1554 – Redefining Work with Work Positive . Today’s Dr. Joey Faucette

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1:00It's Dr. Joey Fawcett. Dr. Joey, it is so good to have you. You are found on the web at workpositive.today. In addition to being the founder of that company, you're also very active as a podcaster as well. So I just want to say thank you so much for joining us. Josh, I am so delighted to be in the Josh house today. Thank you so much, Dren. Absolutely. So what is Work Positive? Well, it's the response to the working dead and the Kevin culture, as I like to call it, that has taken over in so many workplaces today. The old adage about the beating will continue until morale improves around here, right?

1:46So I like to think of it, Josh, as an opportunity to redefine work so that our personal lives become so much more fulfilling because work becomes an expression of our best selves then. Yeah. And what are those kind of those foundational principles that every leader should be very mindful of if that's the culture? Hopefully, not the former that you were talking about. Right. I listen, I spent my time in the military. I know about that. You had some drill sergeants named Kevin, right? Yeah, sure. I mean, you absolutely can try to run a company based on the stick. Good luck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a short lived success at best.

2:35Well, back during the Great Recession, Josh, I just I found myself at home. And before that, I was out on the road, mostly riding a cash cow right into speaking to companies and things like that you know that the economy has turned and you're uh you're you're back home for permanently when your wife looks at you and says aren't you supposed to be traveling you know so uh then honey you don't want me home what no she wants me riding that cash cow so i took that opportunity to research since i was home anyway and look back at the great depression when depression was an economic term rather than a medical term and i said there's got to be somebody who created a company that's still thriving today right and they created it in the great depression and so i found what i call josh the great depression gurus uh people like dale carnegie dave hewlett um you know hewlett and packard was formed back then uh george mahurl had started state farm in 22 and of course the great depression before he was even a decade old and what is it 90 of all businesses fail in the first 10 years so he encountered that and others, Harlan Sanders being one notable one.

3:46So what did they do? What were their habits that created these successful companies? And as thoughtful entrepreneurs, that's what we all want to do, right? We want to create these sustainable companies that are going to help families gain a livelihood that's beyond anything they've done before and also create something for ourselves that buys ourselves the kind of lives that we want as well so what were their habits and those habits seem to as i did the research josh coalesce around five core practices or what i like to refer to them as so quickly the first one is perceive and that's the mental dynamic of your work positive culture you focus on the positive and filter out the negative now josh it's not that the negativity doesn't exist it does exist it's all around us we live in a world that's filled with it right if you don't believe me just turn on the evening news, right?

4:36And you don't have to turn, somebody will call you and tell you. Negativity, but divisiveness, right? And so, you know, social media, unfortunately, has, you know, made it so easy for us to retreat into bubbles where we're not exposed to, you know, a big expanse of thoughts and opinions and experiences and cultures and backgrounds and so forth. So then, you know, it's like you take all these people that can kind of retreat into these bubbles, and then you put them into a workplace. You know, that's what we're competing against today as, you know, kind of culture leaders. Exactly. It's an echo chamber.

5:24I can hold myself up as you're indicating in an echo chamber, and just hear what it is that I want to hear that reinforces my own provincial world, right? So being able to focus on that positive and filter out those negatives and embrace unfamiliar thoughts then becomes what these great depression gurus did. And I call that the perceived core practice, which is the mental dynamic of work positive culture. The second is the conceive, and that's the social dynamic. And And you just alluded to that now. Thank goodness, diversity, equity, inclusion. And I'd like to add belonging, which I think is of supreme importance, is becoming more and more important as we create positive cultures.

6:07We as human beings have a need to belong and we all want to belong to something greater than ourselves. Right. And so creating that culture in which we're able to declare here are the values that I hold personally and how they align with the company. Here are the priorities that I hold and share in common with this company. And then what's my unique contribution? Maybe unlike anyone else's, but yet it's just as necessary to providing the product or services to the public that solves their problems. And so how do we deal with negative people without becoming one ourselves? Josh is on the forefront of everyone's mind, so we teach strategies and tactics for that.

