Vince Langley - Building a Culture of Common Sense (B2018)

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We're so glad you're with us today, and I think you're going to be really excited about hearing from our next guest. He is Vince Langley of Vince Langley Resources, and Vince is going to talk about using common sense, uh, which is a sure way to prepare your business for the future. Um, but let's talk. About a business where you where your folks are engaged, where you're engaged, and you're taking ownership of your jobs at the employee level, this is what Vince does. He helps businesses to come together, use common sense, put your business together so it's going to last into the future and everybody's going to be engaged and happy. Vince, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks a lot, Bill. Hey, thanks for joining us today or uh where are you joining us from? I'm in Portland today, Portland, Oregon. Portland, Oregon. OK, well, great. Well, thanks for joining us today, Vince. And tell us a little bit about Vince Langley Resources and and how you got started and what you do for business owners. OK, um, background, I'm an educator. I'm a teacher, um, grew, grew up in Colorado, went to Alaska, and I've spent most of my career living up there and, uh, working out of Alaska. Just recently came down to the lower 48. Uh, my wife decided she wanted to see, see what it felt like to turn a light on without first starting the generator, so that was kind of my. What part of Alaska were you in, right? What part of Alaska? Southeast, well, up, up in the interior up by Palmer and Wasila for several years, little fishing village of Cordova, and then the last 13 years, a little village in southeast Alaska kind of by Ketchikan, the village called Meyers Chuck, population 7, so it's a pretty big place. OK. So, anyhow, um, so I use an educational model, um, to help businesses, um, figure out what, I, I use an analogy. I use a lot of stories and so I say, you know, what does your dirt look like? If you're a farmer and you're trying to grow a great crop, you've got to have the right stuff in the soil to make the, the trees grow. And I've, you know, I've got a couple of farms in my background. So I kind of know what that looks like, but then I use those analogies to help business owners kind of figure out what kind of culture, what kind of atmosphere, what kind of practices, processes, attitudes that people will have, so that they, they want to versus have to move forward and take responsibility for their jobs. And there's there's several phases to the whole process, as you might imagine. But probably the biggest thing is to try to, try to help get the dirt right inside organizations. Once the dirt's right, then there's an awful lot of other things that can happen. But until the people kind of get an understanding of why the business exists, how they fit into it, um, you know, what, what their jobs do to make the business better or worse, then it's kind of a struggle. And a lot of companies, you know, they got to never get over that. Everybody's just kind of just doing their jobs, you know, the best they can, but they don't understand the real reason why, uh, behind, behind a lot of it. And so that's, that's an educational thing. Now Vince, I don't know a lot about farming, but I know that there are certain ingredients and mixes you're looking for in your dirt depending on what you're going to grow. Um, what are those certain chem, what are those certain ingredients you're looking for in a business that make up its so-called dirt, and I love the analogy, by the way. Yeah, yeah, well, OK, you know I'm a storyteller, so that's easy for me. But you know, if you think of, you know, I was a cherry farmer for a while and so before I could plant my cherry trees, you know, we had to take out an old section of the farm that's kind of worn out. We had to put in sorghum the first year and then let it rot and it put nitrogen into the soil and so we had kind of a little formula of 3 years of work before we were ready to put the trees in. Well, the same thing happens inside of organizations is that first of all, you have to get people to kind of to want to be there. And, and especially with the younger generation of people that we're seeing in the organizations today, it used to be people just kind of did what they did because, you know, the, the boss told them to, but especially millennials and some of the folks that are younger now, they want to know why behind lots of things. Uh, we've kind of trained them that way in school to ask why. And so one of the big things in the dirt is the people have people understand the finances of a company and not just a few people at the very top, which is typical, you know, you only have a few people that know the whole, the whole deal, but I encourage organizations to find ways to communicate, you know, the business part, you know, use business languages to understand what the business is doing, what the margins are, you know, how hard it is to make a profit in many businesses. And so once people understand that their their behavior then starts to modify because they, they get it. But if they don't understand it, they make it up on their own, and oftentimes