Author: Andrew Embry

If you mixed diet mountain dew, funk music, dragons, hip hop, superheroes, and lightning in a blender you’d end up with Andrew Embry. He is part wordsmith and part alchemist, able to use his Batman utility belt to turn anything and everything into a story worth telling that is equal parts insightful, memorable, inspiring, humorous, and entertaining. Andrew is comfortably creative in almost any setting, but especially when he is performing spoken word poetry. His enthusiasm for words comes from the way he loves people and the little nuances of life that make it worth living.

Connect 4 and Making Human Connections (4-25-18)

Last week was about Chutes and Ladders and recognizing that we all play on different boards. This week we are going to reflect on Connect 4 and searching for connections.

In case you’ve never played Connect 4, it’s kind of like Tic-Tac-Toe. The goal is to get 4 in a row. In order to do this, you have to look for connections. In this game, things can connect vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. Alice recently received this game for her 6^th birthday, and as she started playing she initially didn’t ever look for connections diagonally. Instead, she just focused on horizontal connections, and didn’t look further than this. This led to her missing opportunities. Over time, she’s learned to do a better job of looking for all kinds of different connections.

You might be wondering what this has to do with anything. I think that life is often like a long game of Connect 4, where one of the goals is to connect with other people. In Connect 4, you might make connections vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. I bring all of the above up, because it is our responsibility to always look for ways to connect with each other.

When it comes to connecting, there are some people I connect with faster than others. These are usually the people who most closely resemble me and where I am in life. While this is true, this doesn’t mean I should give up on connecting with other folks. What this means is I might have to look and work harder to find connections. Much like Alice, instead of only looking for horizontal connections I need to expand my thinking to find the diagonal, vertical, and other connections that exist. We are all people, so at a foundational level that’s a powerful enough connection to at least getting started. On top of all being human, as people we are all multi-dimensional. For example, maybe we connect, because we work for Lilly. Maybe we connect, because we are both parents. Maybe we connect, because we are both nerds, love food, enjoy writing, watch similar movies, are both the oldest in our families, have been on awkward dates, love music, worked in a family business, have been through some similar struggles, etc. I firmly believe that if we dig long enough, we can find a dimension we can connect on, and once we connect then the magic happens.

Something to ponder- I’m sure many of you have heard about what happened with two African American men who were wrongfully arrested for hanging out in Starbucks waiting for someone. You can click HERE if you haven’t heard their story. They were arrested, because a manager called the police to remove them. I’ve sat in Starbucks and other establishments waiting for friends before and never had issues. I can’t think of any of my white friends ever having issues. I talked about this with a few colleagues last week, and I view this as a lack of connectedness problem. I believe the manager called the police, because she saw these men as others and outsides, which to me suggests that she didn’t see connections with them. I wonder if she would have stopped first to think of how she might be connected to these men, would she have felt the need to call the police?

The challenge: Are you searching for all the ways you can connect? Are you letting things get in the way of seeing how you connect with others?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Chutes, Ladders, and Different Lives (4-18-18)

Last week we thought about leveraging knowledge and Battleship. This week we are going to reflect on the different lives we lead by thinking about Chutes (slides) and Ladders. Chutes and Ladders is a game to see who can get to the final square first. As you move around the board you’ll land on squares with ladders or chutes on them. Ladders are like shortcuts that help you advance. Chutes are the anti-shortcut that cause you to fall back spaces.

Let’s pretend you and I were going to play the game with a twist. Let’s pretend you and I played the same game, just on different boards. We’d still use the spinner and follow all of the same rules. The only difference is that you’d play on one board and I’d play on another. If this was the case, what would be the first thing you’d wonder about? I’m assuming you’d want to know if the boards are the same. I bet you’d be curious to see if my board had more chutes or more ladders than you.

You might be wondering where this is going. I’d say that life is a lot like a game of Chutes and Ladders, where we are all playing on different boards. Some boards have more ladders than others and maybe even ladders that are better shortcuts. Some boards have more chutes than others and maybe even chutes that make people fall further. There is no guarantee of success in this game (life). Just because a board has more ladders, it doesn’t guarantee success. Also, just because a board has more chutes, it doesn’t guarantee failure. At the same time, we can acknowledge that your board shapes your life and we can acknowledge that the more ladders you have the greater likelihood you have for success. In the game example above I had us imagine playing on different boards. What does your board(life) look like? What ladders do you have? What chutes do you have? Think about the people around you. How is your board similar to theirs? How is your board different? How does your board impact the way you live and experience life?

