January 27, 2025 • 23 mins
I hate cutters. But this is a different kind of cutting I'm advocating. It's not to save money. It's not to cut expense. It's to increase speed to market and to gain competitive advantage.
In this episode the cofounder of Lone Rock Leadership, Russ Hill, talks about the seismic shift that is happening in the marketplace. Leaders who innovate are discovering their organizations are bloated. They move too slow. They over message. They have too many layers of management.
What Elon Musk and DOGE are doing in the US government is the same thing innovative executives are doing in the business world. They're creating the new, lean organization.
In this episode of the Lead In 30 Podcast Russ Hill:
• Discusses the necessity for reducing layers of bureaucracy
• Shares the importance of clarity and alignment for organizational success
• Analyzes the impact of current political and economic shifts
• Encourages leaders to respond objectively to external changes
• Urges listeners to reassess operational strategies for efficiency
• Highlights the rise of new voices advocating for organizational change
• Concludes with a call to action for bold moves towards efficiency
--
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--
About the podcast:
The Lead In 30 Podcast with Russ Hill is for leaders of teams who want to grow and accelerate their results. In each episode, Russ Hill shares what he's learned consulting executives. Subscribe to get two new episodes every week. To connect with Russ message him on LinkedIn!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The world has changed .
Like you can absolutely feelthat the ground has shifted and
the rules for how to win inbusiness, no question about it
are changing right now as well.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You cannot be serious .
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Strengthen your ability to lead.
In less than 30 minutes You'relistening to Lead in 30.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
If you have not listened to the last episode,
the one right before this, youprobably want to go back and
listen to that one, because I'mactually going to pick up where
I left off on that one.
I was ranting pretty good aboutthe waste in organizations and
how slow companies move and whatwe need to do about that how to
(00:49):
accelerate movement.
In this episode I want to pickup on that.
It's not going to be my themein every episode, but it's just
a huge topic right now in theworld around us and we've got to
acknowledge it.
And if you're not payingattention to it, if you're not
shifting the way that you'rethinking, if you're not spending
(01:10):
some time pondering andstrategizing and just kind of
thinking about it, then you'regoing to get way behind the
times.
There's no question about it.
Welcome into the Lead in 30podcast.
In less than 30 minutes, wegive you a framework, a model,
an experience, something tothink about implementing in the
way that you lead, because ifyou can become more effective,
(01:33):
if you can strengthen yourability to lead others, it
affects everything in your life.
Well, my name is Russ Hill.
I make my living coaching,consulting senior executive
teams at some of the world'sbiggest companies.
You can find out more about ourteam, our firm, what we do with
organizations at lonerockioLonerockio Lonerock Leadership
(01:57):
is a name of our organization.
I was actually at the gymearlier today because of my
schedule.
I had to get in an earlierworkout and I uh, I ran into a,
a business owner that I know.
He actually sold his company toprivate equity, um gosh, two
years ago, maybe year and a halfago.
Just an absolutely amazingstory, so awesome.
(02:19):
I was so happy for him, livingthe American dream.
And we see each other at thegym quite, quite frequently and
so well, probably not frequently, but on a regular basis, like
it happens occasionally.
And so we we chat for a fewminutes in between sets and I.
He was asking me about what wedo with organizations and I was
(02:40):
talking to him about clarity,alignment, movement, now that's,
you know, that's, that's.
Those are hefty topics with theexecutive teams that we work
with.
If you think about clarity andI gave him the elevator speech,
the 60-second version of thatthat there are a million
priorities.
But what we do is we really puta lot of pressure on executives
(03:03):
or we poke and push on them alittle bit to get that to just
three, like what are the mostimportant three things
categories and metrics and ifyou do that, then it forces all
these decisions about weight sothat that isn't one of the top
three.
No, well, that affects what I'mprioritizing or what our
department's gonna focus on overthe next quarter, and those are
(03:24):
the decisions, the discussionsthat you want happening in an
organization.
And then alignment.
We went into a 30 second, maybea 90 second discussion about the
difference between awarenessand alignment, and then I was
talking to him about movementand how those are really the
first principles of anorganization and that we'd limit
an organization or a team or anexecutive to four.
(03:45):
Like you got to prioritize fourshifts.
For instance, in our firm, twoof the first principles are be
scrappy and scale it, and wewere talking about how those can
contradict or they can seemdifferent, and yet both are
critical to the growth of ourfirm and the team that we've got
working with us.
Be scrappy what does that mean?
(04:05):
What do we need people to do inorder to grow our firm at the
rate that we're trying to growright now?
Well, you got to be scrappy.
What does that look like andthen scale it.
What does that mean and how doyou do that?
And so, anyway, we were talkingabout that and that really is
(04:26):
what lead in 30, the 30 dayleadership course that we teach.
