive facilitator. And she was like, “Hey, I want to do this. I want to facilitate this conversation. And it’s a simple process. You just got to kind of take people through.” And she was kind of busting our chops. She’s like, “No. Who’s going to be involved? When are you going to do it by? And we’re like, “Is this a KPI?”

Perry Holley:    I’m going to try to listen better.

Chris Goede:     No, no, no, no, no. I need specific.

Perry Holley:    When are you going to?

Chris Goede:     And everybody starts laughing. And so it was funny because we’re into our third week. And so everybody’s now prepared with what their specific one is. In our last one, the facilitator’s like, “I don’t have one.” And we all just started wearing around. But the other thing I want to say is when you talk about engagement levels and you talk about those that don’t have a voice on your team getting their voice. I have heard stories in just the three weeks that we’ve done. We’re getting ready to go on our fourth. I’ve heard stories about a shopping experience at Publix, that they were very vulnerable with of maybe how they acted, didn’t listen, didn’t value people, whatever. I heard experiences about a DMV experience, Department of Motor Vehicle.

Perry Holley:    Oh my.

Chris Goede:     Yeah. Nope. Not talking about that one. But you hear all these and it’s just amazing. The things that you can hear through a simple hour of intentionally having a conversation around the table. And I just wanted to share that because when you said, I think Perry mentioned engagement, you mentioned engagement when you talked about those that don’t have voice… Oh, my last example. Okay. Sorry. This happens often Tricia. I know you’re an avid listener. Perry usually talks all the time, not me. So since I have the mic, I want to keep talking. We have a team member who is very introverted, extremely competent, service and volunteer’s the number one goal. But is not very comfortable speaking in front of other team members. And three weeks in, hasn’t said much. Didn’t read a lot, just the notes and all of a sudden three weeks in. And she’s like, “I got that. I’ll read that.” And I was like.

And later afterwards, I said to the facilitator, I sent a text and I said, “Great job leading that individual to that point. Whatever it was, great job.” The facilitator sent me a text back and said, “Didn’t have one word with that individual. It just came out because of the fact that we were doing this together and it began to build that camaraderie inside the team.” And so stuff like that will happen inside your team if you’ll take time to do this.Perry Holley:    Could you go a little bit specifics on, so our listeners know, so what happens? I go to a website, does this cost me anything? Maybe even a description and maybe we could give the description of what we do at the table. It’s an hour, it’s crisp, it’s easy. But maybe just give a bigger picture about what actually, specifically is happening.

Tricia Gleghorn:            Yes. Certainly. Because we’ve been alluding to various pieces of that. So let’s walk people through this.

Chris Goede:     Yeah. Let’s do it.

Tricia Gleghorn:            So it kind of dive in on the deep end. The very first part is you get to come back and report on how you did on the action step that you committed to at the end of your last session. So you don’t get to just lay out your action step, you’re coming back and reporting that. And it’s really fun. Usually about week three, so it sounds like you’re just getting there, people start to feel this sense of consistency compounding. They’re small action steps, but week by week, you’re seeing a difference. We move from that to content. And we ask each person if they’re comfortable to take a turn and just read the paragraph.

Perry Holley:    It was about the handout that we get about three pages. Very easy.

Tricia Gleghorn:            Correct. Nothing super long, then we move from that content to steps to follow. And we do that because we don’t ever want it to be just content that we learn. We want it to be something that’s actionable, you know what to do with it. You know that after you’ve heard this and you’ve been listening, or listening, and listening, you know what to go and do with it. So then we go from steps to follow to an opportunity for each person to have just one minute to say, what was it that stood out the most to you and why. Again, talk about an opportunity to get to know your teammates, to be able to hear their hearts. That’s where it comes out right there. Then we give you five minutes to go through an evaluation section. And it’s really cool because again, no one here is grading you except for yourself.

Perry Holley:    Personal reflection.

Tricia Gleghorn:            Yes. And we’re saying you might’ve come into this lesson thinking you are fabulous at integrity. But now that we’ve really just talked about what it looks like to be a person of integrity, we’re going to ask you to grade yourself. And then we’re going to ask you to say what would be different about my life, if I were higher in that. We’re going to ask you some questions, like we said, who do you know that exemplifies this? And so it’s really a chance to, again, move from just hearing content, but thinking through how does this apply in what you do in your normal everyday life? And it does apply across the board. It doesn’t matter what you do. This has an impact on you.

Then we get to that last step, which is where you are going to choose your action step. And I love that you have a facilitator who is holding your feet to the fire?

Perry Holley:    Yeah.

Chris Goede:     Yeah.

Tricia Gleghorn:            Well done. Because that is where you’re going to see a lot of change happen because you’re just picking one thing that’s manageable. We’re not asking you to go do something massive in one week. But what is one thing that you can do that would make your score be better if you were to focus on it this week. And you cannot believe the stories that we hear from these one small practical steps.

Chris Goede:     Yeah it’s unbelievable. Yeah. Okay. So tell our listeners, how do they access this? What do they have to have? Do they have to have membership? Does it cost anything? Talk a little bit about the process of then getting them to that point, to be able to just to experience it.

Tricia Gleghorn:            Certainly. It’s easy. You just go to changeyourworld.com. And if you want to get a sense of what it’s all about, there’s an assessment that you can take immediately. It’s all free. You take the assessment, you’ll get some immediate feedback on which value out of the ones that we discussed, that you do the best at learning and living out. You’ll also get some feedback where you might have some room for growth. And you’ll be followed up with those results. We’ll have an opportunity if you want to dive deeper in and join a table. So it’s just go to changeyourworld.com. It’s free. The investment that is required though, is your time and your commitment. Your team doesn’t gel if you don’t be a regular about meeting once a week, for one hour, for about six weeks. So we really need you to be intentional, when you do sign up to pick a time ahead of time, that’s going to work for your whole group. Be consistent about meeting and you’ll see the difference in your team dynamics.

Perry Holley:    We’ve been doing it over lunch.

Chris Goede:     Yeah. Yeah. We just say, “Hey, bring lunch in. Let’s eat in the conference room.” And in the world of digital connection, virtual world, we have some that are in a room, spaced out. But we also have some that are on the screen and Zoom. And so we haven’t lost any dynamics because of that. And so it’s been a game changer for us. Well, I normally wrap up our sessions as we bring them to a close, but Tricia I’d love for you just to kind of wrap it up. When I talk about pouring your heart and soul into a movement, that’s what Tricia Gleghorn is doing. I know personally, maybe not the exact number of hours, but I know the weight and the hours that she has been putting in and will continue to put into this movement. And John, he has a goal and that is to see a country transformed through values before his time is up.

And it’s all on Tricia. It’s your responsibility. I say that jokingly, but seriously, that’s what she wakes up and thinks about every day. And so even on behalf of our team, the two of us standing here, I just want to say, thank you to you and your team for what you’ve done on the front end. Developing the assessment, developing the online platform, the values, the lessons, because our team has a higher engagement level. And I would say a better culture than we did before we started. So I wanted to say, thank you on behalf of our team. But just wrap this up for us. What are your closing thoughts and speak to the listeners about the importance of them getting involved in this movement.

Tricia Gleghorn:            Certainly. Thank you. And that is one of the reasons that we created Change Your World. Because John can’t be everywhere, to every country to change it. But this gives every one of us an opportunity to say, “Right where I am. If I choose to embrace and live these values, I can make a difference.” So I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of that. But thinking about you and thinking about your audience, that the closing thought I would love to remind you of or share would be, I heard you talk often about the value of creating a common language and how that really speaks to culture. And it reminds me, we had a gentleman who was an HR executive for a large bank. And they had put their team through tables, I believe they had about 1500 employees. And about a year later, they were having some struggles with assimilation. And as they were digging in to see what the issue was, they found out that there was a challenge that the new hires didn’t possess the language that had been taught through the transformation tables.

Because the language that’s shared, it’s a really reflective of a values-based, people-centric leadership culture. So they changed their onboarding process to include putting new hires in the tables.

Chris Goede:     That is awesome. That’s fantastic. What a great story.

Perry Holley:    Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for joining us. I titled this, You Can Change The World, If You’ll Change Your World. And I believe we’re feeling that ourselves, on our team. And I’m so glad we’ve had a chance to experience it because it sounded nice. And I’ll want to encourage anybody who’s listening, go to changeyourworld.com, take the assessment, join a table, look at the materials. I think you’ll be glad you did. It’ll make a difference in your organization. As Chris reminded at the top of the broadcast. If you want to know more about the five levels or any of the other offerings or get a Learner’s Guide. I did put all the connections in the Learner’s Guide for this episodes. You can download that as well at johnmaxwellcompany.com/podcast. As always, we’re so grateful you had spend this time with us. That’s all today from the John Maxwell Executive Leadership Podcast.