0:00

You're listening to The Catalyst by Soft

0:00

Choice, a podcast about unleashing the

0:04

full potential in people and technology.

0:07

I'm your host, Heather Haskin. In today's rapidly evolving workplace,

0:12

leadership and culture are more critical

0:17

and more challenging than ever before. Organizations face increasing pressure

0:19

to foster environments where people feel

0:24

engaged, yet many struggle to bridge

0:24

the gap between vision and action.

0:29

What does it take to create

0:29

a thriving workplace culture?

0:33

How do leaders inspire

0:33

meaningful change in their

0:35

organizations while staying agile? Well, like any big change, it

0:38

all starts with a small shift.

0:42

One Degree Shift specializes in

0:42

helping organizations achieve

0:46

meaningful and sustainable change by

0:46

shifting mindsets, aligning cultures,

0:51

and fostering leadership growth. Whether it's about improving well

0:53

being, driving accountability, or

0:57

creating inclusive spaces, their

0:57

expertise enables teams to thrive

1:02

in today's fast paced world. Today, I'm joined by One

1:04

Degree Shift founders Suchitra

1:08

Davies Webb and Nick Foster. We'll explore how small, intentional

1:10

changes and a very innovative application

1:15

of AI can lead to extraordinary

1:15

results and organizational performance.

1:21

Nick and Suchitra, thank you

1:21

so much for joining us today.

1:24

I'm very excited to talk with both of you.

1:26

On The Catalyst, we always like to

1:26

start off by asking our guests to

1:30

tell us about their purpose at work,

1:30

uh, the thing that drives them.

1:33

So, Suchitra, I would love to ask

1:33

you, what drives you as a leader?

1:37

Heather, I've had the pleasure of working

1:37

purposefully for a couple of decades now.

1:42

It's so deeply fulfilling, and what

1:42

that means for me is I've noticed

1:46

that the pattern for me is if I get to

1:46

curate warm, introspective space for

1:53

leaders to get more clear, more honest

1:53

about what's really going on with them.

1:58

That helps us all live in more flow.

2:01

All of us grow from that kind

2:01

of reflection and honesty.

2:06

Because I think if we're growing

2:06

courageously and consciously from a deep

2:11

sense of belonging, like from knowing

2:11

that we're not alone, from knowing that

2:14

we're not the only ones trying to figure

2:14

this kind of thing out, that jazzes me.

2:19

I'm on purpose if I'm doing

2:19

any sort of version of that.

2:22

So helping leaders live with less fear.

2:24

In other words. That's very insightful.

2:28

And it's not something that I would think

2:28

that people would think about every day as

2:31

a challenge for a leader living in fear.

2:33

I think people just assume leaders

2:33

are confident they don't have fear.

2:37

So that's an interesting and

2:37

important challenge to offer.

2:41

Nick, what would your

2:41

purpose statement be?

2:45

Thanks, Heather. And building off of what Sujitra talked

2:45

about, because they're very much aligned.

2:49

For me, I have a deep passion for

2:49

leadership and specifically to

2:55

foster a renaissance, a redefinition

2:55

of what leadership is and where

3:00

purpose and growth are really

3:00

at the heart of that leadership.

3:04

And This is all about helping

3:04

people, those people we're talking

3:08

about, live out their best selves

3:08

through their work environment.

3:12

I think we're way past the point

3:12

where leadership used to be defined

3:15

by basically people producing

3:15

results and driving hard for numbers.

3:20

And when I think about what's going on

3:20

with leadership these days, there's an

3:24

expectation from the new generation coming

3:24

into the workforce that leaders actually

3:28

understand wellbeing, actually understand

3:28

inclusion, actually understand way more.

3:34

And at the core is that. Self awareness that they have to have,

3:35

that they have to bring to leadership

3:40

so that they are authentic in the

3:40

way that they actually lead people.

