Silence is golden. There comes a time when silence is betrayal. The dichotomy between these two axioms is glaring. Let me give speech not to my thoughts in this period of civil discourse and unrest.

I am white privilege. I don’t apologize. That is how I was raised and who I am. I am also left-handed and pigeon-toed. I don’t apologize for those either. But, I will confess that my left-handedness and my pigeon- toedness have caused me more issues in my life than being white. But that does not make me tone deaf to the injustices felt by people of color now or in the past. I will never feel the impending pressure of being pulled over by the police. I will never feel the anxiety associated with being rejected because of my color. I will never feel the disgust at being slighted because of my race. And, while I will never feel those emotions it does not mean that I am tone deaf to their ringing in my ears.

The question I am asking myself today is how best to lend my voice for positive change in society.

Welcome to Swimming in the Flood; a podcast where we develop the resilient leader’s mindset by navigating difficult currents in business. My name is Trent Theroux.

Have you ever been to a football game and watched a “super fan” staring back at his section screaming for them to stand up and cheer? You know this guy. He’s more concerned with getting you to cheer than he apparently is with cheering for the game itself. I watched this happen at a New England Patriots game a few years ago. The Patriots were making a goal line stand late in the 4th quarter. The “super fan” was instigating people to stand up and make noise. He was insulting us and insinuating that we didn’t care about the game’s outcome. In a flash, outside linebacker Donta Hightower came around the edge, strip sacked the quarterback and recovered the ball. The stadium roared. The “super fan” turned around and asked “What happened?”

Over the past two weeks, since the heinous murder of George Floyd I’ve seen the same act from other people of white privilege. In this time where the nation appears to be its most galvanized since 9/11, I have watched numerous acts of public shaming. I have received numerous calls to elicit my position on racial inequity. They are not as overt as, “Trent tell us…” They are more nuanced like, “if you don’t share this post with 50 of your friends then you are supporting racism in our police departments.” Or, a fellow board member stating that it has become increasingly incumbent that we issue a statement. Or, why didn’t you join the march today? Or, posts reading, “admit you are a racist.”

In none of these cases did I get an inkling that the writer was doing anything themselves that positively contributes to the situation. As Developing Resilient Leaders there is a time to speak, a time to listen, a time to build up, a time to break down, a time to dance, a time to mourn and a time to cast away stones. So please indulge me with the time to show you how I stand in this fray.

I am now going to give you my unscientific, non-peer reviewed, resilient leader theory on standing tall. Are you ready? Got your pencils out? Here’s it is. Show Don’t Tell. You heard it. Show Don’t Tell.
The theory is simple here’s how it works. Sydney Harris expounded on the African Proverb, “If you’re not part of the solution; you are part of the problem” by adding “but the perpetual human predicament is that the answer soon poses its own problems.” It is my firm believe that one cannot be a leader if you’re allowed to be shamed into action. One negates the other. However, we cannot be everything to everyone.

Environmentalist Greta Thunberg told us that “if world leaders choose to fail us, my generation will never forgive them.” The Me Too movement and its struggle against sexual harassment still permeates in society. Transgender rights are not fully secured on our country. We are one Supreme Court nominee away from changing the most divisive law of the land. And let’s not forget that only four months ago people were looking at Asians with a suspicious eye because of the novel Coronavirus.

My point is that each of these causes, issues are dire and important for the growth of our society. Yet, how can any reasonable leader actively serve everyone? How can any of us go all in on every issue. We cannot be everything to everyone.

For Developing Resilient Leaders, I give you this challenge – find your why! Simon Sinek’s brilliant contextual model outlines how leaders inspire with why. Please take this recommendation – watch Simon S-I-N-E-K’s TED talk and you will be blown away at its brilliance and simplicity.

My passion is to serve the spinal cord injured community. Here is my why. I serve because I got out of the wheelchair and I serve those who can’t. My cause is no less valuable to the people with spinal cord injuries that the other issues I listed above to their victims. To suggest otherwise is selfish and myopic. The Americans with disabilities act of 1990 ushered in dramatic improvements in the rights of those with disabilities and access to the previously unattainable. Yet, how many stores consider that they’ve complied because of a separate stall, a ramp or wider doorways? Most buildings consider the basics only – the minimum to meet building codes. Where is the rioting over that? How many times have you watched someone park in a handicap spot using the logic “I’ll only be a minute?” What action has been taken to call that out? How many times have you watch someone park so close to a handicap van that a person in a wheelchair can’t access the panel door? I don’t see any cars burning over that? If you say that it’s not the same as any of the items I listed above than I will say that you could tone deaf because you cannot hear the issue of the person who cannot get in or out of their vehicle.

Where is the justice for those who lose movement, feeling in their legs or arms? When I suffered my spinal cord injury, I needed to rent a hospital bed for my house because I could not climb stairs. The bed cost $1,200 per month. Outrageous! Most people don’t have that kind of money, particularly if they can’t work, or if they can continue their trade because of their injury. That became part of my why. I created and funded a foundation to provide durable medical goods to those with spinal cord injury. Items that were not covered by insurance. Not once did I post that your silence on spinal cord injury discrimination is consent. I led by showing people a direct path to help.

Please don’t infer some meaning from my words. I am direct. Don’t interpret my subtext. Read my words. Resilient Leaders do not allow themselves to be shamed. Stand tall. Show people what you are doing. Lead by action, not by mere words. Henrik Ibsen wrote, “A thousand words equals one act.” If you want my thousand words on police injustice, I’ll be briefer. Amend Graham versus Connor. If you are not familiar with that landmark Supreme Court decision, then you don’t understand the issue with police violence. Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote the “objective reasonableness” standard into interpreting a policeman’s actions when using force. The opinion has offered near immunity to the police in cases of deadly force. If you want force reduced, you must remove the shield that protects them. Only when police are judged as trained citizens will force and brutality be minimized. Short of that we are only treating symptoms rather than finding a cure.

Rather than 1,000 words, act for your cause. Act now. Use actions as the foundation for leadership. I herald the peaceful protesters in Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and small towns across the land. I praise their leaders for organizing and rallying support for their righteous cause. And I commend them for the stances they are taking for improving the tenor of racial inequity in police forces throughout the country. Show people what you are about rather than tell others what they should be.

Folks, thank you for listening to Swimming in the Flood. I apologize that I wasn’t my humorous deprecating self this week. There are times in the course of events when a more serious tone is required. Resilient leaders face challenging currents and it is tough navigating, but with one tack or another we can get there together.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe. That way you can enjoy developing resilient leader theories hot off the presses. Also, I ask you one small favor. Please suggest it to a friend.

You can find past podcasts on my website. Please take a minute and check them out at www.trenttheroux.com
Thanks for taking the time to listen. See ya.

I am writing this podcast while watching the countdown for the SpaceX Crew Dragon historic launch.  It will be the first commercial manned flight into space.  It will also be the first American manned launch since 2011.  The astronauts just announced that they are a “go” for launch.  I can’t lie.  I am stoked about this.  I’ve always had a fascination with the science and mathematics behind space travel.  What makes this flight unique is that it is the first launch of a new vehicle in thirty years.  And, this flight is the gateway for Developing Resilient Leaders to book their ticket into space.  The flight program stopped flights nearly a decade ago, but now they are reborn.

The two astronauts are sitting back in their seats staring into the sky.  Their hands are folded like they are saying a prayer before dinner.  We are at T-45 minutes.  I wonder what those two men are thinking as they wait for launch.  Maybe they are like my kids and playing a game of I Spy with My Little Eye.  “I spy with my little eye something blue…”

Welcome to Swimming in the Flood; a podcast where we develop the resilient leader’s mindset by navigating difficult currents in business.  My name is Trent Theroux.

Return To Normalcy?

Many states are reopening this week, coming back online after nearly 10 weeks of dormancy.  The biggest question on most people’s lips is what will it look like?  Will life be normal or will there be a new normal, a better normal?  Are businesses going to be the same or are their going to be changes in the way we operate?  I’m not limiting that question to wearing masks and sitting at restaurant tables six feet apart.  Rather, I’m wondering what is going to be different in a positive way about this three-month hiatus.

Oooh.  Update.  They are loading the propellant.  Thursday’s launch was scrubbed at the last minute because of weather.  Today looks great.  Back to the podcast.

