Leader in Transformational Change!

Let‘s Talk HR - Humanizing the Conversation

Lisa Carlin is a Strategic Execution Specialists whom works within organizations to help mentor her clients through transformational change. She has a 96% success rate with the clients that she works with. She has a global reach with the clients that she works with and has a true desire and passion to help those that she works with. Lisa has an amazing background and understanding for people, this is a great addition to Let’s Talk HR.

Contact Lisa –

LinkedIN - linkedin.com/in/lisacarlin

Website – futurebuildersgroup.com

Leighann Lovely 00:20

HR professionals, business owners and operations at all levels are struggling to figure out what needs to change. Our system has been shocked practices have been questioned, and conversations are finally happening. We all know there has been a huge shift in what people want. inclusion and diversity are common phrases. But often misunderstood generations are coming together more than ever on what's important. Mental health has been brought to the forefront of everyone's mind. Let's humanize these conversations. Let's talk about what's important for employees to be successful in life and at their job and how companies can create an environment to allow them to do both because successful people will make up a successful workforce. I'm Leighann Lovely. Let's get this conversation started. Lisa Carlin is a strategic execution specialists and co founder of future builders group, a network of organizational development specialists. Lisa started her career with McKinsey and a center since 1999. She has worked directly with prestigious global clients to Australian corporations, global and high tech ventures. She works with leaders to turbocharge their transformation, projects and change. Lisa has an impressive track record, having successfully delivered and mentored clients through over 50 transformation programs. With an outstanding 96% success rate, far surpassing the average success rate reported in research, her passion now lies in scaling up implementation success, which led her to establish a membership Academy for professionals to implement business culture and digital transformation. Lisa also volunteers as the chair of an education not for profit organization. Lisa, thank you so much for joining me today. This is such a treat.

Lisa Carlin 02:25

Thank you, Leighann, for having me here. I'm really excited to chat to you today.

Leighann Lovely 02:29

So you are coming to me from a 15 hour difference in in time because you are halfway around the world writes, why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself where you're from and what you do.

Lisa Carlin 02:45

Sure Leighann Aussies, like to like to joke with the with the eanx that were in the future, we're ahead. Because it's, it's Thursday morning here when it's a Wednesday afternoon for you. And so. So, there you go. So I actually started out in Cape Town, South Africa. So at the bottom of southernmost tip of Africa, that's where I grew up. And I grew up in the apartheid era. And that has actually sort of framed that guilt that's associated with being a white, South African and apartheid age, has actually framed who I am, and and what I do. So because I was part of a in my teenage years, and then through to university, part of a multicultural organization. And we used to, you know, for me, it's all about the respect of people. And that's what we didn't have in society in respect of different people. And then that organization was banned by their Patek government when they declared a state of emergency on anything that they're considered disruptive to the regime. And so that whole experience of, you know, I remember going to university and, and opening up the newsletter. And one of my colleagues, Paul, who was one of our friends in the in the group was arrested. And at the time you were arrested without a trial. And without any, you could be detained indefinitely. And we never found out what happened to him. And to this day, I don't know what happened to him. And, you know, it was just like, all of a sudden, these people who were there were just gone. And so, and Paul was a person of color, which made it even worse, you know? So, so for me, I have a very strong value about respectful people and giving people a voice. And that's what it's all about what I do. So I moved. I worked for Accenture for a while I then worked, went to the US and worked for McKinsey. I came to Australia, I'm gonna cut a very long story short, and I do love it here, and the lifestyle in Sydney, and the weather. And, and I studied here again and then I, I, in 1989 started my own business. And I've, I've put all the learnings I've had together into implementing change and executing strategies in organizations through like large scale programs of improving sales, improving customer service, improving, you know, performance in business, all of those sorts of things. And in the last few years, I've started doing more mentoring more and more over the years doing more and more mentoring of the executives and the leaders and the teams rather than doing the work on the ground myself. And because what I'm trying to do is, is create a massive improvement in the success rates of transformation. And, and I believe it can be done in this Win Win kind of way. So the problem is that, you know, you look at McKinsey's research, and they say 70% of, of transformations fail, and when I use the word transformation very loosely, so it could be any kind of change in organizations, and, and Harvard Business Review last year cited that 78% of these organizational initiatives fail. And so I know, it's crazy.