3:43

And so Suchitra's work is really at the

3:43

core of all of the stuff that drives me

3:48

in terms of that shift in leadership. Making conscious choices, right?

3:51

Being conscious about what we're doing,

3:51

not operating on automatic pilot.

3:55

It has a profound impact. That's a very mindful

3:58

way of thinking about it. Wonderful purpose statements.

4:01

Thank you so much for sharing. Let's take a step backwards a little bit.

4:04

I'd love to get to know you

4:04

both a little bit better.

4:06

So, Treacher, I've heard that

4:06

you're a fan of adventure.

4:09

What kinds of activities

4:09

do you like to do?

4:12

Here's why I'm a fan of adventure, because I feel

4:13

like as a coach, I can't quit.

4:17

be asking leaders to push their boundaries

4:17

and get uncomfortable and therefore

4:22

grow if I'm not doing it myself. So I have done a range

4:24

of things over time.

4:27

I mean, most recently I decided to

4:27

learn how to ride a motorbike in

4:31

my fifties and have owned several.

4:33

I bought a trailer and had to

4:33

figure out how to tow it and do all

4:37

of the DIY that comes with that. So those are a couple of ways most

4:40

recently where I'm just, I'm trying

4:43

to put myself into uncomfortable

4:43

situations where I'm forcing myself

4:49

to stretch because that's what we're

4:49

asking leaders that we work with to do.

4:54

That's amazing. That's an insightful way to take

4:55

your free time and improve yourself

4:59

and improve your well being. Very fun too.

5:02

Nick, can you tell me a

5:02

little bit about yourself?

5:05

Do you have some activities that you like doing? Yeah, one of the things that

5:07

I've been doing since 2006 is

5:12

international volunteering. It sort of happened by accident.

5:15

The employees at Soft Choice decided

5:15

they wanted to raise money after

5:19

they saw the tsunami in 2004.

5:22

And they raised 85, 000 through

5:22

all kinds of activities.

5:26

And when it came time to spend the

5:26

money, one of the things that popped up

5:31

was this opportunity to go and actually

5:31

build houses for people in Sri Lanka.

5:36

So we spent two weeks building houses,

5:36

and it kind of affected me deeply.

5:41

And I went back personally for

5:41

another trip in 2006 to sort of

5:46

figure out why it affected me so much. And on that trip, we were actually

5:47

handing out the deeds for some of the

5:51

houses, and somebody said thank you to me.

5:54

And honestly, I said, oh, it's nothing.

5:57

Because what I really meant

5:57

is, compared to my life, what

6:00

I've done here is very little. And this guy took umbrage with my

6:02

comment and said, what do you mean?

6:05

It's nothing. It's everything. This is a house where people are

6:07

going to bring their kids up.

6:09

They're going to study. They're going to have weddings.

6:11

They're going to, you know, he went on and on. And I was embarrassed a little

6:13

bit, but I realized it got me

6:18

thinking that in my life, how much

6:18

had I really done to give back?

6:21

How much had I really done for others? And my leadership, probably, if I was

6:23

really honest, I would say to that

6:26

point was defined on what was good for

6:26

me and what I could get, and it shifted

6:31

everything for me, but it really shifted

6:31

me more than I think anything else, which

6:36

was brilliant and changed my leadership. As a result of that, I

6:38

started to think about.

6:40

How is it that I'm impacting other people?

6:43

And how is it that we as an organization,

6:43

we're having an impact on the world.

6:47

And so it became very much more

6:47

externally referenced rather

6:51

than internally referenced. And all about, was I doing right

6:52

by the people that I was leading?

6:56

And you know, that's a very human feeling. I know it sounds selfish.

6:59

What's in it for me, but that's

6:59

a very normal human feeling

7:01

that we all experienced. It's not something to be ashamed of,

7:03

it's evolution, it's survival of the

7:06

fittest, it's why we're all here. But, but when we can evolve and think

7:08

about others first, I think that just

7:13

creates such a more quality experience

7:13

if everyone is doing that, so that's

7:16

a wonderful, mindful viewpoint.

