or know i've had the privilege of being a c e o and working for c e o s of fortune five hundred companies as well as working with some of the leading inner vader's in one thousand nine hundred laps and through my twenty plus years experience i was saying twenty but then i realized i've been saying twenty for about three years so it's more like twenty i think my no one knows the clock is ticking exactly exactly but but during that time i've encountered some dynamics that motivated me to write about the primary one and you know this better than anybody is the gap between what companies say they want and what they're looking to do and what they actually realize yeah and even putting the mechanisms in place to track those you know i refer to them as the bookends right this is what we're doing this is why we're making the investment these are the  valuation metrics that we're trying to impact and do we ever check and make sure that that's what we're really seeing and if they if they aren't matching how do we react to that how do we adjust either the strategic execution or the target sometimes yeah yeah and how long does it take us to get there exactly because if we're never really measuring it first of all we just don't even know you know did it take us two years to get our return on investment did it take us six months and sometimes people check the box we've got a business case and they move on  and you say something to the first person they say to the next and by the time you get the end result it's unrecognisable to the it so in large companies i've seen the stadium it happen all the time right and so there's ways that i outline in the book to bridge those gaps yeah so the gap between what you want and what you get the gap in what you say and what people hear and the other thing that's kind of interesting is a perspective of being in the boardroom and hearing what the strategy is in the boardroom and how logical it sounds there and then being on the other end of that being in the audience or being in meetings where you're hearing it and realizing that the actual work that i do every day is completely misaligned with what that person just said yeah yeah yeah and that's that gap and leadership understanding sometimes that you know the next tear down reporting in is not either engage with the facts or not able to kind of directly relate that absolutely and all of that contributes to misalignment what i love about this book it's practical it's smart it's entertaining the context is perfect for anyone especially i think working on the on the the floors and the corporate landscape in that intersection between business and technology you get it right away you're you're realizing that's the gap that's what we're missing so the question is right how do we do we fill it in you know what do we do and for a lot in ninety five i said i will yeah you do so because it is seriously you know there are there are several critical components here that i think sometimes we we know we realize it's so practical you're like yes but that you're not doing it that's  right and so in the book what i do first let's define strategy yeah so so what that is is when there's those gaps being able to identify those gaps and the able to close them and i talk about the art in the science in the technology of closing those gaps and i have a particular focus on technology because that's where my background is and so there's basically two main concepts that i talk about the book i talk about the longevity of corporations today as an so these companies are are dropping off the s and p at a faster and faster rate combine that with the other concept which is technical innovation and the increasing rate of it when you talk about someone like ray kurtz well a futurists who talks about singularity where machines are actually self improving faster than people can improve them by definition ing giving results that we can't even conceive right because he's beyond our comprehension and our human are small human  brains he's even predicted a year for yeah two thousand and forty nine right some say two thousand and twenty nine and this isn't science fiction this is real this is practical i mean there are major consulting companies that are looking at how to  technology to close these gaps in to make decisions there's an example in the book that i like to use it's it's it's a biological example of a fly you sit down on a sunny day you go to eat a hotdog fly lands on your hot dog and you go to head it more often than not if you're slow like me you miss it if fly buzzes off seeming oblivious to what has happened the reality is it is oblivious because it actually has a direct connection between its eyes in the muscle needed to avoid that catastrophe right cisco and i b m watson actually putting intelligence into the network the network is actually seeing feeling sensing and hearing combine that with artificial intelligence to start making decisions and the compiling data to make it ac and artificial intelligence doesn't seem so far off and those are all dynamics that are very real and that are happening today and so so in the book you know i try to talk about how that how to apply those technologies to the art and science to close that gap yeah yeah i mean i you know personally and as a change practitioner you know love love the combination because you're not only focusing on those components your foot you're focusing on the people aspect as well and how you know how that connection really from a decision making perspective moves it forward and i feel like that's a that's definitely a missing link for a lot companies and the work that they're  having seen so many opportunities missed having seen many flies get squashed and many flies that had opportunities that they were unable to take advantage of yeah talk about  ships construction had three engines the only engine that had a rudder was the middle engine that didn't have a reverse right right so right down to the construction of the number of lifeboats because they were depending on surrounding ships to come should there be  event to save these folks so i talk about the technology i talk about the science you know plotting the course and looking at the currents looking at things like icebergs and making all those considerations but i also talk about the art and how those two dynamics feed into the decision making so you know hindsight's always twenty twenty but there was a white knuckled i'm not going to be in new york late with these high profile passengers i'm not changing my goal even when all the data all the information all the technology indicated that they should stop like all the other surrounding ships and wait the storm wait the icebergs out they didn't they pressed on even if they had pressed on and they had the technology to actually throw that engine in reverse in still steer they could have avoided it or they might have been able to go full steam and actually make it there even sooner by by throttling it and letting that water up from the center engine go over the rudder so they could turn and avoid disaster  you know you look at blockbuster they had a corner on the market but they were so hard and fast on the goal and the metrics driving that goal let's raise the late fees let's do all these different things brick and mortar is not going anywhere  actually leave hastings the founder of netflix it was was had late fees of some exorbitant amount and he actually founded netflix and so netflix has actually offered a blockbuster for i think fifty million dollars today's valuation of netflix about forty and a half billion so it's massive and so what netflix did is they saw an opportunity and their business model was not brick and mortar was actually sending the disks and people would would return netflix took the universe gentle disk concept and moved it into streaming and we all know where they are now so those are some case studies that i outline in the book you know as well as a whole bunch of other ones yeah i mean  know what i think is important and i love these real life examples but you know from the first time we've been talking about this really understanding where this connects for us  know it's the agility to execute strategy basically so i totally earlier but it's so it is in especially when we get into the conversation around art and science and what that really looks like but you know again kind of bring it back a little bit  to the execution a real work that we're doing talk with me a little bit about the components and there's five or seven of them that you outline in the book just just give me a quick quick rundown strategy i think is from strategy to execution but right so so there's a flow and it's usually a linear flow in today's world and this gets to the game of telephone that i talked about yeah you know a strategy is defined plans are developed to deliver that strategy yeah you know teams are formed and the execution methodology to deliver those plans to deliver the strategy then we see what the results are most notably some type of revenue generation you know if it's a  impacting organization and then the actual results what actually happens and then we you know what falls off is feeding those results back into the strategy yeah and also at each and every step revisiting not just not just the strategy in the metrics but the goal is the goal still makes sense yeah a blockbuster we're still trying we're still buying brick and mortar organizations and spending more on that we could've just bought netflix for fifty million dollars right right so continually looking at each individual step along that way yeah but most importantly the book ends right and that's kind of the first step you have to look at the book and what are we trying to do what are we actually seeing what's the time for that strategy to actually trickle down and actually drive results yeah but once you get there you also have to look in the middle and as those plants and things are heated yabbies i mean what was really interesting to me as that and you know i've worked on just dozens of  large implementations is that you know typically when you move from one component of that to the next so very little looking back it's really around how do we get through this next  the business benefits are in how well do we do that that's right you know how well do we do it how quickly do we do it and at the end of the day did we actually accomplish what we set out to do in our business case that's right or do we just you know come up with a solution a technology solution then hit the button on that and i've seen instances where it's so clear that the direction is off yeah it's so clear when you're on the titanic and you're steaming ahead into  icebergs and the other ships have stopped that that goal needs to change getting to network is no longer the primary rail it's so clear when you're blockbuster and you're continually building out brick and mortar sites and the internet is coming alive it's so clear to stop there's  human dynamic a loss aversion and it's something that i do yeah we all do it it's human nature but it basically states to an economic theory that seats that a dollar lost is more impactful than a dollar gained and so i can't tell you how many organizations and even projects that i've worked on where people are doing a death grip on something that's dying and won't let go of it yeah because to lose that is actually worse than the potential gain we're bringing leadership into the pool very early and bringing them through some change workshops which are typically focused on resiliency and honestly a big part of it is loss to and we at we actually bring that into the conversation now be like yeah ok well or get rid of that old technology and going with dot com i'm not grieving you know right but there is a loss there is a loss associated with that and subconsciously you know people need to deal they need to deal with that piece and we have you know we don't need to spend five days on it but we do need to spend five minutes on it and you know to be able to segue and move to the next level of acceptance well even what you do it you know in in in aligning those bookends is so critical right so so you know change management making sure you're not only monitoring but adjusting you know as part of every project it's one of the most difficult things for me to  to communicate to upper management it's a necessity everybody thinks well no just light it up just make it work well wait a minute what about the governance how are we going to track this guy right so don't check the box on the business because how are we going to track it and then then when not if when we're not seeing the results we're supposed to see and that happens more often than not how are we going to disposition those gaps and how are we going to resolve those is it training is it human behavior is it awareness is it a configuration thing or a small technical thing is the wrong goal and those are the types of things that that i think you certainly have helped me with on some of the largest projects i've worked on and something that you know you know very well is is all that really matters is what that what that investment or what that company actually delivers yeah what they want doesn't matter it's what they deliver right and that's what you're about that's what this talks about yeah yeah absolutely so so in in talking about this encounter preparing for a show so one of the questions i want to ask is how does kindness kindness drive your your life your work so it's interesting so i have a bit of a different take on this so i'm sure you've watched american idol careers so who's kind is it the person when the person gets up and sings and it's horrible fingers on a chalkboard who's the kind person the one that encourages them to continue on with something that clearly isn't a natural talent for the simon cowels of the world or the gordon ramsay's of the world to give kind of the give it a little bit harsh rate but give the direct feedback so they can adjust and do what they're supposed to do and prosper so in a business setting it's a tough balance yeah but i have worked for managers that will tell you what you want to hear and you know the pat you on the head and you move along and you think great everything's wonderful and i'm moving down the trajectory and i'm helping to close the gap say g when in reality you're not so you know the balance of being able to deliver that message and guy people in a kind way i believe is kindness not just telling people what they want to hear which is often misunderstood for kindness yeah on a personal level the whole reason i'm in business is i actually started my career after i did some public accounting working for a not for profit hospital for mentally and physically handicapped children and i was actually there to cia oh yeah and i would sit in board meetings and i would see these gentlemen come in from all sorts of different organizations and the ability that they had to impact our organization and other organizations was massive it was more than i could do working directly for them sure and so you know my whole career has been about how can i get to a place in a mare i'm starting to give back i'm starting to do some charity events how can i get to a place where i can be that person to come in and really help these organizations and lift up you know lift up other people because you know i think booker t washington says you know if you want to lift up yourself lift up other people and i love that saying absolutely i can agree more and you know that speaks to my heart i know i do t and it is awesome to be you know i don't think it matters and an experience matters just to be at a place where you know your meaning and purpose you can connect with what you're doing then you can make that connection for others and to your point of others along and contribute in a meaningful way and we're going to be doing a lot more work around mentorship in that type of thing even with the organizations i'm working with because you just realize there this is the time this is the opportunity to to help people move to the next the next level all of us collectively so i love that kindness for me is a super important word be overly candy coating a situation is is really not helpful to that person's growth so i think that's a true true gift to be able to do that and and for us we're sabotaging something called the corporate kindness project and it's really about involving and creating cultures that can operate in that way were people can see one another and really see one another and care for one another and be able to have you know the type of open honest dialogue and communication where anything's possible and so that's so critical so that falls into the our category yeah and  feels right because it is right it also delivers a result if there were it also opens people up so that there is that alignment of science art and technology to actually be able to react to things so there's a it's a positive thing with a very positive result right that can often be translated into dollars and cents yeah yeah i mean we were talking about you know the younger generation coming into the market what's important to them it  necessarily about let me work the ten twelve hour days for that paycheck that almighty dollar that dollar means something very different and it is about my contribution right in is about the purpose and the meaning  that i have for my work and the environment that i work in and how i am valued and cared for so do you be able to create those type of environments in the organization that we work in i think it is pretty incredible  it's a it's a baker staffer for some organizations than others but i believe that there are many steps to get there in him i mean we've done studies and attrition is usually not about money right it's about valuation right and feeling empowered right and the only way you can do that is with programs like you mentioned yeah and really fine tuning that art and it's interesting that the concept of the generation thing i mean we've done some studies on that too and it surprises me and i actually i do the studies and i know that can't possibly be so you know gen x and z's actually rate the internet over having a car yeah or dating yeah and things along the side i think that can't possibly be until my sixteen year old is like doesn't really care if he gets a car or not yeah and it's amazing who will text me from the couch sitting next to me or called me from upstairs i know you head on about how our culture is shifting is profound yeah we have found yeah yeah and we have both experienced it and yeah it'll it'll be interesting to see that unfold in parallel with you know this rate of change in technology it's it's going to be a brave new world some sky some part scary i mean there's a lot of positive you know we mapped the genome and now we've got that right on to like you know one hundred dollars where people can do that i mean it cost millions in the initially lot of positive things a lot of scary things yeah yeah i saw a picture that really struck me it was a crowd of people and an off off the out of the frame was an event that was happening and they were probably you know thirty people in the picture every single one of those people you know was looking at the event through their phone every single one yeah and there's one older lady and she's sitting there and she's actually looking at the event so out of that sea of people no one's really paying attention to reality they're all right they're seeing life through their cell phones and it's a different thing so that concerns me it's care it's capturing the moment but is is there a different way to do that where you could be present precisely and still capture it precisely and we're getting there you know you just know to the person next to you who's and you just have them send you the video why you experience it i've done that with parents  you missed it i saw it yeah i'm going to get the yeah right that i yeah yeah but it should be interesting to see you know within our corporations for really in our in our personal worlds you know it's it's constantly changing was on a saturday night live skit where they did jeopardy and they had sean connery on who who was who was doing so funny stuff but they had matthew mcconaughey on and he was talking about how he left his lincoln  outside with the windows down in the keys on and somehow miraculously it's still there because you see him you know being very cool in these lincoln commercials and i don't know many people who drive like it's a rumor yeah sorry like it but yeah i've lost they threw three of the cousins the older cousins and a young boy on the boat and the young boy decides he has to go to the bathroom they give him a bottle and i'm just going to say there was a rocky boat there was someone's open mouth and  today really loved it loved it and thanks everyone