And then it's also theconsulting work that we do with
executives.
How long do you think we haveto spend with an executive team
leading 5,000 people on clarity,just on getting clear on what's
most important defining successin a way that that entire team
of 10 or 15 executives at themost senior level are aligned
around like that.
There's a lot of discussion tobe had around that and a lot of
(04:49):
debate, and the outcome of thatjust really unifies that team
when they get aligned and theyrally around a set of a shared
definition of success.
That's incredibly powerful.
Anyway, let's let's talk abouthow the ground has shifted.
So I'm picking up where I leftoff on the last episode.
Whether I don't care if you'rethe most liberal Democrat in the
(05:13):
world, I don't care if you areway out there on the.
I don't care if you're the mosthardcore right concern, you
know, on the right conservative,it doesn't matter to me right.
It doesn't matter in business.
It doesn't like your politicalviews personally, don't matter
(05:34):
in the marketplace that we'vegot to win in, right, you can
only affect so much change.
I'm not saying don't be active,don't have opinions, that stuff
, sure, Sure, you've got yours.
But how you view the world, whothe candidate that I want to win
, the political views I have,they aren't being like.
(05:55):
Some of them are in play andsome of them aren't in play
right now, right.
And so me getting all emotionalabout that doesn't matter.
I just have to look at theworld, the marketplace, the
reality that's in front of me,and figure out how to win, not
in a conniving, selfish way, butin a way that serves our
customers and clients and andfulfills the purpose that I and
(06:17):
those that I work with haveright, that that that's what
we've got to do.
So so just understand that as Italk about what I'm going to
talk about in this episode, yourview.
You've got to put that to theside, you've got to remove the
emotion of it and you've got toacknowledge reality, whether
it's a reality that you like oryou don't like, and my, my
(06:40):
estimation, my guess, is thatevery single person listening to
this, there's part of thereality in our world right now
that you like, you're fully insupport of, and there's part of
the reality in the political,economic, social, all that
aspects of life.
There are parts of it that youdisagree with.
That you're very uncomfortablewith that's true of everyone,
(07:03):
most likely, okay.
That you're very uncomfortablewith, that's true of everyone,
most likely, Okay.
So let's just all be aligned onthat and then, and then, with
that as the foundation, havethis discussion.
So forget about the election,forget about or forget about the
candidates, forget about Trump,forget about right versus left,
democrats, kamala, forget aboutall that.
And I'm talking mostly aboutAmerica, because America is the
(07:24):
most, it's the biggest force inthe world, not the only force,
but it's the biggest force inthe world, and so the world, the
entire world's affected by it.
So those of you that are inother countries that are part of
the world, I acknowledge thatnot everything centers on
America, but it does have animpact.
So that's what I'm going to betalking about.
So the world is shifted.
It's shifting in dramatic ways,and one of the fundamental
(07:48):
shifts that we're seeing is thatthe old guard, meaning the
military industrial complex anda lot associated with that, have
taken a blow.
Now, whether that's a fatalblow, whether that's a change
that is going to sustain itselfover the next several decades or
from this point forward or notis debatable, but at least in
(08:11):
the short term, the ground hasshifted and the world of
technology and tech startupshave, like they've, gained
enormous power in, at least inthe political debate and in
governing and all of that.
Right, we can acknowledge thatgood, bad or whatever doesn't
matter.
That's the reality.
So part and the another thingthat has shifted is this and
(08:34):
there's tons of podcasts andinterviews and tweets and
different things that you canread about this if you're not
caught up to speed but theheadline is this there are a lot
of people who have been quietover the last five to 10 years,
who are no longer being quiet,people who have been watching
shifts that have been takingplace in the workplace and in
(08:56):
society and and quietly beingfrustrated by it, not thinking
that it's all good or right orproductive, who are now speaking
up.
Now again, take your politicalleanings out of it, doesn't
matter how you view about it.
Some of you are celebratingthis shift.
You're like, oh my gosh,finally people are saying what
(09:18):
I've been thinking and I haven'tbeen able to say this for so
long because you might get mefired or might get me to be sued
or might be whatever.
Some of you are thinking that.
Others of you are thinking, ohmy gosh, this is a terrible
shift and I can't believe that.
The it doesn't matter your view.
What matters is the reality, atleast in the moment.
(09:38):
Whether or not this is going tobe sustained over the next two,
five, 15, 20 years is debatable.
No one can answer that for sure.
But the ground has shifted.
Part of that and we could like.
There's so many elements ofthat that we could discuss.
Right, I was in a meeting justa few days ago, virtual meeting
with the CEO of a company thatyou all would recognize the
(09:59):
brand of, virtual meeting withthe CEO of a company that you
all would recognize the brand of, and we were talking for the
first 15 minutes of this virtualcall about this topic.