7:19

And we believe, Heather, you have

7:19

to do both, because if you're not

7:23

taking care of yourself, or taking

7:23

care of the what's in it for me, you

7:27

become either a martyr or burnt out.

7:30

So it has to be both. But what Nick's pointing to is at the

7:32

heart of our work, which is helping

7:36

leaders better understand their impact. What's your actual impact?

7:40

And how does that line up with

7:40

what you might have intended?

7:44

What's the gap there? That's very interesting.

7:47

I almost wonder, how does that work? How do you do that?

7:49

So let's talk about One Degree Shift, the

7:49

company that you both co founded together.

7:54

I'd love to hear about the starting story.

7:56

The name is amazing. It definitely makes me pause and think.

8:00

And I think you both actually

8:00

met at SoftChoice, correct?

8:03

Yes, SoftChoice is the origin story

8:03

in a sense of One Degree Shift.

8:07

You know, if I go back and I remember,

8:07

SoftChoice was founded by David

8:11

Holgate and Joan Panavis, and they

8:11

were both motivated to build an

8:14

environment unlike anything that they

8:14

had experienced in their careers.

8:19

And David loved to challenge old norms.

8:22

And Joan constantly pushed people

8:22

to step up to their highest ideals.

8:26

Neither accepted talk. Uh, they wanted demonstrated

8:28

actions that produced results.

8:31

So they were, you know, committed to

8:31

doing it differently, but also wanted

8:35

it still to have a meaningful impact.

8:38

At a certain point, when I was at

8:38

SoftChoice, we decided to risk the

8:41

whole company on a U S expansion.

8:44

And after we got over the riskiest

8:44

period, I realized that poor

8:47

management was the greatest obstacle.

8:50

To our success, if the management

8:50

didn't grow faster than the company,

8:54

then they would figure out a way to

8:54

slow down the growth of the company.

8:58

And so we decided to build a management

8:58

development program ourselves and enter

9:04

Sujitra, who was hired to build that

9:04

program and run that program for leaders.

9:09

And so we built a management one on one

9:09

and a leadership one on one program,

9:13

which was unheard of in its day. And people went through

9:15

this program with us.

9:19

And we learned so much about them, and

9:19

they learned so much about the mindsets

9:23

that we wanted to use to run the company.

9:25

And so it was just, um, an amazing

9:25

time of, of growth for both of us in

9:30

putting something like that together. I'm loving this story

9:38

about One Degree Shift.

9:40

When did you two decide

9:40

to go off on your own?

9:44

So together, we spent several years giving

9:44

each manager that intensive training

9:48

that Nick just talked about, because

9:48

we were convinced that they needed to

9:51

grow in order for the company to grow. And, and then.

9:55

Through that explosive growth, Soft

9:55

Choice went from like five to 40 branches.

9:59

I realized that I wanted to

9:59

spend more time coaching.

10:03

So I was doing some coaching

10:03

as part of that process, but it

10:07

was more training than coaching. And I loved this, this journey

10:08

of helping people uncover

10:13

what they were thinking about. So the mindset shifts that were required

10:14

for the actual change versus just

10:19

the skill training that we often just

10:19

overlay on top of the existing things

10:24

that leaders are telling themselves. So while I was still at soft choice,

10:26

we started a program called Morpheus

10:32

and it was a bit of a follow on. experience to help further develop

10:34

those leaders that wanted more into

10:39

that inner journey of mindset shifts. And then I, I left Soft Choice to

10:41

become a certified coach, but I

10:45

continue to partner in offering

10:45

Morpheus, but as an outside partner.

10:50

That's incredible. And how risky of you to do that,

10:51

but at the same time, very much

10:55

part of what you've been telling

10:55

us is centric to the business idea.

