The Business Artist - Sparking Innovation, Improvisation & Aligning Culture with Adam Boggs

Can being a 'business artist' spark improvisation and creativity to ignite innovation and transform how you lead and cultivate culture?

In this episode of the Leadership Levers, we are joined by Adam Boggs, CEO of Meahana.io and author of The Business Artist, to discuss the intersection of culture, creativity, and organizational growth.

Adam shares insights from his extensive experience consulting for major corporations like SAP, Google, and Salesforce - highlighting that people-related issues often account for 90% of organizational friction.

He emphasizes that misalignments in values, communication breakdowns, and lack of trust can derail even the most well-conceived strategies.

Transitioning to his role as a startup CEO, Adam discusses the necessity of redefining decision-making processes and workflows to foster agility and innovation - moving away from traditional corporate methodologies.

Adam emphasizes that culture exists in every organization - whether intentional or not - and underscores the importance of inclusivity, shared values and resilience in building healthy workplaces.

Reflecting on his book - The Business Artist - he advocates for embracing one's unique style and creativity in the business realm. He critiques the tendency to create "avatars of human beings and human performance," urging leaders to allow individual expression rather than enforcing rigid corporate scripts.

He advocates for leaders to foster a balance between structure and improvisation, likening culture to jazz - dynamic, collaborative, and constantly evolving. He challenges leaders to focus on cultivating environments where creativity thrives, encouraging employees to adapt and contribute authentically.

Adam closes by reminding leaders that culture is not static, but ever-changing, shaped by the people and ideas within an organization.

By nurturing a culture of trust, adaptability and shared purpose - leaders can create workplaces that drive performance and innovation while celebrating the unique contributions of every team member.

This episode explores how intentional culture-building, creative leadership, innovation, and dynamic collaboration can drive performance, align teams, and empower organizations to thrive when addressing rapid change.

Connect with Adam on LI

Get Adam's Book - The Business Artist: A Human Approach to Sales, Storytelling, and Creativity in a Data-Driven World

We'd love your feedback on how we can improve - send us a Text!!

Seeking to align your culture, boost performance & impact your bottom line? Let’s chat—no sales, just real talk about your challenges. Not ready? Join our PL3 Community for free insights & connections.

Episode Transcript

William Gladhart (00:00):
Welcome to the Leadership Levers Podcast.
I'm your host, Will Gladhart,CMO at the Culture Think Tank.
At the Culture Think Tank, weempower leaders with metrics
that strengthen culture, driveperformance and return.
We're here today to learn aboutthe actions leaders have taken
to address organizational change.

(00:21):
Today, our guest is Adam Boggs,CEO of the author of a recent
book release titled The BusinessArtist - A Human Approach to
Sales, Storytelling, andCreativity in a Data-Driven
World.
Thanks so much for taking thetime to join us.
Sure Happy to be here.
Excellent.
Let's begin by having you sharewith our audience a little bit
about yourself, your backgroundand your organization.

Adam Boggs (00:45):
Cool.
Well, I'm originally from theMidwest, from Indiana, so not
too far from you there Will -spent half my life, I'd say, in
California and before becomingthe CEO of a company called
Mayahana, which is a visualcollaboration for
decision-making right whereparticipants' input really
matters, I spent most of myprofessional career as a
consultant helping large salesorganizations like SAP, Google

(01:05):
and Salesforce transform kind ofeither what or how they were
selling, and naturally I've beenaround a lot of different
cultures as a result of that,some different from others
drastically, some not so much,some healthy, some not as much,
and so I've certainly seen thegood, bad and ugly.

William Gladhart (01:19):
Yeah, I love that you've got that wide array
of background.
It definitely gives you somedifferent perspectives.
So we'll be discussing threequestions today as a warm-up to
our conversation.
Would you share why you believea healthy culture is critical?

Adam Boggs (01:31):
Sure, I think first of all we have to define culture
as similar.
I think it's sort of a sharedbelief, values, behaviors, the
way we make decisions.
I think every organization hasa culture - whether it's
intentional or not.
Not all cultures are healthy,though, as you're describing
there for healthy.
For me, well, I think that kindof says you know, there's
vitality, there's resilience.