that's a very, very inaccurate estimate. I see a lot of companies that aren't making a lot of money, but the people, you know, the, the organization employees think, you know, it's wealthy and so it's just an educational problem. So that's like big things. I like that a lot because too many employees think that the owner just makes money and they don't understand every day. And you know, and we've, we hear a lot about the fact that the business is its own entity and everybody is there to serve that entity and somebody took the risk to put that together and some and that person either gets a payoff or a pay in basically. And so I, I love that concept of getting the employees involved. Uh, how easy, you know, how receptive first of all are business owners to that type of advice? Well, when they, when they first think about it, you know, it, it's like, you know, being afraid of the, the ghost in the closet kind of thing. Uh, whenever a new idea is presented to somebody, one of the first things that our brains do is they, they look at the, the tragedy that might happen, you know, and so we, we kind of get a little bit, you know, reticent to, to kind of open the books, especially if it's been a closed book kind of operation, which many times, you know, sole proprietors are, they kind of run it, you know, pretty close to the vest. But once I explain to them what the impact can be and give them examples of how people's behavior changes when their perception changes, then they start to open up. And many times we have to do it in stages too, you know, sometimes we don't talk about real dollars, we talk about percentages. Uh, you know, that makes a little bit more secure or safe as people. Get an education. They understand things, then you can start to be a little more, you know, open with the actual data and, um, and then, then pretty soon you're, you're pretty much opening up things and people understand and they act accordingly. You know, we actually think we we ask people to think and act like owners, but we don't give them the information to think and act like owners and so there's a flyby that's what. Well, and before 2008, a lot of business owners were kind of embarrassed to to show how much money they were making, but I don't think that was the case after for a lot of people, uh, it, it would be actually a good time to show them that this, you know, and to put it in perspective that this uh. Shareholder relationship is completely different than the, the, the president, uh, you know, so above the ownership line and below the ownership line. So what else goes into the soil besides the dirt besides the finances? Yeah, well, you know, there's, there's processes in business, and you know one of the things in the, in the typical quality mindset is we, we set up processes that are kind of our methods of doing things and we put measures together and But unfortunately many times those processes are done by by others. Maybe a manager creates the process for a team or sometimes we'll have a department that comes in and analyzes things and writes things down for people. Well, I don't know about you, Bill, but I don't like to be told what to do. I'm not much on that. And so if somebody comes in and bounces a whole bunch of new regulations or rules or ideas off of me, I'm not gonna probably embrace it like it was my own. And so one of the parts of the dirt that I really, you know, try to, try to get going is for people to, to analyze their own processes and, and you can do it without a whole lot of, you know, formal education. It can be pretty much common sense. Just kind of write down the steps of what you do, and there's lots of different tools to help you, help you do that. But when people start to think analytically a little bit about the steps they do, then, then, you know, after you get that documented and people get that, then you can ask them I say, OK, now, does anybody have any ideas for improvement? And people will say, well, shoot, yeah, you know, I've been running this machine for 10 years or calling on this customer for 5 years or whatever it is, you know, I've always had ideas, but no one's ever asked. And so the idea of knowing what your processes are and having a measure that you create. And then having an expectation that that we analyze those those processes for the opportunity for improvement. I have some clients that have taken, you know, 30 or 40 people, and each of those people have come up with 10 and 15 and 20 ideas and implemented those ideas on how to make their jobs go better, quicker, faster. Well, you know, obviously the organization, uh, benefits from that, and, and more importantly though, they benefit. They, they see how they're important. They feel good about coming into the business, you know, turnover goes down, um, you know, I've had some union shops where it used to be kind of tough, tough union versus management, and those kind of things are, are, you know, put on the back burner to look at the, you know, benefit for everybody. So it just it. It's a mindset where you get the right stuff in the dirt and then the trees can grow and so having these processes that are owned and measured and then people take accountability to improve them it's a big thing and