This isn’t the first time that businesses have had to make changes following a dramatic event.  In 1995, a fire in Lawrence, Massachusetts at Malden Mills created a learning event for all managers going to business school.  3,000 union jobs were at risk because of the damage to the factory.  Worse, the fire came two weeks before Christmas, affecting employees both emotionally and financially.

The fire devastated the building, but the CEO, Aaron Feurerstein announced two amazing items.  First, that the company would rebuild the textile factory rather than take the opportunity to send jobs overseas.  Second, he offered to pay all wages for the next 30 days, which turned into 90 days, and he covered all benefits for 180 days.  During a 60 Minutes interview, Feurerstein said “I think it was a wise business decision, but that isn’t why I did it.  I did it because it was the right thing to do.”  It takes tremendous courage to go out on a limb like that.  It takes the bravery that many Developing Resilient Leaders display in their normal courses of business.

Unfortunately, the benevolence shown did not pay off for the company as less than a decade later it was in bankruptcy, primarily because of the heavy debt burden of rebuilding.  So, should companies rebuild in times of crisis or protect their remaining assets and search for other opportunities?  I can see many small business owners pondering this question right now – salon owners, restaurant owners, bar owners, lap pool owners.  They all need to consider whether their business is worth investing in following the COVID Chaos.  Should they keep their doors closed?  Should they take on the risk and regulations of reopening?

I am now going to give you my unscientific, non-peer reviewed, resilient leader theory on rebuilding.  Are you ready?  Got your pencils out?  Here’s it is.  Rise like a phoenix.  You heard it.  Rise like a phoenix.

The Fire of London Creates a Rebirth

The theory is simple here’s how it works.  On September 2^nd, 1666, the city of London was ravished by a fire.  Over a quarter of the city was destroyed, over thirteen thousand houses were ruined and over 100,000 people were homeless.  The fire of London changed the city forever – in some ways for the positive and in others for worse.  I’ll start with the better.  The fire jumped from house to house because each was built with timber that had been soaked or treated with some oil.  There was no viable way to pump water from the River Thames onto the streets to help tame the blaze.  The fire needed to flame out on its own.

When the city started rebuilding there were ordinances that all new construction should be of brick and stone to reduce greatly the chance for a repeat event.  The government used its authority to compel land owners to change what was normal and create a “new” normal.  I’m sure that the owners of the quarries and the brick makers were thrilled at this government intervention.  However, the change was positive for the community and for the city as a whole.  As you walk along sections of central London, you can see many of the rebuilt buildings still standing.  You can see the uniformity of the stone and bricks as they were rebuilt successively.  The government edict served its purpose by reducing the potential for a second devastating event.

Remember that I said that there was something good and something bad.  Okay.  Have you ever walked through the streets of London?  It’s much easier if you have six pints of Bellhaven in your belly first so you’re already staggering.  Walking the crooked and winding streets requires a keen sense of balance or to be completely snookered where you are just meandering aimlessly.  The city officials floated the idea of modernizing the streets in the downtown area into the evolving perpendicular model of avenues and cross streets.  What we have come to like and enjoy in cities like New York and Chicago could have happened in the world’s largest city except that the landowners were unwilling to change their plots.  Landowners were offered the same amount of land, but stubbornly refused to change the dimensions of their plots.  This stubbornness resulted in leaving the roads in the same drunken weaving pattern that exist today.  And remember, this was before someone had the bright idea to drive cars on the wrong side of the road!

In my opinion here is the best that came out of the fire of London – St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Prior to the conflagration, St. Paul’s was in a poor state of repair before the fire damage.  Dr. Christopher Wren was tabbed to fix the dilapidated cathedral.  But, rather than press forward with repairs to the building, Wren reimagined the cathedral.  Wren took a generational leap, a quantum leap in architecture and designed the building to have a dome rather than the traditional peaked ceiling.  The dome reached a height of 365 feet symbolic of the earth’s revolution around the sun.  The most significant piece of trivia about this evolution is that Wren never saw a domed building before.  He used the Hagia Sohpia as a model but had never actually seen a domed building.

According to Adrian Tinniswood’s book “By Permission of Heaven.”  Wren asked a workman to bring him a flat stone to use as a marker for the masons.  He was given a fragment of a gravestone containing the single word RESRURGAM, meaning I will rise again. From Matthew 27:63. Wren decided to place a large phoenix above the south transept hovering over the word as a sign of London rising from the ashes of the Great Fire.

