3 - An interview with "Forensic Betterer" Adam Ward

In this episode of the Uncommon Leader podcast, I chat with Adam Ward, "Forensic Betterer", author and good friend.   Our conversation weaves through many topics, including:

• the process of why he chose to write a book ( or several!)
• the need for humility and integrity in our leaders, and 
• what message he would send out to influence others to change their world!  

I hope you enjoy

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Transcript

0:26

Hey listeners. Welcome back to the uncommon leader podcast. I've been excited about this interview for a long time. I get a chance to chat with Adam Ward, a forensic better. He's an author, a world-class Ironman finisher, a man of faith. And I'm proud to say a friend of mine. He's at a strong influence on me in both my personal and professional life. Adam talks about on his LinkedIn page, that he loves to work with organizations to identify and disrupt the status quo. Within their organizations. All these things are important and things that I chat about with Adam today, and I know you're going to get a lot of value out of this conversation. So without any further ado, here's Adam Ward. Adam Ward. It's great to have you on the show today, buddy. How you doing? Hey, thank you so much. I'm doing well. I'm doing well. All right. Good to have you not just on the podcast but good to catch up with you and have a conversation this week, but I appreciate you taking the opportunity to be. The uncommon leader podcast and getting this started. So I'll start you off with the same question. I always start all my other guests. And that's this one, tell our listeners a story from your youth or childhood that still impacts kind of who you are today and has an impact as to what you do as a leader, who man Yeah. I always like to push the boundaries of things and not, not, not that I was an intentional rule-breaker. I grew up in a household where my dad was a military officer and very strict and I had a BB gun and I'd always go around the woods, you know, shooting things and. I was in my front yard and I saw this bird. I'm like, I'm going to shoot this bird. Well, I missed the bird and I didn't see the car behind it. And I shout out the car window of our neighbor and immediately my heart just dropped and I think. I gotta call my dad and tell him I shot the car window out. And it's like, who knows? I mean, that's car window could have got broken a million different ways, but I ended up walking over to the neighbor's house, knocking on his door, telling him and telling him I did it calling my dad at work and telling him. I ended up getting grounded for a long, I made most of that summer. And not, not because he grounded me for shooting the window out, but because I couldn't get done until I wrote a thousand word essay on gun safety and handling. And so I think there's, you know, a couple of things that, that stuck with me on that. And I think it's even more important in today's society is that. We need to come forward when we do something that's disintegrous and you know, that people are no is wrong and then just come out and stop trying to hide behind stuff. And the second thing is it doesn't end when we admit something, you know, there's, there's always repercussions and we got to deal with those repercussions. And that meant that summer. I spent most of my time building Legos in my room. So I've been a lot of uncomfortable moments since then. And but you know, coming forward, And setting it right. Wow. That's in Hebrews, right. Discipline's not always pleasant at the time it goes through. And then, you know, being in integrity you know, I see you know, our world today talking about uncommon leader, being the topic in our world in our country and our communities, and they keep getting smaller in our organizations we have a void in leadership. And a big part of that is in integrity through that. So stepping up. When you did something wrong, knowing that there still could be re repercussions. Right. Pretty powerful. Now I appreciate you sharing. And the, you have any more bb guns you still have bb guns, right? I still have a pellet gun. Yeah. All right. So I'm going, I appreciate that too, right at the start about pushing boundaries and in terms of being creative and it actually leads into really wanting to get what I wanted to get in with you because when I. The research on just, you know, kind of getting ready for the podcast and many topics we could talk about, frankly, the thing that really hit me as I looked through on your profile was your title and your experience and your consulting company is a forensic better. Yeah, well, I'll just, I'll just stop there. Tell me what the heck is a forensic better. Yeah, no, that's a, that's a great question, John. I I've had several people comment ask questions. What is that? What is that title? And fundamentally, I guess my life motto has always been there is better. There's always better. And just this pursuit to improve on something. And that something is usually an identified pain point in my life. So as a consultant, like the world's full of consultants, the world's full of coaches, teachers business, whatever. And I wanted something that stood out. And so the whole forensic thing is, Hey, let me come in, look around and then let me offer an, you know, a path forward to make it better. So that that's really. It's it's mixing data experience and intuition with a plan to improve, whatever that business issue is. I love that. So again, there's so much, there's so many different ways I could go, cause I want to stay on that. A little bit about there's always better as a, as a life motto. The pursuit to improve is always there, but I really actually liked the as I listened through that, that forensic side is, let me come in and look around. Right. And so can you give me an example as to when somebody let you come in and look around and what you found and how you helped them make it better? John. So when I had an undergraduate in engineering and then several years into engineering, I wanted to find out why customers were buying my product. So I went back and got my graduate degree with a focus on market research. And what I found when I dove into market research is that we actually need a product or service. If it's meeting an unmet need. And so when Steve jobs got on announced the iPhone, you know, that was a big deal. We can