11:00

So very inspiring. And just to fill that out, Heather,

11:02

after spending 18 years myself at

11:06

Soft Choice, building a culture from

11:06

scratch and struggling with developing

11:10

our people and our leaders, I realized

11:10

that my experience could be useful to

11:14

others who wanted to build healthy,

11:14

vibrant cultures that outperform.

11:19

I ended up reconnecting with Suchitra

11:19

at that point and two other people that

11:23

became founders of One Degree Shift. And we realized we had this

11:25

shared passion, which was really

11:28

all about what is our purpose

11:28

statement as an organization.

11:32

And that is catalyzing

11:32

conscious leadership to inspire

11:36

transformative and healthy growth.

11:38

And that became the basis of the

11:38

work to build One Degree Shift.

11:42

As we look at that framework that you've

11:42

built for One Degree Shift, I'd love

11:46

to dive into that a little bit more. What would be your leadership

11:48

framework at One Degree Shift?

11:52

After working with more than a hundred

11:52

organizations, we started to realize that

11:56

our primary focus was in helping build

11:56

cultures that drove high performance.

12:01

And COVID brought our awareness

12:01

to the key that wellbeing is not

12:06

a detractor to performance, but

12:06

actually the absence of wellbeing was.

12:11

And so well being became part

12:11

of our, our focus as well.

12:15

And cultures that were welcoming and

12:15

inclusive, they created a community

12:20

where people felt a belonging. And without this, work could

12:22

easily feel like a transaction,

12:26

not a meaningful relationship. And so what came out of that was this

12:28

key focus on three pillars, which

12:32

was high performing organizations,

12:32

Wellbeing at the core and inclusion

12:39

in, in that belonging sense. That was the three

12:41

components of what we did.

12:44

And, and we feel headed that needs to

12:44

happen, of course, at an organizational

12:48

level, at the team level, but in the,

12:48

in the center of that model is you, the

12:53

individual, and we're very purposeful

12:53

about that because healthy growth.

12:58

requires leaders to be doing their

12:58

own work, to examine the unexamined.

13:03

And without that kind of

13:03

reflection, it's just so easy

13:06

to not look at the unexamined. And the unintended impact of

13:08

that is that we create unintended

13:12

consequences that mess with the

13:12

results that we want to create.

13:15

So you as at the center, of our

13:15

model because we feel that all

13:19

evolution occurs at that level. We have to change ourselves in order

13:22

to serve more effectively as leaders.

13:26

In other words, there's so

13:26

much stress coming at us.

13:30

If we're not aware of what triggers

13:30

us and what default behaviors

13:36

we resort to when we're not at

13:36

our best, we can't change that.

13:40

So this all comes back to me. I keep thinking about the conscious

13:41

part of what you both were speaking

13:44

about and to not be reactive or

13:44

emotional, but to pause and be proactive.

13:51

It's an amazing, simple concept that can

13:51

definitely create that shift and change.

13:58

So as we look at some of the ways that

13:58

you both came up with this framework,

14:03

things have changed a lot in the

14:03

last several years, the business

14:07

has changed, the way people work has

14:07

changed, and even just, you know, our

14:12

country's economy, as we think about

14:12

that approach now, how has it changed?

14:17

Thanks so much. Thanks. The leadership approach that

14:17

you both take changed to keep

14:21

up with all of these changes. Yeah, it's quite a swing, or it has been

14:23

quite a swing, as we've thought about

14:27

the major events that have happened

14:27

over the past five to six years.

14:31

A lot of awareness has come to,

14:31

uh, well being and inclusion.

14:36

But I think we're actually seeing now

14:36

a swing in the other direction, which

14:39

is, People are getting more focused on

14:39

results with, you know, the potential

14:43

of the economy being in recession.

14:46

Results matter. And, you know, this is not something

14:46

we ever said didn't matter.

14:49

We actually have always believed

14:49

that results are important.

14:53

And it's in the balance of how you

14:53

produce those results that's so critical.