And this CEO has politicalleanings and we're all off the
record.
Right, we're friends and we'veworked together for a long time.
So they're sharing some oftheir views and really talking
about some of the changes thatthey view as negative in their
mind and their personal view, ornegative, and then we're
(10:22):
talking about well, this is theway that it is, whether or not
we agree with that or don'tagree with it, or whatever your
views are or my views are,doesn't matter.
Ok, so those and, by the way,those of you that are getting
caught up in the debate and andarguing against the shifts that
are taking place, or arguing forthem, or whatever you're
actually missing the point Likethat could be fun and you can
(10:44):
have some opinions on it, butyou, you would be well served to
just deal with the reality ofthe situation, remove your
emotion from it and figure outhow to win with the new rules
that are changing by the dayright now, at the time that I'm
releasing this episode, which islate January 2025.
So let's talk about one of theshifts, and one of the shifts is
(11:06):
obviously Elon Musk, and othersare involved in this effort,
and it was a big part of thecampaign on the right the
conservatives, the Republicans,donald Trump and his supporters
to reduce the waste ingovernment and government
spending.
In fact, I was reading anarticle earlier today that says
(11:28):
let me pull it up because I wantto get it right.
That in this isn't the article.
It's.
It basically said that the I'mgoing to pull it up real quick
because I've got to, I got toget these facts.
These figures are just really,really interesting.
Ok, here it is.
So federal spending in the USeight years ago, federal
(11:53):
spending in the in the US eightyears ago, was around four
trillion dollars.
Eight years later, it's over $7trillion.
That's amazing, that's stunningthat in the space of eight
years, less than a decade, it'salmost double.
And again, you can argue good,bad, needed, unneeded, it
(12:18):
doesn't matter what your view onit is, that's just a fact and a
figure in and of itself.
Stunning, amazing, really.
And so there is this movementright or wrong, good or bad
doesn't matter to reduce that.
That there's.
There's.
In the last episode we talkedabout infobesity, right, or data
(12:41):
smog, about the amount ofinformation.
So there is this movement.
There is this belief among somethat we have gotten way too
bloated, way too inefficient,way too many layers and
bureaucracy and in federalgovernment.
And here's where I want to gonext.
(13:03):
This is what matters, like.
That's a.
That's an interesting debateand how that plays out.
It's going to be interesting.
Elon Musk and those around himsay they're going to cut that.
We're waiting to see what theypropose and some of you are
going to love what they proposeand some of you are going to
think it's the greatest evilthat is existed in your lifetime
.
It doesn't matter your viewwhen it comes to business.
Okay, that's my belief.
You can argue with me on that,but the world's going to, it's
(13:27):
going to play out how it's goingto play out.
You got to figure out how towin, succeed, have impact,
fulfill your purpose, serve yourcustomers in whatever the,
whatever the new rules are,however much they shift.
So my argument and my point inthis episode is what's going on
in the, in the politicaldiscussion, is coming to a
(13:47):
company near you?
Absolutely, it's coming to yourindustry.
There's no way around it.
That's my premise, that's mybelief, that's my position in
this episode.
You could disagree, but mybelief, my gut on this, is that
those who are going to win,succeed, increase their value in
(14:11):
the marketplace, are going tobe ahead of the curve on this.
In other words, how can youmake your organization more
efficient?
How can you remove layers ofstructure and I know that's
controversial, but it's notabout like.
(14:33):
That's our role as businessleaders.
Now let me say this I haveworked for.
I call them cutters that's myterm for people who are cutters,
and the way I use that term andwhat I mean on it is people.
I had a boss once who, I swear,had dreams at night, like when
he laid his head down on thepillow and he went to sleep.
(14:54):
What he dreamt about it wasn'tsheep jumping over a fence, it
was where he could cut thebudget.
I swear that's what he did,because it seemed like every
morning he walked into theoffice and he would pull me and
said, hey, russ, um, by the way,I was thinking about line item
whatever in the budget, or I wasthinking about this person or
(15:16):
that manager or that departmentor whatever else.
I'm just wondering.
And I would just I could feelmy body tense up.
I'm like, oh my gosh.
And I found myself justdefending, defending where we
were allocating money, and mybelief was you've got these
people who are, who scale andpeople who cut, people who scale
(15:38):
and people who cut.
I know who I want to work for,I know who I want to be around,
I know who generally wins inbusiness.
Now I'm talking about theextremes of the spectrum, but if
I want to and you can't be ateither extreme and when you
can't be just on growth andnever be about efficiencies or
cut or restructure anything.
There's no way you'll win inthe marketplace.
(16:00):
You can't be on that.
I mean you can win for a while,but it can't go forever and you
can't be at the other end Likethis.