I’m a straight white male, married with kids, middle class, American, from a small town, fairly intelligent, some athleticism, average looks, relatively healthy, in a job where I make enough money that I don’t have to spend my time being anxious about money, from a home filled with love where my parents have been married for over 30 years. If I’m being honest with myself, those are a lot of ladders in my favor. It’s really tempting and really easy for me to look at other people and say, “They could easily be in my place if they only do X, Y, and Z.” The fact is it’s not that straight forward or simple. Yes, I work hard and have made a lot of the right choices in life, but I can’t deny that those ladders (many I don’t have control over) have helped me and will continue to help me. I can’t deny that some people have chutes that will never show up on my board. Does your hard work and the choices you make impact you? Yes. At the same time, your life’s chutes and ladders impact you too. As I reflect on my ladders and my experiences I think of the wisdom a friend once shared, “Don’t feel guilty about your experience. Just understand that is YOUR experience and not everyone lives the same way.” The more I can do this, the more I can understand the people around me, and the better human/friend/teammate I can be for them.

The challenge: Do you understand what your board looks like and how it shapes you? Are you taking the time to understand and appreciate other people’s boards and how they shape them?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Battleship, Taking Shots, and Leveraging Existing Knowledge (4-11-18)

Last week we kicked off a series inspired by board games with the classic game of checkers and making sacrifices. This week is about leveraging knowledge as we reflect on Battleship and taking shots.

When I was a little kid I played more than my fair share of Battleship. In case you haven’t played, it’s a two player game where your objective is to sink all of your opponent’s ships. There are two boards. You can see your board, but you can’t see your opponent’s board. Each board has a grid of letters on the left side and numbers on the top. You would call out a letter and number combination like B1. Your opponent would tell you if you missed or if you hit their ship. If you missed, then you knew you had to try another area. If you hit the ship, you knew that you needed to take shots in the nearby surrounding area. It might take you another shot or two to know exactly where the ship is, but you wouldn’t have to start over. You could leverage the knowledge you had and keep firing shots until the ship sank.

So how exactly does this connect with work? In some ways work (especially marketing) is like a game of Battleship. Essentially, you have a board and you are calling out shots (launching some kind of customer solution) and hoping that they hit (fulfill the need of a customer). In the very beginning you might be playing on a completely unknown board, like if you were entering a new disease state. However, we are usually playing on boards that we already know a lot about. Often, we are playing in situations where we can leverage 3^rd party data, previous learnings, and our own tribal knowledge as a starting point before launching a “shot”. In many situations we have already had a “hit” and need to build off of that instead of blindly searching for new ships to hit.

The question is how often do we search for this knowledge and leverage it before blindly launching solutions? Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve said, “Why are we reinventing everything? We already know X and Y, so why aren’t we starting there?” Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve heard someone say, “That was a miss a few years ago, so why are we revisiting it now?” I know that I’ve asked those things, and I’ve also been the one who has tried to reinvent the wheel. It’s easy to get caught up in the feeling that everything you do should be novel and amazing in order for it to be valuable and recognized. At the same time, starting from scratch isn’t very efficient. You know when to go explore vast new areas and when to leverage the knowledge you already have.

The challenge: Are you blindly launching shots or are you leveraging the knowledge that exists to be more efficient?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Checkers, Jumps, and Sacrifices (4-1-18)

This week I’d like to start a series inspired by board games. Hopefully it doesn’t leave you bored (<-see what I did there?). We’ll begin by thinking about checkers, jumps, trade-offs, and making sacrifices.

