April 26, 2024 • 26 mins
Step into the world of exceptional company culture with Bruce, the CEO and founder of DBD Group - a team of national consulting connoisseurs who operate without borders. In a candid conversation, Bruce unveils the core axioms that fuel their leadership and action-oriented ethos. You'll discover how a philosophy centered around trust and culture thrives in a remote work environment, providing vital insights for leaders managing dispersed teams. Embrace the transformative power of 'leadership is everything' and a 'bias for action,' which have been meticulously woven into DBD's consulting fabric, empowering their clientele within the nonprofit sector.
Navigate the nuances of virtual team dynamics as Bruce shares the imaginative use of baseball card-style profiles, acknowledging the rich tapestry of individual strengths and personality types that make up a successful team. Learn the secrets behind assembling a high-performing group that's strategic, cohesive, and takes pride in their collective genius. Our exploration with Bruce also ventures into the realm of inspiring hope, generosity, and excellence in the nonprofit world—a testimony to how a positive workplace culture can be the driving force behind meaningful community change.
Engage with us for this episode and arm yourself with actionable ideas to lead with inspiration and build a team that's not just high-performing, but truly extraordinary.
Connect with Bruce and DBD Group:
Bruce Berglund | LinkedIn | Email
DBD Group | Website
DBD Group | Facebook
DBD Group | LinkedIn
#leadwell #dbdgroup #workfromhome #burnout #affirmation #conflictresolution #feedback #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #learning #teams #personalgrowth #executivecoaching #organizationalhealth #servantleadership #communication #character #relationships #skills
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For more information visit https://leadwell.com
The Leadwell Podcast gives mission-driven leaders principled and practical advice to do just that, lead well.
In each episode, your host Jon Kidwell, interviews leaders with great stories, to share strategies that help leaders navigate complex, confusing, and often down-right challenging leadership, personal growth, business, and workplace culture situations.
Jon is a nonprofit executive turned coach, speaker, author, and CEO of a leadership development company. In working with nonprofits and businesses, big and small, he realized the unique challenges leaders face when they are committed to keeping the mission and people the top priority. Those leaders’ commitment to their principles and the people they lead, plus seeing the need for more leaders who strive to do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons, is what inspired Jon to start a leadership development company dedicated to the success of mission-driven leaders and their organiza...
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jon Kidwell (00:01):
So welcome to the Lead Well podcast.
This is the podcast where weinterview leaders who are
leading well.
We get them to share whatthey're doing and how they're
doing it so that it can help youlead your business and people
well.
Bruce, thank you for joining uson the Leadwell Podcast.
(00:32):
I am so excited to have youhere today.
Bruce Berglund (00:35):
Jon, thanks for the invite.
This will be a fun conversation.
Jon Kidwell (00:39):
Okay, anywhere that I go with you, everybody knows
you and everybody knows the DBDgroup.
But just in case someonelistening to this podcast
doesn't yet know you or the DBDgroup, can you give us just the
smidgen of you and of the DBDgroup so that they know how
great you all are like the restof us know?
Bruce Berglund (00:58):
Wow, well, that's just like my mom wrote it
.
That's great.
You know, we're amultidisciplinary consultancy
that helps nonprofits and wereally try to partner with folks
and help them thrive and helpthem make their communities
thrive.
A big part of our work isfundraising, but we have
(01:19):
strategic planning and financeand marketing and just do you
know?
A host of things to come nextto our clients and make them
better.
We've got I guess we just hiredour 37th person in DBD and
truly have a national footprint.
Jon Kidwell (01:40):
Cool, and where is DBD located exactly?
Bruce Berglund (01:44):
Well, that's a great.
It's all over the country.
Jon, we're a non.
I guess we don't have aheadquarters, if you will.
Technically, I'm in Chicago andthat's where home is for me,
but we have our folks at DBD allacross the country, so we are a
(02:04):
total remote company.
Jon Kidwell (02:07):
Oh, my goodness.
Okay, so it was a tee up and alead in, because I think the
stat that I saw from you all isthat DBD is headquarters in 21
different states, right when youhave people located all over
the place, and that is reallywhy we are connecting today,
because, bruce, you and DBD areso unique.
(02:28):
I've been able to experience itmyself, which was amazing but
the people, the culture, all ofthis that you have done without
a central location which justspeaks to folks that have remote
work or any of us that domulti-site operations.
So start to talk to us aboutwhy was this even important to
(02:48):
you and why have you been payingattention to the culture for
the entire existence of DBD forover a decade and a half, almost
two decades now.
Bruce Berglund (02:59):
Yeah, well, I think we agree that culture eats
strategy every day of the week,right?
So I don't care if you're brickand mortar headquartered, if
you're all coming into the sameoffice or if you're remote.
I think culture is somethingthat you just absolutely have to
focus on.
Culture and trust are two keythings.
(03:20):
You know we were with Zoombefore.
Zoom was cool, in fact, it waswhen Zoom was free, Jon, back in
the day, and it didn't seem tocount in consulting as a day of
consulting until you know, thepandemic hit, and coming out of
(03:41):
the pandemic, people seem to.
You know, our grandparents,right, all learned how to use
Zoom and our clients did, andeven our multi-site clients I've
seen they're requiring theirfolks to come to the central
office less and they'reinvesting in some technology so
(04:02):
they can connect.