I’m excited to see what evolutions come from the Corona shutdowns.  How will Developing Resilient Leaders rise from these ashes?  What previously impossible achievements will be made because of the reboot?  How can we use this time to reimagine our businesses and our lives?

The Falcon Rocket Launches

Ohh there it goes.  The Falcon rocket is lifting off.  It looks a little like the rocket we watched in the MTV commercials during the 80s and 90s.  They just passed Main Engine Cut Off and ditched the Falcon.  Can you believe that they are now going to steer the rocket back to earth and land it on something equivalent to an inflatable pool chair?  The Crew Dragon is now in orbit.  They made it safely into space.  This spaceship is nothing like what we’ve seen before.  Isn’t it cool what innovations we can dream up when we rise from the ashes?  My good friend David Bowie would have been impressed.

Folks, thank you for listening to Swimming in the Flood.  Resilient leaders face challenging currents and it is tough navigating, but with one tack or another we can get there together.

If you enjoyed this episode I ask you one small favor.  Please suggest it to a friend.  Word of mouth is proven to be the best method of advertising podcasts.  Our network has grown over this past year of producing podcasts and I thank the constant listeners for their support.

There are some new videos posted on the website.  Please take a minute and check them out at www.trenttheroux.com

Thanks for taking the time to listen.  See ya.

The Kentucky Derby was supposed to run last week. That’s normally one of my favorite days of the year. I invite friends over to watch the race, enjoy hors d’oeuvres and sip on mint juleps. It’s probably the only time in the year I get to use the word muddle. I muddle the mint in the bottom of the glass before I pour the mint julep. We sip, we laugh and we comment on the outrageous hats worn by the ladies.

After that, the race. The fastest two minutes in sports is a pure adrenaline rush. Party goers screaming out the name of the horse they just pulled out of a hat for their $2 bet. At the end of the race, the winning horse trots along the track. Cameras flashing. He’s led into the winner’s circle where he is adorned with a bed of roses and I think, “wouldn’t it be great if all of our best employees could be rewarded this way?”

Welcome to Swimming in the Flood; a podcast where we develop the resilient leader’s mindset by navigating difficult currents in business. My name is Trent Theroux.

Care about the employee as a person

Maybe it’s not right to think of a horse as an employee, although stud fees can be quite substantial. Instead, let’s think about how we can apply this to our employees. Anne Mulcahy, former chairwoman of Xerox said, “employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.” Caring about the employee as a whole person is what we are trying to focus on.

Receiving praise from superiors or peers reinforces one’s self-image. The improvement in self-image may lead employees to increase productivity, raise morale and foster better relationships throughout the work place. Heck, make a big enough bouquet of roses and they may want to run the Preakness.

Reward Employees

In my company last year, I asked managers to identify for me a worker in their charge who they felt provided a remarkable experience to a customer or to another stakeholder because of a benevolent act. I wanted to give the winner public recognition at our annual shareholder event. I received many submission of truly great displays of positive customer interactions. It was tough to select from the many. Here’s is something else I learned. I didn’t know many of the names that were submitted, but after reading their thoughtful acts I wanted to meet each one of them. Also, until you ask sometimes we as leaders might not know all the good deeds that are being done in our or the company’s name.

One person’s story rose about the rest. Lewis works as a water meter installation supervisor. His crew installs water meters for towns and cities. Last year, Lewis was working for a small town in Vermont when he learned about a water leak. Citizens of the town organized a Facebook page dedicated to giving comments about the meter exchange experience. Lewis checked the page regularly and saw that a citizen posted a comment that water was leaking from her meter. Lewis immediately contacted someone from his crew who was in the area and dispatched him to the woman’s home and followed there himself.

The water leak was small and fixed with only a little tightening. Lewis was standing on the woman’s front lawn when a man from the water department arrived to fix the leak. Lewis proudly told him that the matter was resolved. Think about this for a second. Lewis solved the woman’s issue before the city even arrived. Isn’t that the type of leadership we discuss on this podcast every week?

Reward Employees

I was proud to call Lewis on the stage in front of 500 of his coworkers and tell this story. We inscribed his name on a plaque which is mounted by the front door of the corporate office. And, we gave Lewis a very nice cash gift to take his family out.