Leighann Lovely 06:38

Why. So why do you think that is?

Lisa Carlin 06:44

So I've looked at the reasons and they give lots, you know, the different studies will show lots of reasons, and they'll show reasons, like, you know, disagreement, you know, at the executive level around what should be done, they'll, they'll show reasons, like I said, boils down to people, they'll show reasons, like, ran over budget, hugely under done in the timeframe. But when you boil a lot of those reasons down, they're all to people, right? Because they're all because of people because if you don't implement something within budget, it's because it's because of people, if you don't implement something within time, it's because people aren't reaching agreements on things. And that's what I found to be the biggest issue. So I read the research, and I've experienced it on the ground. And I can see that it's because people are not on the same page about things. And so, so this is where my passion is, is around. And I've done over 50 transformations, I've got to clear failures. And so that's 96% in the success rate, so I feel very proud of that. And I want to spread this, and that's what my mission is now because it's a win win win, right? It's a win for the organization in terms of my approach, it's because they're getting the performance lift from these initiatives. It's a win for the people who are delivering the change, because their careers just, you know, multiply out amazingly after this and flourish. And it's a win for the rest of the people in the organization because it gives them a voice. And because that is the way that i i Is that is my approach is just is around that is around giving people in the organization, a voice which creates that momentum for these initiatives, and then you don't land up with being stuck. Right.

Leighann Lovely 08:37

That's amazing. And so, let me there's a lot for me to touch on here. So let me start with one. Where were you started? Where you grew up? That Wow. I mean, there's there's so much that I could so many questions that I could ask about that. How long were you? How long were you there? And when did you move? Your next move was to the US or? Yes, yes. Okay. And at what age did you move to the US?

Lisa Carlin 09:14

So I moved to the US in my 20s 1994 which was an interesting year because that was the year Mandela came to power.

Leighann Lovely 09:24

So wow, so you had your entire childhood growing up in an environment that was very almost unknown difficult and, and lost friends to unknown places. While we I mean, being arrested for and just scooped up and never to be seen again? Because it might in my right.

Lisa Carlin 09:56

Yeah, like I I remember clearly where I was. I was and I was sitting in the university cafeteria. And I opened the newsletter. And then Paul's face was, and yeah, and I never saw him again. So, and then I had this pressure from my family to not be involved in any, anything that could be considered anti apartheid because feminists, you know, you've got blacklisted and they will, you know, right, people were arrested. So they I remember, my mother was so concerned at one stage, she went to go talk to my school principal, to try and unravel me from and I wasn't doing anything violent, or all we were doing, it was a multicultural, it was a cultural focus,

Leighann Lovely 10:47

right? Yeah. So that obviously has, like you said, shaped your beliefs and the desire to help and change the way that people view and see. Society, I mean, the making things more inclusive and accepting, and I'm not trying to talk for you. But I can only imagine what it would be. I don't want to say what it would be like, because I can't imagine what it would be like, but I can only imagine the influence in which that would have on not only a young person, but also somebody who is now you know, in, in university growing up and trying to make their way and trying to understand what is transpiring that has now shaped, you know, as you're in your 20s, now, shaping your view of the world and now entering into the US going into a completely different culture. And trying to make your way through through that, right. I mean, in the US has a completely different world, we're chaotic in a completely different way. I mean, I guess you could say, right, it's,