6:45And then conversely, what are the five key off-the-resume qualities of work-positive dream teams? And how do we assess that? How do those become like our culture of KPIs? How do we change our behavior, morph our behavior, transform our behavior to really represent those five key qualities? So that's the conceived core practice. So we perceive it mentally, we conceive it socially, then we believe it emotionally. Everybody wants to talk about engagement. How do you engage this workforce today? And guys my age are saying, you know, these millennials don't want to work or these Gen Zs, they just go home and live in mom's basement, right?

7:23If they don't like it. So that that's not the way to get workers engaged, by the way. Yeah, yeah. You know, a little bit different. Yeah. In fact, I heard something very similar, you know, when someone was complaining about millennials and I'm like, millennials are in their 40s now. I'm not sure you're thinking of who you're thinking of. But yeah, the us versus them or stereotyping, or it kind of falls into that same bucket that it's really easy to blame outside forces when ultimately, particularly if we're responsible for our culture and leadership within the organization, I think at the end of the day, we really have to take a look at the mirror what are we doing to create or negate a positive workplace environment in despite despite you know very real uh circumstance or very real environment people deal with bad stuff in their life and every day they might be you know coming to work wearing a load of bricks on their back and and that's just normal it is yes it's normal today and i think it's been normal it's endemic to the human species um yeah i i love the bricks you know as i'm fond of saying josh that we're all just trying to figure it out but that person that you're like hey what's wrong with him today well i don't know the dog could have peed on his favorite pair of shoes as he was on his way out the door right i i don't know what happened or the her her uh toddler could have puked on her right on the way out door she had changed clothes i don't know what somebody else is going through.

9:05Gallup tells us though, Josh, 85 % of all American workers are disengaged. That's a big number. That is a loss of economic competitiveness on a global scale, right? Let's talk about innovation and creativity. How do we engage people, right? Well, I think it's all about imagination and creativity. And so being able to tap into those resources that give us a competitive advantage in the marketplace is key. So yes, you can lob whatever you want to over walls, generational walls, or you can really care for people and begin to find their emotional triggers that help them engage in their work so that they begin to see their daily activities connecting to the larger purpose of the company.

9:54And once I get that connection of my daily activity, that equity of exchange with something bigger than myself, and I see problems being solved by our products and services, then I'm engaged and I'm all in because I'm valued as a person. Now, we didn't do a really good job of that during the pandemic. And don't tell me it was just because we scattered our workforce everywhere. Scripts for antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds were up 30 % over the first two years. I suspect it's up more now. So just recognizing that that's our current reality and how do we best address that that's all into believe core practice so we perceive it mentally conceive it socially believe it emotionally the fourth set of habits i discovered from these great depression gurus i refer to as the achieve core practice and that's action how do i strategically and tactically take action that's going to increase productivity that's going to get the results that we want because we're all here to create sustainability in our lives right and that's beyond us it's a legacy if you're a thoughtful entrepreneur and you own the company you're seeking to support these families right of these workers that are coming in help them find the kind of lifestyle that they want now the fifth one josh really surprised me because i thought hey josh joey after you get results you know you got a positive bottom line things are humming you know we're working well here that's it right no these great depression gurus did something that is so transformational and it's simple but it's profound that is they discovered they really received a work positive culture that is customers traded their money right for products and services how do you say thank you to those customers so saying thank you and expressing appreciation became a normal part of their work culture.

11:46They also discovered how to serve others. And those others were in their community, the larger community. And so how do I invest myself in others? And really this receive core practice keeps the wheel going so that I'm back to, because when I give to others, right, what happens for me, I'm focusing on the positive. And so by giving to others and helping them, including my employees, you know, I'm sharing more bonuses, more options and things like that as a thoughtful entrepreneur. And by doing that, I just keep the whole work culture cycle improving and growing more positive every day. Yeah. When we are doing well to model, you know, an empathic workplace, a positive workplace, you know, workplace, obviously kind of leaning into our values as they were, right?

12:32And we're talking about it and trying to live it as best as possible. But yet we still find that maybe there's a person or two, we don't know what's going on in their life, but it doesn't seem like they want to go along with for the ride on that, like when we still identify, you know, there's a couple, you know, as a leader, what would be your inclination? if you're, you know, maybe you have a middle manager, maybe it's, you know, someone on the front lines and they just seem to still be miserable. And whereas maybe you're feeling like, I feel like overall always room for improvement, but I feel like we're in a good spot except for this person.

13:16How would you address that? Yeah, well, that's a great question. Hey, Josh, the good news is if there's only one or two, right? Yeah, right. you're doing one heck of a job if you've only got one or two yeah i i talk about uh kevin culture and and that's because we've got karen so we're gonna have kevin also and kevin belongs the these kevins that you're talking about belong to that uh species and genus that i call suckus negativius and that is they're the leaders of the work sucks movement right and they're just by nature but i like to think it's by choice because they've the movie playing in their head that guides them each day right is one that work sucks it's never going to get any better and there's a lot of negativity so we spend a lot of time talking about uh negative suckers negativius euphemistically I refer to them as Eeyore vampires because they're like Eeyore, right?

14:19T-I-Double-Guer, Piglet, and Pooh got together to create the perfect play day for Christopher Robin. Here comes Eeyore and he says, it'll never work. Oh my God. You're again fortunate if you only have one of those or two of those people on your team. But when the sun goes down and you're with your family or your friends and you're trying to have fun, who's in the back of your head sucking time energy and attention away from that precious moment yours become a vampire so how do you deal with your vampires without becoming one yourself how do you countermand this kevin culture well we teach a lot of a lot of these tactics very specific tactics let me give you one josh specifically related to conversations because let's say that you you jump on zoom and before the boss gets there there's this conversation going on you know oh he sucks and all this kind of stuff so what do you do Well, the first thing you want to do is you want to redirect that conversation.

15:16Just take the polarity 180 degrees in a different direction. Move it from negative to positive. Hey, man, my family and I, we enjoyed a great weekend at the lake. It was wonderful. What did you guys do this weekend? Yeah. And just try to redirect it. Okay. A lot of these Kevin and your vampires, they're persistent. So they're not going to fall for that. What do you mean? we yeah i was talking about josh he sucks man so what do you do then well then you reframe it and you say something like yeah you know i know joey the boss sucks there's a lot of room for improvement for him but man when i took my check to the bank it it still cleared and so i'm really grateful for the life he provides me and my family so it's still on that topic but you're reframing him yeah so if redirect and reframe don't work for you josh remove yourself treat uh treat kevin the eeyore vampire like he's got covid or like he's got you know norovirus or something you don't want to catch just get yourself out of there mute yourself turn your camera off whatever take your earbuds out whatever it is you need to do don't immerse your yourself in that keep your brain for marinating in that because that's just a downer on the whole thing.

16:31Your serotonin lowers, your dopamine lowers, your attitude for achieving amazing results. It just goes down. So redirect, reframe and remove yourself from Kevin and your vampires. Yeah. You know, I like that, you know, thinking about like the things that we complain about, like it's easy to complain about taxes, utility bills, the weather, right? But at the same time, you know, I, you know, one thing I've done is, you know, anytime I'm thinking about something like, you know, I'm really grateful that I have streets that, you know, I don't necessarily like the HOA fees or whatever, right? But I'm grateful for what I get from it.

17:10Imagine life without running water to the house. And all of a sudden, you're very, very grateful for that. You know, and similarly, you know, when there's a difficult situation at work. And guess what? That's the norm, right? They're just going to be difficult situations, going to be difficult customers. It's going to be disappointing news. I mean, as a founder, certainly we struggle with this. And that's the question I wanted to get to is what do we do if the structure of the organization feels a little lonely at the top? And I, you know, I don't know if I have someone in the organization that I can, you know, complain to, not complain to, but at least maybe share, like, I want to be positive.

17:55Like, I want to be that example. But at the same time, like, I'm also human. And I'm fallible. And where do we go in that sort of situation? Oh, man, great question. First of all, you remind me of a quote by Mark Twain, who's Mark Twain said, everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it right and i just i just love love that quote and then uh yeah it it is far easier to complain i don't complain about taxes you and i are recording this within a week of april 15th yeah right uh man i'm glad to pay taxes because it means i made money last year right so i'm very grateful gratitude is the great leveler of complaints it really mows them down because man when you start looking around for things that you're grateful for then the the rest of these things pale literally in comparison and also i remember when my grandparents did not have running water in the house so yeah every time i use the toilet i am grateful i don't have to go outside but to your point i think uh particularly entrepreneurs who are seeking to be thoughtful.

19:08I think they can, regardless of the structure, Josh, isolate themselves. And some of the loneliest people I've ever met were some of the most successful people. Their company did great, but man, they were lonely. Nobody understands my problems. It's just easy to get in that echo chamber where you isolate yourself from so many others. So I can tell you when I mentor coach others, I can share what I do. And that is I I proactively seek out a group of people with whom I share some common values so that I don't have to reinvent the wheel every time we're together. You know, there's just a jargon, a level playing field there.

19:46And we get together. Now we get together on Zoom, you know, we just get together and say, hey, how's it going? And we're authentic. We're transparent. We don't sign NDAs, but we function as if we have NDAs. Right. and and just it's good for me to know that somebody else is trudging up the same hills i am somebody else is stuck in the same mudslide and and again it's not a negativity thing it's an empathy thing i don't need somebody feeling sorry for me as a thoughtful entrepreneur josh because that implies a sense of superiority like they've got it all figured out and they're just feeling sorry for joey you know poor joey no i don't need that what i want is somebody to come up alongside me and say man I know how I know how that feels I know what you're going through and you know if they want to tell me a story about how they overcame the challenge I find myself in I'm taking notes I'm ready to learn from them but if they just say I know what you're going through I've been through the same things knowing someone else walked that way and they're still alive and here today to talk about it that's really encouraging to me and it creates that bridge that gap is overcome between me and my isolation.

20:58Yeah. Tell me more, Dr. Joey, your website, workpositive.today. By the way, to our friends listening to this podcast, go search this right now. Go search work positive podcast, click subscribe. And Joey, Dr. Joey, if you could kind of mention just a little bit about the podcast and, you know, kind of what they're going to experience. But then also I'd love for you to talk maybe more about opportunity, like how you help people, like what engagement looks like. Right, right. Well, thanks for that. Well, like you, I have the best job in the world because I get to talk to amazing people like you, right?

21:36And we get to talk about how you create this work positive culture. And there's so many brilliant, caring people in the world. I just want to share their stories and serve them the best I can and just fellow culture architects and others what's working because I know it's not all about me it's about us right and the sense of togetherness that we can achieve in the work positive community is immense so that's the work positive podcast wherever you listen to podcast it's there just go and subscribe and thanks for the plug there the work positive.today site the best way that you can begin the one thing you can do for yourself for your company and particularly if you're a thoughtful entrepreneur let me encourage you to go right now to workpositive.today.

22:19Scroll to the bottom of the first page. I mean, we've got a bunch of amazing resources we can help you with, but to help you get started right now today, there's one thing to do that is go to the bottom of that first page on the homepage and get yourself the free course called Something to Talk About. Negative conversations are the most common symptom of a negative workplace, and you don't have to listen long. Words are heavy, words matter and so transforming the way we talk about work the way we think about work which gains expression in our words is so important so there's six modules there josh and i'm giving them to you they're short videos right there's a work positive community there you can comment to hold yourself accountable right in front of others they'll comment on your comments you can learn from other people there peer-to-peer learning is the strongest form of learning among adults.

23:13So just go to workpositive.today, scroll to the bottom of that homepage, and just put your name and email address in there. Now you can give a fake name if you want to, but you got to give a real email address so we can get you the course, right? And just help yourself to that. And that's the best thing you can do. That's the one thing you can do to get started today, Josh. Dr. Joe, you have a magnetic personality. You ooze authenticity and likability. and again I just want to encourage everybody get on the Work Positive podcast or I'm sorry go go hit subscribe right now not to that and then again the website workpositive.today and Dr.

23:56Joey it's been a great pleasure to have you thank you so much for joining us. Oh it's been an immense pleasure for me Josh I feel like we were separated at birth.

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