I mean you can win for a while,but it can't go forever and you
can't be at the other end, likethis person was just cut, cut,
cut, cut, cut, dream about it,and like that's not motivational
.
It's one of the reasons I left.
I couldn't handle it.
I'm like, oh my gosh, this isnot fulfilling when I mean for a
(16:22):
while or a period oroccasionally, but all the time I
mean, no, I want you to dreamabout growth, but opportunity,
right.
So when you think about thespectrum, you know if that's one
straight line and those are thetwo extremes.
You want to lean toward growth.
You want to be on the growthside of that spectrum, but you
also want to.
You want to do what I'm talkingabout right now, which is you
(16:42):
want to run efficient.
And so now, now is a fantastictime for you to be looking at
your organization and think howit goes back to the last episode
.
I'm going to pick up on what Iwas talking about.
How do I reduce the number ofmeetings?
(17:03):
How do I reduce the amount ofdiscussion?
How do I reduce the amount ofdiscussion?
How do I reduce the amount ofmessages going back and forth?
And how do I get more of anemphasis on execution doing the
work, meeting with the customer,building relationships,
executing on things.
(17:23):
How do I do that?
Well, a big part of that isgoing to be efficiencies in the
organization.
My belief I'm not talking aboutevery organization and some of
you your organizations are lean,as could be.
There's no you like.
You've operated well this way,but most of you haven't, most of
us haven't.
(17:43):
We've gotten too slow, and so,as the ground shifts, you're, I
think we're going to see it ingovernment.
We'll see how that plays outagain.
Good or bad, right or wrong,happy or sad about it.
That's what the discussion is,and organizations are going to
be doing the same.
You're seeing this in the techindustry.
You're seeing it in other areas.
(18:05):
My challenge to you, my thoughtfor you, my thing, my what I
would have you consider, and youcan disagree with it.
You could think that I it's not.
This doesn't apply to you, butone of my thoughts right now.
One of my strong beliefs is thatthe executives, the leaders who
(18:26):
are going to increase theirvalue in the marketplace over
the next at least year I wouldargue five years are those who
will make bold moves to createefficiencies in their
organization and think oh, wewere in an era of bloated 4
(18:49):
trillion to 7 trillion Stunning.
But the same might be true ofyour organization.
There might be absolutely.
In fact, if you Google it oryou search or you do some
research, you'll find articles,you'll find position papers,
you'll find academic researchthat says that in large
organizations, we've got thishuge layer of mid-level managers
(19:13):
that's become way too bloatedand that is what's driving, in
many cases, all of the meetings.
We've got so many bodies.
We've got so many bodies, somany individuals, so many
positions involved in everydiscussion, and what we need is
less discussion, which meansfrom a structural.
(19:36):
There are structural changes.
There are cultural changes,there are process changes to
increase efficiency.
All of those apply and mychallenge to you, my thought for
you, what I want you to thinkabout, is are you ahead of the
curve?
Are you doing enough?
You don't want to paralyze Now.
There's no right or wronganswer on this.
(19:56):
You don't want to cut so muchthat it.
I mean, you're so lean that youcan't like, you're anorexic.
The organization can't move, itcan't, ideate, it can't.
So you've got to.
But my belief, working with lotsof different organizations in
lots of different industries, isthat those organizations are
(20:17):
the outliers right now and thatmost of us, as organizations
have become too bloated.
We're moving too slow and themarketplace one of the big
themes.
Trust me on this, I think I'mright.
I think the noise that's outthere is actually right.
(20:38):
One of the big moves we'regoing to see in the marketplace
over the next year or two isgreater efficiencies and that
we'll look back and say, oh,there was an era of massively
expanding the manager class,bloating organizations and we
became too slow, and so what areyou going to do about it?
(21:02):
What thoughts does that generatein your mind?
What ideas, what data do youneed to review?
What bold moves do you need toconsider?
You don't want to do any ofthis spontaneously.
You want to think about it.
You want to be smart about it,but be innovative, be a market
leader, do it differently andand get your argument for the
(21:24):
why down.
If you're going to lean intothis and get your argument for
the why down.
If you're going to lean intothis, what's the why?
Okay, and the way to present itto the organization is you're
positioning the organization forthe future.
Your job is to be a steward ofthis organization and position
it to win over the longterm, andso that involves being
(21:45):
innovative, and so we'refocusing on execution, we're
focusing on serving the customer, and we're going to do it in a
way that's going to win in thismarketplace.
You'll know what to talk about.
You'll know what to think about.
Anyway, I, just I, I, I view itas my duty, as somebody who
works with executives, to stayahead of this, to be aware of
(22:05):
trends and shifts and ideas anddiscussion going on in the
marketplace.