Lisa Carlin 12:09

Yeah, and I had an amazing experience there. And working for McKinsey was just, you know, just an amazing experience. And just such a huge, a huge culture shock, you know, right and going from, you know, yeah, just, you know, some days you'd see there would be a riot or one of those armored vehicles would be enter the, you know, the white suburbs, because we grew up in different, you know, I couldn't even the friends that I met, at one stage, I was doing Junior Achievement, which is American Junior program, entrepreneurial program for high school students, and, again, multiracial. So very few things growing up that you could do that were multiracial, and I love diversity of people, I find that fascinating. And so I guess, to go for anything, where we, you know, I could just learn and meet different people. And we couldn't go to restaurants and to movies or the beach or anything like that together, because they will segregated. And so they had kind of fought through, well, let's keep all these people of different colors separately. And it was really hard, and even visiting each other's houses were difficult, because we all lived in different areas very far from each other. So it made it all quite different. And then going from that, to the US where everything is just, yeah, just just interesting. It's just, it's so different. It's so different. And yeah, and you know, the whole consulting lifestyle is so different, you know, you get on a corporate plane and you go out or even, you know, regular plane and you go off for the day to do your work somewhere and then fly and fly it. No, it's a very, it's quite a it's an exciting life, but in a different way.

Leighann Lovely 13:56

Correct? Yeah. And again, you can say chaos in a different way. You go from one place where it's completely segregated, struggling to navigate how to I mean, you can't you can't show any political affiliation. You can't, or you know, God forbid, talk about that in public. And then you come to the US where you have people and this is in what year

Lisa Carlin 14:23

in the 90s

Leighann Lovely 14:24

in the 90s. Okay, so it's not as crazy, you know, not as crazy then. Well, you probably equally deemed as crazy then as it is now, because every year I suppose we say that, Oh, this is the craziest year, you know, but it really wasn't quite as crazy then as it is now, probably just in a different way. But yeah, absolute culture shock. Now you have, I mean, we are still some cities are extremely segregated. Others are not at all what city did you did you move to again?

Lisa Carlin 14:56

Well, here's the thing. It was Atlanta. So that's a whole interesting story in it. So, okay, yeah, yeah. So it was still then fairly conservative. And so yeah, yeah. And in fact, more conservative than the environment that I grew up in, funnily enough, because I grew up in a very liberal family and a very liberal community. Right. So that was again, a shock

Leighann Lovely 15:20

Very interesting. Very interesting. Okay. So now, all right, so I've focused on that now you have now lived in the US, you've had some great experiences at some amazing companies, and then you make your way to Australia. When did you do that? And why and you talk about the weather. I wish that I knew what the weather there felt like I've never been, but when did you make that move? And, you know, you opened your business, you said the year 1999? Yes. Okay. So you are now the co founder and director of future builders group, where you facilitate workshop, mentor CEOs, and much more, you opened that business in 1999. And did you open it after you had arrived to Australia,

Lisa Carlin 16:15

I did my MBA, I worked for a year and a half for a culture change organization. And then I started working on my own. So it was all very, it was quick two years in the US to two years MBA full time that, so, so what, and then I worked on my own. And then 10 years ago, we found that the future builders brand as a whole, there's so many as you nollie, and so many independent consultants out there, and it gets kind of lonely sometimes, especially when you've been in a big consultancy, and you know, what the resources are like, and that, you know, and the learning that you can have from other people. So we created the future builders brand, which is an umbrella for a group of independent law parties. It's a boutique organization for independent organizational development specialists, basically. So and that's been lovely, and I've got amazing colleagues. So the whole idea is that we can do work that we enjoy doing, and not worry about having to get people utilized on to jobs, because, you know, there's no permanent employees. So the objectives are more aligned with the clients, you know, you're there to do the client work, right. So that's, that's what we did. And then I've been working at this. And now I just feel like, I want to make more of an impact. It's not enough just to do one or two or three or four jobs a year with clients or mentor, you know, small handful. I want to make more of an impact. And that's why I founded turbocharge your transformation, membership.