14:57

And when we think about one of the

14:57

core elements of performance, clear

15:01

accountability is one of those things. And quite often people think of

15:03

accountability the wrong way.

15:07

They think of it as who's going

15:07

to pay when something goes wrong.

15:10

And so we're actually enforcing or

15:10

reinforcing the idea that fear should be

15:14

part of that equation and accountability.

15:17

We have a program we call Conscious

15:17

Accountability, which is all about

15:20

inviting people into the possibility

15:20

of working together with a chosen

15:25

accountability around the key

15:25

things that you want to accomplish.

15:29

And in that environment, mistakes

15:29

are okay, as long as we learn from

15:33

those mistakes, that's the key piece. And so building that kind of culture

15:35

of accountability is fundamental to

15:39

creating an organization that outperforms.

15:42

And so we've been doing a lot of

15:42

work on that topic of accountability

15:45

with many organizations. We love to talk about results

15:46

in the business world and in IT.

15:49

So, um, are there any areas that

15:49

you both like that one degree shift

15:53

tracks as far as KPIs, which feels

15:53

counterintuitive for something like

15:58

this when you're talking about emotions

15:58

and leadership and being conscious.

16:01

But at the same time, I do wonder if

16:01

we're thinking about those results.

16:04

What can we track to understand

16:04

if we are bettering ourselves

16:08

or if the program is working? That's interesting because probably

16:09

the most meaningful KPI we use is

16:15

whether or not an organization becomes

16:15

a great place to work, which really

16:19

is the ultimate measure for us.

16:21

And we don't overdo it in terms of,

16:21

you know, taking credit for that

16:26

shift because so much of it is really

16:26

their own intention to get there.

16:29

And then following the roadmap

16:29

that we've given them or worked

16:32

with them on, it's larger than us.

16:35

But it is a key thing that we

16:35

get very happy about when we see

16:38

another one of our clients that's

16:38

been named a great place to work.

16:41

I always appreciate being a part of

16:41

an organization that has that rating.

16:44

It truly does mean a lot. It's an interesting thing to

16:46

measure, Heather, isn't it?

16:48

Right? Because it's the quality of all

16:48

the interactions that are happening

16:54

throughout any given day project.

16:56

decision. So engagement scores, which are part

16:57

of Great Places to Work, it's how

17:01

are people responding to the work?

17:04

How engaged are they in the work?

17:06

How purposeful does the work feel? And so a lot of that is, is qualitative.

17:11

It's in the antidotes. It's in the, it's in the energy of

17:13

the company and how people are showing

17:16

up, how much of themselves they're

17:16

giving versus just being on autopilot.

17:21

That's the reason why I feel like

17:21

it's so difficult to understand

17:24

how you can improve those things. Because some of them are hard to

17:27

track on paper, but you can feel it

17:31

when you show up, you can feel it

17:31

in your meetings, you can feel it in

17:34

your one to ones with your leaders. And so it's definitely there, and it's

17:36

definitely a hugely important aspect to

17:41

all the other things that we do track. It trickles in and affects them.

17:45

Now I'm curious about what types

17:45

of companies you usually work with.

17:49

What kinds of issues do different

17:49

companies seem to need the most help

17:53

with and what are the biggest challenges

17:53

in changing the corporate culture?

17:58

So I know that's a couple questions. Yeah, Heather, we typically work

18:00

with organizations with probably at

18:03

least 100 people in the organization

18:03

and maybe as many as 3, 000 people.

18:09

And that would be, I would

18:09

consider that the sweet spot.

18:12

That said, we have worked with

18:12

organizations that have 30, 000

18:17

employees and organizations that are.

18:20

Tiny that are 10 people that want to set

18:20

the right foundation so that when they

18:23

get to a hundred, they've got the culture

18:23

already built clearly from the beginning.

18:28

There's lots of different areas

18:28

where we can impact an organization.

