Cultivating exceptional teams and meaningful lives with Susanne Conrad of Lightyear Leadership

Dane: Welcome to the Future of Teamwork Podcast, Susanne, this is Dane, I'm the HUDDL3 Group CEO, and I'm really excited to have you here with us too.

Susanne: Oh, it's great to be here, Dane. Thanks for inviting me.

Dane: You bet. We've met just recently and you've got a fantastic story, which really captivated my attention from that early lunch I think we shared together. Could you tell me and the listeners a little bit more about your personal story, your business background?

Susanne: Yeah. The way I love to answer the question about business background is I'm a mother. I've learned how to be a professional woman and be a mother at the same time and have my whole life work, which is the thing I'd say I'm most proud of. I started off as a single mom and did a lot of work in the nuclear weapons field and then started to focus on the power of communication and teamwork and why transformation inside cultures is important. Because of course the United States shifted from having a weapons mission to a cleanup mission. And then I went and studied communication and eventually ended up having the incredible opportunity to be on the board and be the director of possibility of Lululemon Athletica when it was a baby company, did that for 10 years and founded my own company, Lightyear Leadership and became an author. So I love being here. I love talking about the future of work, of teamwork because I have four kids that are stepping into a whole new world.

Dane: Yeah. It's actually a big driver for me and I know you and I have spoken about it, but the future of work, the future of teamwork, your story, we're going to talk more about that today. My story, there's been so much meaning and so much purpose and so much connection with other humans through work. And we want that for this next generation and the ones that follow.

Susanne: Yeah. Yeah. Everybody, every human being really deserves to have meaningful work.

Dane: Yeah.

Susanne: It-

Dane: No, I'm a big believer.

Susanne: This is like a fundamental human right. Yeah.

Dane: Yeah. And when you talk about your story from nuclear missile programs to athletic wear and now the leadership and coaching business, I mean you've seen some very different work environments, some very different teams at play.

Susanne: Yeah. One thread that I'd say has been running through, let's say the 30 decades or more of my working life is that there is an evolution towards a more whole systemic way of working and a movement away from purely broadcast, hierarchical teamwork. And I've loved getting to be one of the revolvers of that and to be in the impact of how great it feels to be part of a wonderful team. And it doesn't happen every time. And it's something that people, I believe it's a skill that they can learn to cause. Having a great team isn't an accident, it's an act of creating a vision and a possibility for that to happen. I feel that's a big part of the future of teamwork is people knowing that they can cause it isn't just going to happen. And they're either lucky.

Dane: I love that. That's exciting. It's empowering and coming out of COVID and the pandemic, which has changed so much of the way that we work, I think it's brilliant that we're creating this call to action for people to take ownership of that to actually cause teamwork to happen in the way that it should happen in their work environments. Can you explain a little bit more about how you would define what good teamwork is, what that means to you?

Susanne: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'd say that at the core of a great team is this shared culture and language around their own self leadership. In the great teams that I've witnessed, in the great teams that I've had the privilege of being on, I know that each member knows themself and they have the ways to recover when they've failed or when they're having an off day, they know how to reset. From the very beginning, it starts with itself and then it radiates out to the team. So I'd say that, a pure definition of teamwork would be, it's a group of people, but share the same goal. Yet I feel like to update it to where the world is now and the future of teamwork, it's not only the same goal, it's the language to fulfill on that goal and core values that they can use when they have difficult decisions to make, or they need to strategize in a new way. And that's what I see a lot of younger people either have, and they're thrilled or it's missing and they're sad.

Dane: Yeah. There's a lot of sadness, I think you're seeing that we've been talking about this great resignation, but the way you've described it there, having those values, having that language, the behaviors really in the team, people want that, people are really yearning for it today.