Leighann Lovely 17:51

So tell me in something you said, entrepreneurship is the loneliest place in the world. By by all means, you didn't say that. But you had made a comment about entrepreneurship can be can be lonely. And I just want to say that for my audience. entrepreneurship can be the loneliest place in the world, because you are or you're on your own. So having a group something like you would just kind of said, it's okay to be an independent, but find your people work with your people. And I love I love that I you know, it's a group of you said independence that we're in now, tell me about this most recent turbo charge, say that again, turbocharge your transformation, turbocharged transformation, I want to say so sorry, go ahead. I said, I want to hear about this.

Lisa Carlin 18:41

So I was actually quite excited. Because last week, when I typed in turbocharger transformation, we came up top in the Google search. That's how that happened. So it's an online academy. And there's, you know, since COVID, that's probably been the biggest change in terms of people just moving to do things digitally, that they didn't do before. So things like shopping and hybrid work and online learning. And so And the amazing thing is that the world has become a smaller place. So the entrepreneurs listening to this, you know, you can have, you know, build relationships with people across the ocean, like Leanne and I are talking today. It's so it's so easy. And it's so interesting, because you learn, it just gives you different ideas and perspective on things. And, you know, we now have a worldwide marketplace where things were many things. So that global, you know, global cohorts become more important. So what this Learning Academy is, is it's for professionals who are delivering projects, and any kind of change. And so, you know, small businesses will be doing that because they focused on growth, so they need to change so The terminology is a bit different, because entrepreneurs will think about, you know, how am I going to get growth in this business? How am I going to get my startup established? How am I going to, you know, build my audience and my my customers and get product market fit. And then and then go from there. larger organizations who've got that fit, who are more much more mature at different stages. And I've got a model that sort of looks at the pathway for for success for transformation success. And the top of the five at the top of the triangle is this unicorn middle piece, which is, you know, the Nirvana where we all want to get to where everything's in perfect fit, right. And so and so people will be at different stages there. But they're all having to implement projects to deliver this growth. And that's what the turbocharger transformation is about, is about how do you turbocharged those projects, those initiatives to be able to implement things faster? And more successfully? And it's all yeah, sorry, go? Have you seen that I'm gonna keep talking over and not even give you a chance to write the word and because I'm so excited,

Leighann Lovely 21:07

And this is what we You had mentioned before, when I when I asked you why, why do other programs, programs not succeed, and you said people, and the people are the ones who are getting away of the amount of time it takes, possibly the amount of money that it takes. So you've implemented a program that will allow it to work faster, more efficiently, so that we're not wasting time on decision making on? And that's what it sounds like, am I correct?

Lisa Carlin 21:41

Exactly. So it's all through a cultural behavioral lens. So it's, it's like a mixture between a project management program and a change management program and a behavioral program? Because

Leighann Lovely 21:57

So do you do some type of like assessments upfront to look at the behavioral piece first to understand or is that something that's built in?

Lisa Carlin 22:08

So I have an assessment called the transformation success score. And that's actually free. And it's on my website, in fact, right at the bottom of our homepage, so WWW dot future builders group.com. And the transformation success score measures the confidence measures your confidence against a number of different dimensions of execution. Right? So how do you do the design of what you what you know, of what you plan in, which is basically a strategic lens? How do you plan out things? You know, how do you influence people, you know, like leaders, or if you're in a large businesses will be how do you influence your leaders, in a in a, if you're in a smaller business, you might have a board of directors that you've got to influence whoever you know, influence your people. So it's all of those sorts of insights measures that, and then you get a percentage score. And then you can do it along the along the way on the program. So you know, after sort of a few months, or six months, and it's all about confidence, it's self assessment, and it measures your confidence, because that is that most, that is the biggest factor that is going to determine people's effectiveness, everything else, you know, you can learn all of these things. And that's what this program teaches. And then it's how confident are you to, to do these things. And I believe measurement is so important, because then it just gives you absolute clarity. So at the beginning, and then along the way, and it's a membership. So it's not one of these one hit wonders, where you go off and do a learning program, and then you forget everything afterwards. It's a membership. So you come in. So every month is a different topic. Our topic this month is turbocharged with AI. And last month, that was culture friendly implementation. So every month is different. And then we have a masterclass

