This is the abridged (tidied up) transcript of Part Four of a Four Part Series of Conversations between two self-described Champions of TED* (*The Empowerment Dynamic). If you’d prefer to listen to the audio podcast, you will find the 11.5-minute sound-bites OR the full 48-minute audio episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or follow these links to my YouTube Podcast:
Susan Dunlop: Welcome back to the final episode of our four-part mini-series on the transformative power of TED*® and the 3 Vital Questions. I’m Susan Dunlop, and I’m happy to chat again with Sheri Lawrence. In this episode, we will reflect on key insights and examine what could go wrong with bringing TED*® and 3VQ into an organisation, or simply, ‘advice for the sceptics’. The idea of scepticism made me wonder what the common reservations and concerns about implementing such a cultural change in organisational settings are. So whether you’re a leader contemplating TED*® for the first time or deepening your understanding of how TED*® can evolve within your organisation, this episode is for you.
We’ll explore practical advice for replacing scepticism with a focus on inspired outcomes, adapting TED*® to diverse contexts, and what the future holds for learning and development. Let’s uncover how TED*® can continue making a meaningful impact. Welcome Sheri.
Sheri Lawrence: Thank you. I am happy to be here and sorry that this is our last.
Susan Dunlop: I could go on forever, though, so watch out saying that! First of all, Sheri, thank you for committing to this series. You were asked to appear in one episode, and then I saw how much we could speak about. So I put it out there that we would do four parts, and you said, yes, let’s do that.
All week, I’ve been thinking about what insights I have personally taken away from reflecting, participating in the conversations, editing the full audio, creating the soundbites, and reviewing the transcript for the blog! Let’s say I’ve been very immersed in TED*®, your wisdom, and the learnings of how a large multi-site organisation can make TED*® become part of your cultural change in the long term.
Talking as we have, we’ve made you go back down the path from beginning to full integration of TED*® as you are today in Studio Movie Grill. Have particular insights stood out to you over the past few weeks?
Sheri Lawrence: Yeah, absolutely. A lot of times in business, you just trudge forward. This has given me an opportunity to look back and see where we started and see all the things that we’ve learned. I think this has been good for me, from the standpoint of, feeling like we are putting something out there that really is going to help other companies find some solutions to maybe some of their struggles.
So it’s been an absolute joy to walk back through this, and I think it’s also helped as we move forward to tweak a few things.
Susan Dunlop: There were so many insights that came up through each of the episodes. The soundbites were really hard to choose from, and we had to get it down to less than 15 minutes of our hour-or-so conversations.
But to me, there were some really pertinent messages. Some of them, I think people may go, “Oh, I don’t know if I really want to know that,” like the necessity of continuous practice, leadership buy-in, and organisational commitment. There are quite a few elements that, if people are not used to making this type of change, may make them pull back from it, do you think?
Sheri Lawrence: I think there are a lot of organisations like us when we started. Every year, they think, okay, what can we bring to the company this year to make us better? You spend the time pulling people together and going through it. Three months later, you realise only 5 percent of it is still in place. That’s a habit of a lot of companies because it’s easy.
To go through a one-time learning, it’s hard to build it into your culture or, even personally, to make it a habit. On the other hand, I think if, as an organisation, they look at the long term and decide what they really want their company to look like long term, and for their employees, then that’s where the commitment comes in.
Susan Dunlop: And thinking about those two FISBEs we’ve spoken about that are part of the TED*® model, you can go in that cycle of, ‘Oh, there’s a problem. Let’s fix it. I need to find a solution.’ That’s what a lot of companies do. And those three insights I shared probably fit into that space of, say, the necessity of continuous practice. How are we going to do that? We won’t be able to. So people will try to skim their way around it rather than immerse themselves as you have. But you committed to a bigger outcome in the beginning, and that’s where you’ve headed.
Sheri Lawrence: Yeah, knowing what we were committed to was a little easier. What I mean by that is the handful of us that had read the book and really dug in and realised what this could be. It was easier to commit to bringing something into our culture that we knew would not only help our employees be more productive, help our company be more productive, but also help our employees when they’re not working.
We wanted to help our employees at work and outside of work. So, it met that commitment that we had made internally.
Susan Dunlop: And learning, not just in terms of the technical skills, it’s that impact beyond the workplace that this will have. You’re offering your people personal or deep personal growth, not just professional growth.
Sheri Lawrence: It absolutely is. As a company, years ago, we prided ourselves on being really good at training our employees in their positions. And they were good. But when we started helping our employees learn how to be more productive, learn how to be better people, if you will, they were great people. To balance some of these things that many of us don’t get taught, we realised that that’s really how you show your employees that you care about them.
Susan Dunlop: And as you said, in all the other chats, there are so many stories that you could draw on to show that. And I’ve seen that as well in my own experience.
Those moments when you just know you could have communicated differently, or you could have guided a conversation towards an outcome versus getting trapped up in that fight, flight or freeze, that’s there for a purpose, but not necessarily healthy to have in a workplace when you’re trying to work towards something that’s big and good for your stakeholders.
Sheri Lawrence: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I had one of those moments today where I sent an email to somebody and I didn’t quite catch myself before I hit send, but I caught myself as soon as I did. It wasn’t bad, but my concern was I didn’t know how the other person was going to take this. If they take it the wrong way, that’s a mistake on my part as a leader.
And so I picked up the phone and called them. That would have 10 years ago, turned into a big mess.
Susan Dunlop: I think emails were the beginning of a big mess when it comes to communication. I’d say many organisations have not gone so well because of the mighty email over a face-to-face or phone conversation. We’ve lost that skill that we did have before.
Sheri Lawrence: Email is dangerous sometimes.
Susan Dunlop: The other insights that I’ve come across, which I would say are in that real space of the outcome focus… and mind you, those first three that I did mention, they can also be experienced as outcomes-focused, like the leadership buy-in and organisational commitment. We’ve talked about the impact beyond the workplace, personal and professional growth, the common language.
But one really big word that stood out to me was alignment. You’ve said that in each of the episodes, that alignment on the desired outcome of the common goal of the company is such a big piece in this.
Sheri Lawrence: It kind of goes back to when we were talking a couple of sessions ago about, When you’re going from Dallas to L.A., are you all taking the same road, or are you going different ways? Alignment is key, and for us, we thought communication was key. Communication is important, there’s no two ways about it. But if you’re not aligned, you can communicate all day long, and it still doesn’t get you where you are.
But if you’re all aligned on that desired outcome, the five-step action plan is huge to do that. If you’re all aligned on where you’re going, it makes it easier to discuss things like budget. Every leader wants a budget and a bucket of money to do the things they want to do, but sometimes if you add up the bucket of money that every leader wants, it’s more than the budget.
So that doesn’t work, right? If everybody’s aligned, you can have those conversations about, Hey, I want to roll out this new software program. Does it align with where we’re going? Maybe. Then, automatically, you can bring the conversation back to Does it align with where we’re going? Does it align with what we want to accomplish? It really makes a difference in where you’re spending your time, and time is money.
Susan Dunlop: That’s so important. Communication is really helpful when it then comes back to the alignment piece. Another gem of yours. Thank you. The other insight that stood out to me was the measurement of the cost of drama. That was huge. That was a really big piece last week.
Are there any other ones that we should check in with before we move into the next part about diverse contexts?
Sheri Lawrence: That’s an interesting question. I think the cost of drama is huge, and it’s a primary reason to bring the power of TED*® in.
Through these conversations, we’ve talked about the problem orientation versus the solution in that, but there is one piece that’s missing and that’s measuring the cost of productivity after you bring in the power of TED*® because. If you measure the drama and then you bring the power of TED*® in, you will see a decrease in the drama.
Therefore, each individual organisation can put a dollar figure on that. One of the things that I think is a great tool is just a simple check-in with the leader. How much drama do you think is happening in your department? A lot of leaders say none, but then I tell them, go ask your team members, go ask your employees.
That’s when they really find out where the drama is.
If you can take a snapshot of that and bring power of TED*® in, then you can start looking at the decline in drama, which means productivity is going up, employee happiness is going up, and you can really build a case for moving it through the organisation.
Susan Dunlop: I’ve heard examples of the open door to the office and people noticing that there’s not so many dramas being brought in, cycling through that doorway. I know my bookkeeper used to come in a couple of days a week into my office and she could see across to my office door. She said it was just like this constant flow.
I would be conscious that I was trying to work on something and listen to what was happening. I was trying to always be in the space of thinking, see it as it is, not worse than it is. That was the only thing that saved me because I hadn’t done TED*® yet.
But it was the only way I could pull myself together, and think what is this person saying that I need to do anything about right now? That thankfully saved me, but yeah, the amount of time that I lost by even listening to that rather than saying, Hey, how about we all get together and have a really good chat about what we are all focusing on right now.
And I would have probably allayed some more time-wasting because they went back and told someone they said this to me, and then they would say, Oh, well, I’m going to go and tell her this.
Sheri Lawrence: The other thing that I noticed here is that those visits started slowing down as well because we were teaching our team members how to handle these situations between each other. They didn’t have to run to their mother or father and say, “Well, you know, this person is doing this, and this person is doing this.”
We created this culture with the power of TED*® to be able to have these conversations. And so the visits to the boss’s office were minimised for several different reasons.
Susan Dunlop: And if I’d stepped into the coach or the challenger role or focused on the bigger picture, I could have helped that person rather than enabled her to keep doing that repeatedly. My bookkeeper said, you keep letting her do it. I said I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to stop it. It sort of beat me down into this corner going, Oh, I’ve got to keep rescuing her until I can’t rescue anymore.
Sheri Lawrence: Or avoid them, right?
Susan Dunlop: That’s it.
Sheri Lawrence: Oh, I’m busy. I’m sorry. Come back later.
Susan Dunlop: And my dear old dad, he always worked in admin, and he came and worked in my office for probably ten years of the time we had that company, and he hated when I closed my door. He’d say: you’ve got to let them in!
No, I don’t.
Yes you do!
Sheri Lawrence: that’s always a tough one.
Susan Dunlop: Oh, yes, you’re used to having to be the problem solver. Be that person.
Sheri Lawrence: Yep.
Susan Dunlop: I’ve definitely learnt over the years; learning from mistakes is the way to go.
The other insight was about embracing the ripple effect, which is so powerful, a big insight that has come out across every part of our conversations.
It’s been beautiful to consider that.
Sheri Lawrence: Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. We talk about being kind, paying it forward, I remember there was a thing a few years ago where it was like, pay for the person’s coffee behind you. Just be kind. I kind of equate this to that because not only are we helping somebody understand this concept, but it’s an eye opener if you are somebody that is in this situation.
We have team members that have it tough at home, dealing with a lot of different things. You talk about the Power of TED*® to them, and they think, well, I can apply it at work, but home is different. Then they see that, oh, wait a minute, this is a way of being, this isn’t just something to do for work or something, it’s pretty amazing.
Being able to pass this on and see this ripple through your organisation or whatever group, it’s pretty amazing.
Susan Dunlop: That’s a perfect segue into our next section. It’s not just a workplace tool or framework. It is about being. And I can see how people I’ve spoken with, clients in coaching, I’ll say you might want to explore this. And they’re like, what’s that going to do for me? My husband’s just a pain. I suggest just reading the book and coming back. Let’s have a chat. And then they’re saying, Ah, I can see! So they could see what they’ve been experiencing for so long from different perspectives. They did start to make a change in themselves and how they were responding, which is beautiful to watch.
Sheri Lawrence: Absolutely.
Susan Dunlop: So regarding the diverse context, we’ll talk about what you do in your workplace in that regard. I came across it while working with the Hong Kong team as an international school. All the teachers come in from all around the world for two or three-year contracts. There are a lot of the nationals there as well. We had a team of 50, from the janitor to the principal and teachers. All sorts of people. Therapy people. All sorts of stuff. It was a special school.
I picked up via feedback forms as I went through the process of each of the modules we do that you have to consider the cultural norms and expectations. I asked more about that, and it was about how a person living in a multi-generational household may be expected to play the roles that they do. Those roles can trap them in the dreaded drama triangle.
That affects how they see they might need to show up at work.
Some cultures with strong traditions might resist frameworks like this, perceived as foreign or disruptive to their norms.
Have you encountered that in any way, or have you dealt with it with sensitivity if that type of thing has arisen at work?
Sheri Lawrence: So we have to some degree. We’re culturally diverse, especially in our locations. We work with our employees on the cultural pieces important to them for work. You bring up a great point about some cultures and the roles that people play within those cultures and it’s very important to them because it is part of who they are and their culture.
What I’ve seen is that once they start applying it at work, it becomes a habit, and they begin to see how they can use it in their personal lives to avoid the drama triangle. If a culture says that a female or a male does these things, with the power of TED, we always have a choice.
So, if that culture is very important to us, then we have a choice: to follow the culture. If we can stay in the empowerment dynamic, we’re not feeling victimized by that. We are making a choice, and a lot of that emotion and that victim feeling goes away.
Susan Dunlop: it might keep you over in the FISBE, the problem-focused one, and that fuels your conversation differently, but if you’re staying over in TED, you’re working towards what you said you wanted to work towards. You’re respectful in your conversations with people. People respect each other.
So that disrespect or that challenging… no, that’s more persecution than challenging, just drops away a little bit more.
Sheri Lawrence: Yeah. If I had to sum up the power of TED*® for anybody who applies it, no matter what situation they’re in or who they are, it would be that it gives us the understanding of the power of choosing.
We may be in a situation that we don’t enjoy, but we can choose how we handle it. That alone helps us be much happier and much more productive people.
Susan Dunlop: It’s a section that interests me. And I know I need to work towards as a trainer, to be conscious of the resistance to change, cultural sensitivity and the use of inclusive language.
I’ll customize my training to meet that. It’s not just about, say, reading a book, and I know what I’m going to do. There is this beautiful depth to this work.
I remember someone sharing in one of our community of practice meetings: They spoke to one of the coaches, and said, “I decided I’m just going to let it all just be. I’m not going to worry about it anymore.”
The coach asked her a question, and she realized that she had dropped to the lowest level of feeling like a victim she had ever been. And that blew my mind. I was like, am I doing that? Am I saying that too? So when people say, “Just let it go in a workplace,” that’s also not what we’re talking about here. It’s not saying put up with anything.
Sheri Lawrence: I tell our team members all the time, “If this isn’t what you want to do, if this isn’t the path you want to go down, it’s okay to move on, to go find your happiness.” If this is where you want to be for now, then you need to step into the power dynamic because, from there, you will see things differently.”
Sometimes, when I tell people about this, they wonder about me! It sounds easy when you explain it to somebody, but like you said; there’s such depth in this. I mean, it’s taken me over ten years to understand it the way I do now, but you work at it, practice it, and understand it a little bit better.
But there’s nothing worse than living in the drama triangle, feeling like you’re a victim to the situation around you. Or, I guess I’ll just stay in this rotten job because what else do I have to do? You start telling yourself awful things that are not true about yourself and you give up your power to choose.
Susan Dunlop: Very important point. And that’s the beauty of this work. When we’re talking about its depth, it’s the opening up of a whole team. Taking their roles, if they were tags on their shirts, they would drop them on the table outside the door, and they would all walk in and sit around the table as equals.
They’re showing up knowing they can trust that it’s a safe environment to talk about that. If it’s going to work towards the outcome that it’s a stronger team by being able to speak your truth respectfully. That’s the depth of this work.
Sheri Lawrence: Everyone is valued, and everyone has something to say.
Too often, as leaders, we get so busy and caught up in all the things that we’re supposed to be doing or that we put on ourselves that we stop seeing our employees and team members as creators, as somebody who has great input on what they do every day. I so loved what you just said, that when you can walk into a room and leave the titles behind, everyone feels equal in that moment. That’s when you can really have great conversations and move forward, whether it be a personal group or a business group.
The more people that go through this, the more champions there are, and the more people you have leading it. The great thing is that it’s not one person having to chase everybody down and keep it alive. As people go through this and see the value in it, they want it for the people who work in their team. Then it starts growing on its own.
Susan Dunlop: So, in terms of the trends in learning and development, is there something that you’ve seen evolving that we need to be conscious of?
Sheri Lawrence: Well, I think everybody knows about AI; it’s like, on the top of probably every learning and development leader’s mind, some leaders have gotten further than others with anything. There are pros and cons. And there’s always the concern of security. AI is a huge piece; chatGPT, and all of that can make learning and development much easier.
But another one that we really see gain some ground is understanding generational differences in the workplace and helping different generations realise that just because a generation is younger or older than you doesn’t mean they don’t have something that should be heard.
So, taking that and using AI survey-based platforms to really gather data—information that used to take a lot longer to get—you want to reach frontline employees and ask them, “Hey, does this process need to be improved? And if so, what would you suggest?” because they’re the ones doing the job day in and day out. Now we can reach them so much quicker and gather information so much faster. Our younger generation, in our businesses, grew up on the internet. They grew up using their phones. So they’re very quick to use their phone to communicate with us. A lot of it is using technology to help us get to and communicate with our team members much quicker.
Susan Dunlop: Some of the tech that’s coming through and the use of AI: I’ve seen other trainers have programs where they’re issuing learning to leaders. For example, the leader will receive prompts such as ‘these are three questions you can ask your people today’ to help them hone their own skills at communicating more effectively.
Have you looked at anything like that within your organisation?
Sheri Lawrence: We do something similar on our LMS. All of our employees have access to our LMS and it’s where they go to do all the training and learning, but we also have a social piece to that. We do fun things on it. We send them weekly suggestions on things to do to motivate their team. Any way we can help keep everybody aligned.
Susan Dunlop: Okay. We’re going to touch on the sceptics now. It’s a very positive topic because I love how we can see that these issues are addressed and are not such a problem after all. That is, when we look at scepticism and resistance to TED*®. We’ve covered the resistance from a manager and an executive. We’ve also looked at the common fears that executives may have around ROI, workflow disruption, and learning sustainability. We addressed all of that last week.
So three that we could touch on here are:
1. the concern over external versus internal guidance.
Some sceptics may question the value of external facilitators versus internal development programs. They may prefer internal guidance for reasons such as organisational culture, fit, and cost.
In this episode, I’m going to share some of the references that I picked this information from, and in this case, it was the Harvard Business Review article, The Advantages of External Facilitators.
Let’s examine the Center for the Empowerment Dynamic. Four case studies of the Center are easily available. Yours was one of them. In considering bringing in an external consultant, as you all did, with David Emerald and Donna Zajonc, to be exact, how do you feel the balance or the flow of that worked for you?
Sheri Lawrence: We went internal because we wanted this to be part of our culture. It was going to take a lot more internal work, and the cost of having an external facilitator just didn’t fit.
I always look at what our leadership team is experts in, and the team is involved in teaching and helping our people learn. If there’s something that we want that we’re not experts in, then I challenge you to determine if it’s more cost-effective to have someone, at least at first, come in.
Working with David and Donna, there was no way that we could have internally started TED*® the way they did for us. Their expertise, of course, and their longevity with the work. The more you work with this, the deeper it goes. There’s a lot of value in bringing someone in who truly has that expertise.
For some companies, having an external facilitator bring it in helps integrate it into the company. For other companies, especially those with several locations, we’re in the hospitality industry. Turnover is fairly high in our locations, and it made more sense for us to certify a few people and bring it in internally. I really think that’s it.
Susan Dunlop: With David and Donna, did you meet them at Stagen?
Sheri Lawrence: I was introduced to TED*® through the learning at the Stagen Leadership Academy, but I met David and Donna at a conference several months later. That’s when we met and started talking about TED*® and how to integrate it and bring it internally to the culture, so that’s kind of when that started.
Susan Dunlop: For the other case studies, I know Stagen was where a few of them met. I often reference the Cleveland Clinic because it speaks to me in my healthcare background. The leaders have become internal facilitators. They’ve put over 1,000 leaders or emerging leaders through this work.
It is incredible to think that that size organisation has worked out a way to bring this in, and they said that they constantly get asked to bring TED*® into the annual training plan. All the people ask for it, which is just incredible.
Sheri Lawrence: Yeah, it’s amazing. And that’s where you see a company or organisation that has worked with an external facilitator coach and has realised that it’s a perfect fit for their company, and they want to take it to the next level.
That’s why it makes sense to consider getting internal certification.
Susan Dunlop: I’d love to support more people doing that. I love doing what I do externally, but to honour the process and honour that sustainability, you have to let it spread throughout the organisation with that commitment from the champions that are in there.
So, there is general scepticism about new methods. Have you come across anything like that in how you’re operating there? Does anyone say this is a bright idea? Here she goes again. Is she going to fill the gap between something that failed before and she’s going to come up with a nice, bright, shiny object?
I had a coach in Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. It was the work of Verne Harnish in Canada, and that led me to read Patrick Lencioni’s work. I could see what I was doing by jumping around to find ways to make us better, which was my intention to make us a company that was the best we could be.
Yet that was reducing the trust. It was creating internal conflict. Everyone was coming up with their own unwritten ground rules. Accountability got disregarded, and commitment dropped away. We’d lose people. The gee-up about the results that we first got excited about after the strategic planning process was like a distant memory in the end.
Sheri Lawrence: Yes, we did a little bit of Verne’s work here years ago. Our CEO at the time loved his stuff. When we bounced around, yes we bounced around, we were like, Oh, well, let’s do this, let’s do that. And it was like you felt like you had to have something new to put in front of people.
As we started to see these people run away from it, we realised that, well, wait a minute. Basically, we’re just shotgunning this, right? I don’t know if they say it in other places, but here in Texas, we say we’re just throwing jello at the wall to see what sticks.
And you’d say, “Oh, everybody liked this, so we will use that.” So we had all these processes from 10 different programs. They didn’t line up with each other. That’s when we realised, “Wait a minute. Maybe we need to take something deeper and really have an impact.”
Now, when I talk to other L and D leaders or business leaders and they ask me about it, the first thing I ask them is, “Do you want to go deep in the learning and drive it all through the company? “Or do you want to just try a whole bunch of stuff every year to make it look like you’re trying to learn things? “
And because that’s how our people felt. They felt like we were throwing stuff out there to say we were doing something.
Susan Dunlop: I’ve seen that so many times in other organisations too. It’s a common thing. Other people in change management have shared with me that they finally got the contract because that bucket of money has finally been released and they’ve got to spend it all at once in that financial year. There are three months left by the time the money comes up. So they’re like, sure, we can offer you this, this, this. And she said it’s adrenaline-fueled quick fixes. Let’s find the solution to this problem. It is like that up-and-down rollercoaster that takes you longer to get where you want to go in the end.
Sheri Lawrence: Yeah, it really is.
Susan Dunlop: Forbes published an article related to that, “Why new leadership models are essential.”
We’ve got to talk about the last one, noting that we did talk about sustained learning, but we didn’t touch on behaviour change.
There is often scepticism about whether the principles learned through any leadership program might lead to lasting behavioural changes and ongoing engagement. I found that in Gallup’s article: The real future of employee engagement. Let’s talk about long-term behaviour change.
We’ve talked about the cost of drama.
We’ve talked about the increased productivity.
Is there a way that we can measure long-term behaviour change?
Sheri Lawrence: I absolutely think so. One of the things that you can measure is a reduction in HR issues. If you think about when the issues that the HR department will come across their desk from the standpoint of maybe a manager not communicating properly to their employees or an employee feeling disregarded, those typically will diminish because managers have learned how to see their employees in a different light and communicate with them better,
turnover should reduce depending on the industry you’re in. A lot of the data now says that people stay with companies if offered additional learning and opportunities to grow. Of course, we always say, Oh, money’s not important. Money is important. We have to pay our bills.
People really appreciate it when companies help them learn and grow, so that’s a biggie. You can measure it that way. There are a lot of different things that you can measure in and around those areas.
HR is a big one because the cost of HR issues or the projected cost can be enormous. And I think that’s a red flag for people who are asking, would this be good for our organisation? How many HR issues are you dealing with?
Susan Dunlop: Yeah. And through quality management systems, when we have that feedback loop from the customer satisfaction surveys or issues that arise, much of it would be referenced back to this.
In my case, it was a nurse going into a hospital. If they had this, then they would have shown up to the shift and said, Okay, so I’m here. What are we looking to get through this morning for the next eight hours? and to have stepped in there rather than show up, going, okay, I’m the agency. I can see they don’t want me here. That’s how it used to feel to a lot of agency staff. So they’d have to just rattle their way around the edges to try and make it through. And then errors can happen, and that can impact the outcomes for the patients or even the patient’s family’s experience. That real worry of having to watch what’s going on is because you’re not quite sure that mum or dad is in safe hands after all when communication and alignment aren’t there.
Sheri Lawrence: Yeah, absolutely.
Susan Dunlop: Wow. Okay. The other additional resources I’ll mention are: We’ve talked about probably a hundred times through this, is the book The Power of TED*® by David Emerald. His other book is The 3 Vital Questions: Transforming Workplace Drama. Both of those books are really good resources that set out the frameworks. They address common concerns in the way the stories are shared. They are very relatable. Then, there are case studies and all sorts of advice that you can gain through the Center itself.
They give a really well-rounded perspective on issues, including sceptical concerns, and they helped me shape my discussion with Sheri as I approached this series.
So it’s time to wrap up. How did that happen?
Sheri Lawrence: No…
Susan Dunlop: No… I’ve enjoyed these conversations so much, and they’ve opened my mind and inspired me to consider the possibilities for organisations that I can bring this work to as an external consultant.
I’ve so many notes. And you’ve given me brilliant lessons and aha moments. I’ve got blog material to cover me from what we’ve covered for the next three months. So thank you, lovely Sheri, for so many insights and stories. Before we started this recording today, you gave me something on my action plan to pull together a panel of business leaders to see whether we can share some obstacles or discuss how they might bring TED*® into their organisation.
You are a light, and thank you so much for filling my screen with so many wonderful ideas. I’ve got much more to work with.
Sheri Lawrence: Thank you, Susan. I have really enjoyed it. I love your passion about getting this out there because we both know how much it can help. Thank you for being a champion and a light on your side of the world.
Susan Dunlop: We get to light up the world together.
Sheri Lawrence: That’s right.
Susan Dunlop: So listeners, in summary, TED*® and 3VQ provide a practical, vision-driven approach to closing the gap between current performance and desired outcomes. By focusing on incremental progress, outcome-oriented planning, and maintaining a clear vision, these frameworks help businesses achieve their goals with less stress and greater efficiency.
If you’re interested in exploring how TED*® and 3VQ can benefit your organisation, feel free to reach out for more information on implementing these powerful tools. I am one of the licensed facilitators, like Sheri, delivering TED*® and 3VQ. I am in Australia and work face-to-face or virtually, anywhere that makes good sense for time zones and business hours.
Over a hundred certified 3VQ trainers worldwide are now available to support you, and I can put you in contact with those. Please check out the Center for the Empowerment Dynamics website. To purchase any of the online courses, message me, as the trainers can secure great rates or put you on the path towards the right program.
If you’re interested in reading or listening to the founders’ books, David Emerald and Donna Zajonc’s award-winning books are available on Amazon. If you want to buy those books in bulk for your people and you’re not in the USA, Amazon allowed us free shipping to the 50 staff in Hong Kong. That worked out much more cost-effectively than me trying to ship them directly from the Center in the USA.
As we close out, was there one key takeaway or insight you jotted down from this conversation or any of the last three? If you have any questions about today’s episode or any part of the series, please contact me via my website: www.susandunlop.com.au.
You can also message me on LinkedIn or connect with me there.
On Instagram, I’m found simply as: leadbelievecreate.
Thank you once again for being here with us. Trust that you are blessed even when you forget that you are blessed. Take care of yourself. I really look forward to being back soon. Bye for now.