Susanne: Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. I was coaching the CEO of a company about a month ago and I asked him," What's one of your most important goals?" Because in Lightyear, that's what we talk about most of the time is vision and goals and coming from future. And he said," It's to be looking back at the team that I'm participating in and am building and having us be celebrating ourselves." I thought, how interesting? Let's say, I guess he's probably in his 40s, he knows that he's spending more time right now with those people than his wife and his children. And he wants a way to acknowledge and love his wife and his children is to have the meaning in his teamwork matter, and to be celebrating. Because the last thing a family member wants to hear is that their dad is bummed with people that he works with and same for the women.

Dane: That is really key. I know that my kids certainly beat me up sometimes for the time that I'm away from them or worse the time that I'm on my phone when I'm with them, which I'm trying to eradicate, it's a slow but steady process. But you're right, we spend a lot of time away from our families and loved ones and we spend a lot of time with these work colleagues, but we're not always making great connections. We're not always in teams that we can look back on and celebrate. And we should, I think we deserve it. We owe it to each other. The concept of looking back from the future, you just referenced that in the context of Lightyear Leadership, which we'll talk more to today, but at the conference we were at last week, Dan Pink was talking about your future self. When you're facing a decision that's tied to his world regret survey right now, he was talking about when you're facing a decision in life, ask your future self, ask Dan, or ask Susanne plus 10 years, what decision they would've made and how they would feel about it at the time. It's a really interesting concept. I think it's quite new in the world of work and in the world of teams. I have seen some sports teams talk about, let's talk about how we are going to feel when we bring home the world cup. There's a little bit of sort of visioning and belief that comes with that. But can you tell me maybe a little bit more about how you've used that with people you've coached, with teams that you're working with?

Susanne: Yeah. Yeah. A principle that we use in Lightyear is a term called remembering the future, which seems a bit like an oxymoron, but it's this idea that future self, that future team, that future outcome does know what it did. And similar to an old fashioned maze that you might find in the classifieds with the comics, if you start with the end in mind, as many of our business leaders talk about, you can find your way through the barriers more easily and the brain is a bit like a maze. If it begins by remembering the success and the sensation and the feeling and the celebration, and then works back to say," Well, how did I do that? Oh, how did I do that?" There's more freedom. And I'm sure there'll be scientific research that proves that that's true. I have more decades of anecdotal knowledge to know that we can and do remember our future.

Dane: That's neat. Actually it ties in a lot to some of my early sporting experiences too. When you've played together and you have that affirmation of how you'll come through a hard time together, then the next time you're thrown into a hard time, you kind of know who to look for. Who's going to play which role, how you're going to come together to get through whatever that adversity is. And I must admit I've experienced it personally more on the sports field than in the workplace, but I'd love to see more of it in the workplace.

Susanne: Mm- hmm(affirmative). Well, one of the things that that metaphor lends itself to is, considering the times where we've been on teams and we are facing a challenge and knowing one of the things I do, and you probably have some version of this at HUDDL3 also is, when something difficult is happening or challenging, I'll actually rename it and say," Oh, that's Lightyear kind of fun." Because see, there's a way where we bond in challenge.

Dane: Absolutely.

Susanne: We matter more in challenge and if we can make that moment more sweet when it's happening, I've found my creative force stays more awake and alive than if I go into like a fear and doubt because it's those self leadership, personal recovery skills that make the team great in challenge, because we're like," Oh, here we go. It's time to make the difference." And there's certainly going to be a fair amount of that over the next couple decades. Lots of challenge.

Dane: Yeah. A lot of challenge. And in fact, I think coming out of this pandemic, I think you're seeing more teams that have that muscle memory, they've come through some stuff that wasn't a playbook for particularly people in the HR people and culture, talent side of organizations. They've kind of been thrown a lot of challenges, all of a sudden with very little resource or experience to tackle it. And I'm really intrigued to see some of the leadership that's coming out of those functions and the innovation that's coming out of those functions and those people who will lead those functions. That's an exciting phase for business.

Susanne: Yeah. Here's our really small thing. I might have shared this with you earlier, but it's this very tangible thing. I was speaking with a colleague of mine about the future of work and teamwork and what it's like for her as the head of people, as folks are given the choice to return to the office, how are they going to return to the office? Who's going to return? When? How are they going to use that asset? And one of the things that she noticed is that people were coming back and keeping the status quo of where they had their parking spots, and she challenged it. She said," Look, do we really want to have this hierarchy-

Dane: I like it.

Susanne: ...of directors only parking spots when indeed we're not here all the time? Do we bring forward some of these sort of like old ways of thinking or do we release them to a more holistic workplace that's..." And I thought, wow, if she's thinking about that, what else do we need to be looking at and challenging instead of just saying," Oh yeah, let's go back to normal." And I'd say, that's the most important thing that we do, particularly in 2022, as we break out of this snow globe is say," Well, what do we leave? What do we take forward? What's brand new?"

Dane: Yeah. I love that. There's almost a rite of passage or a ritual that can be created through doing that intentionally in our teams too. We can kind of say," Hey, that's what we used to do. Here's what we changed through COVID. To your earlier theme of having the ability to cause the teamwork let's cause the culture, let's cause the small behaviors to be the way that we need them to be in our teams going forward."

Susanne: Well, for fun and 500 extra adventure points, which is what we do at Lightyear. I have a question for you, Dan, that I think could be fun.

Dane: Yeah.

Susanne: You just use the word rite or celebrations we could have what's... And you could use a sports analogy if you want. Well, what's a rite or a celebration that you've done with a team that you believe is really valuable. Because I hear that you're right, as people do go into this new world, how could we dedicate that in a new way? To be clear, the question is what would be a great rite of a team? R- I- T- E.

Dane: It seems a fantastic question. And thank you for asking it. If I was to think back on what we've come through just recently and what I'm seeing my teams really embrace, I think the rite is... And this sounds a little bit silly, but I think it is actually having the ability to craft their own playbook. And I think it's having the ability to say," Traditionally, we worked in businesses that have been a little bit top down in telling us what they want the culture to be, what they want the purpose to be, what our values are, how we do work." But now there's this opportunity to tell a team," Look, you guys have come through all of this together. You've been successful. Some of the old stuff that we used, like you said about the parking spots, it's no longer relevant or functional in the way that it once was. You all take some time, you take some time to plan out what the future of this team is going to be. And then you bring that to us and you build the reinforcing behaviors, celebration events around it." I think that's something that's just naturally evolving in a few of our teams right now. We've bought a number of our teams together through the pandemic. Some of them are only just getting the first chance to meet each other in person too. And it seems to be where I see the most energy. I see these people saying," Hey, I've been a professional for 20 years, but I've never been given this opportunity to write my playbook." Writing it and celebrating the playbook of how they're going to operate as teams, I think that's really powerful.

Susanne: That's awesome. You could do the three rites. So people get to write, W- R- I- T- E. And they have the right, the R- I- G- H- T to have the rite, the R- I- T- E to have that playbook.

Dane: That's cool.

Susanne: I mean, that's super cool. That-

Dane: That is cool. And I love three. So the three rites. I'm stealing that.

Susanne: Total three. Yeah. Put it in there. I love it. I'm happy for you to have that. How empowering for people and then to let people choose their celebrations, because there's so much stuff in the world that's just sort of in an inherited belief or legacy of how we use our time. And of course it's wonderful to celebrate birthdays and things like that. And yet, if we can say," Wow, this is the first time we're coming together physically, how do we want to craft a memory that restores us when we're back separate and doing Zoom or whatever it is we have to do?" Because that is the future of the human race. If we're successful in space travel, we better get pretty darn good at transmitting our love and compassion to people through a camera.

Dane: Yeah. We must. It's funny you mentioned that. I see in our future a big part of what we need to bridge in teams is actually not only team members as people, but team members as machines too.

Susanne: Yes.

Dane: I'm not necessarily saying a robot, but how do our teams play with technology? The digital experience of how we interact as humans has never been more important. And there's so many brilliant solutions out there, but it's so fragmented. It's so hard to pick the right path. And in some ways it's on one hand liberating and empowering to have these technologies. And on the other hand, it's overwhelming and daunting. What have you seen? You've managed some fairly distributed teams across companies that you've worked with, what have you seen, that's kind of pointing towards some better practices in teamwork between people and tools and processes?

Susanne: Well better practices for teams and tools and processes. So one of them is, I am privileged to be the granddaughter of a telegraph operator. My grandmother wore roller states and she was like the Lilian Tomlin and plugged the thing in for bell. My dad saw himself as a communicator and the island I grew up on, I don't know what it was like in some of the rural places you lived in Australia, but we had a party line, and he had to listen to the phone to see if somebody was on it, so that's how old I am. And so for me, I really feel like the future of work is the future. And the future of work is knowing how to learn and unlearn. Let's look at technology. Actually, Brett, my husband and I were walking last night and there's some things now that I'm better at than him in terms of technology. And he used to say," Hey, babe, I thought you were kind of a Luddite back then and now maybe it's me." There's a way where for me, and being someone who has visioned a digital platform, which I never thought I'd do, I play the game of making friends with technology. And literally let me just show your viewers. Here's my phone, there was a day where I would go," Oh, the phone, it wants to upgrade again. And oh, it's a problem." No, this phone saves my life. This phone is good. And I have choice around this phone. This computer I'm grateful for. So there's a way where people can use what I would even call practical, spiritual practices to welcome processes and machines into their teamwork. I'm not beyond naming things. I really feel like having a relationship and a bond with the equipment that you use, whether it's a knife or a hammer or a computer in a team is valuable because a craftsman really honors his or her tools. That's one view on it. And then the last thing I'd say about it before we look at just some practical stuff people can do is, there's a proverb I believe it's a Chinese proverb that says, that which does not learn, becomes food for that which does.

Dane: Yes.

Susanne: If you need a little kick in the pituity, learning... I don't get to be 61 and say,"Ah, I'm going to relax." It's like," Okay, it's time to learn."

Dane: And the there's a couple of things that just excites me about, not only in some of the things that we're doing in our business, but some of the problems we're trying to solve more globally right now in industry. And it keeps this theme of democratizing, giving agency, giving power to the individuals that use the tools. And I think that's what excites me, because to your point, you can name it. You can have a spiritual connection with it. You can be responsible for your learning, but also let's be honest, there's AI and machine learning now, you are helping the machines learn too. So there's this symbiotic nature there. And it's a fantastic theme of going back to that craftsman example that you use, how do we create this energy between ourselves and the people we work with and the tools that we share that really takes us to places that we hadn't yet thought of. And I think that excites me, that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Because we do that right and people are going to be able to drive innovation and social impact and just great human connection from every layer of the organization and from every level of community. And that's really exciting to me.

Susanne: Yeah. Let me just comment on a couple things on that. That could be fun. Brett, my husband gave to my mom, who's about to turn 90 the book by Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt about AI. And so she's been reading it and we talk now, and then she's like," Oh my God, that is like frightening stuff." And one of the things I said to her, now this, it has yet to be substantiated. This is one of my assertions for the future and something that my future self has talked to me about. I want to go down in history as one of the women that the computers just love. If it does come down to a robot attack, I want them to say," You know what? I want to save Susanne Conrad and her whole family, because all they've ever done is be thoughtful and kind to us." And see, I feel like if I extend my humanity to all things, there's a benefit to that because that's my team, that's team planet. And I also have the privilege of having an incredible teacher who shared with me that really everything that we invent, whether it's a filter in a cell phone or a quantum computer, it's a reflection of some aspect of our own humanity. And the more we can recognize that and be in one minute with that. And in wonder of that, I believe we'll enhance our chances of avoiding the Matrix. Oh, and what else did I watch? Moon? What's that one? Moon Fall. I was like," Oh my God, that's a dystopic story. We're all going to die." But I believe it's something that we can be excited about and recognize that there's a place for us to extend human love. Now, do I know exactly what that'll look like? No. Am I willing to experiment on that? Absolutely

Dane: Experimentation. I think that is the key and we can make it safe for lots of people to experiment. I love that concept. I'm the woman that the machines love. It's so apt and it's so necessary. It's more than just a legacy statement, an ego piece. I think it's important. I think the machines need to learn who here right now and who in our future is really capturing the essence of what it is to be human and how teams work together. Because let's be honest, people talk about this singularity event when the machines, the AI reaches parody with human intelligence and then they're going to beat us. So we really do need to give them some good role models, give them some people that show them an excitement for what it is that's been our history and what it is that could be our combined and shared future.

Susanne: Yeah. Our eldest son went to law school on a NASA scholarship and he has a specialty in understanding space waste and the possible future of treaties for the management of space, because right now there isn't any law that manages it. And I point to that, because this was years back when I went to his graduation and he introduced me to his space law professor, I said," What is the operating theory currently of the work that you teach in law school?" And she said," We draw a lot from the work of Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek to really understand and look at what would a Confederacy look like? What are some of the things we need to do to be dealing with the environment around planet earth? And so when you talk about a singularity event, I believe that there's a way where we have used the devices of the future self through science fiction to help us have reflective processes, to see, well, okay. George Orwell, 1984, wasn't as bad as he thought. And we have the wonderful characters that the work extended, through the various generations of Star Trek show us through some of the characters that are of course artificial intelligence and their pursuit of excellence and self- expression. If it's going to happen, bring it on. Why be afraid, let's embrace it.

Dane: And we need to do this over a drink next time because we could be spending hours on this topic, but again, something you just said, there's all these gems today. I'm sure there's always gems with you, Susanne. But the concept of science fiction actually makes this whole future of teamwork, I'm going to bring it back to that, so much more accessible to everyone because it's making... Talk about making it safe to experiment. Let's tell a story about the future. Let's tell a story about what we want and how technology could be used. And then let's build towards that if we get enough consensus that it's a good idea, there's enough people that want it. Telling stories is safe. We haven't invested dollars. We haven't left a job. We haven't been constrained to only working with people that we know. Storytelling's such a huge thread through human civilization, human culture. And I think it has a big role to play in teams of the future and how we share our stories. Y coached me a lot on that, telling more of our stories and our energy and our connections, and then finding those other people out there, whether it's at work or in the community. Teams don't have to all be employed by one employer anymore either. There's a lot of energy. There's a lot of creativity I think we can flush out through story.

Susanne: Yeah. Yeah. And I know that you're on the forefront of helping people create and tell this story of building teams of people that are from different companies and how much like the creation of the film, people come together for a project and have specific roles and goals and they coalesce those. And that's just a wonderful, wonderful thing for people to be able to have.

Dane: Yeah.

Susanne: Yeah.

Dane: And a lot of people don't have it. Let's be honest, you and I have taken a lot of energy out of our careers, we still do. But unfortunately there's a lot of people that don't have meaningful work, you mentioned it earlier. And maybe the way to start moving them in the direction of meaningful work and understanding where they may find it in the future is, yes, you've got to pick up a tool and work in the field 12 hours a day, but it doesn't stop you from doing some of this storytelling. This imagination work to say, this is where I'd like it to be. Could this be a possibility? That's only 10 or 15 minutes here or there that could start something while they're still in a day job that may not be necessarily giving them a lot of opportunity for innovation and change now. Yes, they're doing brilliant work and they're helping companies achieve great things, some of these folks, but they're not really being given the time to go through their three rites, to write their playbook. They have to do business in a certain way, because they're working in a hazardous or a high risk environment or a high velocity, high production environment. I think there's some little tricks, some little tools that we can all start to wrap our arms around that allow people to realize that they can experiment, that they can start playing with stories. They can start visioning what that future might be for their teams and for their kids and for the businesses in their community.

Susanne: Yeah. Let's talk about teams in highly regulated or hazardous environments because you do have teams in those and I've worked in those environments. One of the things that I've seen be really successful for myself in finding meaning in that kind of work, when we're on the prevention side having the meticulousness and the integrity to do the checklist correctly, because it's really about protecting or saving someone from a negative future. That's what it's always about.

Dane: Yes.

Susanne: So it's always about, for me, the game I would play is, seeing who I'm helping and protecting, even if I don't ever meet them. Do you know what I'm saying?

Dane: Yeah.

Susanne: It just brought meaning instead of it being like," Ah, I have to do this OSHA thing or I got to get my hazmat placard on the truck or... It's more of staying in the enlightened perspective of the larger why, which I'm sure Daniel Pink speaks of and Simon Sinek and just like-

Dane: They're all on it.

Susanne: That all on it. And it's our role I feel as entrepreneurs, as employers of people to make sure that people get the opportunity to reflect on the why for them and then connect to the why in the team and into the activity.

Dane: Yeah.

Susanne: Yeah.

Dane: I think that's a really good way to put it. Again, it's using storytelling. Instead of someone telling their own story. I think what I'm hearing from you Susanne, is that companies leaders need to do a better job of filtering that story down to all of their team members on why are we here? What are we serving? I know you mentioned Pink, Dan Pink referenced on Friday at this conference we were at a scientific study where they put iPads in front of chefs who were making meals so that the chef could see the customer who they were making the food for and it worked. There's science there. The chefs, they're making a standard meal, but they make a better meal, a higher quality meal, presentation taste, you name it when they see the customer that's going to eat their meal. We need that human connection. It's very important.

Susanne: I love that study. Okay. Oh, well that-

Dane: It's pretty fun.

Susanne: ...really makes a lot of sense to me. And I'm glad someone designed it because I just would always make it up for myself and now I have evidence. Woo.

Dane: I'll send it to you.

Susanne: Well, here's a fun example of something that isn't high risk, but it's more about how to deal with the mundane and create a future of teamwork that's spectacular. For the average educator that would be working on the floor of a Lululemon store, a lot of the actual physical work that you're doing is getting clothes from the dressing room and folding them again and putting them back out and doing all that kind of stuff. And so when I would be coaching these folks, what we would do and some of your listeners may have read the book, Chop Wood, Carry Fire, and it's about taking any ordinary daily activity and using it as a practice in mindfulness. We would just play these games about, can we fold and stay present? Can we do it in a way that we're left honoring ourselves because we've done this beautiful job of folding the clothing. So it isn't about vanity. It isn't about, well, we've got to have it right for the guest. It's really more about an expression of self. And there's many books written about how, when we take the mundane that isn't necessarily risky or hazardous and let it be elevated, then that eight hour day somehow flew because we were in more of that flow state of an optimal mindset. That's another practice that I'd offer to people who are like," Oh, another day of sweeping," or whatever it is they got to do.

Dane: Yeah. Yeah. I think flow's important. Going back to that old world craftsman, my grandmother's boyfriend, which sounds really new age.

Susanne: I love that.

Dane: Wonderful man, Colin. And Colin was a New Zealand born master, cabinet maker and wood carver. So he would be able to carve all the beautiful floral designs onto the cabinets that he would make, you name it he could build it. And as life went on, he was not able to find an apprentice because to be an apprentice in an art form, like carving wood and making these fine cabinets, you need to spend a lot of time doing some very mundane tasks. Some of them were sweeping floors. That's what reminded me of some of Colin's stories. I think it was a seven year apprenticeship back in the day.

Susanne: Wow.

Dane: Where you're not getting paid a lot of money and yes you're doing some basic tasks, but when you see the work of a craftsman like Colin and just the self- expression in that work and the honoring of himself and those that have come before him to come up with some of the designs that he's building too, there is a huge sense of accomplishment flow. There's a lot that comes from that. And it's so sad we're losing skills and teams that are able to produce that type of work right now. Hopefully, through some of these, as you called it a game or through some of these practices, we can find our way back to some of those lost arts as well.

Susanne: Well, let's go there for a moment if we have the time.

Dane: Yeah. Actually-

Susanne: First of all, there should be some company that you create sometime in your future called my grandmother's boyfriend.

Dane: I love that, done.

Susanne: I mean, that could be. Brett came up with the name, because we were hanging some art of the critical screw. I thought that could also be a good brand name, but anyway, to mastery. So the other day I was doing a session on the future of work that's on YouTube. And we talked about how part of the future of work and I'll say teamwork, is art. Because if you look at the work of Seth Gordon, he'll say that what's completely irreplaceable is the artist in us. And where can we bring artistry to anything and everything that we do? There's an artistry in teamwork and in balancing and chemistry of a team and of testing and team. So for your grandmother's boyfriend, when I look at the goals of this next generation, when I go through Lightyear and look at the thousands of goals and profiles that have been built there. Lightyear is similar to LinkedIn in that instead of who you've been it's about who you're becoming. There are many goals about people becoming master craftsman. It is on the rise along with regenerative farming, things that are from that time. I think we are going to see a resurgence in apprenticeship. Certainly some of the things that I do have required apprentices, because you just need a lot of time watching how someone approaches a conversation, a group, how do you diagnose the ill in a team and quickly be able to see what the elements could be to restore balance. And that takes apprenticeship. I love it. I love Colin.

Dane: It does. Yeah. Colin's a legend actually. I'm going to go and see him again before too long.

Susanne: Okay. Well make sure he listens to this podcast.

Dane: I will, I'll send it to him.

Susanne: Oh my goodness.

Dane: I'll send it to him. But apprenticeship and craft, like you say, there's people moving back towards regenerative farming. There's people who are retiring and picking up some of these crafts as a hobby.

Susanne: Mm- hmm(affirmative).

Dane: It is really interesting. I think the role that it plays in teamwork and I'd like to hear a little bit more about Lightyear Leadership. I think there's this theme in businesses right now and in good teams where we support each other to embrace what's meaningful not just in the workplace, what's meaningful outside of the workplace. Yeah. So I see it right now in our business that it's incumbent upon us to invest in what's meaningful to our teams. If that team really wants to go on a hike together, great. We need to find a way to contribute and support that. If that team has individuals that have a passion or a hobby around food or live music or playing music, how do we bring that? How do we connect the company goals and the personal goals in good teams? Because I think it's all part of the fabric. You just mentioned with your software platform, Lightyear, that you are doing a lot of work in goal setting and journey mapping almost for people as individuals. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Susanne: Yeah. Well, what folks do is they can take either a shorter course called Power My Future, which they could do self- led or they could come onto a workshop and it helps people have the primary tools of being able to create a vision and then work backwards. They begin by just to give you all information now, instead of having to go there. You could draw a circle and we call that the power of knowing what you want and you write what you want on the inside and what you don't want on the outside. And then you start to see how you could take what you want and talk to that future self and create a vision. Well, this is what it feels and sounds like 10 years from now, you author that. And then you work backwards from that vision instead of with the struggles and restraints of time and money and resources from here, you start from there and work backwards. Now how that's important to teams is something as simple as there's a GM of a large set of restaurants that uses Lightyear for all of their folks. And this one individual, I was looking at his goals and he has a goal to, by time wide, to have all the dishes in his kitchen, be pottery that he's made.

Dane: Wow.

Susanne: And so now when I see him or interact with him, I ask him how that project's going. It gives us that small, but meaningful place that he's authored. It's his playbook. I didn't tell him," Hey dude, go become a potter."

Dane: Yeah.

Susanne: But it gives me this intimate window. So I feel like when teams know, at least some of the basic personal career and health goals of one another, it provides this basket or this container that allows them to become closer. It gives them a way to be more aware of the larger realm. And that is newer. When I was first working, you didn't really talk about your personal life. That-

Dane: And if you did, it was just remembering names of kids. It was, I don't want to say lip service, but it was a little bit too formulating. Where what you are suggesting is, we really get to know where this person's going and what's meaningful to them. And we get to talk about what's meaningful to them rather than just running through the formula, how's the kids? How's the wife? How's the husband? How's the dog?

Susanne: Yeah.

Dane: Again, fabric, there's a lot more fabric to that.

Susanne: And I can also think of an instance just this week where a young woman who's recently had her second child, she's an entrepreneur. She's in one of those moments you talked about earlier, that's challenging. And she's about to maybe give up or rewrite her vision, because she just can't quite see how that'll happen. And I was encouraging her to stay the season before she does a rewrite. Because there will be times in our life when a team member reminds us to remember the future we authored because in the moment it's like," Oh God, that just looks too hard. Who was I to think that?" And it's the team then that holds the vision steady while the person puts the things in place and comes out of postpartum and then goes," Right. Yeah. I do want that."

Dane: Yeah. That-

Susanne: Go ahead.

Dane: That's a whole nother level. I like to draw a map or a diagram for all of this stuff, but right now I'm trying to show all of these reinforcing elements. And I love the fact that the team can be responsible for supporting an individual to achieve their future self in the same way that the individuals are responsible for the team to create its future self in business. There's a really interesting energy sort of symbiotic nature to that relationship, which I'm excited to explore that more. I know you and I talked about doing my Lightyear profile and hopefully we can build that out with a few more of the team here and really play with it, really experiment. I think there's a lot of value there.

Susanne: And it'll be interesting to learn those things. And what's fascinating about it is, so using you as an example, Dane, as you author your playbook and your future self and write your goals, it's the things that you want me to know. There could be things that you keep private, of course, but these are the things that it's good to have people know. All right." I'd love to find property in Wyoming or I'd love to take my children on an adventure where we go to the Antarctic." I'm making up stuff, but like whatever it is, then it's you revealing that and then I can be supportive of it. It's essentially giving you the key ingredient of the future of teamwork, which is free will, because there's really no, no stick big enough and no carrot, orange enough to replace the intrinsic power of a person's choice.

Dane: Yeah.

Susanne: That's the engine of the team.

Dane: It is the engine. I think that's the engine and probably the gas.

Susanne: Yeah.

Dane: If people are there for their free will, you got a lot of horsepower and you can put a lot out inaudible.

Susanne: It's way more than the paycheck or the punishment.

Dane: Yeah.

Susanne: And look to everyone listening now that's in that situation, that will be dissolving and evolving in your lifetime.

Dane: Yes.

Susanne: It will be, for almost every role. And it'll take time and it'll take consciousness and it'll take new processes. Yeah.

Dane: But going back to one of your early points, that's the call to action, isn't it? It's put the time into it, it's caused that future for yourself and for your team that you deserve. I think that's huge. We've spoken through only half an hour or so, so many great topics. My takeaway is the three rites, I thought that was fantastic. I'm definitely stealing it.

Susanne: Steal like an artist, Dan, it's all yours.

Dane: I loved where you went with the storytelling, the science fiction, learning from Star Trek and from the storytelling into some of the games and positioning yourself to kind of honor yourself and represent yourself in tasks like folding clothes. That's huge. And thirdly, the concept of using a platform like Lightyear to really build out your story for yourself, for your future self, where you are going, and to share that with people who can help you achieve that, there's so much power. There's so much excitement that I think comes from that, that people deserve right now. All of that, plus you gave me a freebie, which is start a business called, my grandmother's boyfriend. It's-

Susanne: Don't you want to buy-

Dane: ...so much value today.

Susanne: ...something from that company? I'm like," What is he going to sell?" I don't know.

Dane: I feel like it needs to have a shop front. I'm going to keep playing on that. It's such a good conversation, Susanne, and thank you so much for joining me today and for being a friend and a partner to HUDDL3 Group. I'm really excited to what we can achieve together and through our companies, Lightyear and HUDDL3 Group, as we go forwards into the Future of Teamwork.

Susanne: Well, thank you so much for inviting me and for allowing me to express some of the things that I feel are important in this time. And you did such a beautiful job of recapping, and I am excited to see what we'll get to create in our future as well. So thanks so much, Dan.