The audience gave Lewis a rousing round of applause. And, I hope that some of them will take his story to heart when they have their next customer interaction.

I am now going to give you my unscientific, non-peer reviewed, resilient leader theory on recognition. Are you ready? Got your pencils out? Here’s it is. Reward The Deserving. You heard it. Reward The Deserving.
The theory is simple here’s how it works. Successful organizations make recognition a priority. They realize that well designed recognition provides the organization and its employees with several positive results.

This works well in the office and should in your personal life as well. The most important day for recognition just passed, Mother’s Day. Who deserves more recognition and praise than our mothers or the mothers of our children? Quick fact – did you know that mother’s day is the busiest day for restaurants in the United States? It’s true. More than New Year’s Day, or Valentine’s Day. Nothing shows mom our appreciation more for mom than our being unwilling to cook dinner for her.

Remember Mother’s Day

I treasure Mother’s Day. Let me rephrase that. I treasure Mother’s Day now…now that I learned how important it is. My first child, Haley, was born on March 23rd. Jennifer and I were proud young parents and the birth of a healthy granddaughter moved me up in the polls with my father-in-law. However, my father-in-law was skeptical of me. I used to say that there were two things unpopular in Jim’s house; one was me and the other was – well, they both may have been me. Here’s an example of why.

The family drove to Vermont to watch Jennifer’s younger brother graduate from college. We drove home on Sunday morning following the ceremony. Jennifer seemed to be in a foul mood and I didn’t understand why. “Trent, do you know what today is?” The tone made me think that I did something wrong. “It’s Sunday.” “Yes, it’s Sunday. Do you know what Sunday?” “Um, the 12th of May?” I didn’t see where this was going. “Trent, do you what the second Sunday of May is?” After that, I still thought the answer was May 12th. “It’s Mother’s Day, Trent.” And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. This was Jennifer’s first Mother’s Day and I was completely oblivious to it. As you can imagine, my apologies were futile.

I stopped at a gas station for a pee break and while inside I saw that they were selling single roses for Mother’s Day. In an effort to appease the situation, I bought a rose for Jennifer and proudly gave it to her. I think it was Johnny Mathis who sang Too Much, Too Little, Too Late and it was the right song. My memory for details is normally quite acute. However, I can’t remember what happened to the rose. Jennifer may have snapped it in half, thrown it out the window or stabbed me with the thorns. I honestly can remember, but I know that the rose did not last very long.

Recognize People

In conclusion, Developing Resilient Leaders in the audience I offer this one piece of advice – Reward The Deserving. Reward employees.  Start with the mothers in our lives. I learned that lesson with a few cracks to the back of the head, but I know understand that it takes less than a moment for you to recognize someone for their achievements, for their efforts. The recognition, however, will stay with the recipient for a long time. Make your recognition sincere. Be specific why you are recognizing them and the power of their impact. This show of goodwill will have a tremendous impact on your organizations and in your lives. Lastly, make sure you recognize people while it matters don’t be like I was pulling a Johnny Mathis.

Folks, thank you for listening to Swimming in the Flood. Resilient leaders face challenging currents and it is tough navigating, but with one tack or another we can get there together.

If you enjoyed this episode I ask you one small favor. Please suggest it to a friend. Our network has grown over this past year of producing podcasts and I thank the constant listeners for their support.

Last week, I delivered a keynote speech to a Boston based marketing association via Zoom titled Resiliency is a Reflex. Resiliency is being tested during this Corona chaos we are living through. If you’d like me to deliver a similar message to your organization, please email me at info@trenttheroux.com. I’d love to discuss some of the details. Thanks for taking the time to listen. See ya.

My mother sent me to bed an hour early for a few nights in a row when daylight savings time would come in the spring. The theory was that she didn’t want me to lose an hour of sleep and be tired for school come Monday morning. My mother also sent me to bed an hour early when the clocks would go back in the fall. Probably because I was getting in her hair more than a compassionate concern for my biorhythms. I remember waking up that Sunday in the fall and thinking it was the greatest day in the world. I had entire extra hour to play. More time to enjoy my Cap’n Crunch. Watch the full episode of Davey and Goliath. Ride my bike with the fake shock absorbers off a ramp. Our baseball game could go extra innings. There were so many ways to enjoy that extra hour. I wished that I could have it every day. It’s funny because an extra hour is exactly what we all have right now.