Recently, I taught Alice, who turned 6 yesterday, how to play checkers. It’s a great game, because it has strategy and it’s still fairly simple to play. In case you’ve never played, the objective is to capture all of the other team’s pieces. Essentially, when an opponent’s piece is in front of your piece you make your piece jump over it, and you remove the opponent’s piece from the board. When Alice plays, she loves jumping other pieces, but she HATES having her pieces jumped. She’ll do everything in her power to avoid being jumped, which often leads to her losing games. She loses games, because sometimes the best move on the board is to sacrifice one of her own pieces in order to set herself up in a more powerful position. Slowly, she is learning that sometimes the best move is a sacrifice. Sometimes the best move to make is to allow me to jump one of her pieces, so she can do a double jump and take away two of mine.

You might be wondering where this is going. I would argue that life and work are games of strategy. They are games of moves and countermoves, games about anticipating things and reacting. Much like Alice, it’s easy to become obsessed with jumping, constant activity, conquering, and going after everything that looks like an opportunity. However, sometimes, it doesn’t make sense to do that. Do you ever run yourself ragged trying to make every “jump” only to realize it’s left you in a weaker position? I know I have. Over time I’ve learned that sometimes I need to be willing to give certain things up. Over time, I’ve come to accept that sometimes I need to sacrifice something in order to be in the strongest position.

Now if we look at work, think about marketing as an example. Marketing is a game of strategic trade-offs. Working in research, I have access to reports and things that reveal all kinds of weaknesses and opportunities at any given moment. Essentially, there are always tons of jumps we could make. However, if you try to make every jump you lose. Instead, you have to sacrifice some things. Sometimes, you have to allow your competitors to have certain things, so you can stay focused on your strengths. Sometimes you have to refrain from spending time, energy, and effort in one area, so you can focus all of those things in a another area that will help you be victorious.

The challenge: Are you always going after every opportunity or are you intentionally making trade-offs?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Emotions, Intentions, and Impact (3-28-18)

This will be the last in a series about emotions. We started by thinking about losing vs. finding emotions and our real selves. Then we thought about channeling emotions. Last week was about emotionally charged conversations and being careful vs. ending the conversation. This week is about emotions, intentions, AND impact.

Imagine that Steve is standing in the hallway. Bob is walking in Steve’s direction. All you can see of Bob is his back. It looks like Bob has tripped and as he stumbles forward he hits Steve in the face. Steve instantly has a big bruise and yells out in pain. If I made you tell me right now, WHAT would you tell me happened and WHY would you say it happened? I can tell you for sure that Steve has been hit in the face and that he is in pain, but that’s all I really know. After that, we can’t be 100% sure of what happened.

The answers to what happened and why it happened won’t eliminate Steve’s pain. Steve is feeling pain, and I can’t take that away from him. Steve’s pain still matters whether it was an accident or on purpose. However, understanding what happened and why it happened is important, because it will dictate the course of action moving forward. If it was a pure accident, Bob apologizes and then Bob and Steve probably move on. If Bob hit Steve on purpose, Bob may or may not offer a fake apology and the relationship will be damaged.

So what does this have to do with work and emotions? I feel for the longest time we have been told that when it comes to harming others through words or actions that we should focus on intent VERSUS impact. Instead, I think we need to consider intent AND impact. The nuance sounds subtle, but it makes a huge difference. When we talk about intent versus impact we can often explain away things, like, “Suzy didn’t mean any harm when she said that. You should just forgive.” When we look at intent versus impact, it’s like we try to explain away pain as if it doesn’t happen as long as the person had good intentions. The fact is whether the person has good intentions or bad intentions, the pain is still real. The pain is still hurtful. The pain still matters. Intentions can’t take the pain away. Intentions can only impact what the next steps are. If I hurt you and you believe it was unintentional, we’re probably more likely to find a way to talk through it and improve our relationship. If I hurt you and you believe it was intentional, then you are probably less likely to want to talk to me about anything.

I’m guessing we are all Bob from time to time, I know I am. I sometimes make mistakes, trip, and say or do things that are unintentionally harmful. These things are especially likely to happen when I’m brave enough to “leave the oven on” and tread into emotionally charged conversations. When I do make mistakes, I need to take on the responsibility of apologizing and doing what I can to help heal the relationship. I am also Steve sometimes. I get hit in the face by someone/something and feel hurt/angry/upset. In those moments, my first instinct is to feel anger and ASSUME THE WORST of the other person. Then, I realize I need to take a step back, because the movie playing in my head might be the truth or it might not be the truth.