Leighann Lovely 23:58

and up, do people get to write, I'm gonna start, I'm gonna start putting my finger up. So do people get to, like, choose like, yes, I want to participate in this one? Or is it just here are the topics that we're going to cover throughout, you know, the next 12 months or you know, are there different? And again, every single one that you listed there is is wildly one interesting and important. Ai right now is on everybody's mind. Anywhere everywhere you go, it doesn't matter. You walk into a room and you hear somebody talking about oh, AI GP chat or whatever it might be, you know, AI, you know, I have an AI tool that I use in my business. So that's wildly important. So how do you guess how do you get are these live trainings are these how do they go through the program?

Lisa Carlin 25:00

Great questions. So every month is a different topic. And you can attend live zoom sessions, and they timed for the US audience as well as Australia. So it's, so if you're in Europe zone, it people would then they would participate asynchronously. Right? Okay. Because if all the sessions are recorded, so you have a one hour masterclass? Well, first you get your playbook. So every hour every month is a playbook. And it's an editable PowerPoint. So I give out my IP for people to use, they, they'll always templates in there that they can use straight away for planning their projects for, you know, checklists for things awkward, like easy to use one pages, it's all in PowerPoint, one page templates. And then, and then, so they get that two weeks before the master class, they do the master class, then they've got two weeks to try out the templates and have a think, right, and they can watch the recording again, if they want, and they can send me their questions. Or they can then come to a group coaching session that I have on zoom the fortnight later and ask their questions, and I just do it in a group setting.

Leighann Lovely 26:09

That's awesome. And I'm thinking, you know, the difference, you know, in time, so you're out? Yeah, I was gonna make a bad joke. So are you up at two o'clock in the morning with the US people? No, I'm bad. I'm sorry. I just I love I love this, this whole time difference thing, it's insane that you are literally in the future. Okay, bad joke. So, so each so one month that everybody has one month to digest all of this information, and then move on to the next topic. And then they have a month to go through and digest the next information. And they're able to, I'm assuming that you get emailed in, you know, email questions you get, you know, from other time zones, and, and that type of thing.

Lisa Carlin 26:58

Exactly. So that the reason why I ask people to email me questions, if they want to, is because they may not be able to make the session, right? Or, because some of these things are quite sensitive that people are doing and they don't want people to know other people to know that they're, you know, outsiders to know their strategies, or the fact that they're having a problem influencing their boss to go forward on a particular project. And they want to know, techniques, you know, practicals are very practical. So they give me the question. So one girl, one woman's gave me a question about because I've got a free newsletter as well. It's also called turbocharge your transformation, and it's on LinkedIn. And I get people to do the same, I get them send me questions, because and then in the newsletter, there was the Scott woman, and I called her Lucy, but it wasn't Lucy. And Lucy was having trouble with, you know, all the stakeholders in a very siloed culture. And so I could give the advice, I gave her advice to her in the newsletter. And I can do that I do that with the with the group coaching sessions. And nobody knows who's asked the question, right. And so when I change the name of the person, or you know, I just don't give that too much. People don't know who's and that the amazing thing is you look at it that Leone listen, and it could be you,

Leighann Lovely 28:14

right? What, if one person is asking a question, it is likely that somebody else in the world has that same question or is experiencing the same thing, because it's typically something that is happening at somebody else's organization is happening somewhere else, or has happened, or is going to happen? At another organization. That's the whole concept of learning together, trans transforming together, or, you know, shifting our, our cultural beliefs, and, you know, kind of trying to learn how to do best practices together. And then then providing feedback to the people who are training. Those of us who need to shift our thinking, right, the only way that the only way that anything changes is for people to want to admit that they're wrong, or to admit that they need help. And then be willing to listen and hear the advice of other people. You know, I can go and you hear this all the time, I could go to a conference, I can go to a summit I can go to every single day of my life, but if I'm not willing to hear what is being said, it will do me absolutely no good. And unfortunately, there are so many people who go there that will walk in that door and gain absolutely nothing or gain it for a day. And forget it after that and never look back at notes. Never reference it back. and never try to grow beyond that for a day. And I think that we're finally meeting people like you and coaches out there. And that are making an attempt to get the masses to realize that the only way we grow is through active listening and, and intentional action and change.