Welcome to Swimming in the Flood; a podcast where we develop the resilient leader’s mindset by navigating difficult currents in business. My name is Trent Theroux.

Census Bureau Shows Shift In Working Environment

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average one-way commute to work is 26.1 minutes or roughly one hour a day. In total, that is nine days per year, nine whole days of sitting in traffic listening to The Morning Zoo radio program and their nauseating commercials each year.

The corona chaos is changing that dynamic for millions of people. Many, unfortunately are presently out of work. Others are now joining the ranks of the telecommuter. In 2015, the American Psychological Association published a study on the future of remote work. At the time it was estimated that 16% of the total workforce, more than 26 million Americans, were working at home for some portion of their job. Items from the paper highlighted some of the major benefits of telecommuting. Second after not having to constantly smell your boss’ cheap cologne is that telecommuters have the ability to create more work/life balance. They are not constricted to the normal Dolly Parton 9 to 5 job. Instead, according to the study, telecommuters become more task oriented with many of the workers operating well outside of the normal workday parameters. Further, the rate of productivity can be as much as one-third higher because office distractions and politics are eliminated. Most telecommuters report that they are able to complete all their major tasks in a fraction of a normal work day and with a higher level of proficiency.

Telecommuting Is Becoming More Prevalent

This leads me to the new crop of telecommuters. Are you one of the many who have now been requested to work from home because of the Coronavirus? I know. This is a different feel. Over the past two weeks, I’ve talked with numerous new telecommuters and their stories vary from success to frustrated failure. One of the greatest difficulties I’ve heard is that people are now trying to work with their children home tugging at their shirts all day. I feel for you. If we thought office distractions were burdensome try working with a child on their remote learning lessons when the child is five and can’t read! Here is someone else that I have great sympathy for – teachers. Schoolteachers are now trying to give twenty five different lessons to twenty five different students each day. And with parents home, they are now feeling more backseat drivers than Miss Daisy. Please remember, most of our school teachers have school age children themselves. And they are being tugged and pulled just as much as you are.

Personal Development Opportunities

Over the past two weeks, I’ve asked folks what they are doing with their extra hour per day. The answers range from practical to hysterically absurd. My daughter, Haley, is taking a coding class. One friend is doing virtual yoga. Another is taking up belly dancing. Adam Sandler was on Conan O’Brien’s show claiming that he’s having the best sex of his life. People are writing, cooking, playing with their children.

Developing resilient leaders can think of this another way. What skills can we develop that will make us more marketable in the future. This is unique opportunity in our lives to make an assessment of our skills gap and train up for the future. When else will you get the chance to improve yourself and be paid in the process? It only takes an hour a day. Transfer the hour that you were commuting into an hour of personal development.

I am now going to give you my unscientific, non-peer reviewed, resilient leader theory for closing the skills gap. Are you ready? Got your pencils out? Here’s it is. Learn to Paint. You heard it. Learn to Paint.

The theory is simple here’s how it works. I always wanted to be able to paint. Each year, I host a dinner party after which we paint some still life. I confess. I’m not much of an artist. My grammar school art projects all had a common theme. They would all turn into ashtrays. Working with clay…it would be an ashtray. Working with tiles…it would be an ashtray. Working with papier Mache…it would be an ashtray. I would hold my sickly looking piece of work in front of the art teacher. Sicklier than Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. My teachers would take a look…and bless their lying hearts…say, “Trent that is a beautiful ashtray.” Yes, an ashtray! I made an ashtray! And, I would leave thinking that I created something of beautiful and value. I would bring my Michaelangelo-esque work home and proudly say, “Mum, I made you this ashtray!”

My mother was always thankful for my art projects. She gave them a reverence reserved for the Mona Lisa. She held it with care and told me of the exact location in the house she was waiting for something special like this to adorn. I would traipse outside oblivious to the simple questions of… why would my parents need an ashtray if neither smoked? I mean never smoked. So much for my art work.