go back a hundred and some years when Henry Ford came out with a car, he was like, my customers would ask for, for faster horses. Steve jobs will say, no one asked for the iPhone. But it was meeting needs and I was downloading MP3s. That was a pain. And he introduced iTunes with the iPod and you could just download it automatically. Well, one of the things that I see with, with customers or clients or businesses or leaders is they think they have a fairly good understanding of what their customers want because they read reports, you know, that maybe some quality surveys or maybe they interact directly with a customer. And one of my favorite stories is physician. And let's just call her Karen. And she had a patient and we said, okay, we're going to run this new experiment, this new way to deliver care. And she's like, okay, go ahead and do it. I know where I've been. I've been taking care of her for 30 years. We got done. We were doing the debrief after the appointment and all of the people in the room were calling her one name and she was calling her. Another physician was calling her another name. And we're like, why are you calling her that. She hasn't gone by that name since her mom called her that as a child. So the doctor thought they knew this patient and for 30 years had been calling him a name only their mom called him. So that's just a great example of, you know, thinking, you know, something and not being able to come back just a little bit to say, man, do I do I really know? Well, that's, those are, those are awareness. Opportunities for us both to learn as leaders that we don't know at all, and that others can help to encourage us down through that process. But I, I love that story as simple as a relationship building scenario and knowing, knowing the name that they go by versus might be what what's on their record as they go through that as journey that's, that's a fun story. I mean you might be saying it."Don't be a Karen" on that everybody talks about, no, we'll protect them. Well, we won't use the real names to protect the innocent. Yeah, exactly. Through that path. So the forensic better. Let me in, let me take a look. And let me see what I can help to make better. So let's assume that you've gone in, you've identified an opportunity. You see a pile somewhere, you discover it and you know, you can improve it. Some of the challenges in the industry that you and I have worked together are that they, people don't want to listen to that. So what's, what's your experience or maybe knowledge in two fronts, I'll ask you a two-part question. What are the barriers that people have that they don't want to listen to new advice when they look at a process. And then secondly, what is the actual process you would use to make something better? So there's two parts to, yeah, man. That's great. The first one is easy. It's pride. If you're not humble and you know, no one's going to be able to, to teach you anything. And so I've said no to working with a lot of leaders over the years, literally after deciding after a minute conversation, now, the conversation. An hour long, but I'd already picked, chosen a minute in that it wasn't going to work. And that's just something you pick up after working with so many organizations, so many different industries people like to think that we're unique and I mean, we are, but our problems are, you know, the same issue. So if, if we're going to improve something fundamentally, we've got to have humility to, to begin with. And, you know, Maxwell says once the pain to change, is less than the pain of remain the same. Right. That some people will change. Right. Absolutely. Right. The process of getting someone to change is painting, that future. As a way that's so much better than the current way that they'll go through that change process. And that can be, I mean, I know John, you talk about your seven F's that can be in any one of those areas. And, and, but just finding, finding what that imagined future could look like and then breaking it down into simple steps to getting there. And then a lot of emotional roller coaster coaching as you're going through the individual issues. Cause changes is hard, especially organizational change. And you know, you know, you and I have done that at, you know, fortune 50 companies and, you know, we've worked locally with small nonprofits and, and so the bigger, the change project, the tougher it is, but there's. The leaders are going through the same thing, the whole, any size of company. I love that. I mean, ultimately the largest barrier to change often is that leader. And if they can accept and be humble and recognize that they don't have all the answers that can be pretty powerful. And, you know, they, they, they truly am getting to a good leader. An uncommon leader will have that humility. You're going back to even some of your early comments about fess ing up to things. Okay. Knowing too many times leaders think they have to have all the answers they do and they have to be right. And that's just not the case. I mean, allowing other people to help them solve problems would, would go a long way to being successful. And then frankly, again, listening to the process of helping them to paint a future picture, that's so much better than what it is today that they want. And you've used this term before. I know because of working with you so that they won't go back, they won't want to go back to the way it was before. So that can be ultimately very powerful. Cool. Thanks for sharing that. Hey, let me take it a little bit different direction here. So I know you have authored a couple books, the most recent one Lean Design in Healthcare. When you think about, you know, being a betterer or a forensic betterer, like why did you write Lean Design inhealthcare? What was the reason you wanted to write that book? Oh, man. I mean, I always wanted to write books when, when I was younger. I don't know. I don't know why. So I I've actually, I've written, I don't know, five or six books. Two or three of them were just were never published. And then I, one self published and then two, I partnered with a publisher and published. And so there was this desire to, to write a book to begin with. But, but secondly, it was, there was a hole in the industry. And I wrote it in health for healthcare. I don't particularly care for the title. It was actually a working title. We ended up registering that with the library of Congress, so we couldn't change it. But how, how can you create systemic innovation in healthcare? Now? I was at a conference, actually, you and I were at the same conference and I walked up to a publisher and said, Hey, what are you missing? And they said, you know, we're actually missing a book on this. And, and I said, oh, well, that's, that's right. My wheelhouse. And if you were to have it, how would you like it written? And she handed me two books and say, could you mix these two books? And and then, you know, create a book like that. And I said, sure. So I ended up writing the book as a fable. But it was drawn on 10 to 15 years of, of consulting and then specifically catering it to the healthcare audience. If you don't have the ability to create repetitive innovation projects, how would you do that? So it was actually fun. A lot of people are like, well, I could never write that much. I used speech to text to write the entire first draft. So there was, there was no typing. I dictated it all. And then of course the editing process, I was on the computer a little bit. Not as much as the editors, but. I mean, so, yeah, you're right. You frankly, if you listen to many authors, even the ones who appear when the New York times bestseller list on a frequent basis, you don't hear them say that it's fun to write a book and no doubt. You know, the other thing I've heard about writing book is that if you want to make money, it's not in writing a book. So it's not going to be a moneymaker. You're really trying to get your message across. And again there's gotta be a better way kind of. That exists inside of that message. So made, I think I've made about 5 cents an hour, John, your hourly rate didn't quite cover what you might've been doing. But I think you, I think you also, if I remember correctly, you did some multitasking, you're even recording, as you wrote on your bike and you train and things like that, as you went. When you wrote that speech to text version as well. So that's pretty cool, Adam. I can't, I can't wait to frankly, really share a bunch of different things with you. On this podcast. I know there are going to be so many more things that so many more paths that I had to go down and you got more messages to share. Then I have minutes to interview today. So let's kind of, we'll say pause at that one, knowing there's going to be more, but I want to finish with a couple questions, first of all how can people connect with you? Cause I think they're going to want to... they're going to want to understand how to connect with you and see and communicate with you on, on some of your. Yeah, sure, sure. I mean, if you want to find me it's you can type in Adam Ward innovation on LinkedIn. That'll come up. You can email me adam@adzmikl.com. That's Adam at ads, michael.com. So I'm really good at getting back on my LinkedIn direct messages. But Adam Ward innovation don't type in Adam Ward, Honda technician. That article is, it needs to be banned from the internet. Can we pull that off of there? There would be, I didn't know about that one. I'd have to do that myself, just to see what's the first part of that article. Cool. All right. Hey, thanks for sharing that. And I'll make sure again, we put that in the show notes as to your LinkedIn profile that people connect with you there as well and make it a little bit easier for them. So, last question, I always finish it up with the same one and I may get when you're in here multiple times, I'll change it up a little. Know, Adam, I'm giving you a billboard in the busiest airport in the world. And I think it's still Atlanta, even though post-Covid and things like that, they've been the busiest might be somebody else in another country, but I'm giving you a billboard at the top of the escalator, millions of people a day are going to see it. What's your mantra that you want to put on that billboard so that people will know what they, what they need to do going forward. What do you want them to know? Well honestly, John, this one's going to hit the faith component. I live in city of Columbus. We're about two and a half million people in the 17 county area. I did some research and I found out here in the Midwest Bible belt over a quarter million people in our city had, had never heard. The gospel, they didn't know what the gospel was. When we, you know, when we presented the data to them, they, they just, it was not on their radar at all. And, you know, if we look at the life of Jesus, he said that he came so that we could have life to the full. And I mean, that sounds like a pretty cool imagined future. And so I would probably stick up a 17 words. Summary of the gospel and put that on that billboard so that people who don't know can see it and then they can decide, you know, is that something I want to be a part of and not John three 16 and not God loves you, but you know, that look,"we were made with communion with God and we got separated because we messed up and, but he died and was resurrected so that we could spend eternity with." And and so I asked probably what, what I would put on a billboard. Yeah. You have to get that space in there and get the font big enough. Absolutely. To have those 17 words. No, I appreciate you sharing that. I understand it. I think certainly faith is a big part of my personal journey as well. And you're right. It's probably not while. Well, John's three 16 is the most recognizable verse. It's really, I like what you said. It's challenging people to understand. What's that envisioned future state can be as a result of reading those words. And I think that's pretty powerful. So I appreciate you sharing. I wouldn't change it as all, all as well. Adam, thank you so much for giving me some time to chat today. Again, I think we'll do this again in the future, and I hope that you had some fun with it as well. You bet. I love this. It's just time just flies by. So just thanks for having me on the show. Absolutely. Take care, buddy. Well, that interview was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did Adam Ward, no doubt as an uncommon leader, one who succeeds in business and in life, a leader who aligns his heart with his work and his purpose. If you enjoyed today's episode and would like to subscribe to future episodes or catch up on some past episodes that we've done as well. Go to my website@www.growingchampions.net/podcast. Until next time go and grow champions.