Lisa Carlin 30:30

Absolutely. And then try and trying it out. And that's what they do they try it out, they actually, yeah, they do that they make that change and try these things. Right. And that's the magic of it. Because imagine if you've got to the one of the sessions is a session on planning. But for people who've done project management training, it's still from a very different approach, because this is methodology agnostic. So it's like, you know, it's, it's, it's the psychology of how you go about planning and what you do with your plan. And it's a one page template. So yeah, it's, you know, it's so exciting, because people can try it out straight away. And you asked a really, do you want to ask another question before? You ask, you asked me a really interesting question about what happens, which I didn't answer fully, which is what happens, you know, if they if they're not as interested in that month's topic, or what happens with the month before? So you're a fractional sales leader? And that's what you know, I know you do so. So you probably, you'd look at me, what might my I love mentors, I believe everyone should have a mentor in what they do. I mean, all the Olympic athletes do people need mentors and what they're doing, I was like, you say, entrepreneurship is lonely, and, and business is lonely, and being in a big corporate is even lonelier. So my I have a sales mentor. And my sales mentor said to me, Lisa, when somebody joins, so if they join in, in in August, they should only get the August session, and then they get the sessions after that you don't want to give away all your IP, of all the things that came before because it's only 99 US dollars a month this membership, right? So for $99, you're getting all of the sessions before. And I thought about it, and I thought, Well, my purpose is not with this is not money. First, my purpose with this is to make a difference in the world to the implementation success rates. I mean, they are, you know, 70 plus percent failure is unacceptable. Yeah. And with startups and smaller business, it's like 90% Plus, so it's unacceptable. And that is my mission. So I have decided against all advice to keep the rest of the IP on the site and available. So if you come in on one month, we were doing AI and for some reason you are really, really don't want to do AI. And this is, you know, it's easy for the most non techie people. But anyway, then you can and your score in planning is really low, you can then go to the planning session, and start there, there's no order each set, each topic is independent of the others.

Leighann Lovely 33:14

And as a sales professional, you are giving away the house by doing this, and I'm sure that your sales coaches told you that, that you know, when they enter in you, you charge them for going forward, not for everything they missed. But again, it's your what I will say to every person I have ever worked with, ultimately, it's your baby, it's your business, you have to do at the end of the day, what you need to do to sleep at nights. But if I put my coaching hat on, I can only help you be as successful as you will allow me to help you be if that makes sense. Absolutely. So, you know, if if somebody comes and says I want to make a million dollars, well, okay, then I'm going to be a hard line. This is how you're going to do it. You can't give, give away your products. I would say absolutely don't do that. They're going to have to stay until that product comes up through the, you know, to the next session. But it's your baby. It's your passion. It's your product, and what whatever goals you have are 100% yours and yours alone. And that's that's the difference between being an employee and being an entrepreneur, you get to call the shots. And the reason that most entrepreneurs start their business is not because they're like I want to Be A Millionaire. There are plenty of them out there that want that started because they want to be a millionaire. But most of them have a passion and have a desire to not work for somebody else, so that they have the ability to call their shots and make decisions that somebody else keeps shoving down their throat. There's, there's my

Lisa Carlin 35:25

and that's why I, you know, the clients that I mentor, I, I sometimes run sessions for them and their team, instead of a mentoring session, I'll say, come bring your team in. And we'll do purpose, right, we'll cover we'll have an hour and a half. And we'll develop a purpose statement because some of them don't have it really clear. And I think that should guide you know, whether you're a, you know, a 20 person business or a 10 person business, or 1000 person business or 120,000 person business, and I've worked for all you know, that range. If you've got a purpose statement that can guide, what you're doing, then it's authentic, because yeah, and that's why businesses have some businesses like Canva that are so mission based, it's amazing. Space, right. That's why Yeah.

Leighann Lovely 36:16

And I would say that the majority of businesses that started with a, a true purpose and passion are the businesses that have grown and thrived. The ones that started with here, I have this product that I'm not passionate about it, but I just want to go in and sell it are the ones that really struggled because they don't, they don't understand how to explain the ROI to the people, when you have a passion, a purpose, it's so much easier to be authentic. And explain here is how this is going to help you. This is why it's going to be able to make an impact on you, your business, your life. And you clearly you clearly have you have that, which means that when you talk about it, I can see you light up, I can see the smile. And that in itself is huge. Because people people know authenticity from a mile away.

Lisa Carlin 37:30

It's amazing how much energy is going Emilian like I feel, you know, more energized, and I work longer hours at the moment than I have in my entire life. And I'm loving it.

Leighann Lovely 37:44

And and if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.

Lisa Carlin 37:49

Because I don't feel like I'm working Correct. Yeah.

Leighann Lovely 37:54

Right. Yeah. Right. And, and that's, that is why that is why people like you and me do what we do and hundreds of 1000s of other people out there, because are you really working? Or are you just, you know, fulfilling, fulfilling your bucket, you know, filling up your cup. And, you know, I talked about a previous guest of mine talked about, you know, filling up that cup, if you're doing something every day that you have to constantly be battling to keep that cup full, you're probably not doing something that you should be doing. You have to, and if what you're doing is already fulfilling that and you're finding balance and you're finding that fulfillment in it, then you're in the right place. And you You mean you do you have a an amazing, it sounds like an amazing business product, people around, you know, you're the co founder. So you you have you know, a partner that I'm assuming is just as passionate.

Lisa Carlin 39:07

So I'm the co founder of future builders, which is our community, right? And then within it, I am the founder of this. So I've got as a result, I've actually got an amazing group of colleagues around me who are just, you know, are there to help and support and mentor me so I don't feel like I'm on my own at all.

Leighann Lovely 39:31

That's great. And

Lisa Carlin 39:33

I can't explain to you the the excitement that I get when these initiatives that we build the momentum in organizations, it is just and now I can do it on scale, because I can teach other people those skills and I can tell you a story a story about that. If you want to know which one do you want to cover next I, okay, well, this is an example of a business that was actually not doing well at all. And it was in a division of a big organization. And the executive manager was not happy about how the performance was going. And so he asked me to go in and bring a team and, and help them. And that meant the manager of the unit, and the team. And when I got there, I saw reports that three other consultancies had done. And they all said roughly the same thing of what this team should do. But none of the things were implemented. And the teams were the team, the manager, and the managers, second in line, were very defensive, and did not were not happy with me being there. They felt like they were over consulted, they'd had three consulting teams, you know, they just did not want a fourth. And we had very unfriendly, quite hostile people. And what we did was we we worked with them to come up with an agenda, looking at what the consultants had recommended before, which were all interestingly, very similar. And what they thought about it, and what they thought the priorities were. And we we formed a joint team, and we use the design thinking principle of CO design or working with them together in a team, blended external folks and internal folks. And the engagement and appreciation was amazing, that, you know, we were lifting their skills and how to do a diagnosis of underperformance. And they were all and some of them were at very clerical levels as well. So it was just for them. They've never been exposed to this before. It's great. Now I tell you, Leanne, we things were going really well. So what I did, we had a progress review with it with the managers Manager, which is the executive who got me in upset head office. So I took the entire team, to that meeting, right through to the clerical people. We all got on the train together. And it was like, it's like, it's like the train system in Sydney is like the subway in New York, right? So we all got on. And we took the train up to head office where people hardly ever went into the boardroom. And I, you know, given everybody a cameo role to say, you know, contribute in some way. So it was slick, and it was tight. It wasn't like a, you know, a discussion that went on forever. So, they were so nervous on the train, because they'd never done this before. And that, you know, they hardly ever had any contact with the managers, the executive, the executive, the executive that I asked if these folks when I asked him, if these folks could come I was a little bit mystified that I would bring so many people to a meeting, right, but was great. He said, No problem. Sure. Yeah. It was amazing. I can't explain to you the, the buzz, you know, that interaction and the ownership that people had in what they were doing. They were empowered and on from there, they were empowered, and it was an amazing success. You know, the, the project was an amazing success. And these people, you know, went on to have the confidence and skills to do other things. And our relationships with these people still stay on today. And that's the amazing thing. I mean, if you would have thought,

Leighann Lovely 44:06

well, when you when you give people who think they have no voice of voice for the first time, it is it is remarkable. What they will finally that mean, they will finally sing, they will finally come out of their shell and, and it's it's amazing what you can do when you when you empower somebody to do something that they already have in them. I've watched it with with other people I've had given to me before, I mean, early on in my career when I was very green and you know, having somebody who you know have authorities say well yeah, I want to hear you I want to hear what you think and you just go what why I mean I'm I'm just the but when you enable Tell them, it's it's amazing how they will come out of their shell and then want to do better. Because now they have been seen. That's all they want, they want to be seen and heard, and that you're lighting a fire under them have passion for a cause that they feel they are part of. Up until that point, it was just a place they showed up to. Exactly. It's wildly and

Lisa Carlin 45:30

yeah, they felt sometimes people feel quite powerless in organizations.

Leighann Lovely 45:37

It's it happens. It happens way more frequently than then businesses are willing to acknowledge that that employees just feel like they don't have a voice. And when they do step forward and say, Well, I've got a problem. And then it never goes anywhere and they never hear back. It reinforces that they don't have a voice. And that happens not on purpose. But because managers are often especially middle managers, who are given the complaints, go to their managers, and then their managers never get back to them. And then what are they supposed to do? And the upper management has no idea how, how much that is influencing that first tier, the middle management can see it. And they're struggling in the middle going, well. What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed? And they'll go back to their employer. Oh, sorry, I never heard back. And then that that first year is going well. Okay, so I'm not important. So yeah, it just it and it's a cycle that continues. And, Lisa, I would love to continue this conversation. We are coming to time already. So I have the question of the season. I've been asking everybody, I hope you had a glance at this. What do you think will go down in the history books from what the world has experienced over the last three years?

Lisa Carlin 47:10

So Leighann, I think it's all about digital and online. The you know, the changes that we've seen from the pandemic about people realizing they can work from home and be even more productive in some cases, but certainly as productive and moving to hybrid work, and doing things more in a more digital way, including, you know, online learning and upskilling themselves and shopping online and you know, doing more, more things online than ever before. It's just It's apparently that the tech experts say that we have through through just one year of COVID. We've done a 10 years, we've had 10 years of progress. And you know why I think that is interesting. It's interesting, because the technology was always there. Right? And it was the behavior of people and the adoption of people that wasn't you know, that has changed. That's what's made the difference? Yeah, it's cultural. It's a cultural, massive global cultural shift.

Leighann Lovely 48:13

Absolutely. I totally agree. If somebody wanted to reach out, how would they go about getting in contact with you.

Lisa Carlin 48:21

I would love to hear from folks. You can get ahold of me directly through LinkedIn, and also through our future builders group.com website. So thank you for asking the end. Perfect. And

Leighann Lovely 48:34

that will be on the show notes. So you can check the show notes. If you are looking to reach out to Lisa, I really appreciate you joined. Joining me today. This has been such an amazing conversation. I wish that we had more time to dive in to other you know, conversation or other topics. But again, thank you so much for joining me and you have a wonderful rest of your Thursday. Thank you, Leanne. Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support without you the audience this would not be possible. So don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode to follow us like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

transformation, grew, people, organization, business, work, amazing, sessions, month, mentor, program, day, lisa, success rate, initiatives, year, question, world, learning, builders