The challenge: What assumptions are you making about people’s motivations and intentions? Can we seek to understand the situation before passing judgment? (I don’t always do this part as well as I should. I hope you are better than me.)

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Emotionally Charged Conversations and Making Lasagna (3-21-18)

Last week was about channeling emotions. This week we are going to reflect on emotionally charged conversations and using an oven. Let’s pretend that you and I were baking lasagna. You put the lasagna in the oven, and I instantly turn the oven off. I explain that the oven is hot and can burn you or maybe we’ll burn the lasagna. While this is true, you’re confused and you say, “But we have to bake the lasagna.” You turn the oven on, then I promptly turn it off. Finally you say, “Andrew, you can’t bake the lasagna without any heat.” I say, “You’re right. The oven does get really hot though, so let’s make sure we are careful when we’re dealing with it.” After I say this, I grab some heating pads and oven mitts for us to use.

You’re probably wondering where this is going. In our company (and I’d argue in our society) we are at this turning point where we are talking about building culture more than we ever have before. Much like baking lasagna, we are combining a lot of different people, thought processes, etc., and we are having conversations now that are new to a lot of us. These conversations can be scary and awkward. The conversation is the hot oven. The hot oven is required to bake the food, but at the same time it can burn us or the lasagna (our relationships). As we continue to have these difficult conversations, it’s tempting to turn off the oven (stop the conversation) to be safe from the heat (the tension, nervousness, etc.), but the fact is we need the heat. Without the heat, we will never finish baking. Instead of stopping these conversations, we need to think about how we can have them in a careful and attentive way. Instead of oven mitts, we could use love and care.

Embry confession aka my flaws. When I first started reflecting on this topic I said, “I never shy away from talking about stuff. I never stop the conversation,” but then I realized I was lying to myself. I’ve shut things down before and still do from time to time. Sometimes I don’t even realize I’m doing it. Here are 5 ways in which I’ve messed stuff up and continue to mess stuff up.

I’ve fallen into the trap that my point of view is the only one, so I’ve shut down opposing points of view by not really listening.
I sometimes view people challenging my views as attacks, which has led me to becoming defensive and turning a conversation into a battle.
I’ve fallen into the trap of saying, “I already know them and their narrative,” so I’ve closed myself off to what others have said.
I’ve been worried that something might be taboo to talk about, so rather than talk through it to find understanding, I stopped to avoid any potential awkwardness.
I’ve been afraid to admit my shortcomings. I don’t like to think of myself as racist, sexist, etc. so when people have talked about ways in which the dominant culture I’m part of can be that way, I’ve been quick to say, “Well, not me.” When people have mentioned things I’ve legit done, I’ve been so quick to make excuses, quickly shutting down any real chance of connecting.

All of the examples above are things I’ve done that have prematurely stopped important conversations from occurring. Be honest with yourself. Do you ever do any of those above things? Over time I continue to learn that while I might be nervous or anxious or the conversation is filled with tension, the answer isn’t to turn off the oven. The answer is to proceed with caution, using care and love, while understanding there’s always the chance I could get burned. There’s always the chance I could make a mistake and hurt others. It’s messy and complicated, but that’s the price you pay when you are trying to make something amazing.

The challenge: Are you turning off the oven or are you baking carefully?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Emotions and Building a Predictable Culture (3-14-18)

Last week we reflected on controlling vs. channeling emotions. This week I was us to think about emotions, culture, and predictability. This week’s blog is inspired by comments made last week by Nils Hartmann (Senior Director Global Diabetes).

For those of you who don’t know, I have two little girls Alice (almost 6) and Violet (4). In a world full of chaos and change, I feel it’s my job to ensure home is predictable and dependable in certain ways. For example, it’s important to me as their dad that they always know without question that I love them. It’s something they should be able to count on day in and day out. Even when they break stuff in the house, argue with each other, do something stupid that gets them hurt, get on my last nerve, etc. I love them. My desire to create predictability for them isn’t about removing all potential pain or heartache in their life. Pain, heartache, and failure will come and they’ll need to experience those things. My desire to create a predictable and stable environment is about ensuring that they know that whatever happens, I’m here for them. It’s important for me as a dad for them to know that I care, because that becomes the foundation we can build our relationship on.