And in the podcast, I talkabout what I'm thinking about, I
talk about what's on my mind,what, what, what, what I'm what
I'm seeing, and so I have toshare this with you and I think
it's exciting.
I think it's.
I think it's exciting, I thinkit's actually a really good
(22:26):
thing and I'm just yeah, I thinkit's a good good thing.
And you can step back from itand go this actually makes a lot
of sense.
Yeah, if you were to look atthe macro position of things,
the macro view of things.
We did slow down too much, andthat period is over.
(22:47):
That's what's on my mind inthis episode of the Lead in 30
podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a
friend.
Tap on the share button andtext the link.
Thanks for listening to theLead in 30 podcast with Russ
Hill.
The world has changed .
Like you can absolutely feelthat the ground has shifted and
the rules for how to win inbusiness, no question about it
are changing right now as well.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You cannot be serious .
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Strengthen your ability to lead.
In less than 30 minutes You'relistening to Lead in 30.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
If you have not listened to the last episode,
the one right before this, youprobably want to go back and
listen to that one, because I'mactually going to pick up where
I left off on that one.
I was ranting pretty good aboutthe waste in organizations and
how slow companies move and whatwe need to do about that how to
(00:49):
accelerate movement.
In this episode I want to pickup on that.
It's not going to be my themein every episode, but it's just
a huge topic right now in theworld around us and we've got to
acknowledge it.
And if you're not payingattention to it, if you're not
shifting the way that you'rethinking, if you're not spending
(01:10):
some time pondering andstrategizing and just kind of
thinking about it, then you'regoing to get way behind the
times.
There's no question about it.
Welcome into the Lead in 30podcast.
In less than 30 minutes, wegive you a framework, a model,
an experience, something tothink about implementing in the
way that you lead, because ifyou can become more effective,
(01:33):
if you can strengthen yourability to lead others, it
affects everything in your life.
Well, my name is Russ Hill.
I make my living coaching,consulting senior executive
teams at some of the world'sbiggest companies.
You can find out more about ourteam, our firm, what we do with
organizations at lonerockioLonerockio Lonerock Leadership
(01:57):
is a name of our organization.
I was actually at the gymearlier today because of my
schedule.
I had to get in an earlierworkout and I uh, I ran into a,
a business owner that I know.
He actually sold his company toprivate equity, um gosh, two
years ago, maybe year and a halfago.
Just an absolutely amazingstory, so awesome.
(02:19):
I was so happy for him, livingthe American dream.
And we see each other at thegym quite, quite frequently and
so well, probably not frequently, but on a regular basis, like
it happens occasionally.
And so we we chat for a fewminutes in between sets and I.
He was asking me about what wedo with organizations and I was
(02:40):
talking to him about clarity,alignment, movement, now that's,
you know, that's, that's.
Those are hefty topics with theexecutive teams that we work
with.
If you think about clarity andI gave him the elevator speech,
the 60-second version of thatthat there are a million
priorities.
But what we do is we really puta lot of pressure on executives
(03:03):
or we poke and push on them alittle bit to get that to just
three, like what are the mostimportant three things
categories and metrics and ifyou do that, then it forces all
these decisions about weight sothat that isn't one of the top
three.
No, well, that affects what I'mprioritizing or what our
department's gonna focus on overthe next quarter, and those are
(03:24):
the decisions, the discussionsthat you want happening in an
organization.
And then alignment.
We went into a 30 second, maybea 90 second discussion about the
difference between awarenessand alignment, and then I was
talking to him about movementand how those are really the
first principles of anorganization and that we'd limit
an organization or a team or anexecutive to four.
(03:45):
Like you got to prioritize fourshifts.
For instance, in our firm, twoof the first principles are be
scrappy and scale it, and wewere talking about how those can
contradict or they can seemdifferent, and yet both are
critical to the growth of ourfirm and the team that we've got
working with us.
Be scrappy what does that mean?
(04:05):
What do we need people to do inorder to grow our firm at the
rate that we're trying to growright now?
Well, you got to be scrappy.
What does that look like andthen scale it.
What does that mean and how doyou do that?
And so, anyway, we were talkingabout that and that really is
(04:26):
what lead in 30, the 30 dayleadership course that we teach.
And then it's also theconsulting work that we do with
executives.
How long do you think we haveto spend with an executive team
leading 5,000 people on clarity,just on getting clear on what's
most important defining successin a way that that entire team
of 10 or 15 executives at themost senior level are aligned
around like that.
There's a lot of discussion tobe had around that and a lot of
(04:49):
debate, and the outcome of thatjust really unifies that team
when they get aligned and theyrally around a set of a shared
definition of success.
That's incredibly powerful.
Anyway, let's let's talk abouthow the ground has shifted.
So I'm picking up where I leftoff on the last episode.