18:32

And one of the areas that is

18:32

showing up a lot lately is the

18:36

dynamics on the leadership team. And sometimes there are interpersonal

18:38

issues that are getting in the

18:41

way of highly aligned, high

18:41

performing leadership teams.

18:46

And sometimes we're working with those

18:46

teams to help them to understand the

18:50

unintended impacts of their own behavior

18:50

on the rest of the leadership team.

18:55

And so it can be working with groups

18:55

as small as seven to create impact.

19:01

But in those cases, what we know is

19:01

they're going to impact 3000 people,

19:05

if that's the size of the company. And so it's so critical that

19:06

they get aligned and there's no

19:10

politics and Backstabbing and noise

19:10

that goes on the executive team.

19:15

So we're happy to work

19:15

with big organizations.

19:17

They're just way more complicated

19:17

and there's way more moving parts

19:21

and way more people that have

19:21

to recognize that internal work.

19:25

We have a phrase, we

19:25

like to work with owners.

19:28

And owners doesn't mean the person

19:28

that actually owns the company, but

19:31

somebody who's going to be accountable

19:31

for the decisions that are being made.

19:35

We want people that are going to own

19:35

the change that they're talking about.

19:39

We get all of our power from the

19:39

strength that the leader gives us.

19:44

And so when they are. committed to the change.

19:47

We build our power with all of

19:47

the work we're doing off of that.

19:52

It's just a question of can we get

19:52

enough people that are solid on the

19:55

change they want to make so that we

19:55

can create the leverage, if you will,

19:59

that gives the whole program strength. So that their investment lasts, right?

20:04

So that the change is sticky. We've 10 years now together and

20:06

we've certainly learned that

20:09

without that ownership, Heather,

20:09

if the senior leaders aren't.

20:12

Completely bought in and modeling

20:12

and, and being transparent about their

20:17

own learning or how they're working

20:17

on themselves, being transparent

20:22

and honest and vulnerable, I think

20:22

just models permission for everybody

20:28

else to be in it together, right? A culture of learning.

20:31

High performing cultures

20:31

don't make less mistakes.

20:35

They actually make more mistakes

20:35

than low performing cultures.

20:39

But they own up to them, as

20:39

Sajitra said, and they learn

20:42

from them as quickly as possible. We love an organization that's

20:43

willing to be that kind of vulnerable.

20:53

So when you talk about mistakes, tell

20:53

me some of these examples, because

20:55

I'm imagining A slew of things.

20:58

I'd like to get a little more specific. Are we talking about emotional leadership

20:59

style mistakes or mistakes in the

21:02

business, like areas of go to market?

21:05

It could be all of that. If somebody, for example, blows up in

21:06

a meeting and is actually able to come

21:10

back to that group and say, I apologize.

21:13

There's a story here that keeps affecting

21:13

me, then here's what I'm trying to learn.

21:17

And, um, so if you notice me do it

21:17

again, you know, help me out here

21:21

because I'm trying to change that. That's wonderful modeling

21:23

of what we're talking about.

21:26

The mistake could be that somebody

21:26

sent an email to a client that

21:30

shouldn't have gone to that client. Something as simple as that.

21:34

But in some organizations, We hide

21:34

it, we pretend that didn't happen.

21:38

We blame IT, it was a technology issue.

21:41

We find all kinds of ways to

21:41

point fingers and shift blame.

21:45

In a high performing organization,

21:45

they'll say, oops, that's on me.

21:49

I blew it. I shouldn't have done that was

21:50

something I will learn from.

21:52

And you know, it'll never happen again. Imagine sort of, okay, now I moved that

21:54

quickly with that kind of error versus

21:59

all of the investigations that happen.

22:01

Okay, let's go and examine IT, find

22:01

out what's going on with the systems.