Bob Ross Makes Painting Easy For Non-Artists

I want to use this hour a day to improve this skill so I turned to YouTube where you can learn how to do everything. It was there that I ran into an old friend I remember from High School, Bob Ross. Bob Ross is an American icon whose life and work touched millions of fans around the world. Bob was the host of The Joy of Painting, a PBS broadcast in which Bob would teach you to paint while you were in your living room. He said, “All you need is the desire to make beautiful things happen on canvas.” Bob had a gentle voice, soft approach and a joyous sense of humor, all which played well on PBS. For me, the visual of Bob Ross was worth the price of admission. Bob was a white middle aged man with a beard that would rival those of Ben & Jerry. He was only 5’ 9”, but stood greater than 6’ 2” because of his afro. If you’ve never seen Bob, check here. You will not be disappointed.

Bob has hundreds of videos on You Tube and I committed myself to spending an hour with Bob every day this week to improve my painting skills. Here are some of the painting encouragements my friend Bob gave me this week.
After a week of practicing with my Van Dyke browns, and magentas, and burnt siennas and midnight blues, I have finally created a painting that I would be willing to hang on my wall. It’s from Bob Ross’ Season 5 Episode 13 titled meadow stream. And I have to say that it looks…like an ashtray. Maybe the best ashtray I’ve ever made, but an ashtray nevertheless.

Well…well, I’m glad that I invested time to learn something new. I hope you will take this as a challenge to broaden your horizons. There are multitudes of skills that can be developed and I trust that you will use this time wisely. For my next learning experience, it’s been about six weeks since I’ve had my hair cut. I noticed a couple of videos on how to DIY. I’ll let you know next week how that goes.

Thank you for listening to Swimming in the Flood. Resilient leaders face challenging currents and it is tough navigating, but with one tack or another we can get there together.
If you’ve got a couple of minutes, please check out my new website, trenttheroux.com. Also, if you enjoyed today’s episode please share it to on your social media. Let some of your network of developing resilient leaders hear what we’re doing every week.

Thanks for taking the time to listen. See ya

A Clockwork Orange is a difficult read. Difficult because some of the narration is a hybrid of Slavic and Cockney and difficult because of the rehabilitation scene of the protagonist, Alex DeLange. Alex is strapped to a chair, his eyes are forced open with wires, a screen plays directly in front of him for hours on end. Alex becomes emotionally distraught and exhausted. The scene is relentless and intense. Reading this scene made my mind tired and drained…kinda like how I felt after spending five hours on Zoom calls last Wednesday.

Welcome to Swimming in the Flood; a podcast where we develop the resilient leader’s mindset by navigating difficult currents in business. My name is Trent Theroux.

Zoom Changes How Meetings Are Run

COVID-19 has changed how we operate our businesses and how we interact with people. On the frontier of this change in communication is Zoom. I probably don’t need to describe what Zoom is because it’s become a verb in our lexicon like Google or Uber. Following shelter at home orders, Zoom traffic has grown. It is now reported that over 200 million people are using Zoom every day, that’s up from only 10 million per day in December!

We can now answer the age old question my friend Aretha Franklin has been asking (Who’s zoomin’ who? Take another look, tell me baby. Who’s zoomin’ who?) Well, it appears that everyone is Zooming everyone else. (Who’s zoomin’ who? Take another look, tell me baby. Who’s zoomin’ who?) Schoolteachers, office mates, business partners, supreme court justices, everyone is zoomin’ everyone else. My mother-in-law zooms all the kids and grandkids. They all show up in little boxes on her screen and she’s positioned like Alice in the Brady Bunch.
Zoom is on everyone’s lips since shelter-in-place orders starting being issued in March. Before the Corona Chaos, I might have been on one Zoom call per month. Now, I’m at five per week. And, I know that I’m still on the low end. I grew up in a different era. In the 1970s Zoom had a different meaning to school age kids. Zoom was an afternoon television show on PBS. It featured seven local kids and they rotated the kids around so they would have drug problems like the Mouseketeers. It featured kids like Donnie McGrath…from Southie. Nothin’ special other than the theme song. It was an ear worm. And, it’s still an earworm.

Zoom Founder Story

Let’s get back to business. Zoom, the videoconferencing service, may have seemed to burst on the scene overnight, but actually it was over 20 years in the making. Eric Yuan was one of the founding engineers of Webex in the late 1990s. Back then, Webex was a real-time collaboration company with a small number of employees. After Webex became the standard for collaboration it was acquired by Cicso and Eric Yuan became head of product development. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Yuan became disillusioned with Cisco’s lack of vision and willingness to invest in better video conferencing tools. Yuan left with some of his engineers to form Zoom.

