29 Jan A Culture-first Mindset and the Idea of Infectious Enthusiasm
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Murray Guest on the Inspired Energy Podcast as part of a series for Guest’s strengths-based coaching business, Inspire My Business.
During the interview we discussed building high-performance teams, the idea of “infectious enthusiasm,” how culture comes first, the power of a “no rank” debrief, the Performance Triad and why a Noble Calling is the highest form of Passion. Listen to the full interview below:
Here are a few key moments in the podcast Q&A:
Organizations that do not operate in extreme conditions often think they can ignore the best practices of high-reliability organizations.
A lot of people do [skip the processes for high performance] because they can get away without doing it. However, they’ll never achieve their highest potential. In our experience, once we demonstrate how its done – how it enables Free Will, how it enables Innovation, in this continuous improvement process – they see the value in it and it becomes part of their culture. Regardless if they work in [non-extreme condition industries] they see how powerful is and gravitate toward it.
What is the “no rank” brief and debrief and why is it important?
The concept comes from the military, when you’re in combat or training for combat, when you’re airborne, during the briefing and debriefing, the “rank comes off.” It doesn’t matter if you’re 2-3 ranks above other people in the organization, in the brief/debrief you all treat each other similarly. Not that you don’t treat the more senior person with reverence, but we are equal when it comes to taking and giving criticism. One of the key things we’ve learned over the many years of TOPGUN instructing and the Blue Angels, and even in fleet aviation, is how to brief/debrief in a way that takes the “who” out of it. The goal is to provide a constructive critique during the debriefing in such a way that doesn’t make people defensive for their actions, when people get defensive, they stop learning. And that’s where you get a great culture of debriefing.
How do you brief and debrief positive and recognize the good?
[In TOPGUN debriefing], we talk in terms of “goods” and “others.” So, it’s not that you did something bad, it’s you did something other than good, in essence, something you could do better. It’s merely a mindset of keeping a positive.
[In Blue Angels debriefing], when it’s all said and done, no matter how the flight went, each person goes around the room and says “I’m glad to be here” because it’s a real positive way to leave the debrief. Once the debrief is done you’ll open the door to the debrief room and everyone walks out with a positive mindset and know what their specific goal is they want to accomplish next time so they can improve.
Again, keeping a positive tone is very important. This fits into Free Will. If you don’t do that, people feel less than empowered and there’s no longer an “innovation engine” for continuous learning and improvement happening. That gets stifled merely because of our egos.
To learn more about the Rob “Ice” Ffield uses these and other tactics to help you Build a Culture to Win, send an email to: ops @ catshotgroup.com and let’s discuss how CATSHOT Group can help your organization reach peak performance!
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