(01:52):
We're human beings, so there'smaybe some balance in there as
well.
But a healthy culture to me isalso inclusive.
It's built on growth,collaboration and a little bit
of adaptability or jazz as wesay in the music world.

William Gladhart (02:04):
Yes, well, bringing in some of those music
context as well, which I reallylove.
It's been our experience thatleaders tend to struggle in
three key areas people, processor profits.
In your role as CEO or also asa consultant previously, would
you identify which one of theseareas presented a cultural
challenge with you, yourorganization or with clients'

(02:25):
organizations?

Adam Boggs (02:27):
Yeah, in my previous life I guess I would say people
People was generally 90% of thefriction points.
Oftentimes, when a strategydoesn't work out, it's not
because it was the wrong idea,it's because people have to get
it done and they have to havealignment, they have to be
bought into, whatever that mightbe.
And so the people culturechallenges were where there was
a misalignment on values orthere was communication or lack

(02:48):
of trust, etc.
I would say in my startup lifeas a CEO, we have a pretty
experienced founder team andsome of that is a struggle right
, because we haven't necessarilylanded on when we start this
company.
What's the decision-makingprocess that we're going to take
here?
What's the workflows?
How do we experiment and kindof find ways to work together?
So that was a little bit of achallenge for us coming out of
the gate, having all worked atbig companies, we kind of

(03:08):
brought in how it was done inthe past and then a startup
decision process happensdifferently.

William Gladhart (03:14):
It's hugely differently, much more agile,
much faster, and I love that youalluded to at the beginning of
our conversation that you have aculture, whether you intended
to have one or not, and some ofthose best practices from the
corporate world, but alsowrapping them into the
entrepreneurial process, becauseyou and I both know from

(03:34):
multiple companies that thatentrepreneurial process can
sometimes go a little off therails or you know you just just
because there's so many piecesgoing on that it can be a
struggle to really make thatalignment and culture a core
part of your company.
But many CEOs like yourself thatwe've heard of from these
smaller organizations that whenthat alignment started to happen

(03:56):
whether that be sales, whetherthat be funding, whether that be
growing the company that itreally started to impact that
cultural strength, theperformance elements really
started to impact.
You know that cultural strength, the performance elements,
really started to impact thebottom line.
So I really appreciate that youaddressed that, as we're
talking about some of thosechallenges around the people.
What was the detriment or howdid it negatively impact prior

(04:18):
organizations?

Adam Boggs (04:20):
You know.
Generally in a decision-makingmeeting or in a collaborative
workshop I would run.
You would either get theloudest voice in the room who's
generally got the senior titleor you'd have the silent
distractors or detractors rightthat are.
You don't know who they are andso you would make decisions
that kind of didn't necessarilyhave real alignment.
You thought that they did.
You didn't necessarily havegood technology to hear from all

(04:42):
the diverse inputs that werethere.
We started to actually in ourown company to use our own tool
to help make decisions.
It's just four of us on afounder team, but it found it
super, super powerful to justget every voice out there and
kind of hear it all.
And then when you start to makedecisions, even if you don't
agree with the decision, youtrusted the process that it took
to get there.
And it doesn't mean Will's ideais not important.

(05:02):
It just might mean it's not asimportant right now from a speed
and prioritization perspective.
And so having that backgroundon the people side of consulting
and seeing some of the downsideof that has helped influence
the way we do our processes here.

William Gladhart (05:16):
Yeah, so what is the one thing that you've
identified, possiblyspecifically in your own company
, that has impacted your culture, but also your next steps and
growth positively?

Adam Boggs (05:26):
You know it's interesting because we're you
constantly have to evaluate whatis our sort of stated, our
stated values versus our livedvalues, and being able to
constantly stop and assess arewe doing the things that we want
to on a regular basis?
Are we hearing from everybody?
Because having some empathy forI've got some folks that are
coming in this from a differentperspective, different financial

(05:46):
arrangements, different familysituations so culture takes a
lot of cultivation and I thinkthose words are connected, right
, they probably have the sameLatin root to sort of nurture
and to care for, and so we'velearned that we have to
constantly pause and reflect onhow far we come and remind
ourselves to celebrate some ofthe wins, because it can get
pretty challenging, right, whenyou're, when you're making

(06:06):
mistakes together and you're notmoving on as fast as you'd like
.