22:04

We waste time. Chasing boogeyman that aren't

22:06

really real because people were

22:09

trying to blame somebody else. And so it's low performing

22:12

because it creates silos, right? It creates people working against each

22:14

other in the same organization, trying

22:19

to outperform out wit, you know, whereas

22:19

if everyone's aligned and working on

22:23

the same page and there isn't that need

22:23

to blame or to hide mistakes, things

22:29

happen more quickly, more readily. It all comes down to trust, to me,

22:31

you know, if you have a leader or an

22:35

organization's culture of trust, where

22:35

you can own up to those mistakes and

22:40

feel that you will not be harshly

22:40

reprimanded for something that you're

22:44

working to change and have that trust,

22:44

and then it also comes down to ego,

22:49

so being humble and being willing

22:49

to admit those errors or even just

22:53

being Being mindful and seeing them,

22:53

that conscious, trusting environment,

22:58

um, can only bring better results.

23:01

So then we enter artificial

23:01

intelligence to all of these

23:04

things that we talked about. Having and utilizing the incredible

23:06

AI tools that are available today,

23:10

how does that help with this work? We look at AI as a way of extending

23:12

what we do or supporting what we do

23:18

and creating scalability and speed, but

23:18

change happens in organizations at all

23:23

levels and for us to create awareness

23:23

and sometimes it's skill development.

23:30

At all levels in an organization, one

23:30

of the ways we have been playing with

23:34

is using artificial intelligence. And what we've been doing is building

23:35

bots that actually help people go

23:39

through a process that otherwise

23:39

they might go through with a coach,

23:44

but the bot becomes the coach. And so we're training bots with all

23:45

of the information and all of the

23:49

skill and knowledge that we have so

23:49

that those bots can approximate us,

23:54

which means we can actually deploy

23:54

those bots throughout an organization.

23:58

And maybe they're not going to be

23:58

as great as we would be, but they'll

24:01

be pretty darn good and help people

24:01

get experience that's necessary.

24:05

That, that creates some self awareness

24:05

for the change that we're talking about.

24:09

And so that's an overarching view

24:09

of what we're thinking about.

24:13

Well, an appreciating purpose

24:13

was our first bot, Heather.

24:16

And it was something that we actually

24:16

started with Softchoice about a year

24:19

ago, because they realized that each

24:19

person having a purpose statement was.

24:23

The foundation to role alignment

24:23

and ultimately to performance.

24:27

Everyone's really clear, right? On why they're doing what they're

24:29

doing, how that overlaps with the

24:32

organization's purpose, it lights

24:32

everyone on fire in a good way.

24:35

So this bot that we created walks

24:35

the user through a series of

24:39

questions that encourages each

24:39

individual leader to discuss.

24:44

their most important meaningful motivations. And the beauty of this is

24:46

that this bot can scale across

24:49

hundreds or even thousands of

24:49

people in a short amount of time.

24:52

So they then come into a workshop with

24:52

us and we help them humanize, but further

24:58

personalize, uh, and deepen the meaning.

25:00

But they have a really solid

25:00

draft as a starting point.

25:04

I feel like that could be useful

25:04

in So many arenas, even just

25:08

someone that's looking for a job,

25:08

trying to figure out their purpose.

25:12

And when people bring those purpose

25:12

statements to the initial workshop that

25:17

we run, especially if the people around

25:17

them know them somewhat, they can actually

25:21

say, you know, it's more of this or

25:21

that word's got a lot of energy for you.

25:25

Say more about that. And what comes out of that is a refinement

25:26

that takes sometimes a generic sounding

25:31

purpose statement and makes it sing.

25:34

It's a wonderful process to watch. When it's done that way.

25:37

And so that heavy lifting of that

25:37

first time using the bot creates

25:41

immense leverage for a group workshop.

25:44

And then our value is really in

25:44

the group workshop, which is key.

25:48

That's great because you can use

25:48

that bot and then humanize it and

25:51

get that person to person feedback. And so it's really enhancing the

25:53

quality of the work instead of

25:57

replacing the human part of the work. So that's really cool.

26:00

I've also heard that you have

26:00

something like a summit bot.

26:04

Is that in the works? It's actually deployed with a

26:05

client in the U S right now and

26:08

several others that are testing it. This is a bot that, you know, if you

26:10

really think about most managers, one of

26:14

their key responsibilities is to build a

26:14

coaching plan for their direct reports.

26:18

But if you really ask most people,

26:18

do they have a coaching plan?

26:21

They don't. And when you sort of look in the

26:22

depth of that is it's a lot of work to

26:26

create a coaching plan for an employee. So what we did is we created a

26:28

bot, which is really a process

26:32

that leads the manager through this

26:32

relatively simple set of questions.

26:37

And by answering the questions

26:37

and reflecting and giving

26:39

their own experiences with. The employee, what it does is actually

26:41

assembles information in the background

26:46

and helps the manager build a coaching

26:46

plan that they can co create with

26:50

the employee because the employee

26:50

has to be part of that same process.

26:54

But it gives you, the manager, these.

26:56

Chances to say, okay, what I'm really

26:56

worried about is this, you know, what

27:01

if I tell them what I really think and

27:01

they cry, or what if they get angry?

27:06

What if they leave the room? And the bot actually gives them the

27:07

opportunity to play out those scenarios

27:12

in the conversation with the bot. And think through how

27:14

they're going to respond.

27:16

If something happens in the bot, we'll

27:16

give them suggestions and ideas of how

27:19

they might respond if something happens. And so it allows them to think through

27:21

the difficult questions, the difficult

27:26

conversations that are going to be had

27:26

quite often in coaching plan discussions.

27:31

And it takes all of the energy out

27:31

of the worry and all the fear that,

27:35

that comes in, which is the reason

27:35

people don't build coaching plans.

27:38

And so this bot actually walks

27:38

them through the process.

27:42

And if they just follow it, they end up

27:42

with a coaching plan for their employee.

27:45

So it's really simple and it's

27:45

having a huge impact with one of

27:49

our clients that's been using it. They want to take it broader

27:50

because they're seeing,

27:52

Oh, this is really helpful. And the feedback from the

27:54

employees is they feel like they're

27:57

having a career conversation. Which was sort of a surprise

28:00

to us because we didn't really

28:02

think of this as career planning. But when you're actually getting good

28:04

coaching, I understand where I'm going

28:07

and how I'm going to get there and

28:07

what do I have to do to get there?

28:10

And the number one reason people leave

28:10

organizations is that people don't have

28:14

a plan for where their career is going. So this actually solves that problem.

28:19

And it's simple. As we wrap things up here, I'd love

28:21

to learn a little bit more about where

28:24

listeners can find you and maybe invite

28:24

other One degree shift to participate

28:29

in some of their leadership activities. Our website is one degree shift.ca,

28:31

so that's one dash degree shift.ca.

28:37

You can follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram,

28:37

you just search one dash degree shift,

28:42

or email us at info@onedegree.ca.

28:44

You can find us through

28:44

any of those channels.

28:48

One degree shift is revolutionizing

28:48

leadership and workplace culture

28:52

by helping organizations make

28:52

small, meaningful changes

28:55

that lead to massive results. From fostering trust and inclusivity

28:57

to utilizing innovative AI tools.

29:02

They're showing us how slight

29:02

shifts in perspective can

29:06

unlock powerful transformations. I want to thank Nick and

29:08

Suchitra for coming on the show

29:11

and thank you for listening. I'm Heather Haskin, and

29:13

this is The Catalyst.

29:15

See you again in two weeks. The Catalyst is brought to you by

29:18

Soft Choice, a leading North American

29:22

technology solutions provider. It is written and produced by

29:24

Angela Cope, Philippe Dimas,

29:28

and Brayden Banks in partnership

29:28

with Pilgrim Content Marketing.