You might be wondering where this is going. The above story has parallels to a conversation I had last week about building culture with the Trulicity team. During the conversation, we started by talking about what culture is and eventually we moved on to talk about why culture is important. This is when Nils jumped in and said something along the lines of, “If you have a good culture it creates predictability and that can be a good thing.” I had never thought about it like that before. Nils expanded on this thought by explaining how the predictability comes from a culture of mutual caring and respect. It’s when you know that the person sitting across from you has your best interest in mind when they work with you. It’s knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that the people around you care for you. If you know these things with certainty, then this gives you a level of safety and comfort you don’t have otherwise. If you have that safety and comfort, you can be freer to be you and do you.

As I reflected further, I realized that as a parent I’m in charge of the culture that I create at home. As the opening story in this week’s blog suggests, I’m trying to create an environment of predictability and stability, so my girls can be themselves and grow up to be kick ass women. I create this environment by consistently SHOWING that I care in small and big ways. After realizing that I do this at home, I started to ask myself if I’m consistently creating an environment of predictability and stability at work, where people can be themselves and “grow up” to do kick ass things. I do some things well at work, but I know I can always be better. What about you?

The challenge: What are you doing to create a culture that is “predictable”?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Rivers and Channeling Emotions (3-7-18)

Last week we kicked off a series about looking at emotions differently. We began by thinking about “losing” face vs. “finding” yourself. This week we are going to take a second to think about rivers as they relate to controlling and channeling our emotions.

Pretend for a minute that I asked you to go to a river and trap the water. Imagine forcing the running river into boxes and Tupperware containers. Imagine the sloshing, the energy, the swift current pushing on all corners of the container as it finds itself trapped. Imagine you were successful. Now you would have a river trapped in piles of containers. Let’s think about something else. Pretend for a moment that I asked you to change the course of a river. Imagine I asked you to dig irrigation ditches to redirect and guide the water to a new location. This would be a lot of work. What good could this water do after it was redirected to dry soil?

How do the above situations connect to work? Rivers are like emotions. It is up to you to decide what you do with your emotions. You can try to control your emotions and box them up, stacking them off somewhere to the side, or you can find a way to channel and reroute your emotions into something. Why is this important? If you’re anything like me for the longest time I tried to box up my emotions, especially the bad ones. I felt that doing this was the professional thing to do. I felt this proved I had strength. Since then I’ve changed my mindset. I’ve realized I was hurting myself by not feeling things. I now try to better embrace my feelings and in time, (if I’m able) I try to channel it, to change its course to turn it into something that can help instead of destroy.

I’m not great at this yet, but I’m trying to be more okay with feeling everything. I hope you become more okay with feeling things too. I hope you allow yourself to feel angry and upset. I hope you get irritated that often when are the ones who are getting in the way of fulfilling our mission to help people. I hope you allow yourself to shed a few tears. I hope you feel pride in the work you do and the person you are. I hope you are overcome with joy when someone you know accomplishes great things. I hope you feel love when you step into the doors. I hope you feel so much and so strongly that sometimes you don’t even know what to do with it. It’s okay. I’ve been there, I am there.

As you feel those things, I hope you channel them into something. I hope the anger and fury turns into tenacity, an unlimited will to do what is right for the people we serve. I hope the joy is transformed into laughter, hugs, high fives, and all the little things we can do to remind each other that work is more than trudging through meetings and slide decks. I hope the love you feel causes you to reach out to people when they need you and to reach out to people because you need them. I hope that all of the emotions you have inside of you are channeled somewhere, instead of locked away in a vault. I hope you find a way to redirect your emotions to bring water to dry soil.

The challenge: Are you controlling or channeling your emotions?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Emotions and Losing vs. Finding Things (2-28-18)

This week I’d like to kick off a series that challenges us to think differently about emotions. This week we will start by thinking about emotions as they relate to losing and finding things. This week’s message started more like a journal entry that I decided to share. I don’t have a clever metaphor to kick us off this week. All I have is a true story and some thoughts.

Embry story. A couple of weeks ago I had a one on one meeting with someone at work. I was talking about stuff, became pretty emotional, got choked up, and cried a few tears. As soon as I did this, I said something like, “Sorry for losing my crap. I need to pull my crap together.”

You might be wondering where this is going. Often in life, losing things is a bad thing. If I lose my wallet/phone/keys, etc. it’s a bad thing. If I lose those things it reflects poorly on me. If I lose things I’m careless. If I lose things, I’ve made a mistake. In the above story, I was emotional, cried, and the first thing I did was apologize for losing something. I “lost” my crap. I “lost” my composure. I “lost” face. I apologized for “losing” those things. I apologized for letting a little bit of my humanity slip through. Do you ever feel this way? Do you ever feel you need to apologize when you show emotion, as if showing emotion is some kind of mistake, some kind of weakness?

More context to the Embry story. Four days before the meeting, my cousin had died of a drug overdose, leaving behind a fiancée and a two month old baby. I hadn’t cried since I found out he had died. I was sad for him and even sadder about the family he had left behind. I spent the days asking, “What will be the ripple effect for my family? Who will fall apart? Will they fall apart in a safe way? Who will turn to bad coping mechanisms? Who do I need to watch out for?” I was also stressed about work, life, who knows what else, and I was carrying all of this around with me everywhere I went. I was a mix of emotions heading into that one on one meeting and as I mentioned I got emotional and cried a couple of tears.

My epiphany. Like I said, in that moment, I felt I had lost something. I had lost my “crap.” I felt I had lost my composure. What if I was wrong? What if I didn’t lose anything? What if I found something? What if I found tears I needed to cry that had eluded me for days? What if I found a colleague that created a safe enough space where I could show that emotion at work? What if I found a little bit of peace? What if in that brief moment I found the part of myself that is most human? Tell me those things aren’t special. Tell me those things aren’t sacred. Tell me I “lost” something that day. Tell me those things aren’t some of the best things you can find.

The challenge: What are you losing? What are you finding? (Just know that if you ever feel like you are “losing” something, I’ll be right there beside you finding anything you want to find and more of myself in the process.)

By the way, in case you’re wondering, I’m good and the family is doing okay. Thanks to everyone for the good vibes and things. Hug the people you love a little tighter next time you see them.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Market Research, Interpreting Data, and Triangulation (2-21-18)

This will be the last in the series about lessons I’ve learned from working in market research. We’ve talked about defining problems, mitigating risk, collecting stories, establishing decision criteria, and being objectively passionate on behalf of our customers. This week we are going to think about market research, interpreting data, and triangulation.

Let’s pretend for a minute you asked me to do some kind of research project. Let’s say I came back to you and told you the answer was 5. Is that good or bad? Are you prepared to make a decision? I’m guessing that you probably aren’t.

You’re probably thinking that’s a strange opening and you might be wondering what that has to do with anything. Throughout my career I have often heard people say something along the lines of, “The data will speak for itself.” The problem is that data doesn’t speak for itself. Data on its own has no meaning. Data only has the value we assign to it. The power of data lies in how we interpret it. For some situations if the answer was 5 that could be a great thing. If the question was, “By what percentage have your sales increased in the past month?” 5 could be a great answer. In other situations, 5 wouldn’t be so great. For example, if your market share was 5%, but it was forecasted to be 20% there might be an issue.

The longer I’m in market research the more I realize how important it is to be able to interpret data. Also, I continue to learn that part of the skill in correctly interpreting data is triangulating. It’s taking the time to look at the problem and research from multiple angles to make sure that everything is saying something similar. If one thing is telling me the answer is 5, another is telling me it’s 26, and another is telling me the answer is purple there is probably a gap in my understanding. The only way to find the truth is to triangulate.

Now everything above applies to market research, but it also applies to life. How often have you talked to someone who has come to conclusions based on one piece of data or only one side of an argument? How often are you that person? I know I’m that person sometimes. It’s easier to take the data that is readily available, assume that data speaks for itself, and not take the time to triangulate. The problem is that whenever I’ve done this I’ve missed part of the story and have missed the truth as a result.

The challenge: Are you actively trying to triangulate, so you can better interpret the data in front of you?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry