Randal: In our first episode, Dutch, we talked about the two track mind and the duality of that. Having to have two perspectives at the same time. In this episode, I thought we would focus more just on track two, and from what you’re telling me the same sort of thing applies. Within track two, once again, you need to have this duality and maintain two different perspectives at the same time, if you’re going to be successful. Where are you going with that?

Dutch: Well, I had a very interesting meeting with a class some years ago. And I was trying to cultivate its favor and I said, "Tell me what your most important priority is right now." And he mumbled to himself and then said, "My problem is I don’t have a most important priority. I’ve got two important priorities. The first one is I feel like if I’m not running this business every day, we’re not going to make our business targets and we’re not going to eat this year. But secondly, I feel like if I’m not changing the business every day, then this time next year our competitors will have changed and we won’t be profitable then." So, I thought that was just a great insight. So, I’ve been calling it run the business, change the business ever since.

So, just to make sure that we’re clear, if you have job on the manufacturing line, and when your shift comes on, your job is to make sure that the right number of people are managing the stations and that the raw materials are coming in and that everything is happening the way it’s supposed to happen. That’s what I call running the business and it is run the business for the guy on the line, its run the business for the supervisor who’s looking into that area. The goal in run of business is don’t change anything. We want to make the same fenders tomorrow that we made–

Randal: Get it done the way it’s done.

Dutch: Yeah, and we want to get it done right. Now, there’s also a change of business complementary to that, because what we’re also thinking about is the fact that the aluminum is going to be the new metal and we’re going to have to do the fenders in aluminum.

So, somebody’s got to be thinking about how exactly we are going to do that. Are these same machines going to work? What skills do the employees have? Somebody has to figure all that out in advance, and that’s what I call change the business kind of thinking. The critical thing today is that companies are changing how they do business and they’re changing what they make very rapidly these days, because the markets demand it. The competition is rife, etc.

So, unlike the older days when one could just pretty well stay in run the business mode for weeks, months, years, at a time. Now, we’re in a situation where employees and managers are really called on to be active in both run the business thinking and doing, and change the business thinking and doing.

Randal: Yeah, the old way of doing this or what was sufficient in the old days was a more episodic sort of thing. You would run the business, run the business, run the business and every few years, you would have like a strategic retreat of some kind and you would talk about how you might want to change the business in the next three, five, ten years. Then, people stopped talking about ten years. They talked about five years, and then they stopped talking about five years and then they started talking about three years, and then they started talking about year to year and now, essentially, it’s instantaneous.

Things are happening so quickly and businesses have to adjust and adopt and take on new opportunities, recognize and pursue opportunities so fast that essentially it’s instantaneous. So now, businesses have to run the business and change the business at the same time, while they’re doing both, and that’s where our little icon came from and we have our two arrows. The arrow that’s horizontal represents run the business and the one that’s going up at an angle represents change the business and because we’re called changethebusiness.com, we can give you some clue where we’re going to focus most of our attention. Why is it that you think it’s important for us in this broadcast to focus primarily on change the business?

Dutch: Well, the answer is very simple. You can no longer get ahead by being good at run the business. You can no longer stay employed if all you’re good at is run the business.

The demands for people who can play in a changing world are so high right now, that if you really want to get ahead where your employed, you better not only know how to run the business, you better become very good at changing the business. And we’ve all seen changes come across organizations and we’ve all seen kind of attitudes that people sometimes have and you’ve probably all seen those people when hearing about a change just go into mental gridlock and say, "Oh my God, my career is over. Death is just around the corner. I’m going to have to change from this kind of arrange to that kind of arrange."

You see that sort of devastating kind of attitude. Then you see the maybe Laissez-faire kind of attitude that says, "Oh well, okay, we’re going to get through this." Occasionally, you see the attitude of someone who says, "Oh, we’re going to change, that’s great. I’ll look forward to that. Let me see how fast we can make that change." Now, there are three simple examples of three different attitudes. Which one of those three do you want on your team? Or if you are holder of 401k with stocking in it and which of those three attitudes do you want to have in that company in which you hold stock? And the answer kind of comes out.

Randal: And the third perspective is getting back to what we talked about before, the two track mind. Which person do you think is going to get ahead in life?

Dutch: That’s right. That’s exactly right. Now, so well, why do we need a course in change the business? And the answer is while most people have been trained in run the business, they have not been trained in how to change the business.

Randal: Also, too, most people are reasonably good at change the business. If they’re not good at it, they will learn what they need to learn over time through experience. But most organizations and most people are spectacularly bad at changing the business. There are a number of structural reasons why, but it’s not hard to differentiate yourself in this arena, because most people are not good at making this happen, right?

Dutch: I think that’s exactly true. The thing that I was thinking about there is that each human being to get to the point where they can be employed as a worker is already a success in changing things. They’ve gone through school, they’ve gone through all these adjustments, and they’ve taken different courses every semester. It’s fruit basket turn over changes in our life and we manage those.

Human beings are changing machines, but somehow when we get into the workforce, we get locked into that first job in a "unit that’s already running" and we’re told, "Here’s what you do. Here’s exactly how you do it and whatever you do, don’t screw it up." So, we really do get into that mindset of not changing and there’s nothing bad with that, because I’m trying to produce a product that’s the same tomorrow as it is today and I want people to be able to–

Randal: Consistently do something.

Dutch: Consistently do something. They may have different raw materials coming in, but I’ve still got to have the same widget coming out. But it’s almost like that run the business experience doesn’t – it blocks people from being able to play in change the business. We have all the skills but there are just some little mechanical things that most people are missing, that make change the business look like a muddy complex problem and it really isn’t. Our job here is to sort that all out and make people understand how easy that really is.

Randal: So, there are a number of different levels to this change thing. Most of the books that are out there, a la Who Moved my Cheese and that sort of thing are about the individual grief associated with having the change and accepting that and all of that. We’ll have a bit to talk about along those lines, but not much.

Our perspective is more, "You are the person who either wants the organization to change or you’ve been tasked with making it change in a certain way." How do you do that? I mean, people use the term change management for a whole bunch of things. When we talk about change, we’re talking about implementation. We’re talking about actually making it happen. Not so much the psychological and philosophical aspects associated, it’s just very practical minded. You are supposed to make something change. How do you do that in an organization?

Dutch: And there are some mechanical things that you got to do in order to facilitate change in your organization. If you’re a middle manager and you got a department of people reporting to you and the word that comes or you work through a task force to conclude that there needs to be a change in the way product is produced inside your department, then if you’re going to maximize track two then you have to be able to effectively and efficiently lead your department to doing things that new way. And it can’t be, "Oh my God, we’ll get through this and then it’s through."

This is the first of many changes you’ll be making. This time next year, you’ll be leading another change. And so here’s the point, if you want to get ahead on track two, you do that by being better than the other employees, your competitors, and you’re not going to get ahead of them by running the business better, but you can pretty easily get ahead of them by being someone who gets it from a change point of view and says, "I know why we need to change, I can see this attribute not selling well in the market." And you get eager about that and you say, "Boss, my unit is going to be ready, on target, on time, and on budget. You can count on us." And the boss is going to say, "That’s a relief, because I’m wresting with five or six other middle managers over there who are telling me all the reasons why this just couldn’t – why it would never ever work.

So, that’s the bottom line, if you want to get ahead in track two, you got to be able to change the business and change it well, and what we’re going to teach is how you do that.

Randal: And essentially you’ve highlighted all three. Essentially, there are three components with this change mind mentality. You have to understand the facts, where are you? Where is your point A, where are you starting from? You need to understand your situation and see the need for specific changes. Two: You need to know where you need to go. So, you know where point A is, you know where point B is, you need to understand alright what change you need to be good at formulating a change. That’s also a value added step, and then you need to know how to go from A to B. And if you can play a role in any one of those three, either understanding where you are, figuring out where you ought to go or getting from A to B, then you will be a value added player in the realm of changing business.

Dutch: Those three steps are critical in your life as a track two player.

Randal: That’s right.

Dutch: The same three steps though can be applied in your track one life. Where you say, "Here’s where I am skills wise and based on the market, here’s where I need to be and how am I going to get from point A to point B?"

Randal: Well, I had a really good example, I was talking to somebody not too long ago, and they were talking about their careers. And they were moaning that they just didn’t have a whole lot of opportunity. Well, I said, "Houston seems to be doing pretty well compared to other cities. What seems to be the problem?" He said, "Well, I don’t have any managing experience." I said, "Well, you know you’re point A. Where do you need to go? What’s your first step to close that gap?" Then he was brainstorming some ideas where he could either get some experience or position projects that he had done as managing experience, and then we put together a little plan to get from A to B. So, it absolutely applies to track one. No doubt.

Dutch: So, that sort of thinking where you are and where do you want to go and how to get there applies and applies to any change you’re going to be doing for your employer. Doing that change, making that change happen either eagerly with a great attitude, efficiently, effectively with a "Come on, guys, we’re going to do this." That will stand you so far apart from the crowd of competitors that you have an organization that they won’t even be able to see your dust.

Randal: That’s right, change the business. That's the place to be.