William Gladhart (06:10):
Absolutely so.
Before we wrap up with ourfinal question and also some
advice back to leaders,opportunity for a shameless plug
about your book, because Iloved it.
It was a fantastic read.
As a fellow musician you knowthere were.
It hit a lot of the points andhighlights, so would you just
share a little bit.
What was the inspiration andthe cause of you writing it?

(06:30):
And then, just in a quicknugget, what's the core of the
book about?

Adam Boggs (06:35):
The write was actually kind of I felt like it
was part of a problem inconsulting.
In people consulting, you'vegot a hundred people that you
need to make better at their joband you would define great.
You take the two people thatare doing it well, whether they
did it well from a lucky revenueperspective or their behaviors
were repeatable or not and youmake everybody else do that.
So it's kind of creatingavatars of human beings and

(06:56):
human performance.
I feel like there's an innerartist in all of us who wants to
come out and find their ownkind of in this style.
So that's the first part isgiving people permission to
adapt and flex their own style,versus feel like they have to be
forced to use the corporatedeck, this discovery script,
this elevator pitch, et cetera.
There's only one, DaveChappelle right, he's really
good at being a comedian in hisstyle.

(07:17):
There's Christopher Nolan, WesAnderson, Steven Spielberg -
they're all great moviedirectors, but they all create
movies totally different andthat's awesome.
We should appreciate that.
The second part just to carrythat thought forward is I feel
like there's two types of peoplein the world.
There's the creators and thenthere's the consumers.
And that's to say, if you'renot creating stuff, you're
consuming other people'screativity.
And what I find to be true notjust of musicians, of artists in

(07:40):
general or people who approachthe world from an artistic lens
they tend to critique othercreative things, saying, well, I
like this, here's why.
Or I don't like this and here'swhy.
If you only consume and youdon't approach the world through
that lens, then you judge stuffRight and you say this sucks,
this is wrong and the worlddoesn't need more consumer
mindsets.
In that world.
It's a much more enjoyableworld when we say I want to give

(08:03):
you some advice or myperspective, even if you don't
agree with it from an artisticviewpoint.
So that's kind of the genesisbehind the book.

William Gladhart (08:11):
Yeah, no, I love that and there were a few
elements that struck me in.
There is because, having playedin professional orchestras, et
cetera, as a violinist, that youknow the leader has the
opportunity to be the conductorof all the different pieces that
are happening within theorganization.
But, like if you can't hearthem or you don't understand
what's going on or you don'thave some context around, who's

(08:34):
there makes it very difficult tomake all those pieces happen
and move.
So, as we wrap up today, isthere anything you'd like to
share with fellow leaders?

Adam Boggs (08:42):
Going back to culture and maybe this
conversation.
I use this metaphor in the book, but I think cultures is like
jazz, it's dynamic, it'simprovisational, it's
unpredictable, but there is astructure, there's a theme,
there's some constraints right,you're playing a similar genre,
but you have to trust the team.
There's sort of a shared rhythmand some adaptability to make
it really grow.
And cultures aren't fixed.

(09:05):
They're constantly evolving andadapting.
And just know that the longeryou're in a company, the harder
that is to maintain, and that'sOK.
It might be that it's evolvingfor a good reason because of
younger people with bright, new,innovative ideas.

William Gladhart (09:14):
Yeah, that's fantastic.
So, Adam, I've enjoyed havingyou on our Leadership Levers
Podcast today.
Thank you again for yourinsights.
Sure, thanks Will.
Thank you again for yourinsights.
Thank you for joining us on theLeadership Levers Podcast.
Find all our Leadership Leversepisodes on the Culture Think
Tank website at www.
theculturethinktank.
com, or listen on your favoritestreaming platform.

(09:40):
We'd love to hear from youabout the challenges you have
faced as a leader.
Tune in weekly as we inviteleaders to share their
experiences in strengtheningculture and performance, one
action at a time.