But I think this notion ofculture is really important and
I think there's some things in aremote situation, when we're
totally remote from we're inalmost our 19th year of doing
this, that there's somelearnings for us and it'll be
fun to talk through some of thattoday.
Jon Kidwell (04:24):
It'll be fun to talk through some of that today,
and here's why Because what you, your team, all of DBD has
built and stewarded just youshared this with me, and I just
can't help but smile.
There was a trust assessmentthat you all did and, in the
best way possible, you broke theassessment because you all were
(04:45):
such an outlier.
So when we start asking you,when I'm about to start asking
you, what are some of the thingsthat DBD does, how do you do
this?
It's not that you all are justa little bit better than average
, it's that this is a completeoutlier, and I know that you're
not going to take the compliment, but I want you to have it
anyways.
So tell me some of the things,those values, those axioms that
(05:10):
really start to make DBD who andwhat it is.
Bruce Berglund (05:14):
We started to thinking, thought about just as
a firm.
There was just me and thenanother person joined in, a
third and a fourth and a fifthand there was about six or seven
of us and I think we spent, Jon, probably the first four or
five years of just earning howto consult quite honestly and to
show up in the appropriate wayfor our clients, et cetera.
(05:37):
But we started to find that westarted to settle on some axioms
or some truths that we justknew worked and back in the day
we weren't smart enough to writethis stuff down and really
drive it.
And then, at about the 10-yearmark and we started doing, I
(06:00):
think, a little better job withcommunicating really concisely
with our clients.
They started to use our axiomsback and that was when I knew it
started to get deep into ourconsulting culture among
(06:21):
ourselves but also how we usethat language with our clients.
So things like leadership iseverything.
We talk about that all the time, that within the firm,
leadership is everything.
But when you gather a volunteergroup, when you're gathering
your staff team, if you don'thave the right leaders around
the table, either paid orvolunteer, it's really hard to
(06:43):
get traction right In our littleworld and people would say
you're moving fast and I'd saywe have a bias for action and
that started to stick.
And we talk about our bias foraction because we show up and we
warn our clients that we have abias for action and we're going
(07:03):
to move forward, and we warnour clients that we have a bias
for action and we're going tomove forward.
We have another one infundraising called activity
equals results.
Is that?
You know, if you're not outthere and doing it, you can't
expect the results that you hopeto get.
Another one, especially withboard development, is don't
settle.
We used to make don't settlepins for folks and that, as we
(07:25):
recruit board members, do notsettle.
These are the most preciouschairs and leaders.
Right Leadership is everything.
To have those right leadersaround the table.
You know we need to put a faceto the case.
We talk about vision, leakingand big L leaders and dollars
and change and blue flame case,and there's about 18 of these or
(07:46):
so, probably too many.
But how we then drove that intoculture, Jon, is that as we
hire folks, I sit down with themfor a half day and we go
through our axioms.
In fact, we've got this thingon everybody's wall and it's
hard to see, oh my goodness, Iabsolutely love that.
Jon Kidwell (08:06):
So you have it in all 21 different HQs around the
nation.
Bruce Berglund (08:10):
Well, we yeah, we include it in our right, in
our work with, with each of ourum, our team members and I have
it blown up on a big um like abig, gigantic poster board and
when they come in and spend sometime with me, time with me at
our home, I have it on a bigeasel and it just sits there and
I start to unpack the cultureof DBD through our axioms and
(08:37):
different axioms came atdifferent times of the company's
history, with different folksjoining us and making
contributions to those axioms,and I'm able to weave the
culture of DBD, what's importantto us, how do we show up for
ourselves and how do we show upfor our clients through these
(09:01):
silly axioms.
And I think someday there'sprobably going to be a book
about some of these axioms andhow they work.
But it's just been a joy toeven see our very recent hires
using that language and havingit come off the tip of their
(09:23):
tongue without a lot of thinking, Because six months ago we
spent a day together and turnedour phones off, John, and slowed
the roll.
Jon Kidwell (09:36):
An entire remote organization got together in
person and turned their phonesoff.
Bruce Berglund (09:40):
And started to think through some of this.
So for us.
Axioms are a big part of how dowe teach culture, and if
culture is healthy, we can takeon some of these impossible
goals.
Jon Kidwell (09:57):
I love that and I also love how you visualize it,
right, you and I, I know, haveboth seen and follow some Andy
Stanley Stanley leadership stuffand he says you know it's got
to be seen in the hall beforeit's on the wall.
You've got it in both placesand you use other visual cues to
help with this, and I love theone.
(10:18):
They're your trading cards,right, your baseball cards, and,
for those that are on video,bruce has them, he can show it
to you.
But talk to us about thesecards and kind of what goes
behind those pieces, right,what's actually on there?
How do they help?
And then this visualization andthese tangible pieces that
(10:39):
you're starting to give people,especially the fact that they're
not together most of the time.
Bruce Berglund (10:44):
I bet, yeah, it's been fun.
And again, just as we try toconnect with each other as team
members and show up in authenticways with each other, how do we
start to make this team startto kind of pull the, you know,
pull the layers back right?
(11:05):
And what really makes us tick?
And one of the things thatwe've taken is Pat Liancioni's
Working Genius instrument andwe're big fans of Working Genius
and it just really crystallizes, right folks, and where are
your strengths?
And then where are you?
Know?
(11:25):
What he would say is what's yourworking frustration?
And so, as we started to assignwork long ago, when there was
just three of us, it was likewho cares, let's go.
But then we got 12, and then wegot 20, and we have 30 and now
we have almost 40.
Is there perhaps a morethoughtful way to assign work?
(11:50):
So we looked at Working Geniusand Michelle Goodrich on our
team is certified with PatLencioni and helps make this
come alive for us.
But why wouldn't we take thisinto consideration when
assigning teams for clients?
And if you have, I'm agalvanizer, right, I can sell a
(12:11):
concept, but my workingfrustration, john, is tenacity.
Jon Kidwell (12:17):
Oh no, you and I cannot pair up.
One because we're going tomatch but two, because we're
going to do the same things andnot want to do the same thing.
Bruce Berglund (12:24):
But it would make great sense if we lived in
the same state and we had aclient in Texas.
Why wouldn't we go, when, infact, maybe it would be far more
effective to have somebody elsepartner with you, because you
and I would just we'd begalvanizing everybody and we
wouldn't be getting anythingdone because we had low, low
tenacity.
(12:44):
And so we've trained towardsthis.
But these, these baseball cards, as we call them, on the front
of it it's when were you drafted?
So the first circle is when youjoin the team.
So, and then, what's yourMyers-Briggs?
We still kind of look the team,so you know.
And then, what's yourMyers-Briggs?
We still kind of look.
We all did a lot ofMyers-Briggs back in the day and
(13:04):
it's a it's.
It's a great way to look at itin a different way.
We've got their name and their,their, their photo.
But then the other side of thecard, john, we've got, in their
own words, how would you putyour working genius in action?
And they talk about how I loveto operate on the edge.
Or, you know, I like to seekout the right leader first, or I
(13:27):
need to make sure that we'vegot our date set in order for me
to do our best work and, intheir own language, they're
making this come alive.
And then we've got the workinggenius and then the working
frustration at the bottom.
And then we've got the workinggenius and then the working
frustration at the bottom.
This has been such a joy to putall of this on what we call our
(13:47):
map, our DBD map, and we'renaturally grouped right and we
can now thoughtfully say allright, if we really want to have
a high performing team leaninginto each other's strengths, uh,
how about, uh, we be a littlemore thoughtful?
Uh, that putting people togetherthan just who wants to work
(14:08):
together or who lives in thesame state, uh, rather, why
don't we take our, ourcollective strengths and put
them next to each other?
And I think we've all been on ateam before that we just find,
oh, we're just stuck.
It's like we got great ideas,but we just can't get out of the
door.
And you know, or that person atthe very end says, but what
(14:33):
about?
And that wonderer drives mecrazy, right, why are you
driving me crazy when, in fact,it's all in the way that we're
beautifully wired, and if weunderstand that you start to use
these as nouns and verbs whenwe're together and so I'm teeing
(14:55):
right now and just give mepermission to tea and it's just
been a you know, I would say, abreakthrough way for us to
assign work and, moreimportantly, better understand
this group of 37 people thathave come together for DBB.
Jon Kidwell (15:14):
It is awesome.
I even love how you just weavebeautifully and naturally in
there to when they got drafted.
We've beautifully and naturallyin there to when they got
drafted that even that sayssomething about just the pride
of the organization of beingable to know that this is a
special and unique place andthat we want you here.
Right, you don't draft peopleif you don't want them, and so I
(15:35):
think that is really reallyquite cool and unique.
You and I both also know thatwe can do a lot of these things,
we can say a lot of thesethings, and still, when we move
into action, they start to fallapart.
And you have this.
It's not a flow chart or a flowmap, but there are some things
(15:58):
that you do before you do otherthings and you think about this,
specifically in leadership, butalso leading remotely.
Can you walk us through whatare the three things you do
before you do the other threethings and why that's important?
Bruce Berglund (16:13):
And again, I think that if you're getting
together all the time, this isas effective.
This is as effective and ifyou're in the same space and all
you have to do is go up a floor.
But for us, and as we start totry to come together with
decisions as a firm, to tounderstand where folks are, I
(16:36):
think we need toover-communicate a bit when
we're in a remote setting andand explain this is setting and
explain this is how we'resetting it up.
When you think of a regularmeeting, you got a lot of that
chit-chat.
You walk in and you're havingyour donut and your cup of
coffee and you're kind ofsetting the stage right and the
leader sets the stage for that.
(16:57):
I think in a remote setting wetry to actually have the meeting
set up five, six minutes earlyso as people come in to the
meeting you can start doing thatchat like you normally would.
I've never been to a meetingthat we never said a word.
We're all around the table andthen they say go Right, and it
just turns on and it's nights ofthe round table.
(17:18):
It's shocking.
And so we try to budget sometime on the front end but we
also budget time on the back end.
It's very unusual for everybodyjust to vaporize at the end of
a meeting and time to say, hey,can we peel off and talk about,
or how's your daughter, or those, and we let that go.
(17:40):
Sometimes it's 10, 15, 20minutes after the meeting that
there's still a couple peoplestill in the remote meeting
having a discussion, and I thinkthat's natural, right, that's
how we communicate and it'simportant to respect the digital
, I guess, meeting space thatwe're in, right, as humans we
(18:03):
just don't turn it on and off.
It's more like a dimmer switch.
But the thing that I have foundas a leader is the importance
of understanding, visualizingand describing.
Understanding, understandingthe topic, the issue you name it
, visualizing that and we're avisual bunch as well, by the way
(18:26):
and then describing the issueat hand and to have some
agreement on that in a remotesetting before we lead, direct
and assess.
We are as a consulting group.
Go to lead, direct and assessis our natural DNA.
Jon Kidwell (18:46):
Especially if you have a bias for action.
All of those are very kind of-.
Bruce Berglund (18:49):
Oh, I mean we could have this meeting in 10
minutes, right, and just let'sgo.
So, if we've recognized that,that's our kind of that reflex
that we have.
So naturally as a leader, Ikind of like to process quickly.
And we hired one of our keyleadership team members and they
(19:10):
pulled me aside after the firstday being with the team and he
said you know, bruce, this isawesome, but if you expect me in
real time to provide you thevery best feedback that I can
muster, I am not that guy.
But if you let me sleep on that, I'll come back the next day
(19:35):
and have a beautiful, elegantsolution.
But don't judge me for me beingquiet, okay, as we process this.
And it was a reminder to me oh,here's how we process, here's
how we different back to, uh,back to our working genius,
right, but he could pull measide because we were live in
(19:58):
that meeting, right, we weretogether.
And so if, if we can slow theroll a little bit and make sure
that that we understand theissues, we visualize them and we
describe them before we rollinto leading, directing and
assessing, that's served usreally well and, frankly, it is
(20:19):
really great.
It's a great competency inconsulting, in leadership and
consulting and leadership tomake sure that, in any of the
teams that you lead, you focuson the first three before the
execution of the last three.
Jon Kidwell (20:35):
That's right, it's all clarity and alignment before
moving into exactly what yousaid execute action, go get it
done right, charge the hill ohmy goodness, that is, that's
phenomenal.
So just for everybody, let'skind of recap so far we've had
axioms, kind of truth,self-evident truths, that DBD
has a high, high focus onculture and onboarding to that
(21:00):
culture, playing cards and thenhow we do this regardless, but
especially in a remote setting,so that we can build in
understanding and processingbefore we move into action.
Before I ask you one lastquestion what else do we need to
know about a culture of purposeand people and high performance
(21:21):
, especially in a remoteenvironment?
Bruce Berglund (21:24):
You know, and I think that if you don't know
where you're going, you probablyaren't going to get there or
get there as quickly or asthoughtfully as you'd like.
And I think the thing that wedidn't talk about was our own
strategic plan, and we work veryhard to say what's the next
(21:47):
three years, what is thatlooking like?
And we have, you know, ourvision is thriving nonprofits
and thriving communities, butthen, underneath that, we say
what does that mean for ourworld?
What does that mean for ourpeople, our DBDers, what does
that mean for our systems?
What does that mean for ourbrand, what does it mean for our
(22:10):
products and, ultimately, whatdoes it mean for our clients?
And we use that circle and talkabout in our plan.
Let's be very mindful abouteach of those buckets, if you
will, as we look towards thefuture, and we work hard to make
(22:33):
sure that that plan isn't aplan that just sits on the shelf
right.
We celebrate the strategic planand just let it go.
It's something that we try toin between our two live visits
every year, uh, we bring folkstogether.
Every month, we have a, have azoom uh or a video.
You know uh, meeting and uh,one of those, uh, is a 90 minute
(22:57):
zoom hour and a half, the otheris a three hour zoom Wow.
And the three hour zoom is whenwe, uh, we teach a concept.
But in both of those we havebreakout sessions.
We try not to do a bunch of giveand get.
We start it with a thought forthe day and we always end our
(23:18):
sessions with hope, whetherthat's live session or Zoom the
hope.
Right, we don't need to leaveour clients, john, with a to-do
list, or at least just a to-dolist.
That's overwhelming.
But if we can leave our clientswith here's the next steps but
ultimately leave them with hope,that's going to make this
(23:43):
consulting thing special andreally quite, I think, rewarding
.
And if we turn that and thenlook at it ourselves every
single meeting at DBD, we willend with hope.
And if we're a hopeful bunch, Ithink that we can get a lot
done 100%.
Jon Kidwell (24:03):
Before I ask you my question about leading.
Well, where can people go toconnect with you, bruce, with
DBD, with the work that you doto come alongside?
Maybe they're a nonprofit, butthey want to thrive, they want
to connect with you.
Where do they go?
Bruce Berglund (24:27):
group is our website and we're proud of that.
We spend a lot of time being aremote.
It's our living room, right,and that's all we have, and so
we work hard to make that asgood of an experience as
possible.
You can click down and learnabout our folks.
You can drill through and getemail addresses and reach out
that way.
But dbdgroup and we'd love tolearn more about how we could
(24:52):
help you Awesome.
Jon Kidwell (24:54):
Y'all should check it out.
Dbdgroup and Bruce.
On this podcast, we bring inleaders who are leading well and
would be remiss if I did notask you what does it mean to you
to lead well?
Bruce Berglund (25:10):
You know, john, I look at our mission first, and
when I look at our mission,it's by inspiring hope,
generosity and excellence.
We empower nonprofits to thrive.
And I have found that, if I canfocus on our amazing team at
DBD, my definition of leadershipis if I can make our team
(25:32):
stronger, smarter, if we canlaugh together a lot, it's have
fun and get a lot done and servethat up with large doses of
hope, inspiration and a positiveculture.
I find that they can leave withtheir buckets full and go
(25:53):
change the world through ourclients and that's how I define,
I guess, how I approach thiswork with DVD.
Jon Kidwell (26:00):
I love it.
Great leaders doing that,having fun, getting lots done,
inspiring and helping peopleachieve is definitely a recipe
for leading well.
Bruce, thank you so much forbeing here today.
It has been an absolute joy.
My friend is so good to see youand we are better for listening
to this.
I'm going back and making notesand I have a feeling I'm going
to be building myself somebaseball cards here pretty quick
(26:23):
and for everybody who islistening.
Thank you so much for tuning in, check out dbdgroup and until
next time, be well, lead on andGod bless.
So welcome to the Lead Well podcast.
This is the podcast where weinterview leaders who are
leading well.
We get them to share whatthey're doing and how they're
doing it so that it can help youlead your business and people
well.
Bruce, thank you for joining uson the Leadwell Podcast.
(00:32):
I am so excited to have youhere today.
Bruce Berglund (00:35):
Jon, thanks for the invite.
This will be a fun conversation.
Jon Kidwell (00:39):
Okay, anywhere that I go with you, everybody knows
you and everybody knows the DBDgroup.
But just in case someonelistening to this podcast
doesn't yet know you or the DBDgroup, can you give us just the
smidgen of you and of the DBDgroup so that they know how
great you all are like the restof us know?
Bruce Berglund (00:58):
Wow, well, that's just like my mom wrote it
.
That's great.
You know, we're amultidisciplinary consultancy
that helps nonprofits and wereally try to partner with folks
and help them thrive and helpthem make their communities
thrive.
A big part of our work isfundraising, but we have
(01:19):
strategic planning and financeand marketing and just do you
know?
A host of things to come nextto our clients and make them
better.
We've got I guess we just hiredour 37th person in DBD and
truly have a national footprint.
Jon Kidwell (01:40):
Cool, and where is DBD located exactly?
Bruce Berglund (01:44):
Well, that's a great.
It's all over the country.
Jon, we're a non.
I guess we don't have aheadquarters, if you will.
Technically, I'm in Chicago andthat's where home is for me,
but we have our folks at DBD allacross the country, so we are a
(02:04):
total remote company.
Jon Kidwell (02:07):
Oh, my goodness.
Okay, so it was a tee up and alead in, because I think the
stat that I saw from you all isthat DBD is headquarters in 21
different states, right when youhave people located all over
the place, and that is reallywhy we are connecting today,
because, bruce, you and DBD areso unique.
(02:28):
I've been able to experience itmyself, which was amazing but
the people, the culture, all ofthis that you have done without
a central location which justspeaks to folks that have remote
work or any of us that domulti-site operations.
So start to talk to us aboutwhy was this even important to
(02:48):
you and why have you been payingattention to the culture for
the entire existence of DBD forover a decade and a half, almost
two decades now.
Bruce Berglund (02:59):
Yeah, well, I think we agree that culture eats
strategy every day of the week,right?
So I don't care if you're brickand mortar headquartered, if
you're all coming into the sameoffice or if you're remote.
I think culture is somethingthat you just absolutely have to
focus on.
Culture and trust are two keythings.
(03:20):
You know we were with Zoombefore.
Zoom was cool, in fact, it waswhen Zoom was free, Jon, back in
the day, and it didn't seem tocount in consulting as a day of
consulting until you know, thepandemic hit, and coming out of
(03:41):
the pandemic, people seem to.
You know, our grandparents,right, all learned how to use
Zoom and our clients did, andeven our multi-site clients I've
seen they're requiring theirfolks to come to the central
office less and they'reinvesting in some technology so
(04:02):
they can connect.
But I think this notion ofculture is really important and
I think there's some things in aremote situation, when we're
totally remote from we're inalmost our 19th year of doing
this, that there's somelearnings for us and it'll be
fun to talk through some of thattoday.
Jon Kidwell (04:24):
It'll be fun to talk through some of that today,
and here's why Because what you, your team, all of DBD has
built and stewarded just youshared this with me, and I just
can't help but smile.
There was a trust assessmentthat you all did and, in the
best way possible, you broke theassessment because you all were
(04:45):
such an outlier.
So when we start asking you,when I'm about to start asking
you, what are some of the thingsthat DBD does, how do you do
this?
It's not that you all are justa little bit better than average
, it's that this is a completeoutlier, and I know that you're
not going to take the compliment, but I want you to have it
anyways.
So tell me some of the things,those values, those axioms that
(05:10):
really start to make DBD who andwhat it is.
Bruce Berglund (05:14):
We started to thinking, thought about just as
a firm.
There was just me and thenanother person joined in, a
third and a fourth and a fifthand there was about six or seven
of us and I think we spent, Jon, probably the first four or
five years of just earning howto consult quite honestly and to
show up in the appropriate wayfor our clients, et cetera.
(05:37):
But we started to find that westarted to settle on some axioms
or some truths that we justknew worked and back in the day
we weren't smart enough to writethis stuff down and really
drive it.
And then, at about the 10-yearmark and we started doing, I
(06:00):
think, a little better job withcommunicating really concisely
with our clients.
They started to use our axiomsback and that was when I knew it
started to get deep into ourconsulting culture among
(06:21):
ourselves but also how we usethat language with our clients.
So things like leadership iseverything.
We talk about that all the time, that within the firm,
leadership is everything.
But when you gather a volunteergroup, when you're gathering
your staff team, if you don'thave the right leaders around
the table, either paid orvolunteer, it's really hard to
(06:43):
get traction right In our littleworld and people would say
you're moving fast and I'd saywe have a bias for action and
that started to stick.
And we talk about our bias foraction because we show up and we
warn our clients that we have abias for action and we're going
(07:03):
to move forward, and we warnour clients that we have a bias
for action and we're going tomove forward.
We have another one infundraising called activity
equals results.
Is that?
You know, if you're not outthere and doing it, you can't
expect the results that you hopeto get.
Another one, especially withboard development, is don't
settle.
We used to make don't settlepins for folks and that, as we
(07:25):
recruit board members, do notsettle.
These are the most preciouschairs and leaders.
Right Leadership is everything.
To have those right leadersaround the table.
You know we need to put a faceto the case.
We talk about vision, leakingand big L leaders and dollars
and change and blue flame case,and there's about 18 of these or
(07:46):
so, probably too many.
But how we then drove that intoculture, Jon, is that as we
hire folks, I sit down with themfor a half day and we go
through our axioms.
In fact, we've got this thingon everybody's wall and it's
hard to see, oh my goodness, Iabsolutely love that.
Jon Kidwell (08:06):
So you have it in all 21 different HQs around the
nation.
Bruce Berglund (08:10):
Well, we yeah, we include it in our right, in
our work with, with each of ourum, our team members and I have
it blown up on a big um like abig, gigantic poster board and
when they come in and spend sometime with me, time with me at
our home, I have it on a bigeasel and it just sits there and
I start to unpack the cultureof DBD through our axioms and
(08:37):
different axioms came atdifferent times of the company's
history, with different folksjoining us and making
contributions to those axioms,and I'm able to weave the
culture of DBD, what's importantto us, how do we show up for
ourselves and how do we show upfor our clients through these
(09:01):
silly axioms.
And I think someday there'sprobably going to be a book
about some of these axioms andhow they work.
But it's just been a joy toeven see our very recent hires
using that language and havingit come off the tip of their
(09:23):
tongue without a lot of thinking, Because six months ago we
spent a day together and turnedour phones off, John, and slowed
the roll.
Jon Kidwell (09:36):
An entire remote organization got together in
person and turned their phonesoff.
Bruce Berglund (09:40):
And started to think through some of this.
So for us.
Axioms are a big part of how dowe teach culture, and if
culture is healthy, we can takeon some of these impossible
goals.
Jon Kidwell (09:57):
I love that and I also love how you visualize it,
right, you and I, I know, haveboth seen and follow some Andy
Stanley Stanley leadership stuffand he says you know it's got
to be seen in the hall beforeit's on the wall.
You've got it in both placesand you use other visual cues to
help with this, and I love theone.
(10:18):
They're your trading cards,right, your baseball cards, and,
for those that are on video,bruce has them, he can show it
to you.
But talk to us about thesecards and kind of what goes
behind those pieces, right,what's actually on there?
How do they help?
And then this visualization andthese tangible pieces that
(10:39):
you're starting to give people,especially the fact that they're
not together most of the time.
Bruce Berglund (10:44):
I bet, yeah, it's been fun.
And again, just as we try toconnect with each other as team
members and show up in authenticways with each other, how do we
start to make this team startto kind of pull the, you know,
pull the layers back right?
(11:05):
And what really makes us tick?
And one of the things thatwe've taken is Pat Liancioni's
Working Genius instrument andwe're big fans of Working Genius
and it just really crystallizes, right folks, and where are
your strengths?
And then where are you?
Know?
(11:25):
What he would say is what's yourworking frustration?
And so, as we started to assignwork long ago, when there was
just three of us, it was likewho cares, let's go.
But then we got 12, and then wegot 20, and we have 30 and now
we have almost 40.
Is there perhaps a morethoughtful way to assign work?
(11:50):
So we looked at Working Geniusand Michelle Goodrich on our
team is certified with PatLencioni and helps make this
come alive for us.
But why wouldn't we take thisinto consideration when
assigning teams for clients?
And if you have, I'm agalvanizer, right, I can sell a
(12:11):
concept, but my workingfrustration, john, is tenacity.
Jon Kidwell (12:17):
Oh no, you and I cannot pair up.
One because we're going tomatch but two, because we're
going to do the same things andnot want to do the same thing.
Bruce Berglund (12:24):
But it would make great sense if we lived in
the same state and we had aclient in Texas.
Why wouldn't we go, when, infact, maybe it would be far more
effective to have somebody elsepartner with you, because you
and I would just we'd begalvanizing everybody and we
wouldn't be getting anythingdone because we had low, low
tenacity.
(12:44):
And so we've trained towardsthis.
But these, these baseball cards, as we call them, on the front
of it it's when were you drafted?
So the first circle is when youjoin the team.
So, and then, what's yourMyers-Briggs?
We still kind of look the team,so you know.
And then, what's yourMyers-Briggs?
We still kind of look.
We all did a lot ofMyers-Briggs back in the day and
(13:04):
it's a it's.
It's a great way to look at itin a different way.
We've got their name and their,their, their photo.
But then the other side of thecard, john, we've got, in their
own words, how would you putyour working genius in action?
And they talk about how I loveto operate on the edge.
Or, you know, I like to seekout the right leader first, or I
(13:27):
need to make sure that we'vegot our date set in order for me
to do our best work and, intheir own language, they're
making this come alive.
And then we've got the workinggenius and then the working
frustration at the bottom.
And then we've got the workinggenius and then the working
frustration at the bottom.
This has been such a joy to putall of this on what we call our
(13:47):
map, our DBD map, and we'renaturally grouped right and we
can now thoughtfully say allright, if we really want to have
a high performing team leaninginto each other's strengths, uh,
how about, uh, we be a littlemore thoughtful?
Uh, that putting people togetherthan just who wants to work
(14:08):
together or who lives in thesame state, uh, rather, why
don't we take our, ourcollective strengths and put
them next to each other?
And I think we've all been on ateam before that we just find,
oh, we're just stuck.
It's like we got great ideas,but we just can't get out of the
door.
And you know, or that person atthe very end says, but what
(14:33):
about?
And that wonderer drives mecrazy, right, why are you
driving me crazy when, in fact,it's all in the way that we're
beautifully wired, and if weunderstand that you start to use
these as nouns and verbs whenwe're together and so I'm teeing
(14:55):
right now and just give mepermission to tea and it's just
been a you know, I would say, abreakthrough way for us to
assign work and, moreimportantly, better understand
this group of 37 people thathave come together for DBB.
Jon Kidwell (15:14):
It is awesome.
I even love how you just weavebeautifully and naturally in
there to when they got drafted.
We've beautifully and naturallyin there to when they got
drafted that even that sayssomething about just the pride
of the organization of beingable to know that this is a
special and unique place andthat we want you here.
Right, you don't draft peopleif you don't want them, and so I
(15:35):
think that is really reallyquite cool and unique.
You and I both also know thatwe can do a lot of these things,
we can say a lot of thesethings, and still, when we move
into action, they start to fallapart.
And you have this.
It's not a flow chart or a flowmap, but there are some things
(15:58):
that you do before you do otherthings and you think about this,
specifically in leadership, butalso leading remotely.
Can you walk us through whatare the three things you do
before you do the other threethings and why that's important?
Bruce Berglund (16:13):
And again, I think that if you're getting
together all the time, this isas effective.
This is as effective and ifyou're in the same space and all
you have to do is go up a floor.
But for us, and as we start totry to come together with
decisions as a firm, to tounderstand where folks are, I
(16:36):
think we need toover-communicate a bit when
we're in a remote setting andand explain this is setting and
explain this is how we'resetting it up.
When you think of a regularmeeting, you got a lot of that
chit-chat.
You walk in and you're havingyour donut and your cup of
coffee and you're kind ofsetting the stage right and the
leader sets the stage for that.
(16:57):
I think in a remote setting wetry to actually have the meeting
set up five, six minutes earlyso as people come in to the
meeting you can start doing thatchat like you normally would.
I've never been to a meetingthat we never said a word.
We're all around the table andthen they say go Right, and it
just turns on and it's nights ofthe round table.
(17:18):
It's shocking.
And so we try to budget sometime on the front end but we
also budget time on the back end.
It's very unusual for everybodyjust to vaporize at the end of
a meeting and time to say, hey,can we peel off and talk about,
or how's your daughter, or those, and we let that go.
(17:40):
Sometimes it's 10, 15, 20minutes after the meeting that
there's still a couple peoplestill in the remote meeting
having a discussion, and I thinkthat's natural, right, that's
how we communicate and it'simportant to respect the digital
, I guess, meeting space thatwe're in, right, as humans we
(18:03):
just don't turn it on and off.
It's more like a dimmer switch.
But the thing that I have foundas a leader is the importance
of understanding, visualizingand describing.
Understanding, understandingthe topic, the issue you name it
, visualizing that and we're avisual bunch as well, by the way
(18:26):
and then describing the issueat hand and to have some
agreement on that in a remotesetting before we lead, direct
and assess.
We are as a consulting group.
Go to lead, direct and assessis our natural DNA.
Jon Kidwell (18:46):
Especially if you have a bias for action.
All of those are very kind of-.
Bruce Berglund (18:49):
Oh, I mean we could have this meeting in 10
minutes, right, and just let'sgo.
So, if we've recognized that,that's our kind of that reflex
that we have.
So naturally as a leader, Ikind of like to process quickly.
And we hired one of our keyleadership team members and they
(19:10):
pulled me aside after the firstday being with the team and he
said you know, bruce, this isawesome, but if you expect me in
real time to provide you thevery best feedback that I can
muster, I am not that guy.
But if you let me sleep on that, I'll come back the next day
(19:35):
and have a beautiful, elegantsolution.
But don't judge me for me beingquiet, okay, as we process this.
And it was a reminder to me oh,here's how we process, here's
how we different back to, uh,back to our working genius,
right, but he could pull measide because we were live in
(19:58):
that meeting, right, we weretogether.
And so if, if we can slow theroll a little bit and make sure
that that we understand theissues, we visualize them and we
describe them before we rollinto leading, directing and
assessing, that's served usreally well and, frankly, it is
(20:19):
really great.
It's a great competency inconsulting, in leadership and
consulting and leadership tomake sure that, in any of the
teams that you lead, you focuson the first three before the
execution of the last three.
Jon Kidwell (20:35):
That's right, it's all clarity and alignment before
moving into exactly what yousaid execute action, go get it
done right, charge the hill ohmy goodness, that is, that's
phenomenal.
So just for everybody, let'skind of recap so far we've had
axioms, kind of truth,self-evident truths, that DBD
has a high, high focus onculture and onboarding to that
(21:00):
culture, playing cards and thenhow we do this regardless, but
especially in a remote setting,so that we can build in
understanding and processingbefore we move into action.
Before I ask you one lastquestion what else do we need to
know about a culture of purposeand people and high performance
(21:21):
, especially in a remoteenvironment?
Bruce Berglund (21:24):
You know, and I think that if you don't know
where you're going, you probablyaren't going to get there or
get there as quickly or asthoughtfully as you'd like.
And I think the thing that wedidn't talk about was our own
strategic plan, and we work veryhard to say what's the next
(21:47):
three years, what is thatlooking like?
And we have, you know, ourvision is thriving nonprofits
and thriving communities, butthen, underneath that, we say
what does that mean for ourworld?
What does that mean for ourpeople, our DBDers, what does
that mean for our systems?
What does that mean for ourbrand, what does it mean for our
(22:10):
products and, ultimately, whatdoes it mean for our clients?
And we use that circle and talkabout in our plan.
Let's be very mindful abouteach of those buckets, if you
will, as we look towards thefuture, and we work hard to make
(22:33):
sure that that plan isn't aplan that just sits on the shelf
right.
We celebrate the strategic planand just let it go.
It's something that we try toin between our two live visits
every year, uh, we bring folkstogether.
Every month, we have a, have azoom uh or a video.
You know uh, meeting and uh,one of those, uh, is a 90 minute
(22:57):
zoom hour and a half, the otheris a three hour zoom Wow.
And the three hour zoom is whenwe, uh, we teach a concept.
But in both of those we havebreakout sessions.
We try not to do a bunch of giveand get.
We start it with a thought forthe day and we always end our
(23:18):
sessions with hope, whetherthat's live session or Zoom the
hope.
Right, we don't need to leaveour clients, john, with a to-do
list, or at least just a to-dolist.
That's overwhelming.
But if we can leave our clientswith here's the next steps but
ultimately leave them with hope,that's going to make this
(23:43):
consulting thing special andreally quite, I think, rewarding
.
And if we turn that and thenlook at it ourselves every
single meeting at DBD, we willend with hope.
And if we're a hopeful bunch, Ithink that we can get a lot
done 100%.
Jon Kidwell (24:03):
Before I ask you my question about leading.
Well, where can people go toconnect with you, bruce, with
DBD, with the work that you doto come alongside?
Maybe they're a nonprofit, butthey want to thrive, they want
to connect with you.
Where do they go?
Bruce Berglund (24:27):
group is our website and we're proud of that.
We spend a lot of time being aremote.
It's our living room, right,and that's all we have, and so
we work hard to make that asgood of an experience as
possible.
You can click down and learnabout our folks.
You can drill through and getemail addresses and reach out
that way.
But dbdgroup and we'd love tolearn more about how we could
(24:52):
help you Awesome.
Jon Kidwell (24:54):
Y'all should check it out.
Dbdgroup and Bruce.
On this podcast, we bring inleaders who are leading well and
would be remiss if I did notask you what does it mean to you
to lead well?
Bruce Berglund (25:10):
You know, john, I look at our mission first, and
when I look at our mission,it's by inspiring hope,
generosity and excellence.
We empower nonprofits to thrive.
And I have found that, if I canfocus on our amazing team at
DBD, my definition of leadershipis if I can make our team
(25:32):
stronger, smarter, if we canlaugh together a lot, it's have
fun and get a lot done and servethat up with large doses of
hope, inspiration and a positiveculture.
I find that they can leave withtheir buckets full and go
(25:53):
change the world through ourclients and that's how I define,
I guess, how I approach thiswork with DVD.
Jon Kidwell (26:00):
I love it.
Great leaders doing that,having fun, getting lots done,
inspiring and helping peopleachieve is definitely a recipe
for leading well.
Bruce, thank you so much forbeing here today.
It has been an absolute joy.
My friend is so good to see youand we are better for listening
to this.
I'm going back and making notesand I have a feeling I'm going
to be building myself somebaseball cards here pretty quick
(26:23):
and for everybody who islistening.
Thank you so much for tuning in, check out dbdgroup and until
next time, be well, lead on andGod bless.
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