It’s Zoom’s business model that intrigues me most and should for developing resilient leaders as well. Most of you will appreciate that it’s free. Right, free! Built in the cloud and priced using a “freemium” model that let’s everyone host a free meeting for up to 40 minutes. They make money by selling seats for larger audiences or for longer time periods. Think of this model like the guy selling Korean food at your local shopping mall. He’s standing out front holding some Korean BBQ chicken on a platter and offering you to take a toothpick and try. It’s the same model. He’s expecting that a certain number of people will be ready for a delicious meal at that moment. Zoom is expecting that companies will require their premium services and sign up. It’s a clever business model for many of us. Try a free appetizer…stay for a whole meal. (Zoom, Zoom)

Zoom is great for many reasons, but here’s the problem that I have. It’s hard to participate in a large scale Zoom call. I was on a Zoom call last week with six other participants. There was no real interaction. It felt like reporting. When it was my turn to speak, I gave a report. Then, it was the next person’s time to speak. This loses the personal touch of being connected. Yes, we can all see each other on the screen, but you can’t blurt out a laugh or question because someone else has the microphone. I find it annoying and highly unsatisfying.
Though the 1960s there used to be something called party lines. The phone company would wire houses so that they were connected to each other. If you were on a call to your girlfriend, Mrs. Kravitz from two doors down could pick up her phone and listen to your conversation. Back then, unless you were wealthy, everyone shared a phone line. Sometimes it feels like times never change. I was on a Zoom call with friends and it felt just like a party line. I sat back and listened to two people talking back and forth. I know Zoom is supposed to make you feel like you’re sitting around a campfire with your friends, but it feels more like high school religion classes. The teacher talking, one student always raising his hand and me thinking about how many more minutes before the bell rings.

   Developing Resilient Leader Theory

I am now going to give you my unscientific, non-peer reviewed, resilient leader theory on the Zoom overload. Are you ready? Got your pencils out? Here’s it is. Pick Up The Phone. You heard it. Pick Up The Phone.

The theory is simple here’s how it works. Jane Atkinson is the host of the Wealthy Speaker podcast and can be found at speakerlauncher.com. She’s a coach for speakers and one peach of a woman. One of Jane’s main thrills in business (and maybe in life) is to actually make a telephone call. Most of us are adroit at crafting emails or dexterous as blasting out information on social media, or now, creating Zoom calls. Jane would say that there is an art and a touch to actually picking up the phone and talking to someone. One to one. Here’s Jane explaining how she helped create this theory.

Right, there’s a personal nature to having a one-on-one conversation with someone. Think back to when you were in high school talking to your sweetheart over the phone. There was a mystery and intimacy about speaking without actually seeing each other. Zoom takes away some of that intimacy. It stands us up in a firing line waiting for us to shoot, reload and wait for our chance to shoot again. When I think of Zoom…..dammit…those kids won’t get out of my head now…When I think of Zoom…oh no…not this kid too. Does it feel like we are now in a world of Zoom zombies….Will someone please tell Aretha I know who’s zoomin’ who.

I know you agree with me 100%. Social distancing sucks. Zoom is a tool and like every other tool in your box, it has its proper use. If there’s someone you want to connect with…I mean truly connect with, call them, tell them that you miss them and that it won’t be long before we all can sit around a campfire and laugh about the bad haircuts we gave each other.

Thank you for listening to Swimming in the Flood. Resilient leaders face challenging currents and it is tough navigating, but with one tack or another we can get there together.

If you’ve got a couple of minutes, please check out my new website, www.trenttheroux.com. You can find my library of older podcasts. And, while you’re thinking of it – subscribe to the podcast. That way you can get developing resilient leader theories hot off the presses. Next week, I’m delivering a virtual speech to a conference of big data marketing analysis. The theme is Resiliency is a Reflex. If you’d like me to deliver a similar message to your office email me at info@trenttheroux.com. I’d love to discuss some of the details. (Oh please. I need to get my head out of the 1970s.)

Thanks for taking the time to listen. See ya.