Whether I don't care if you'rethe most liberal Democrat in the
(05:13):
world, I don't care if you areway out there on the.
I don't care if you're the mosthardcore right concern, you
know, on the right conservative,it doesn't matter to me right.
It doesn't matter in business.
It doesn't like your politicalviews personally, don't matter
(05:34):
in the marketplace that we'vegot to win in, right, you can
only affect so much change.
I'm not saying don't be active,don't have opinions, that stuff
, sure, Sure, you've got yours.
But how you view the world, whothe candidate that I want to win
, the political views I have,they aren't being like.
(05:55):
Some of them are in play andsome of them aren't in play
right now, right.
And so me getting all emotionalabout that doesn't matter.
I just have to look at theworld, the marketplace, the
reality that's in front of me,and figure out how to win, not
in a conniving, selfish way, butin a way that serves our
customers and clients and andfulfills the purpose that I and
(06:17):
those that I work with haveright, that that that's what
we've got to do.
So so just understand that as Italk about what I'm going to
talk about in this episode, yourview.
You've got to put that to theside, you've got to remove the
emotion of it and you've got toacknowledge reality, whether
it's a reality that you like oryou don't like, and my, my
(06:40):
estimation, my guess, is thatevery single person listening to
this, there's part of thereality in our world right now
that you like, you're fully insupport of, and there's part of
the reality in the political,economic, social, all that
aspects of life.
There are parts of it that youdisagree with.
That you're very uncomfortablewith that's true of everyone,
(07:03):
most likely, okay.
That you're very uncomfortablewith, that's true of everyone,
most likely, Okay.
So let's just all be aligned onthat and then, and then, with
that as the foundation, havethis discussion.
So forget about the election,forget about or forget about the
candidates, forget about Trump,forget about right versus left,
democrats, kamala, forget aboutall that.
And I'm talking mostly aboutAmerica, because America is the
(07:24):
most, it's the biggest force inthe world, not the only force,
but it's the biggest force inthe world, and so the world, the
entire world's affected by it.
So those of you that are inother countries that are part of
the world, I acknowledge thatnot everything centers on
America, but it does have animpact.
So that's what I'm going to betalking about.
So the world is shifted.
It's shifting in dramatic ways,and one of the fundamental
(07:48):
shifts that we're seeing is thatthe old guard, meaning the
military industrial complex anda lot associated with that, have
taken a blow.
Now, whether that's a fatalblow, whether that's a change
that is going to sustain itselfover the next several decades or
from this point forward or notis debatable, but at least in
(08:11):
the short term, the ground hasshifted and the world of
technology and tech startupshave, like they've, gained
enormous power in, at least inthe political debate and in
governing and all of that.
Right, we can acknowledge thatgood, bad or whatever doesn't
matter.
That's the reality.
So part and the another thingthat has shifted is this and
(08:34):
there's tons of podcasts andinterviews and tweets and
different things that you canread about this if you're not
caught up to speed but theheadline is this there are a lot
of people who have been quietover the last five to 10 years,
who are no longer being quiet,people who have been watching
shifts that have been takingplace in the workplace and in
(08:56):
society and and quietly beingfrustrated by it, not thinking
that it's all good or right orproductive, who are now speaking
up.
Now again, take your politicalleanings out of it, doesn't
matter how you view about it.
Some of you are celebratingthis shift.
You're like, oh my gosh,finally people are saying what
(09:18):
I've been thinking and I haven'tbeen able to say this for so
long because you might get mefired or might get me to be sued
or might be whatever.
Some of you are thinking that.
Others of you are thinking, ohmy gosh, this is a terrible
shift and I can't believe that.
The it doesn't matter your view.
What matters is the reality, atleast in the moment.
(09:38):
Whether or not this is going tobe sustained over the next two,
five, 15, 20 years is debatable.
No one can answer that for sure.
But the ground has shifted.
Part of that and we could like.
There's so many elements ofthat that we could discuss.
Right, I was in a meeting justa few days ago, virtual meeting
with the CEO of a company thatyou all would recognize the
(09:59):
brand of, virtual meeting withthe CEO of a company that you
all would recognize the brand of, and we were talking for the
first 15 minutes of this virtualcall about this topic.
And this CEO has politicalleanings and we're all off the
record.
Right, we're friends and we'veworked together for a long time.
So they're sharing some oftheir views and really talking
about some of the changes thatthey view as negative in their
mind and their personal view, ornegative, and then we're
(10:22):
talking about well, this is theway that it is, whether or not
we agree with that or don'tagree with it, or whatever your
views are or my views are,doesn't matter.
