Transformation.
Martin,
let's just kickstart our discussion then a bit on the transformation.
Some people might say the transformation is a bit of a buzzword.
So let's try looking into a bit in that.
How would you describe transformation?
And how would you differentiate that from just
continuous improvement or incremental change?
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: That's a good question,
Pedro.
I mean, I'll be frank with you.
We are hitting a transformation fatigue at the moment.
And it's typically rooted in complexity and never ending deadline.
And as a result,
of course,
it dilutes everything.
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: So if I should,
first of all,
redefine what transformation is,
at least in my own words,
I tend to say it is to speed up a customer recalibration
of your organization.
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: And by customer,
I mean both the external and the internal customer.
So to speed up a customer recalibration of your organization.
Now, Pasquet,
Blasile Pasquet once said,
I wanted to write a shorter letter,
but I didn't have the time.
So if I should boil the essence of transformation down to one
word encapsulating the key to a successful transformation,
well,
then I would,
and I hope you're sitting tight,
everyone,
right now.
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: I will use the one word,
which is empathy.
Let me tell you a little story,
just give you a bit of a subtext around this.
So in 2011,
two young guys were sitting in a dorm room smoking
weeds and they were completely off their head.
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: And you know what these kids are doing.
Of course, they're shooting selfies.
So they shot a couple of selfies,
posted them online.
And of course, the day after hell broke loose.
Parents were freaking out.
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: And of course,
these kids were connecting again,
saying what the heck went wrong.
And one kid is saying to the other,
I wish that we could retract those photos.
Martin, MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: Well, guess what?
A couple of years later,
Snapchat was born and is today a $100 billion company.
Now, why do I tell you this story?
I tell you this story because what's so interesting,
there's a direct correlation between empathy and common sense.
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: And what these two kids actually had or three kids actually
had originally was empathy because they felt the pain themselves.
And they recruited like-minded kids which had a similar experience.
So it became kind of a culture.
So if you should try to be a slightly consulting structure,
just for a second,
if I put up a chart like this where you have should and do on
the left top and you have don't and shouldn't on the bottom.
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: If I should take those two kids and what characterized them?
Well,
in the very top,
you actually have empathy.
And this is what's so interesting because it's
a direct correlation between empathy and common
sense because it's both to do with seeing the
view from the customers or the individual's point of view,
right?
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: So what's interesting,
as these kids are growing this company,
it's based on common sense because,
of course,
common sense is empathy.
And that's a reason why a lot of startups are doing so well because
they are so much in tune that recalibrated to the consumer's mindset.
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: But then I don't need to tell you,
a little bit later,
I think it was in 2000,
what was it,
2016 or 15 that Mark Zuckerberg wanted to buy the company,
this famous deal for $3 billion and they declined.
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: Now, in various records,
and when I spoke to the kids,
they said to me later on,
we didn't want to do it because we were
afraid of what you see in the bottom,
which is the nonsense part.
This is where empathy disappears out of the organization.
That's where you employ compliance and conduct,
you have rules and regulations and all this stuff.
So my message here is that the reason why you're
seeing issues with transformation today is,
in the end of the day,
lack of empathy,
the lack of understanding of customers and
the internal folks in the organization,
which leads to fear.
But Martin,
if that is the case,
how do then we overcome that?
How do we actually bring back kind
of this innovation or this Snapchat,
maybe not the pot part,
but at least some of the other things?
Martin,
MD, PhD, MPH, Ph.D.: It's a good question,
Peter.
Listen,
in the end of the day,
I had to go really deep.
Do you know what?
Let me just show you guys a video.
Take a look at this and then I'll tell you a little bit more.
Yeah.
The three people on the left are actors.
They've been briefed to stand
or sit when they hear this.
Everyone else that's brought in is a genuine shortlisted applicant.
They've been given no instructions
other than to fill out their forms.
My team and I were secretly watching from another room.
The more socially compliant a person is,
the more they're likely to look to others for signs of how to behave.
This is going to be your spot.
And the more people,
the greater the pressure to join in.
In this case, whether to stand
or sit.
Those people that didn't follow the crowd were removed.
I'm going to get to lose Amy, sadly.
Amy.
With me.
Once we had a full house,
we got rid of the actors.
Leaving us with a room full of compliant
people standing up and sitting down,
even though nobody told them to do this.
Hello.
A room full of compliant people.
Isn't that sexy, right?
Super sexy.
Here's the point of all this stuff.
The point is there's two issues.
One is that peer pressure was also quite
often is linked with psychological safety,
which is a topic Amy Edmussen and I
have worked a lot on over the last,
I think,
10,
15 years.
The other component which is important
is what I call the default behavior.
And just to give you an illustration about how difficult this is,
I'm not sure.
I have to ask Shiva and you,
are you brushing your teeth with your
right or your left hand every morning?
With my left, at least.
Left?
Shiva?
With the right as well.
Right.
Oh, okay.
Right as well.
Here's the challenge to you guys.
Imagine that I asked you to brush your teeth
tomorrow morning using the opposite hand.
Now,
most people,
when I ask people to do that,
will say,
oh,
yeah,
I think it's possible.
Do you know what?
Less than 5% are able to do that.
And I bet you just try it for tomorrow.
Everyone wants it.
Try to do that.
This is how hard it is to do transformation
because it requires a change of behavior.
So if I should put up a little model of mine,
it's very simple.
You have the unconscious competence.
That's where you do things in the default way,
right?
Now I'm asking you to brush your teeth,
introducing this change,
and now you have to do a conscious incompetence.
That's why we'll have a 95% drop-off rate.
And then you have to practice new habits.
And that's where transformation falls apart.
And it's first that states it becomes an unconscious competence.
So as you can see,
transformation is much deeper than just the word.
It's to do with psychology in the end of the day,
right?
And that is a really great perspective.
Thanks a lot, Martin.
And we're going to come back to you a bit later on the event.