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.

Simplicity and Sculpting Communications (6-25-14)

Let’s stay focused on simple, and think about our role when it comes to communicating. I recently read an article and there was a quote from Bruce Lee that struck me. “It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.” This was his secret to mastery. This is also the secret to communicating things in a simple way.

Last week was about making sure that we put in the time and effort to try to process a concept before we declare it too complicated. This week is about being a sculptor. I believe that all people are sculptors. As you can read in the quote above, even when we are building something we are also sculpting. We are trying to shape it, focus it, and cut away the non-essentials. We do all of these things in order to reveal the elegant essence of something, and that’s where the beauty and power exist.

Sculpting and my poetry failure…

As you probably know I write poetry (if you ever want some, just ask 😉 Anyway, I submitted a poem to a college contest and got rejected. The person reviewing the applications was a friend and talked to me about it. She pulls out a poem and says, “You had this awesome theme going and this is the best line in the poem. Up until this point we were all captivated. Then, you added all of this stuff that is good, but it doesn’t really build off of your central theme. If anything, this extra material took away from the power in your theme. My advice to you, once you have identified that powerful theme or that riveting line figure out how to build off of it. If you can build on it, then you can layer more in. If you detract when you add stuff, then don’t add stuff. Why would you add on things and distill your message?”

Now, my ego was bruised, because I thought all of my lines and themes were riveting but she had a great point. Have you ever experienced anything like that where you added “good” stuff that just detracted? Now, all of my poems, presentations, and even these emails start long and I cut without mercy until I feel that I have revealed the simple powerful essence of what I am trying to communicate. Am I perfect? No, but I’m a lot more focused than I used to be.

The question I keep asking myself is, “Am I putting in the time to sculpt what I am trying to communicate or showing them a full block of marble, hoping that they will be able to see the vision?”

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Here is the link to the article http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2014/06/one-key-to-story-design-is-to-hack-away-at-the-unessential.html

Simple does NOT Equal Easy (6-18-14)

All apples are fruits, but that doesn’t mean that all fruits are apples. Apples and oranges are not interchangeable. I feel the same way about “simple” and “easy”. Things that are initially easy are simple, but this doesn’t mean that all simple things are initially easy. For example, riding a bike is simple and easy, right? Not really. Nobody jumped on a bike for the first time and said, “Whoa, this is easy and simple!” Instead, we practiced with training wheels and then after that we crashed and fell a lot until we finally figured out how to ride a bike. Now riding a bike is simple, because we put the work.

We live in a world that is growing increasingly complex, and we keep trying to find ways to simplify it. Getting to simple is not easy. It’s not magic. Getting to simple is hard work. Making things simple requires 2 distinct processes. You need one person to communicate things in a way that reveals the essence AND the person listening needs to put in the mental work to internalize concepts until they understand them. Often, if we don’t think something is simple we blame the person for not being able to boil a complex idea into a one pager or 3 bullet points on a slide. However, if we are honest with ourselves we aren’t always willing to put in the hard work to think through concepts in order to make them simple.

Together we are trying to do things that are simple but not easy. We are trying to be more patient centric and we are evolving to more of a strategic account management thought process where we spend more trying to understand our customers and accounts, plan how to deliver value, and execute the plan in a way that will provide value to customers. These concepts are simple, but all of the work that goes into being able to do these things is not easy. There are a lot of working parts and we need to put in the due diligence to think through how they fit together.

As leaders, how are we setting the standard that we expect people to spend significant time thinking through concepts before saying, “It’s not simple enough” and throwing out the ideas?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Busy as Bees or Focused as Bees? (6-11-14)

I was mowing over the weekend and all of a sudden these mini-epiphanies started hitting me about bees and busyness. Recently I read a couple articles about why we need to stop bragging about being busy. We all do this by the way. Someone asks how you’re doing and we respond, “Staying busy.” Sometimes we even take it to the next level and list everything we are doing in life just to prove how busy we are. The articles comment on these behaviors and basically say that being busy is a new status symbol and if we aren’t bragging about how busy we are afraid that society won’t value us.

Here is where the bees come in, because there is a saying “busy as bees”. When I was mowing I realized that we have been viewing bees incorrectly. We associate them with being busy when we should associate them with being FOCUSED.

Think for a moment. What are you like and how do you feel when you are BUSY? I feel chaotic, frantic, consumed by activity, like I’m spinning my wheels, not productive, etc. What are you like and how do you feel when you are FOCUSED? I feel honed in, powerful, clarity, streamlined, productive, etc. Big difference right?

Traditionally, we assume bees are busy, because we see them flying around everywhere. We see activity. What we don’t understand is that their activity is focused on one or two goals, gathering food or contributing to the hive. That’s focus. That’s not just being busy. That’s not just activity.

When I think about my career, I don’t think I being busy vs. focused was a matter of the hours I put in. Instead, it was a matter of having my priorities right. What I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt is that when I’m focused my work is leap and bounds better than when I am busy all of the time. Contrary to what we would like to think and tell others, when I’m busy I’m not productive or valuable. When I am focused I am a heck of a lot more valuable to work, my family, and my friends.

Are you a busy bee or a focused bee?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Links to the article I mentioned.

Leadership, Vision, and Ink Blot Tests (4-2-14)

Take a second and look at the picture above. What do you see?

This is an official image from the Rorschach test also known as the ink blot test. Participants view the ink blots, and then are asked to share what they see and how they came to those conclusions.

If you stop and think about it, being a leader is a lot like taking the ink blot test. Your senses are being overloaded with confusing and murky information. Then, you are supposed to gaze into everything that is going on and formulate a crystal clear vision along with rationale for why you see things the way you do. Your vision and your ability to communicate this vision are critical to the success of the team you are leading.

Back to the ink blots. When you looked at the image, you probably only looked for a few short seconds, picked out the first thing you saw, and then settled on that. This is if you even looked at the image at all. If you would look at the image longer you could see other things. The more you practice, the faster you are able to see the patterns. I started by seeing wolves and a butterfly. As I gazed longer I could see an angel, a glider, two women standing back to back, and other things.

The same goes for leadership vision. How often do we create a vision and direction based on a very short time thinking and analyzing the big messy picture? Worse yet, how often do we just proceed not knowing where we are really going? Are you spending enough time looking at the bigger picture and finding the patterns that will enable us to have success and help customers?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Centered vs. Focused->Customer Centricity vs. Customer Focus (2-9-14)

Has anyone else seen that Nike is going to make Marty McFly shoes! That got me daydreaming about going on a day trip in a Delorean.

Let’s take it all the way back to the late 1400s and early 1500s. If you were like most people at the time you would think that the sun is bright and worth focusing on, but the earth is the center of our galaxy. Then, one day Copernicus came along and theorized that actually the sun is the center of our galaxy, not the other way around. Talk about blowing minds and shattering paradigms…

Now, let’s come back to the present. What is your life centered on? What are things that you focus on in life? For me, my life centers on and revolves around my family. Everything I do I do for them. Now I focus on a few things, being a great partner at work, writing poems, performing slam, etc., but everything I do always connects back to my family. Do you see the difference between centered and focused?

I bring this up, because one day a colleague pointed out to me that we use the phrases “customer centric” and “customer focused” like they were interchangeable, but they aren’t. Being customer focused means that we are only this way when we are really thinking about it. On the other hand, being customer centered means that everything we are doing, big or small, revolves around helping customers. If the customer is the sun in our solar system, then that light and gravity should be dictating everything that we do.

Are you customer centered, patient focused, or neither?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Captain America’s Shield and being Proactive (2-12-14)

It’s near Valentine’s Day and we’re being bombarded by images of love. How do you show love and keep love alive? Here is where we can take a page from Captain America’s book. Check out this quick clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqpnjf3NKDo .

Most of the time, a shield is just used for defense, but Captain America uses his shield for a defensive AND an offensive weapon. If you stop a moment and think about people who make you feel loved, I’m sure that you’ll notice a neat pattern. They tend to use their understanding of you the same way that Captain America uses his shield, BOTH reactively and proactively.

Non-work example

Reactive-I know that the dishwasher is full, and I wait until my wife asks me to empty the dishwasher. I do it. She is content.
Proactive- If I know the dishwasher is full, I could empty before she ever asks. Later she sees that I did this without being asked to, and instead of just feeling content, she thinks I’m the best husband in the year. The difference is that I showed initiative which demonstrates that I pay attention to situations, understand how they apply to her, and I take action. (I know, romantic situation right? That’s real when you have kids. That act right there is better than a dozen long stem red roses).

Our Work

Have you ever been asked by a colleague or a customer to do something? You tell them that you’ll have to go work on it/think about it. You go do it and tell them it’s done. The person leaves the situation feeling content. This is using knowledge in a reactive way.

Now, think about the same situation. The colleague or customer asks you to do something. Imagine how different everything becomes if you’re able to respond by saying, “Actually, based on what I learned in past conversations and some of the the things going on, I thought we might run into this. Here’s what I think we can do.” Better yet, you take care of the issue before it even really happens. How do you think that person would feel? I know that when I have seen people who are proactive I walk away super impressed and feeling that they care about the cause I care about. I start having more faith and trust in them.

How cool would it be if we could deliver that type of experience to our customers and each other more often?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Flying Reindeer and Encouragement (12-4-13)

We made it past Thanksgiving and now we are in full tilt holiday season, complete with all kinds of Christmas specials including How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, and good old Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. It’s Rudolph and a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a colleague about motivating people that has me thinking.

Do you know what Santa and great leaders have in common? They help people believe that they can fly (in Santa’s case, it’s reindeer and not people, but that’s just a small difference).

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I ever have walked into work and said, “Dang, this job is too simple.” In fact, I spend a fair amount of time thinking, “Wait, you’re asking me to do what? Do you realize that you’re sounding a little crazy right now? What you’re asking me to do is so big. I don’t know if I can do that.” I wonder if that’s how Rudolph or any of the other reindeer felt when they were first asked to fly.

The fact is that all of our jobs are complicated and only getting harder. Sooner or later someone is going to look at you and ask you to fly. There will be a moment, and in that instant you’ll jump into the air and soar or you won’t. Part of that moment will be on us, on our belief in ourselves, but part of that moment will be on the person asking you to do something difficult. Have they spent time building you up and giving you a reason to believe that you can fly?

I know this whole thing probably sounds corny, but think about the people you know and work with. There are people in my life who care for me, who inspire me, and who make me better, and then there are people who don’t. The ones who inspire me aren’t always people with fancy titles either. Santa (the historical or North Pole variety) is just an old guy motivated to do something nice for children. He still manages to inspire reindeer to soar through the skies and people to do nice things.

Here’s to helping people believe they can fly.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Batteries and Shutting Down vs. Recharging (11-6-13)

Pink. Fluffy. Drum. Rabbit. Energizer Bunny. What an interesting mascot for quite an inventive contraption, the battery. Think of how revolutionary the battery was when it was first introduced. Now a days, batteries can store tons of energy, can dispense it through various methods, and many batteries can even be recharged.

I’ve been thinking a lot about energy and batteries over the past few months leading up to the various meeting cycles. I think we can all agree that these few months have been draining. If the Energizer Bunny was doing our work he would have had to take a break by now.

This got me thinking. Do you shut off or do you recharge?

By design batteries need to do both and we do too. Battery powered devices need to shut off in order to preserve the life of the battery. We need to shut it down from time to time and disconnect from work in order to preserve our heartbeats, our battery life.

The thing is that shutting off is not the same as recharging. There is a big difference between deciding not to use any additional energy and doing something that refills the energy tank. Batteries need to be put in one of the chargers that can transfer energy back into them. We need to do the same. Are we finding those recharging stations? Are we serving as those recharging stations for others? I didn’t realize how bad I needed a recharge until last night. It was the end of the day, I was beat, tired, exhausted. I was invited to a breakout room after the final general session. This room was filled with customer experience champs. They were totally nerds for helping others. They were sharing stories about trying to push the movement forward, sharing successes, AND failures (because they are brave enough to roll that way). You could see it in the room. We were all tired, but as we talked it’s like our energy meters started going from red to green again. I’m sure none of them planned to recharge everyone like that, but that’s what happens when we unleash some of the things that give us energy to push on.

Now, are we all 100% fluffy Energizer Bunnies? No. We will still need to shut down and recuperate, but what I do know is that the energy they gave me put some fuel in the tanks. Do you shut off or do you recharge?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Unleashing your Inner Nerd (9-11-13)

You might have guessed, but I’ve spent the majority of my life as a proud nerd and a studier of nerds. There is a mystical attraction that surrounds nerds. Why? Well, nerds are the walking embodiment of love and passion, and what on earth is more magnetic than that? In case you didn’t know, nerds are classified by what they are obsessed with. You might think that you’re not a nerd, but the fact is that all of us have a little nerd in us somewhere.

For example, if you know who Kit Fisto is, then you’re probably a Star Wars nerd (Kennedy). If you know the difference between a Beater, Seeker, and a Golden Snitch you probably love Quidditch and are a Harry Potter nerd. If you know the differences between cabs, merlots, zinfandels, etc. then you are a “Vino Nerdo”. If your friends have ever told you that you have great taste in clothing that is just a nice way of telling you that you are a fashion nerd. If you spend each week playing a game on the computer where you assemble a team of warriors you are playing World of Warcraft or you’re a Fantasy Football nerd (Sorry. If it has “fantasy” in the title it is by default a nerd activity. This joke was stolen from Mr. Goodwin.)

Any great leader was/is a nerd and had a crusade or something that they were obsessed with. Nerds are the ones who change things. They get together with likeminded nerds and make things happen. I don’t know about you, but whenever I get together with similar nerds I leave energized and elevated to an entirely different level. Look no further than our local Do-It-Yourselfers (DIY nerds). They gather in people’s home and fix stuff…for free…just so they can nerd out. On a larger scale, nerds flock to comic and superhero conventions in droves dressed to the nines like their favorite characters and create experiences that are beyond the imaginations of most people.

I’m in the middle of working on the fall meeting cycle right now and I keep asking myself, What if we were brave enough to become nerds about impacting the lives of patients? What would change? Would that turn meetings into conventions where people came ready with fire and ideas beyond the imaginations of most people on how we could make the lives of patients better?

Here is to unleashing our inner nerd.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

“MacGyver” that. What does your name mean? (6-12-13)

A few weeks ago a diaper genie at my house broke (they call it a diaper genie, because when it’s gone you wish you had one). Anyway, I didn’t have any replacement parts or anything, so instead I got creative, used some super glue and stuff to fix it. I totally MacGyvered the thing. I’m sure we’ve all MacGyvered something in our lives.

MacGyver- noun- a character on a television show.

MacGyver-verb- as in “to MacGyver” to solve a problem with random things at your disposal.

How interesting is it that a character’s name has now become a verb that we can use in everyday life? What if our names were used as verbs, adjective, and nouns in everyday language?

Imagine, when my 14 month old daughter was acting up I could say that she was throwing a “Kanye West” (a huge temper tantrum). On Monday I could wake up and Cem (wear colorful socks that color coordinate with an outfit) or I could PJ (wear sports jackets combined with well placed pocket squares). During meetings I could Charlie Wilson (draw all over a whiteboard with high velocity) or Billy Brown (constantly drop into Six Sigma processes).

For the past week I keep thinking about what my name would mean if someone used it in a sentence as a verb, noun, or adjective. “I just Andrew Embryed that thing.” Hopefully, it would mean something pretty cool.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry