February 16, 2024 • 26 mins
Owning a business is a challenge. Knowing how to keep innovating in your business is an even bigger one. Join restaurant owner, motivational speaker, and innovation expert Sara Frasca each week as she guides fellow business owners in taking the next step to level up their business. If you've ever pondered hiring a business coach but want a sample first, come along for the adventure!
Send us a message to join the show for free business guidance: https://pointnortheast.com/contact-us/
Sara Frasca is the founder and owner of Trasca & Co Eatery in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, an experienced and engaging motivational speaker, and the CEO of global business coaching firm Point NorthEast.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:00):
You're listening to level up your business, the
podcast where we talk tohardworking business owners and
leaders and help them solve realissues in real time. I'm your
host, Sarah Frasca restaurantowner, keynote speaker and
business coach. I've spent mycareer not only in corporate
(00:20):
America, but also as anentrepreneur, carrying on my
family's legacy through myrestaurant. Now a business coach
and consultant, I'm helpingother businesses to use creative
problem solving and innovativethinking, to drive lasting
change. Stay tuned to hear someinspiring guidance that will
(00:40):
help you to level up yourbusiness this summer. So today,
I want to take you through atopic that is very important,
and is one of my passions. Andit's really about empire,
empowering your team to becreative problem solvers, and
then allowing yourself to trusttheir thoughts. And I've got
(01:00):
four tenants for you today. Sofour tenants of empowering
creativity and trusting theirthoughts. All right, here are
the tenants. So the first one islet it fly. Honestly, this is
all about coming up with tonsand tons of ideas. There's no
(01:21):
bad idea in a brainstorm, we'vegot to make it like a popcorn
machine where there's ideas onall angles, all angles, from all
different vantage points. And Iwould say if we can really let
them fly, we will have somecrazy out there ideas, some of
them might be close in to whatwe have now whitespace, or just
(01:43):
little iterations. But some ofthem can be thoughts that we
never expected things that areway beyond the boundaries. As
part of my coaching for point neclients, I think that's one of
my I would describe it as mysuperpowers. When I listen to
their challenges. When I listento the things that they're
grappling with, I'm able to comeup with a myriad of ideas of how
(02:08):
they could solve their problems,how they could attack it. And
not all of them are going towork. But I will tell you that I
have a capability to let it fly.
What if you did this? What ifyou thought of it this way? What
if you did a different spin orcame at it from this angle. And
that's part of, in my opinion,the way to really build creative
(02:29):
problem solving. So let it fly.
Let those ideas spark new ideas.
And when you have good partnersin that brainstorming, you might
think of something that allowsthem to think of something and
when they say it, you mightthink of something again. And so
now you've got this opportunityfor collaboration and idea
building, full of energy, fullof exuberance, and hopefully
(02:53):
full of the winning solution.
All right, my second tenant foryou of how to empower
creativity, and trust your team,check ego at the door, folks,
check ego at the door. This isnot just for you, although you
(03:13):
as the leader, it's very, veryimportant to do that. But it's
also important for your layersin your organization. Right? At
the restaurant. I always tellfolks, I had my best ideas when
I opened this business. Now I amcounting on all of you to take
this business forward. I havethen checked my ego. And my
(03:38):
directors and my managers areseeing me check my ego. And that
allows this open, veryvulnerable moment, right? My
ideas are not always going to bethe best. And I tried to
demonstrate that I tried toallow people to see, I'm just a
person, I'm just someone and inthis brainstorming, who knows
(04:02):
whose idea is going to win. Iwant the best idea to win, not
the highest level. In GeneralMills, I often found that I was
surrounded by so many brightpeople, so many incredible,
talented, well educated people.
But I was able to see whathappens when leaders empower
their teams. And I was also ableto see some examples where
(04:26):
leaders really pounded theirfist and made everything happen
that they thought was the best.
And I truly was able to see thegood and the bad, right.
Sometimes they were right. Ofcourse they were also extremely
smart. But over time, theystarted to stifle the creativity
that their teams had thoseleaders who said, I don't know
(04:51):
if I have the right idea. Youmay have the right idea and they
had this more open andvulnerable and transparent way.
They really started to get thetwo
juices flowing for their team,they really started to harness
the power of the culture thatwould bring and drive
innovation. So I think it'sreally important to have no ego
(05:12):
in brainstorming. If you thinkthat the best case scenario is a
winning idea, then who careswhere it comes from, you've just
got to allow the process to takehold, and build the Idea
Factory. All right, my thirdtenant for you is fresh eyes.
(05:32):
Now, this one is about bringingin people from the outside to
see the problem or the challengein a new way. If you can bring
in people that have no impact totheir world, with the outcome,
you're gonna find that peoplecome in, and they're able to
brainstorm a little moreeffectively. All right, I'll say
(05:54):
this again, but just in adifferent way, it's very
difficult to come up withsolutions. If your livelihood or
your life is affected by theoutcome. You paralyze yourself,
this is just a kind of humannature thing, in my opinion, you
come up with ideas, and then youcome up with all the ways that
(06:14):
won't work, right? Lego willnever say yes to that. There's
not enough capital, there's notenough people to get it done.
How am I supposed to get my busyworld done if I'm also testing a
new idea. And so if you bring inother people who are not
connected to the outcome, theymay see things in a different
way. I would say this is thesame thing with coaching my
(06:38):
clients for point ne, my clientsbring challenges. And I don't
have a fight or flight reactionor response, a natural,
instinctual response to theoutcomes that they are faced
with. So I am free to think ofall sorts of possibilities, all
sorts of different outcomes, I'mable to think through different
(07:01):
angles. I also believe that ifwe bring in people from other
vantage points, otherindustries, other verticals, you
can actually get a differenttrain of thought. Now, I'm not a
scientist, but I have a bestfriend that is, and she always
has a different way ofapproaching challenges. She
(07:25):
thinks about it from a morelinear, maybe a little bit more
mechanical perspective. And I'mkind of an emotional person. So
I'm thinking about how'severybody going to feel with
this? How is this going toaffect the team. And so having a
very well rounded, kind ofsurround to the challenge is
(07:46):
really effective. And I willsay, if you can bring in a
physicist, if you can bring in aphysician, if you can bring in a
pharmacist, a pediatrician orwhatever, a professional
athlete, a preacher, I was justtrying to use keywords there.
But if you can bring in peoplethat bring new perspective, you
(08:06):
can have different vantagepoints from which those people
are addressing your challenge.
Now, a lot of people ask me,what do you do if you have a
confidential situation so youcan't adequately describe what's
going on? I would say in a lotof it a lot of challenges, you
can actually dumb it down to itscore. And you don't have to tell
(08:27):
people any of the confidentialaspects. You don't have to bring
anything forth, that is needingto be held in the strictest of
competences. So you can describethe situation in more general
terms. And if you have to tellthem some of the confidential
(08:47):
components, I'm guessing thatlegal would become comfortable
having an NDA signed anondisclosure a confidentiality
agreement signed. So don't limityourselves with those types of
boundaries, I would say, broadenit so that you get fresh eyes
fresh perspective on yourchallenge. Now, similarly, it
(09:07):
might be helpful for you to kindof have partners in crime. For
example, I have folks that Iworked with at General Mills at
the beginning of my career thathave gone into all sorts of
different beautiful verticalsand industries. I have folks
that have joined airlineindustries. I have folks that
(09:29):
jewelry, of course, food, petfood, all sorts of places
throughout the world technology,etc, etc. Anyway, my point is,
you can build relationships withfolks and now they have fresh
eyes, and you guys can help eachother with your challenges. So
oftentimes, I'll reflect with acolleague just catching up and
(09:52):
it's a little bit of a hey, whatare you working on? What are you
grappling with? Can I help inany way? They don't have to tell
me what they're working on. ButJust enough to give me a sense.
And I'll say, Huh, wonder if youdid it this way? Or have you
ever looked at this resource? Orwhat if you try to in this
manner, and they do the same forme, and it's a really effective
way of bringing fresh eyes withsomeone that you trust to come
(10:13):
and help you with yourchallenges. All right, the
fourth tenant, for empoweringcreativity and trusting your
team to bring their thoughts.
The fourth one, safety first,right? We talked about this with
our children, we always say,well, safety first. But here, I
(10:35):
mean, that you've got to buildthe type of culture that enables
a safety net for people. Now, ifyou've studied Maslow's
hierarchy of needs, you know,that the first need that people
have is to feel safe. And I meanthis from a survival aspect. If
(10:56):
you feel in your rule, like youcannot bring your best ideas
forth, or even the smatteringthis popcorn of ideas, because
you are afraid of humiliation,you're afraid, afraid of being
ostracized, you're afraid ofgetting fired. These are things
that challenge our safety ashuman beings. These are things
(11:20):
that come in and offer threatsto our being and hold us back,
we're afraid that we'll getfired or lose our job, or our
business will close, or peoplewill make fun of us. These are
things that we believe couldaffect our mental state,
providing for our families,continuing our role, and having
(11:45):
our ego and our persona in thecommunity. These are things that
we are deathly afraid of. And Iknow it may seem crazy, but
these are fears that every humanbeing has, it's just the degree
to which we are able toreally combat them and work
through them. So when you'rethinking of building your
(12:07):
organization, and you'rethinking in your mind that I'd
like to have a team that isempowered to come up with the
ideas necessary to combatcompetitive pressures, to build
our revenue, to driveprofitability, to have the type
of retention that you want tohave. If you want people to come
(12:27):
with their best selves, theirbest ideas, you better be
providing a safety net for them.
If they come up with a failingidea, you've got to make sure
you're protecting them. You'vegot to make sure that the
culture inherent within anorganization is one that says
(12:53):
that's okay, we tried it, itdidn't work, no big deal. We've
got your back, you are notlosing your job. Because you
came up with an idea that didn'twork. You've got to have a
culture where people do not makefun of each other. I'll tell
you, at General Mills, I was apart of the organization for so
(13:14):
many years, we had so manyfailed products, truly products
that people spent yearsformulating building packaging,
building marketing plans, we hadproducts that just flopped. But
the organization was such thatthey kept going. This one didn't
(13:35):
work. What did we learn?
Alright, let's try this. Allright, we did something a couple
years ago, that didn't work. ButI think that the consumer
mindset has shifted, and I thinkit'll work now. People looked at
the failures as stepping stonesas ways to get better to build
the type of innovative productsthat would dazzle the retailers
(13:55):
and would fulfill consumerneeds. I watched firsthand as
the leaders who built a safeenvironment, protected,
protected, and I mean that inevery sense of the word, people
that we're coming up with ideas,building a safety net. Now,
unfortunately, I also worked forleaders that did not. I will
(14:18):
tell you when I started atGeneral Mills, I came every day
with a notebook filled withideas. What if we named the twin
Stadium after wheedies? What ifwe did this? What if we created
a sign? What if we had T shirtsthat had this? I came with fresh
eyes? I had so much energy forbuilding ideas for this
(14:41):
organization and all of itswonderful brands. At the time
that I started at General Mills,they had the slogan they may
still today I'm not sure ourbrands, your legacy. I want it
to be a part of it. I want it tofeel and be
As a part of driving thosebrands into the future of
(15:04):
serving families across theworld, the food that they wanted
that tasted good that wouldnourish their bodies. I wanted
to be a part of it. I came witha full head of steam. And I came
with a notebook full of ideas.
And every day, I would come intomy manager's office. And I would
say, All right, what if we didthis, and you can imagine,
right, I'm very passionate Ifull of energy at the time, I
(15:27):
was 21 years old. And my managerwould just sit there.
And he was so bored. And hecouldn't wait for that hour to
be up. For this, Sara, at thetime started to stop talking.
And so after a while, I stoppeddoing it.
(15:49):
I stopped bringing ideas, Istopped thinking of new ways
that we could build our brands.
And I became one of those robotsthat punch the clock every day.
And it wasn't until I had mynext manager, and my next
manager wanted ideas. And wepitched ideas to the brands that
were full of life and full ofenergy, and I regained that
(16:10):
spirit, I found it again. And sowe have to be the type of
managers that bring that out inour people. We have to be the
type of managers that providethe safety net for no ideas, a
bad idea, bring them all, theymay not all work. But why not
(16:31):
think about them? There's no badidea in a brainstorm. If you
believe that. If you teach yourteams that they are safe with
you, they will bring all oftheir ideas.
All right. So I'll go backthrough the the tenants. But my
basic premise today to sharewith you is how can we empower
(16:52):
creative problem solving withour teams? And how can we get
them to trust their thoughts?
How can we trust their thoughts,right as their manager, the
first one, we got to let it fly,you got to just bring all the
ideas, throw them against thewall, no idea is a bad idea.
Number two, you've got to checkyour ego at the door. If you
(17:13):
want to have this workeffectively, that includes
yourself, but it includes beinga good role model for all of the
layers in the organization.
Number three, bring fresh eyes.
I truly believe that there is noproblem that we can't solve. If
(17:36):
we do all of these sorts ofthings, and bringing fresh eyes
is a fantastic way to bringpeople in to see your challenge
in a new way. Number four,safety first, if you don't allow
your team, the safety, the humaninstinctual safety to feel like
they can do things, try things,test things, you're really not
(17:58):
enabling the type of culturethat will support forward
momentum. You're really justsupporting the status quo.
So as I close all of thesetopics, I just wanted to say
that I've done things right. AndI've done things wrong in my
career. I've had managers thathave done things, right, and
(18:19):
managers that have done thingswrong. And unfortunately, that's
just the way of the world,right, we're going to work with
and for people. And we're alsogoing to do the wrong thing.
Sometimes. It's just kind ofthis trial and error, way of
existing. And I don't ever meanto say that I've done
everything, right, I just havelearned, I've truly learned. And
(18:42):
I would say you know as youbuild a team, and as you try
through your way through all ofthis, you build a culture around
you that helps to support this,I am way more capable of
allowing people at therestaurant to come up with
ideas, because I know now thatthey're focused on the same
vision. At one time, I didn'tnecessarily trust their ideas
(19:04):
because I felt they wereselfish, or they were not
motivated with driving growth.
They were maybe motivated withnot doing the work or you not
having me do the work. And sothere have been different
situations where I haven'talways done the right thing or
had the right people around meto allow this to help. But I
would say if we can make babysteps in all four of these
(19:25):
categories, we can eventuallyhave the type of organization
that we desire. And the ultimatein my opinion, is how my
restaurant is functioning now soTruscott and company eatery. I
have a general manager whoempowers his teams to come up
with ideas. But that didn't workwithout me empowering him. And
(19:46):
together we've really built asystem where we can have all
sorts of people at all sorts oflevels coming up with ideas all
the time. I also have kind of akind of an opera
operations director that worksremotely, who comes up with
ideas all the time. And again, Iwould say, you know, he's not
(20:07):
boots on the ground, but he seesthings from a different vantage,
sometimes the boots on theground team forgets about the
bigger picture, or doesn't seethe outside trends or doesn't
see what's happening in otherareas of the country. So we're
all kind of supplementing eachother's creativity by building
this system. Ultimately, Ibelieve that we are headed in
(20:31):
the right direction. And I thinkit's only going to get better.
So I hope this is helpful toyou. As I always do, I want to
make sure that I'm opening upsome time to answer questions
that are coming through viasocial media, and via this chat.
And I'm always always watchingthe social media, if you're
watching this after the live,just to see if there are other
(20:52):
questions out there. So pleasekeep sending them to me. Please
keep asking your questions. Andplease, as a lot of you have
done, let me know if I can helpyou. I think we're getting a lot
of great engagement from folks.
And they do have questions. AndI think, at the very beginning
of setting this up, I was ableto share with you that really my
sole purpose in doing this is tohelp people. If you need help in
(21:15):
your business, if you havequestions, just reach out and
let me know what I can do tohelp you. I do not want people
out there suffering thinkingthat they don't have any
resources. I don't want anyonethinking that there's not an
idea somewhere in the world tosolve your problem there is you
just have to know how to ask orwhere to find it. And I might
(21:37):
not have the answer. Buthopefully I can be a conduit to
allow that type of brainstorm,storming to start and to
populate ideas from alldifferent angles and from fresh
eyes.
All right, I'm starting to getsome questions. So let me answer
this one here. What do you do ifyour boss isn't willing to allow
(22:00):
your ideas. And I think this isa really good one, because you
may be kind of in middlemanagement or wherever in the
organization, and you are tryingvery hard to empower and trust
your treat your creativesolutions, but you have a
roadblock above you. And this isa really good question. So
thanks for answering it. So Iwould say you know, this is a
(22:21):
this is a tricky situation,because this happens quite
often, right? I was at GeneralMills, and I know what this
feels like, I'm doing all that Ican to empower and bring ideas
forth, whether they're mine orsomeone else's. But I'm hitting
that roadblock. So the firstthing that I would say is to be
open andmaybe a little bit vulnerable
(22:42):
with your superior to saysomething like, you know, I got
a lot of ideas that arepercolating from my team. And
I'd love the opportunity to havespace to share them with you.
And you might just as I havedone, say, they're not all going
to work. That's not why I'mbringing them. But we're looking
at the long term vision of thisbusiness or looking at the long
(23:06):
term, you know, focus for thisbrand, whatever it is. So you're
you're influencing a little bitby putting yourselves in those
shoes, you're thinking throughwhat is this person responsible
for? Maybe its growth inrevenue, maybe its
profitability. And so you'reframing it in, you know, my job
is to support you, as you aretrying to lead our team to the
(23:28):
horizon, whatever that goal is.
And I've really been thinking alot about it. And I've been
empowering our team to come upwith ideas and ways to try to
fix this or solve it or helpyou. And we want to bring some
ideas forth. And I, again, notall of them are going to work.
(23:49):
But if we try and we make somebaby steps, and maybe even offer
up the idea that we want to dipour toe in the water and do a
couple of tests. Maybe it's withone product that we're building,
or we're talking to a consumerpanel of 10 people, and maybe
it's informal, so we don't haveto expend any costs, right?
(24:10):
You're making that threshold ofcoming up with ideas bearable
for them. So you're having theempathy to sit in their seat and
think through what are theytrying to achieve? And what are
all the roadblocks that they'regoing to put in front of you.
Whether it's budget time, youdon't have the capacity. Maybe
(24:33):
it's like a plant capacity,maybe it's human capacity. And I
think you can start to chip awayat their defenses and their
reactions for shutting it down.
And I'm not suggesting it'sgoing to work in every
situation. There are some folksout there that again, probably
have so much insecurity or areso focused on doing what they
(24:55):
think is right, et cetera, andYou're maybe just gonna have to
be patient. But try a few ofthese things again to chip away
at that ice block that roadblockthat is in front of you. And
hopefully you can influence themvery gently to see things a
little differently.
(25:16):
All right, keep sending goodquestions out there. I really
appreciate it. And again,helping others to see their way
through this, I think is really,really meaningful. I think it's
also really helpful to know thatthey're not the only one
battling that roadblock up. SoI'm glad that you asked that
question.
Well, I think that's it fortoday. I'm very grateful to
(25:38):
spend some time with you. I'mreally, really hopeful that this
is helpful to you, especially asyou build your business and
drive growth. And again, thisleveling up your business is all
about finding small ways togrow, finding small ways to
challenge the status quo. Andtoday was all about bringing
that huge Geyser of ideas forth,right? really empowering your
(26:02):
team to just spew ideas left andright on all sorts of areas,
topics, big and small. Andhopefully, again, you're making
progress towards that visionthat you need to get to. So
thanks for letting me be a partof your journey. I'm really
happy to share that with you.
And if you need anything, I'mhere. Thanks so much for tuning
(26:23):
in to this episode of level upyour business with me, Sarah
Frasca. If you have a problem inyour business that's keeping you
up at night. Please join us in afuture episode so we can help
get you unstuck. Just clickingthe link in the show notes and
send us a message. Pleaseremember, stay innovative
friends
You're listening to level up your business, the
podcast where we talk tohardworking business owners and
leaders and help them solve realissues in real time. I'm your
host, Sarah Frasca restaurantowner, keynote speaker and
business coach. I've spent mycareer not only in corporate
(00:20):
America, but also as anentrepreneur, carrying on my
family's legacy through myrestaurant. Now a business coach
and consultant, I'm helpingother businesses to use creative
problem solving and innovativethinking, to drive lasting
change. Stay tuned to hear someinspiring guidance that will
(00:40):
help you to level up yourbusiness this summer. So today,
I want to take you through atopic that is very important,
and is one of my passions. Andit's really about empire,
empowering your team to becreative problem solvers, and
then allowing yourself to trusttheir thoughts. And I've got
(01:00):
four tenants for you today. Sofour tenants of empowering
creativity and trusting theirthoughts. All right, here are
the tenants. So the first one islet it fly. Honestly, this is
all about coming up with tonsand tons of ideas. There's no
(01:21):
bad idea in a brainstorm, we'vegot to make it like a popcorn
machine where there's ideas onall angles, all angles, from all
different vantage points. And Iwould say if we can really let
them fly, we will have somecrazy out there ideas, some of
them might be close in to whatwe have now whitespace, or just
(01:43):
little iterations. But some ofthem can be thoughts that we
never expected things that areway beyond the boundaries. As
part of my coaching for point neclients, I think that's one of
my I would describe it as mysuperpowers. When I listen to
their challenges. When I listento the things that they're
grappling with, I'm able to comeup with a myriad of ideas of how
(02:08):
they could solve their problems,how they could attack it. And
not all of them are going towork. But I will tell you that I
have a capability to let it fly.
What if you did this? What ifyou thought of it this way? What
if you did a different spin orcame at it from this angle. And
that's part of, in my opinion,the way to really build creative
(02:29):
problem solving. So let it fly.
Let those ideas spark new ideas.
And when you have good partnersin that brainstorming, you might
think of something that allowsthem to think of something and
when they say it, you mightthink of something again. And so
now you've got this opportunityfor collaboration and idea
building, full of energy, fullof exuberance, and hopefully
(02:53):
full of the winning solution.
All right, my second tenant foryou of how to empower
creativity, and trust your team,check ego at the door, folks,
check ego at the door. This isnot just for you, although you
(03:13):
as the leader, it's very, veryimportant to do that. But it's
also important for your layersin your organization. Right? At
the restaurant. I always tellfolks, I had my best ideas when
I opened this business. Now I amcounting on all of you to take
this business forward. I havethen checked my ego. And my
(03:38):
directors and my managers areseeing me check my ego. And that
allows this open, veryvulnerable moment, right? My
ideas are not always going to bethe best. And I tried to
demonstrate that I tried toallow people to see, I'm just a
person, I'm just someone and inthis brainstorming, who knows
(04:02):
whose idea is going to win. Iwant the best idea to win, not
the highest level. In GeneralMills, I often found that I was
surrounded by so many brightpeople, so many incredible,
talented, well educated people.
But I was able to see whathappens when leaders empower
their teams. And I was also ableto see some examples where
(04:26):
leaders really pounded theirfist and made everything happen
that they thought was the best.
And I truly was able to see thegood and the bad, right.
Sometimes they were right. Ofcourse they were also extremely
smart. But over time, theystarted to stifle the creativity
that their teams had thoseleaders who said, I don't know
(04:51):
if I have the right idea. Youmay have the right idea and they
had this more open andvulnerable and transparent way.
They really started to get thetwo
juices flowing for their team,they really started to harness
the power of the culture thatwould bring and drive
innovation. So I think it'sreally important to have no ego
(05:12):
in brainstorming. If you thinkthat the best case scenario is a
winning idea, then who careswhere it comes from, you've just
got to allow the process to takehold, and build the Idea
Factory. All right, my thirdtenant for you is fresh eyes.
(05:32):
Now, this one is about bringingin people from the outside to
see the problem or the challengein a new way. If you can bring
in people that have no impact totheir world, with the outcome,
you're gonna find that peoplecome in, and they're able to
brainstorm a little moreeffectively. All right, I'll say
(05:54):
this again, but just in adifferent way, it's very
difficult to come up withsolutions. If your livelihood or
your life is affected by theoutcome. You paralyze yourself,
this is just a kind of humannature thing, in my opinion, you
come up with ideas, and then youcome up with all the ways that
(06:14):
won't work, right? Lego willnever say yes to that. There's
not enough capital, there's notenough people to get it done.