you know, think about, you know, exit strategies, that is a prerequisite for any organization that wants to, you know, you know, in the future sometime have the the head guy and then you go off and do something else or not be there as often. I like that and we talk about that a lot too is the you're trying to capture that let's call it the water cooler knowledge that where where the key people are standing around at the water cooler talking about how they do things a little better, a little different, and they've improved upon things. How do we capture that as a company? And so that's a great idea for capturing that. Um, OK, it has to be a formal process too, yeah, it has to be a formal process. So it's not just, you know, we, you know, a lot of companies say, well, we have an open door policy, so anybody can come in and and give their ideas anytime. Well, that, that, that is oftentimes uncomfortable for people. Uh, they, you know, they may not be quite ready to expose it or maybe there's a relationship thing there that's not as open and warm as you might think it is. And so we kind of have everybody go through classes together and so everybody's experiencing the same tools and then these common tools get common experiences and behaviors. So, you know, I'm, I'm a big advocate of education for all as opposed to education for a few. And the result of that is you get a common set of behaviors for a whole company versus just a few people doing the things for everybody. Uh, one of the first things, you know, that I tell people, I say, you know, if you only remember one thing about our conversation today, uh, here it is, and I, you know, I put up a little thing that says, if you had to fill in this blank and says, I am paid to blank, what would you put in there? Well, most people would just put um I'm paid to work or I'm paid to drive the truck or sell the product or whatever. And I said, you know, even before that, what would happen to your organization if you were paid to sink? And people look at me funny and say, well, you know, I've even been told not to think, you know, I said, yeah, I had that job too, you know, not for very long, but a lot of times in the past, people haven't been expected to think. They haven't been expected to improve things. And so therefore, you know, they just kind of go through the motions and it's not to bad people. uh, they've just never been put, put in the right field. Mhm, I love that great idea. So getting more out of your people and building processes capturing the knowledge that's a an integral uh uh component to the soil to the dirt. So what else is there anything else that goes into that or I I got a couple other questions for you if if you're done with that, but is there anything else that goes into that? There's probably one, there's probably one that overlooked is overlooked more often than not, and that is, you know, the concept of celebration. I see a lot of companies that celebrate one accomplishment by giving another task. So, you know, way to go, here's your next job kind of thing. And so they never really take time to capitalize on the feelings of accomplishment that people have when they do a good job and they, you know, they do the new order, they get the order out on time. So I'm a big fan of accolades and I call it catching people doing it right. As opposed to focusing on the mistakes or the errors, whatnot, and most people, you know, unfortunately say, you know, I can do a lot of things right and those are ignored, but if I mess up a little bit, then those things are brought to my attention and oftentimes not in a terrible way, but you know, it's just kind of the way it's always been. And so you know, one of the processes that I try to get going as far as the dirt goes is to get people to take advantage of the good things that are going on, you know, we even do a little thing called Good News Friday where every department in a company will write out the things that they're most proud of that they have accomplished that week, and it's composed by the people in the department, not a manager all the times. And so then you publish this and people kind of see what's going on around them in the organization that is that is beneficial as opposed to not knowing whether there are other parts of the organization are doing and then criticizing them. So that's where a lot of those times you get silos and those kinds of jealousy going on between departments. So this kind of kind of helps get over some of that. So that'd be another part of the. OK, so, so we have, uh, uh, creating awareness of, of what goes, what the components are of the business financials, the processes and the communication amongst employees, and then celebrating the things that are going right and making sure everybody's aware of all the good that's happening within the business. Makes for a rich soil, um, that a business owner can grow their business from. Let's talk about, uh, uh, how, how to build a culture of independence versus dependence. Um, uh, how do we do that? Well, you know, most of the time, and, and you start to think about leadership and management roles, um, we have been kind of trained that our job is to kind of do what we're told, you know, the, the boss says, you know, here's some tasks to do, and we say, OK. And so there's a kind of a dependent role there it's kind of like, you know, patriarchal kind of top down kind of deal and it's the old pyramid. And and and so then people kind of go through their motions and we're done doing that they take on other tasks and so that is kind of a dependent mindset. And then if you have a question, then oftentimes you go to your boss for the answer. And so bosses all day long are dealing with problems and questions and issues that people bring to them and it's kind of a dependent kind of relationship. Well, I like to say let's turn that around. Let's say that the job of the leader is to support the people in their decision making. Well, that sounds good, but then you have to say, well, what do they need in order to make good sound decisions? Well, like we said before, they need education, they need encouragement, they need to be safe. They, they need to know that their ideas matter and that the philosophy of the company is going to embrace some action as as opposed to just tolerate their ideas. And so, you know, over a period of time. Um, you develop people that, that bring answers and solutions for discussion versus just questions, hoping that somebody will, will fill in the blanks for them and tell them what to do. And it doesn't happen overnight and some people are better at it than others, but I've seen, you know, people with, you know, no formal education to speak of, uh, be very astute business people, you know, and come up with business plans with, you know, um, you know, cost, cost effective ideas with return on investment calculations and You know, they go out and get goods from different suppliers and stuff, and they do that because they know that their ideas count and so they become more independent. And so the, the job of the leader then is to be the educator, the teacher, the mentor versus the, the cop or the coach or the cop or the, you know, the teller what to do. And so it really does, it kind of just changes the whole atmosphere. Mhm. Yeah, so, so instead of the leader thinking of themselves from, uh, sending out the ideas and the commands, um, by empowering, educating, like you said, educating courage, create safe environment, uh, a, a situation feeling that your ideas matter and we'll take action on those great ideas, you're actually empowering your team and that's where you start to get a multiplier effect by, by having everybody feel like they're. They're contributing. I like that and and it happens at every level of the organization too, Bill. It's really cool, you know, a lot of times people think, well, this is all great if you're at a certain level in the company, you know, and that's, that's why we have our management team or whatever we call it. But I have found that that the the ideas obviously there's gonna be more ideas, the more people you engage and so, you know, I've got organizations that have, you know. You know, 30,000 employees that I get to work with, and each one of those people is thinking and acting like an owner and then they have a process in place for those ideas to get, you know, examined and considered and then implemented. Um, they actually have an implementation process. They don't call it an evaluation process. They call it the implementation process. So they kind of begin with that end in mind is that we're going to take action on. stuff and your ideas are going to count. Now. Obviously sometimes they're not perfect the first time you look at them and people need to, you know, modify them and learn and whatnot, but that's, that's part of the fun, you know, people get to say every day I learn something new when I go to work. Well, that's pretty cool, you know, cause there's a lot of people who don't, don't get to learn things when they go to work. And it's not because they have boring work, it's because they have dirt that's not really set up for that. And so you can take any, any business, any job, any person. And allow them to develop their skills beyond what they thought themselves to be capable of. And that's where I get the biggest kick out of it is to see organizations that, you know, in the past have kind of been sleepy little, you know, kind of just going through the day and stuff, and these places get to be fun and they're engaged and the people smile and they, you know, they pick up trash in the parking lot because they want to and it's their place versus somebody says, Well, you've got to go pick up the trash in the parking lot. They're doing it from free will versus a forced situation. So Vince, you you're a visage speaker correct? I am mhm. OK, OK, now Visage for listeners who don't know is a is a worldwide organization of business owners that get together. I'm a member of a group myself and it's about a dozen business owners and we get together and we have speakers come in like Vince. Vince, when you, when you speak to uh Visage group, can you describe what your talk is about in about 1.5 to 2 minutes? Sure, sure. Well, a lot of it is this concept of, of dirt, you know, and I, I, I tell some stories about my cherry farm and yada yada, but, but I, I asked the people, I, you know, I give them a little piece of paper. I said, OK, now if you were to describe your dirt as it sits today, you know, what does your farm look like? A lot of times they'll put down things like, oh tense or unsure or chaotic or um silos, you know, people at each other, you know, and, and then other times they'll they'll put in profitable and moving forward so it's not always bad, but I say, OK, now that's your current state and then I say, OK, now 2 years down the road, what would you like to be able to say about your dirt, about your company? And people will say, you know, forward thinking or world famous or um ridiculously profitable. I had that one yesterday from a guy. It was real fun. Um, and, and so they, they kind of let their mind go to what they want. And then I say, OK, now, here's where you are and here's where you want to be. And I say, OK, now what's the definition of a, of a crazy person? And everybody says, well, you know, it's a person who expects a different outcome by doing what they've always done. I said, yeah. So I said, now it means in order to go from where you are to where you want to be, you're going to have to change some things. And so we get into, you know, how do you change those things? Well, you start off with the perception of what my job is and that's where the unpaid to think idea comes into it. Then you start talking about the role of leadership going from the cop to the coach, and you start to turn the org chart upside down so it's a supportive servant model of leadership versus the, you know, more military top down patriarchal kind of deal. And so we go through about 5 or 6 different little activities that allow people to see things differently. And then from that I ask myself, OK, now, from, from moving forward now, let's brainstorm some things that you're gonna do that's gonna cause that desired outcome to be real. And here again it's just common sense. It doesn't take a lot. It doesn't take any, you know, great philosophy or a ton of money. It just takes behavioral change based upon wanting a different outcome than you currently have. And the more people you can get involved with that, so it's our dirt versus, you know, only one or two people's dirt, that's when it really becomes. and you let the people take charge of part of the dirt. So if somebody says we want to become world famous, you say, OK, who would like to work on the world famous team, and you get some people saying, OK, we're gonna, we're going to do the things necessary to have that outcome. So it doesn't always just come back down to one or two people making these choices, but you engage the entire team, and that's when you get power that is, you know, you, you just can't stop it. It becomes a a a a moving force. It's, it's really cool to watch. Well I love your examples. I love your, uh, you know, your acronym, the, uh, the, the formulas and the ideas that you brought to us today. How do our listeners get in touch with if they wanna, they want to talk to you or engage you as a speaker? Um, there's a website, Vince Langleyresources.com. And on that you'll see some of the skills or the tools, and I use a lot of pictures and not a whole lot of words, but also it it'll show some case studies of, you know, from little tiny organizations that have, you know, a handful of people, great big huge companies, you know, that are in the billions of dollars of revenue and worldwide presence. But, you know, any company can do this. It doesn't have to be restricted to one industry because it's a people thing. And so that's the fun part about this approach is I get to talk to lots of different kinds of companies, you know, from professional services and, you know, medical institutions to manufacturers and insurance companies and lawyers and I mean that it's, it's all basically the same kind of thing when it comes down to the base foundation. Um, and so I would encourage folks to take a look at that website and, and we chat. Again, it's Vince Langley Resources, and Vince, thanks very much for coming on today. It's very, very interesting what you're doing and how you communicate, and I can tell that you're, you, you know what you're talking about, but you're, you're willing to bring it down to a basic level, down to the dirt, and I like that a lot. Thanks again for joining us, and I hope we can talk again or or meet sometime in the near future. My pleasure thanks Bill. We're gonna take a short break, we'll be right back after this, so please stay tuned. Just thinking about what will happen to your business if you're gone keep you awake at night? Will you get the price you need from your business to carry you through retirement? The BEI Network of Exit Planning Professions is the world's leading advisor network with the power to help business owners transition out of business on their own timeline and terms. Ask your most trusted advisor to create a BEI plan for you, or visit us at exitplanning.com. That's exitplanning.com. You're listening to Exit Coachradio.com, the information station for age 50 plus business owners, where we're interviewing top advisors for their best tips, ideas, and precautions so you can be well planned. We upload new one minute tips every day. Exitcoachradio.com. Come listen for a minute. Thank you for listening to Exit Coach Radio.