Ok, so those and, by the way,those of you that are getting
caught up in the debate and andarguing against the shifts that
are taking place, or arguing forthem, or whatever you're
actually missing the point Likethat could be fun and you can
(10:44):
have some opinions on it, butyou, you would be well served to
just deal with the reality ofthe situation, remove your
emotion from it and figure outhow to win with the new rules
that are changing by the dayright now, at the time that I'm
releasing this episode, which islate January 2025.
So let's talk about one of theshifts, and one of the shifts is
(11:06):
obviously Elon Musk, and othersare involved in this effort,
and it was a big part of thecampaign on the right the
conservatives, the Republicans,donald Trump and his supporters
to reduce the waste ingovernment and government
spending.
In fact, I was reading anarticle earlier today that says
(11:28):
let me pull it up because I wantto get it right.
That in this isn't the article.
It's.
It basically said that the I'mgoing to pull it up real quick
because I've got to, I got toget these facts.
These figures are just really,really interesting.
Ok, here it is.
So federal spending in the USeight years ago, federal
(11:53):
spending in the in the US eightyears ago, was around four
trillion dollars.
Eight years later, it's over $7trillion.
That's amazing, that's stunningthat in the space of eight
years, less than a decade, it'salmost double.
And again, you can argue good,bad, needed, unneeded, it
(12:18):
doesn't matter what your view onit is, that's just a fact and a
figure in and of itself.
Stunning, amazing, really.
And so there is this movementright or wrong, good or bad
doesn't matter to reduce that.
That there's.
There's.
In the last episode we talkedabout infobesity, right, or data
(12:41):
smog, about the amount ofinformation.
So there is this movement.
There is this belief among somethat we have gotten way too
bloated, way too inefficient,way too many layers and
bureaucracy and in federalgovernment.
And here's where I want to gonext.
(13:03):
This is what matters, like.
That's a.
That's an interesting debateand how that plays out.
It's going to be interesting.
Elon Musk and those around himsay they're going to cut that.
We're waiting to see what theypropose and some of you are
going to love what they proposeand some of you are going to
think it's the greatest evilthat is existed in your lifetime
.
It doesn't matter your viewwhen it comes to business.
Okay, that's my belief.
You can argue with me on that,but the world's going to, it's
(13:27):
going to play out how it's goingto play out.
You got to figure out how towin, succeed, have impact,
fulfill your purpose, serve yourcustomers in whatever the,
whatever the new rules are,however much they shift.
So my argument and my point inthis episode is what's going on
in the, in the politicaldiscussion, is coming to a
(13:47):
company near you?
Absolutely, it's coming to yourindustry.
There's no way around it.
That's my premise, that's mybelief, that's my position in
this episode.
You could disagree, but mybelief, my gut on this, is that
those who are going to win,succeed, increase their value in
(14:11):
the marketplace, are going tobe ahead of the curve on this.
In other words, how can youmake your organization more
efficient?
How can you remove layers ofstructure and I know that's
controversial, but it's notabout like.
(14:33):
That's our role as businessleaders.
Now let me say this I haveworked for.
I call them cutters that's myterm for people who are cutters,
and the way I use that term andwhat I mean on it is people.
I had a boss once who, I swear,had dreams at night, like when
he laid his head down on thepillow and he went to sleep.
(14:54):
What he dreamt about it wasn'tsheep jumping over a fence, it
was where he could cut thebudget.
I swear that's what he did,because it seemed like every
morning he walked into theoffice and he would pull me and
said, hey, russ, um, by the way,I was thinking about line item
whatever in the budget, or I wasthinking about this person or
(15:16):
that manager or that departmentor whatever else.
I'm just wondering.
And I would just I could feelmy body tense up.
I'm like, oh my gosh.
And I found myself justdefending, defending where we
were allocating money, and mybelief was you've got these
people who are, who scale andpeople who cut, people who scale
(15:38):
and people who cut.
I know who I want to work for,I know who I want to be around,
I know who generally wins inbusiness.
Now I'm talking about theextremes of the spectrum, but if
I want to and you can't be ateither extreme and when you
can't be just on growth andnever be about efficiencies or
cut or restructure anything.
There's no way you'll win inthe marketplace.
(16:00):
You can't be on that.
I mean you can win for a while,but it can't go forever and you
can't be at the other end Likethis.
I mean you can win for a while,but it can't go forever and you
can't be at the other end, likethis person was just cut, cut,
cut, cut, cut, dream about it,and like that's not motivational
.
It's one of the reasons I left.
I couldn't handle it.
I'm like, oh my gosh, this isnot fulfilling when I mean for a
(16:22):
while or a period oroccasionally, but all the time I
mean, no, I want you to dreamabout growth, but opportunity,
right.
So when you think about thespectrum, you know if that's one
straight line and those are thetwo extremes.
You want to lean toward growth.
You want to be on the growthside of that spectrum, but you
also want to.
You want to do what I'm talkingabout right now, which is you
(16:42):
want to run efficient.
And so now, now is a fantastictime for you to be looking at
your organization and think howit goes back to the last episode
.
I'm going to pick up on what Iwas talking about.
How do I reduce the number ofmeetings?
(17:03):
How do I reduce the amount ofdiscussion?
How do I reduce the amount ofdiscussion?
How do I reduce the amount ofmessages going back and forth?
And how do I get more of anemphasis on execution doing the
work, meeting with the customer,building relationships,
executing on things.
(17:23):
How do I do that?
Well, a big part of that isgoing to be efficiencies in the
organization.
My belief I'm not talking aboutevery organization and some of
you your organizations are lean,as could be.
There's no you like.
You've operated well this way,but most of you haven't, most of
us haven't.
(17:43):
We've gotten too slow, and so,as the ground shifts, you're, I
think we're going to see it ingovernment.
We'll see how that plays outagain.
Good or bad, right or wrong,happy or sad about it.
That's what the discussion is,and organizations are going to
be doing the same.
You're seeing this in the techindustry.
You're seeing it in other areas.
(18:05):
My challenge to you, my thoughtfor you, my thing, my what I
would have you consider, and youcan disagree with it.
You could think that I it's not.
This doesn't apply to you, butone of my thoughts right now.
One of my strong beliefs is thatthe executives, the leaders who
(18:26):
are going to increase theirvalue in the marketplace over
the next at least year I wouldargue five years are those who
will make bold moves to createefficiencies in their
organization and think oh, wewere in an era of bloated 4
(18:49):
trillion to 7 trillion Stunning.
But the same might be true ofyour organization.
There might be absolutely.
In fact, if you Google it oryou search or you do some
research, you'll find articles,you'll find position papers,
you'll find academic researchthat says that in large
organizations, we've got thishuge layer of mid-level managers
(19:13):
that's become way too bloatedand that is what's driving, in
many cases, all of the meetings.
We've got so many bodies.
We've got so many bodies, somany individuals, so many
positions involved in everydiscussion, and what we need is
less discussion, which meansfrom a structural.
(19:36):
There are structural changes.
There are cultural changes,there are process changes to
increase efficiency.
All of those apply and mychallenge to you, my thought for
you, what I want you to thinkabout, is are you ahead of the
curve?
Are you doing enough?
You don't want to paralyze Now.
There's no right or wronganswer on this.
(19:56):
You don't want to cut so muchthat it.
I mean, you're so lean that youcan't like, you're anorexic.
The organization can't move, itcan't, ideate, it can't.
So you've got to.
But my belief, working with lotsof different organizations in
lots of different industries, isthat those organizations are
(20:17):
the outliers right now and thatmost of us, as organizations
have become too bloated.
We're moving too slow and themarketplace one of the big
themes.
Trust me on this, I think I'mright.
I think the noise that's outthere is actually right.
(20:38):
One of the big moves we'regoing to see in the marketplace
over the next year or two isgreater efficiencies and that
we'll look back and say, oh,there was an era of massively
expanding the manager class,bloating organizations and we
became too slow, and so what areyou going to do about it?
(21:02):
What thoughts does that generatein your mind?
What ideas, what data do youneed to review?
What bold moves do you need toconsider?
You don't want to do any ofthis spontaneously.
You want to think about it.
You want to be smart about it,but be innovative, be a market
leader, do it differently andand get your argument for the
(21:24):
why down.
If you're going to lean intothis and get your argument for
the why down.
If you're going to lean intothis, what's the why?
Okay, and the way to present itto the organization is you're
positioning the organization forthe future.
Your job is to be a steward ofthis organization and position
it to win over the longterm, andso that involves being
(21:45):
innovative, and so we'refocusing on execution, we're
focusing on serving the customer, and we're going to do it in a
way that's going to win in thismarketplace.
You'll know what to talk about.
You'll know what to think about.
Anyway, I, just I, I, I view itas my duty, as somebody who
works with executives, to stayahead of this, to be aware of
(22:05):
trends and shifts and ideas anddiscussion going on in the
marketplace.
And in the podcast, I talkabout what I'm thinking about, I
talk about what's on my mind,what, what, what, what I'm what
I'm seeing, and so I have toshare this with you and I think
it's exciting.
I think it's.
I think it's exciting, I thinkit's actually a really good
(22:26):
thing and I'm just yeah, I thinkit's a good good thing.
And you can step back from itand go this actually makes a lot
of sense.
Yeah, if you were to look atthe macro position of things,
the macro view of things.
We did slow down too much, andthat period is over.
(22:47):
That's what's on my mind inthis episode of the Lead in 30
podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a
friend.
Tap on the share button andtext the link.
Thanks for listening to theLead in 30 podcast with Russ
Hill.
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