How am I supposed to get my busyworld done if I'm also testing a
new idea. And so if you bring inother people who are not
connected to the outcome, theymay see things in a different
way. I would say this is thesame thing with coaching my
(06:38):
clients for point ne, my clientsbring challenges. And I don't
have a fight or flight reactionor response, a natural,
instinctual response to theoutcomes that they are faced
with. So I am free to think ofall sorts of possibilities, all
sorts of different outcomes, I'mable to think through different
(07:01):
angles. I also believe that ifwe bring in people from other
vantage points, otherindustries, other verticals, you
can actually get a differenttrain of thought. Now, I'm not a
scientist, but I have a bestfriend that is, and she always
has a different way ofapproaching challenges. She
(07:25):
thinks about it from a morelinear, maybe a little bit more
mechanical perspective. And I'mkind of an emotional person. So
I'm thinking about how'severybody going to feel with
this? How is this going toaffect the team. And so having a
very well rounded, kind ofsurround to the challenge is
(07:46):
really effective. And I willsay, if you can bring in a
physicist, if you can bring in aphysician, if you can bring in a
pharmacist, a pediatrician orwhatever, a professional
athlete, a preacher, I was justtrying to use keywords there.
But if you can bring in peoplethat bring new perspective, you
(08:06):
can have different vantagepoints from which those people
are addressing your challenge.
Now, a lot of people ask me,what do you do if you have a
confidential situation so youcan't adequately describe what's
going on? I would say in a lotof it a lot of challenges, you
can actually dumb it down to itscore. And you don't have to tell
(08:27):
people any of the confidentialaspects. You don't have to bring
anything forth, that is needingto be held in the strictest of
competences. So you can describethe situation in more general
terms. And if you have to tellthem some of the confidential
(08:47):
components, I'm guessing thatlegal would become comfortable
having an NDA signed anondisclosure a confidentiality
agreement signed. So don't limityourselves with those types of
boundaries, I would say, broadenit so that you get fresh eyes
fresh perspective on yourchallenge. Now, similarly, it
(09:07):
might be helpful for you to kindof have partners in crime. For
example, I have folks that Iworked with at General Mills at
the beginning of my career thathave gone into all sorts of
different beautiful verticalsand industries. I have folks
that have joined airlineindustries. I have folks that
(09:29):
jewelry, of course, food, petfood, all sorts of places
throughout the world technology,etc, etc. Anyway, my point is,
you can build relationships withfolks and now they have fresh
eyes, and you guys can help eachother with your challenges. So
oftentimes, I'll reflect with acolleague just catching up and
(09:52):
it's a little bit of a hey, whatare you working on? What are you
grappling with? Can I help inany way? They don't have to tell
me what they're working on. ButJust enough to give me a sense.
And I'll say, Huh, wonder if youdid it this way? Or have you
ever looked at this resource? Orwhat if you try to in this
manner, and they do the same forme, and it's a really effective
way of bringing fresh eyes withsomeone that you trust to come
(10:13):
and help you with yourchallenges. All right, the
fourth tenant, for empoweringcreativity and trusting your
team to bring their thoughts.
The fourth one, safety first,right? We talked about this with
our children, we always say,well, safety first. But here, I
(10:35):
mean, that you've got to buildthe type of culture that enables
a safety net for people. Now, ifyou've studied Maslow's
hierarchy of needs, you know,that the first need that people
have is to feel safe. And I meanthis from a survival aspect. If
(10:56):
you feel in your rule, like youcannot bring your best ideas
forth, or even the smatteringthis popcorn of ideas, because
you are afraid of humiliation,you're afraid, afraid of being
ostracized, you're afraid ofgetting fired. These are things
that challenge our safety ashuman beings. These are things
(11:20):
that come in and offer threatsto our being and hold us back,
we're afraid that we'll getfired or lose our job, or our
business will close, or peoplewill make fun of us. These are
things that we believe couldaffect our mental state,
providing for our families,continuing our role, and having
(11:45):
our ego and our persona in thecommunity. These are things that
we are deathly afraid of. And Iknow it may seem crazy, but
these are fears that every humanbeing has, it's just the degree
to which we are able toreally combat them and work
through them. So when you'rethinking of building your
(12:07):
organization, and you'rethinking in your mind that I'd
like to have a team that isempowered to come up with the
ideas necessary to combatcompetitive pressures, to build
our revenue, to driveprofitability, to have the type
of retention that you want tohave. If you want people to come
(12:27):
with their best selves, theirbest ideas, you better be
providing a safety net for them.
If they come up with a failingidea, you've got to make sure
you're protecting them. You'vegot to make sure that the
culture inherent within anorganization is one that says
(12:53):
that's okay, we tried it, itdidn't work, no big deal. We've
got your back, you are notlosing your job. Because you
came up with an idea that didn'twork. You've got to have a
culture where people do not makefun of each other. I'll tell
you, at General Mills, I was apart of the organization for so
(13:14):
many years, we had so manyfailed products, truly products
that people spent yearsformulating building packaging,
building marketing plans, we hadproducts that just flopped. But
the organization was such thatthey kept going. This one didn't
(13:35):
work. What did we learn?
Alright, let's try this. Allright, we did something a couple
years ago, that didn't work. ButI think that the consumer
mindset has shifted, and I thinkit'll work now. People looked at
the failures as stepping stonesas ways to get better to build
the type of innovative productsthat would dazzle the retailers
(13:55):
and would fulfill consumerneeds. I watched firsthand as
the leaders who built a safeenvironment, protected,
protected, and I mean that inevery sense of the word, people
that we're coming up with ideas,building a safety net. Now,
unfortunately, I also worked forleaders that did not. I will
(14:18):
tell you when I started atGeneral Mills, I came every day
with a notebook filled withideas. What if we named the twin
Stadium after wheedies? What ifwe did this? What if we created
a sign? What if we had T shirtsthat had this? I came with fresh
eyes? I had so much energy forbuilding ideas for this
(14:41):
organization and all of itswonderful brands. At the time
that I started at General Mills,they had the slogan they may
still today I'm not sure ourbrands, your legacy. I want it
to be a part of it. I want it tofeel and be
As a part of driving thosebrands into the future of
(15:04):
serving families across theworld, the food that they wanted
that tasted good that wouldnourish their bodies. I wanted
to be a part of it. I came witha full head of steam. And I came
with a notebook full of ideas.
And every day, I would come intomy manager's office. And I would
say, All right, what if we didthis, and you can imagine,
right, I'm very passionate Ifull of energy at the time, I
(15:27):
was 21 years old. And my managerwould just sit there.
And he was so bored. And hecouldn't wait for that hour to
be up. For this, Sara, at thetime started to stop talking.
And so after a while, I stoppeddoing it.
(15:49):
I stopped bringing ideas, Istopped thinking of new ways
that we could build our brands.
And I became one of those robotsthat punch the clock every day.
And it wasn't until I had mynext manager, and my next
manager wanted ideas. And wepitched ideas to the brands that
were full of life and full ofenergy, and I regained that
(16:10):
spirit, I found it again. And sowe have to be the type of
managers that bring that out inour people. We have to be the
type of managers that providethe safety net for no ideas, a
bad idea, bring them all, theymay not all work. But why not
(16:31):
think about them? There's no badidea in a brainstorm. If you
believe that. If you teach yourteams that they are safe with
you, they will bring all oftheir ideas.
All right. So I'll go backthrough the the tenants. But my
basic premise today to sharewith you is how can we empower
(16:52):
creative problem solving withour teams? And how can we get
them to trust their thoughts?
How can we trust their thoughts,right as their manager, the
first one, we got to let it fly,you got to just bring all the
ideas, throw them against thewall, no idea is a bad idea.
Number two, you've got to checkyour ego at the door. If you
(17:13):
want to have this workeffectively, that includes
yourself, but it includes beinga good role model for all of the
layers in the organization.
Number three, bring fresh eyes.
I truly believe that there is noproblem that we can't solve. If
(17:36):
we do all of these sorts ofthings, and bringing fresh eyes
is a fantastic way to bringpeople in to see your challenge
in a new way. Number four,safety first, if you don't allow
your team, the safety, the humaninstinctual safety to feel like
they can do things, try things,test things, you're really not
(17:58):
enabling the type of culturethat will support forward
momentum. You're really justsupporting the status quo.
So as I close all of thesetopics, I just wanted to say
that I've done things right. AndI've done things wrong in my
career. I've had managers thathave done things, right, and
(18:19):
managers that have done thingswrong. And unfortunately, that's
just the way of the world,right, we're going to work with
and for people. And we're alsogoing to do the wrong thing.
Sometimes. It's just kind ofthis trial and error, way of
existing. And I don't ever meanto say that I've done
everything, right, I just havelearned, I've truly learned. And
(18:42):
I would say you know as youbuild a team, and as you try
through your way through all ofthis, you build a culture around
you that helps to support this,I am way more capable of
allowing people at therestaurant to come up with
ideas, because I know now thatthey're focused on the same
vision. At one time, I didn'tnecessarily trust their ideas
(19:04):
because I felt they wereselfish, or they were not
motivated with driving growth.
They were maybe motivated withnot doing the work or you not
having me do the work. And sothere have been different
situations where I haven'talways done the right thing or
had the right people around meto allow this to help. But I
would say if we can make babysteps in all four of these
(19:25):
categories, we can eventuallyhave the type of organization
that we desire. And the ultimatein my opinion, is how my
restaurant is functioning now soTruscott and company eatery. I
have a general manager whoempowers his teams to come up
with ideas. But that didn't workwithout me empowering him. And
(19:46):
together we've really built asystem where we can have all
sorts of people at all sorts oflevels coming up with ideas all
the time. I also have kind of akind of an opera
operations director that worksremotely, who comes up with
ideas all the time. And again, Iwould say, you know, he's not
(20:07):
boots on the ground, but he seesthings from a different vantage,
sometimes the boots on theground team forgets about the
bigger picture, or doesn't seethe outside trends or doesn't
see what's happening in otherareas of the country. So we're
all kind of supplementing eachother's creativity by building
this system. Ultimately, Ibelieve that we are headed in
(20:31):
the right direction. And I thinkit's only going to get better.
So I hope this is helpful toyou. As I always do, I want to
make sure that I'm opening upsome time to answer questions
that are coming through viasocial media, and via this chat.
And I'm always always watchingthe social media, if you're
watching this after the live,just to see if there are other
(20:52):
questions out there. So pleasekeep sending them to me. Please
keep asking your questions. Andplease, as a lot of you have
done, let me know if I can helpyou. I think we're getting a lot
of great engagement from folks.
And they do have questions. AndI think, at the very beginning
of setting this up, I was ableto share with you that really my
sole purpose in doing this is tohelp people. If you need help in
(21:15):
your business, if you havequestions, just reach out and
let me know what I can do tohelp you. I do not want people
out there suffering thinkingthat they don't have any
resources. I don't want anyonethinking that there's not an
idea somewhere in the world tosolve your problem there is you
just have to know how to ask orwhere to find it. And I might
(21:37):
not have the answer. Buthopefully I can be a conduit to
allow that type of brainstorm,storming to start and to
populate ideas from alldifferent angles and from fresh
eyes.
All right, I'm starting to getsome questions. So let me answer
this one here. What do you do ifyour boss isn't willing to allow
(22:00):
your ideas. And I think this isa really good one, because you
may be kind of in middlemanagement or wherever in the
organization, and you are tryingvery hard to empower and trust
your treat your creativesolutions, but you have a
roadblock above you. And this isa really good question. So
thanks for answering it. So Iwould say you know, this is a
(22:21):
this is a tricky situation,because this happens quite
often, right? I was at GeneralMills, and I know what this
feels like, I'm doing all that Ican to empower and bring ideas
forth, whether they're mine orsomeone else's. But I'm hitting
that roadblock. So the firstthing that I would say is to be
open andmaybe a little bit vulnerable
(22:42):
with your superior to saysomething like, you know, I got
a lot of ideas that arepercolating from my team. And
I'd love the opportunity to havespace to share them with you.
And you might just as I havedone, say, they're not all going
to work. That's not why I'mbringing them. But we're looking
at the long term vision of thisbusiness or looking at the long
(23:06):
term, you know, focus for thisbrand, whatever it is. So you're
you're influencing a little bitby putting yourselves in those
shoes, you're thinking throughwhat is this person responsible
for? Maybe its growth inrevenue, maybe its
profitability. And so you'reframing it in, you know, my job
is to support you, as you aretrying to lead our team to the
(23:28):
horizon, whatever that goal is.
And I've really been thinking alot about it. And I've been
empowering our team to come upwith ideas and ways to try to
fix this or solve it or helpyou. And we want to bring some
ideas forth. And I, again, notall of them are going to work.
(23:49):
But if we try and we make somebaby steps, and maybe even offer
up the idea that we want to dipour toe in the water and do a
couple of tests. Maybe it's withone product that we're building,
or we're talking to a consumerpanel of 10 people, and maybe
it's informal, so we don't haveto expend any costs, right?
(24:10):
You're making that threshold ofcoming up with ideas bearable
for them. So you're having theempathy to sit in their seat and
think through what are theytrying to achieve? And what are
all the roadblocks that they'regoing to put in front of you.
Whether it's budget time, youdon't have the capacity. Maybe
(24:33):
it's like a plant capacity,maybe it's human capacity. And I
think you can start to chip awayat their defenses and their
reactions for shutting it down.
And I'm not suggesting it'sgoing to work in every
situation. There are some folksout there that again, probably
have so much insecurity or areso focused on doing what they
(24:55):
think is right, et cetera, andYou're maybe just gonna have to
be patient. But try a few ofthese things again to chip away
at that ice block that roadblockthat is in front of you. And
hopefully you can influence themvery gently to see things a
little differently.
(25:16):
All right, keep sending goodquestions out there. I really
appreciate it. And again,helping others to see their way
through this, I think is really,really meaningful. I think it's
also really helpful to know thatthey're not the only one
battling that roadblock up. SoI'm glad that you asked that
question.
Well, I think that's it fortoday. I'm very grateful to
(25:38):
spend some time with you. I'mreally, really hopeful that this
is helpful to you, especially asyou build your business and
drive growth. And again, thisleveling up your business is all
about finding small ways togrow, finding small ways to
challenge the status quo. Andtoday was all about bringing
that huge Geyser of ideas forth,right? really empowering your
(26:02):
team to just spew ideas left andright on all sorts of areas,
topics, big and small. Andhopefully, again, you're making
progress towards that visionthat you need to get to. So
thanks for letting me be a partof your journey. I'm really
happy to share that with you.
And if you need anything, I'mhere. Thanks so much for tuning
(26:23):
in to this episode of level upyour business with me, Sarah
Frasca. If you have a problem inyour business that's keeping you
up at night. Please join us in afuture episode so we can help
get you unstuck. Just clickingthe link in the show notes and
send us a message. Pleaseremember, stay innovative
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