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[Assistant] Rows of venerable chairs, high-backed and narrow, stools still more antiquated, on whose cushioned tops were yet apparent traces of half-effaced embroideries, wrought by fingers that for two generations had been coffin-dust.


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[Assistant] All these relics gave to the third story of Thornfield Hall the aspect of a home of the past, a shrine of memory. I liked the hush, the gloom, the quaintness of these retreats in the day.


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[Assistant] But I by no means covered it a night's repose on one of those wide and heavy bits. Shut in some of them with doors of oak.


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[Assistant] Shaded, others, with wrought English old hangings crusted with thick work, portraying effigies of strange flowers and stranger birds and strangest human beings, all which would have looked strange indeed by the pallid gleam of moonlight.


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[Assistant] No, they occupy a range of smaller apartments to the back. No one ever sleeps here.


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[Assistant] One would almost say that if there were a ghost at Thornfield Hall, this would be its haunt. So I think you have no ghost then? None that I ever heard of, returned Mrs Fairfax, smiling.


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[Assistant] Nor any traditions in one. No legends or ghost stories? I believe not.


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[Assistant] And yet it is said the Rochester's have been rather a violent than a quiet race in their time.


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[Assistant] Perhaps, though, that is the reason they rest tranquilly in their graves now. Yes, after life's fitful fever they sleep well, I muttered. Where are you going now, Mrs Fairfax? For she was moving away. On to the leads. Will you come and see the view from thence? I followed still, up a very narrow staircase to the attics.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And thence by a ladder and through a trap door to the roof of the hall. I was now on a level with a crow colony and could see into their nests. Leaning over the battlements and looking far down, I surveyed the grounds laid out like a map.


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[Assistant] The bright and velvet lawn closely girdling the grey base of the mansion. The field, wide as a park, dotted with its ancient timber. The wood, dun and seer, divided by a path visibly overgrown, greener with moss than the trees with foliage. The church at the gates. The road.


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[Assistant] The tranquil hills, all reposing in the autumn's day sun.


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[Assistant] The horizon bounded by a propitious sky, azure, marbled with pearly white.


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[Assistant] One day, Mr Bumble came to tell them about a woman who had died in an extremely poor part of the town, and Sowerbury and Oliver went to collect the body.


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[Assistant] They went down dirty, narrow streets where the houses on either side were tall and large, but very old.


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[Assistant] Some of the houses were almost falling down and had to be supported by huge blocks of wood.


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[Assistant] The area was so poor that even the dead rats in the street looked as though they had died of hunger.


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[Assistant] They found the right house


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[Assistant] As Sowerbury began to measure the body for a coffin, the man knelt on the floor and cried out, She starved to death, I tell you. That's why she died. He fell to the floor, and all the children behind him started to cry. Sowerbury and Oliver, their work done, left as fast as they could.


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[Assistant] I think sometimes people get into projects such as cathedrals or carving a mountain or the sphinx and anything that's going to take a long, long time.


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[Assistant] His vision for this project was so big.


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[Assistant] Korczak didn't think it was important to see it finished himself, or for anyone to see it finished.


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[Assistant] He said the important thing is that you keep on working and you never stop.


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[Assistant] I don't have the foggiest idea how long it's going to take. I honestly don't think Korchak did.


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[Assistant] We hope it will grow and plan that it will. And it's for the Indian people tomorrow and on into the future for as many generations as it continues. It's a dream that's becoming a legacy.


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[Assistant] In this video, we're going to see a specific example of changing a basis.


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[Assistant] So, what I've got down here is two different bases. I have a B basis, which has got two vectors. They're literally independent, and so they're a basis for our two.


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[Assistant] And a C basis where I've got another pair of vectors that are again linearly independent, and so are again, are gonna be a basis for R2.


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[Assistant] Now, what I want to do is figure out how do I transform a vector from the B basis into the C basis. So, I'll remind you how the formula works.


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[Assistant] Suppose I was interested in figuring out what some particular vector x was, if I could express it in the C basis. Then,


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[Assistant] What we decided was that this was gonna be some big matrix.


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[Assistant] Multiplied by that same vector x, but this time the vector x is expressed in the b basis.


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[Assistant] And then what went into the matrix? Well, you put the basis vectors for B in there, that is the B1 and the B2, but...


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[Assistant] You had to express both of these vectors in the C basis. So in other words,


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[Assistant] If you could convert just the b basis vectors into the c basis, then you could convert everything into the c basis by multiplying by that same matrix.


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[Assistant] Okay, so that's our goal. I wanna express B1 in the C basis first, I wanna express B2 in the C basis, and then I'll be able to do everything else just by this particular formula.


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[Assistant] And we have a formula here. Uh, one possibility was that we could come along here and we could just write this as the c1 and the c2 and I don't make any changes and that that was precisely going to be the vector b1.


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[Assistant] This is just our first approach where I can take any vector, say that b1, and I can write it in the c basis by this particular formula. However,


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[Assistant] What I actually want to do is to invert this formula. I'm trying to find this.


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[Assistant] I'm trying to find the b1 vector in the c basis. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take this c1 and I'm going to invert it and I'm going to put it over there.


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[Assistant] So, let me get rid of this particular coefficient matrix, and I'm gonna come and I'm gonna put it over on this side. It's gonna be the C1, the C2, and whatever that matrix is, I'm therefore going to invert it. And this gives me my way of expressing the B1 in the C basis.


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[Assistant] So, what do I have to do here? I've got specific numbers, so let's plug them in. Well, this is gonna be the inverse of 1, 1, 1, 2.


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[Assistant] In other words, I've taken this C basis and I've put those in for the columns.


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[Assistant] And then I'm gonna be multiplying by my b1, and my b1 is 7, 5.


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[Assistant] Remembering again that when I talk about my basis vectors and I don't put a subscript, it's because I'm referring to them in the standard basis.


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[Assistant] Now thankfully we have this clean little way by which we can compute the inverse of a 2x2 matrix. We remember that out the front is the 1 over AD minus BC, so 1 over the main diagonal, which is 2, minus the off diagonal, which is 1. So it looks like it's just a 1 out the front.


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[Assistant] And then I alternate the a and the d. So this is going to be a 2 here and a 1 there. And I put minus 1 in front of the b and the c. Alright?


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[Assistant] And then I've got that same seven five. And now this is just a computation I can go and compute. And what am I gonna get?


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[Assistant] Well, the 1 over 2 minus 1, that's just a 1, I'm gonna ignore that from now on. Looks like I'm gonna get a 14 minus a 5 is going to be a 9 on the top, and a minus 7 plus a 5 is gonna be a minus 2 on the bottom. So I claim that is my b1 in the c basis. I'm gonna repeat quickly the same thing for b2.


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[Assistant] Alright, so I have my B1 and my B2 both written in that C basis.


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[Assistant] Okay, so let's figure out how we're supposed to use them. You'll recall that we had this formula here.


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[Assistant] This was gonna be our change of basis formula. Now I know the B1 in the C basis and I know the B2 in the C basis. So let's come down here.


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[Assistant] And I'm gonna get my result that if I want to take any vector x, and I want to write it in the C basis, what is it going to be? Well, it's the b1 in the C basis, this 9 minus 2, and then the second column is going to be the b2 in the C basis, so the 7 minus 5.


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[Assistant] If I want to take a specific example of this, I could say, suppose I have a specific vector x.


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[Assistant] And it's gonna be the vector, how about 1, 1? So I'm saying that this vector in the B basis is gonna be 1, 1. Then if I want to know what that same vector is in the C basis, it's gonna be the 9, 7, minus 2, minus 5.


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[Assistant] That matrix, all multiplied by 1, 1, and what do we get? 9 plus 7 is 16, minus 2, minus 5 is minus 7, and I get this vector here.


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[Assistant] So what I want to focus on is that change of basis matrix. I want to focus on that matrix which was the B1 written in the C basis and the B2 written in the C basis as well.


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[Assistant] One of the things that we had seen in the previous video, and we can get out of how we just computed that, is that effectively what this was, was


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[Assistant] C1, C2, so the columns are just the basis vectors for C2, and then we inverted it, and we multiplied it against each of the two different B1s. So, the B1 and the B2.


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[Assistant] So if you prefer to sort of collapse what we did above from two different steps down to one step, that's what you could do. It really would be the same thing, it would just be a matter of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First going and figuring out the C matrix, inverting it, and then multiplying it against the B matrix all at once, opposed to what we did above, which was multiply it by the B1 first, and then multiply it by the B2 second. I don't really mind. One further interpretation of this is the following.


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[Assistant] Suppose I'm multiplying this to just some vector x that's being specified, and it's gonna be a vector x which is living in the b basis. Well,


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[Assistant] If I look at what just that portion of it is, right, the B matrix multiplied by this vector in the B basis, then what is this just going to be? This is just going to be a vector in the standard basis.


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[Assistant] What that is doing is taking this vector which is in the standard basis now and putting it into the C basis. Or in other words, this is going to be from the standard.


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[Assistant] So in other words, under this way of thinking about it, what I'm doing is first is multiplying by a matrix that takes it from the B basis to the standard basis, and then I multiply by the C matrix that takes it from the standard basis out to the C basis.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So instead of going directly from B to C, what's really happening in this particular matrix is that you're going from the B through the standard to the C.


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[Assistant] Now of course all these different ways of thinking about our equivalent and for the purpose of computing it out, I don't really mind. I've given you a few different options that you can pick and choose from.


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[Assistant] It's a daily talk show episode, 361, live from the big strawberry. What? Anyone else expecting more than that? Can I do it?


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[Assistant] Well, I mean, so where we are right now is in Coonamoo, which is northern Victoria, I think. Uh, there's a giant strawberry here. This is what I think Sam Mack would feel like. Literally what I was going to say. And now let's look at the national forecast. It has that vibe.


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[Assistant] I just like being inside. So, this is not far from Shepparton where we did yesterday's episode. And it's like, it just gets so much colder than Melbourne out here. Uh, the one thing that I do want to point out, so if you don't know about the big strawberry, Australia, I don't know, 3D Deal, do you in Canada have any big items?


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[Assistant] No, but Australia is famous for the big things like, uh, big prawn, the big prawn, the big pineapple, the pineapple was in, um, that's like, Queensland? No, the pineapple, no, big banana. That's what I'm thinking. Coffs Harbour. Can we look up where the big pineapple is please? I believe that is in Queensland. I can imagine that's in Queensland. But if you're ever wondering what are they made of?


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[Assistant] The thing that I don't know, I can't answer it, but I was getting slightly worried because I know, I feel like this would be hot property to be stolen. Oh yeah. I could imagine things getting stolen. When I was in Shepparton, uh, there was gates being stolen.


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[Assistant] So like, yeah, so it was a legit thing. Mugs would rock up and steal people's front gates, like the big steel.


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[Assistant] Plant out of people's gardens. Rip them out, yeaah.


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[Assistant] What a gronk move. That's an absolute gronk move. So we've been, um, filming for the last couple of days in a place called Leeton, which is in New South Wales and we're, we're burning the midnight oil. We're just going to get this episode out, uh, so we don't break our streak. Oh my God. So, um,


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[Assistant] None of us have Snapchat. Actually, 3D Deal has Snapchat. 3D Deal is prolific. Uh, he's a good friend, Autumn. He is constantly Snapchatting with her. Yeah. So, is that just how you communicate? You just send a photo plus some text on it?


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[Assistant] Uh, Bodhi's godfather actually, he just shared some news, some big news that he's just celebrated his thousand day snap streak with his mate.


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[Assistant] So, we get Autumn on the show, so we do the thousandth.


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[Assistant] 2 hours and 50 minutes from this destination, but we're going to stop for an HSP, maybe a kebab.


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[Assistant] That's a good idea. So how are we feeling about how things are going in the car? Yeah. All I've been thinking about is I'm annoyed I didn't bring lip balm. I just, I just, I'm not, we've talked about this before. No, but I don't have like a, I don't have a.


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[Assistant] I brought my asthma pump because I had an asthma attack. But it's the ultimate not my problem, isn't it? Or it's not bringing toothpaste. I forgot. Okay. And so...


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[Assistant] I strive, like I think I want to get, if we start doing more of these road trips, which I think we should now. You want to be the guy that? I want to be the guy that has a little pack, maybe has a little bit of cologne in there, has a little hand lotion, makes sure that I can cater for the boys, bit of lip balm.


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[Assistant] Yeah, we were, RWW group are, uhm, some guys who, they specialise in like safety, like PPE or like uniforms and stuff and they embroider.


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[Assistant] If you see any bloke on a building site, or woman, or woman wearing like high vis, chances it's come from their warehouse. Yeah. And the funny thing was I was, um, I do get


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[Assistant] Well, I think it even makes you recognise those city traits within yourself. Like lip balm. Like that feels like...


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[Assistant] Yeah, but even just things like cold, there's a few things, even like cold, like the cold.


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[Assistant] I think, yeah, it's just, they just get on with it. There's a, there's a resilience that people from regional areas, the country have. Well, Mr97, I think has been showing where he sort of is a great dude. He's got a lot going for him. We've pushed him hard from a dating scene point of view.


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[Assistant] We go to the pub last night and he orders, which I thought no one would order this at this place. It was a stir fry from a pub. They came out and they said, sorry mate, we don't have the noodles.


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[Assistant] We don't make this fucking thing that much. You know, I can sort of understand, you know, there's vegetarians, vegans, all that sort of thing. It's a very clear line. The one that Mr97 is bringing me sort of attuned to or staying to understand is he's very particular of where his chickens come from. He's got real fucking poultry fucking...


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[Assistant] There is a tendency to play a bit of Stacks on, based on trying to avoid being the one that's getting Stacked. So, yeah, cause what happens is, I realised, and I hadn't ever had this thought, is,


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[Assistant] We say if you're the one getting stacked on, it feels horrible. So have you seen opportunity in opening?


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[Assistant] So this was the first night we got, so Sunday night. We had shit to deliver on, specifically the 360 video. Yeah, so Sunday night. That fucking 360 video, that was a hundred gigabytes. Yeah, it was a lot of effort to get that up. Yeah. So be thankful. We appreciate you watching. No, but I appreciate that. So, so what happened?


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[Assistant] So you went to bed- Because I'm stacking on him, he can't say whatever. No, I, uh, uh, Mr97 was specific in, he's like, I'm gonna be more productive if I just have a quick nap and then do this rather than just doing it now, which is fine. Well, I couldn't do it now anyway. Because I was using the laptop. But anyway, he-


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[Assistant] He fell asleep, great, for a nap, that's what you want, but he didn't put an alarm on. And so 45 minutes went by, an hour went by, and I was like, do I wake him up?


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[Assistant] I already felt bad with him. He's in deep sleep. He's in the deep REM sleep by then. Yeah. Yeah. And so I decided not, I just, I was like, you know what? I'll let him panic because he cares. And so he'll wake up at four in the morning. And what happened? I didn't know about this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, did you, uh, I feel like there's a slight, there feels like a slight delay, uh, based on us being tied and also the fact that we're in front of a fucking strawberry. Oh, my back's down in, like.


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[Assistant] This is, yeah, I'm just, I'm sore, which I feel like an old man. Can I say that, um, it makes me feel some form of good feeling when everyone's back sore. Do you get what I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Moving into the pain helps the pain. It's annoying. It's so annoying. That's what a guy said to me doing fucking kettlebells. I herniated two discs. Yeah, but he also did. Don't go towards the pain. If you've got pain. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you've got slipped disc pain.


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[Assistant] My Apple Watch, my Apple Watch is dead because I didn't bring a charger. It's classic like my brother who went to a music festival with his Apple Watch.


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[Assistant] What happens at a music festival when you, he's got no charging point. And so he's away for the weekend. I was a multi-day one.


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[Assistant] Don't ever call it a multi-day one. I mean, I haven't been to a music festival and I know you don't call it a multi-day one. Have you never been to a music festival? No, my brother used to go to Big Day Out and I was very impressed by that. That was very popular. It was like a, yeah, it was a bit rocky. The offspring I feel like may have been there. I don't know many bands, but one thing I wanted to bring up is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Mr97 and 3D Deal, they had two different bedrooms. One of them had two single beds. Yeah, so I booked the, I booked the accommodation in Leighton and found these lovely service departments and... They were nice, although security wasn't great thanks to our gronks.


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[Assistant] What? So there was a pin code at the front door. Beep beep beep beep. Push the door. And all I hear is Mesa.


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[Assistant] He does make, he, he sometimes forgets where he is. He sometimes, because the thing is, I say, I say fuck more than anyone. However, there is times where it's just like, so he's in the, he's in the, the boardroom office or whatever, he's like, ah, fuck this, fuck that, he gets, he gets, it's like, it's like, it's like Mr97 works at, it's like, even when we're leaving the office,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then I went in to the, to the one that Josh and I shared, uh, checked both the bed, you know, queen size beds. Just went into the next one. I only checked one room of the second apartment. And I checked.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The queen bed room. So I didn't actually know that the second room had a room that just had two single beds, which is where Mason landed. And so the big question is, how does Mr 97 and 3D deal decide


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[Assistant] Six blokes, and it was always a fight. A lot of testosterone.


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[Assistant] Just because it must have been a pattern, so every time I, I, I started with scissors, and if he, and if he, no, no, that doesn't work. I must have got him always on scissors. Now I see what you mean.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I would get them off Mr97 who had done his work. So I didn't even see what he said, but I just said to him, mate, can I initialise the media? Which is just reformatting the card and the camera. And I'd have to go through a process to get there and he'd give me a prompt.


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[Assistant] You just don't want to have to deal with it. Uh, road tripping, where would you go when you were growing up?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, we went to Flinders as a family. Nah, it's an hour. But then we used to go to a place called Marlow, Marlow, which was down Gippsland, quite far away, four hours, I think. But I just, I have fond memories of going fishing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember the, the, uh, the time that I learnt that you could use a magnifying glass to burn things. Oh no, what happened? No, I just like burnt it. It was during Easter. I just remember sitting just out the front.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The funny thing is that parents, like, you know, that's the, if you've got a boy, you know, a kid, the only reason they're using a magnifying glass is to, is to burn stuff. Of course. Like how did I even learn that? That's the other thing. There's going to be someone who says it's in my story.


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[Assistant] The one thing that I have- You might not be here. This is fucking a bit weird. This trip has been inspiring me to get a telescope. They're very expensive.


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[Assistant] The desert, and we do like star watching shit. I reckon, I reckon we could find this guy. So on St Kilda beach, three to do, you'd love this as a tourist. I even found it. I felt like I was in Barcelona or something on the beach front where there's all sort of, you know, stalls and people pulling you into tourist traps. A guy had.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if it's a reverse telescope, so it doesn't look up to the stars, it looks to the sun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Solar telescope, maybe that's it. Anyway, it looked up at the sun, he did some branding around it and you paid, I didn't pay, but I think we could probably find him and he's like, you can see the heat, the heat and like a fucking fire on the sun, like that's how far it went.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's from wacky people. Nah, definitely. It was, it was very, very fucking legit. But the thing is the, uh, right now where we are, there isn't, isn't that many stars, but because we've got light around us. Yeah. But about, uh, what, maybe half an hour, an hour before we got here, we were stopping to take a leak and I'm doing the driving. So I haven't been able to do much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Looking up at the sky and I was blown away at the amount of stars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, what are we, two and a half hours from a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Capital city. There's no light pollution out here. It's so nice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You could see, like you see the Milky wave move within the time lapse. We should have probably got out last night and done it. It would be good, but I think there's definitely something we could do show wise. Like I would like to be, there's all those things. If I put it on the list, it's like learn how to tie a knot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What a cold front, like when they would do the cold front symbol. There's no use anymore. Just get an app. What do you mean? Hey Siri.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's the weather? But this is what I, people say I just look at the radar. I know how to fucking read the radar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, the incoming rain or the wind or. Well, that's what excites me. There was an app that was called. It's like the swell report. I used to do that as young guys. You'd look at like northeasterly winds, which would mean that it's going to have offshore


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like something, yeah, I mean, that's a lot of people know how to read the surf radar based on the thing that it will give them versus just going, what's the radar? Oh, I can walk to work. You've just triggered me by saying, uh, the tide.


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[Assistant] This morning we, uh, learned in New South Wales how to, uh, how to order a coffee that's... I don't, I don't know how, I was going to say universal. I don't know how state official it is. I, I wanted to order and I didn't want to confuse her, but I did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The problem is, you then asked one of our clients to go, and he was getting us coffee, and so he went to the local bakery, small country town, and he said, can I have four low tides? And so he can't go there anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, maybe ask one of you, ask your auntie who lives in, who lives in New Zealand. If low tide coffee is the thing, the place in Auckland, that's where I got it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From this bagel shop. Oh, you would have loved it. I love bagels. Action Bronson, who has a food show, did an episode from this bagel shop and they cook all their own bagels. And anyway, I got this strong three quarter latte and she said, ah, that's a low tide.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I was proud of myself yesterday. Why? Uh, based on the McFlurry and what happened. What do you mean? What happened?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, you straight away, like the rat that you are, took the one with the most amount of fudge and said, this is my one!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Should we do our next show from some form of big item? Yeah. Uh, let us know if there's one in your town and we'll, uh, Jesus is getting a little bit Sam Max.


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[Assistant] An episode you should definitely watch this one because a strawberry is very impressive or even subscribe to us on YouTube. And the other thing just very quickly, we haven't done this in a while. Can someone leave a review? Cause since on the Apple podcast app, exciting stuff too with WWDC and Apple, uh, they've separated out iTunes and Apple podcasts.


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[Assistant] Welcome back. Welcome back. Gah! Gaha! Gaha! Some of the best scriptwriting you will ever experience.


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[Assistant] I did. Oh, okay. I got all my Pacamins. Nice. That's why I was playing with Mr. Mark. Ooh, look at you. So I, I- That's wonderful.


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[Assistant] I went home to tend to my wife because she wasn't- she was feeling ill. Suzie? Yes. And, uh, the- I don't know why I thought, is this another wife that you're talking about? Wait, Suzie- Marilyn?


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[Assistant] Oh, oh, Suzie, okay, sorry. Uhm, yeaah, so I went home to my wife, Suzie, because she was feeling ill. And, uh, I...


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[Assistant] Fuckin', that's my spaghetti with butter and cheese recipe. You can go ahead and take that with you. Put that in the microwave. Shit's fuckin' delicious. That's all I used to eat as a kid. But anyway, shit makes you farty as fuck.


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[Assistant] Don't acknowledge the giant brown cloud that emerged from the door when you opened it. I've always wondered what...


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[Assistant] Well that's what they say, right? Like, don't put your toothbrush in the bathroom, cause it gets poop all over it.


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[Assistant] Damn it. It's true, I think Mythbusters did it, and they were like, yep, there's tons of poopy on it. Damn it!


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[Assistant] Well do you, uhm, do you, uh, what do you call it, do you boil your toothbrush every so often?


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[Assistant] You just, you just boil up some water and you stick your toothbrush in there for like 10 seconds. Right. And it kills anything that would be on it.


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[Assistant] Go on. His name is Golduck. Yes. But...


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[Assistant] The first one is gold. Right. And then the first one's called Psyduck, but this is the one that gets psychic abilities. Fuck. So, did they just screw that up? Maybe, I don't know. Let's ask, uhm...


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[Assistant] It is effective? Rock throw. Yeah. Okay. You ever thought of throwing a rock at a bird?


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[Assistant] In order to get yourself clean, you have to kill a bird in the air. Right. And then go home and-


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[Assistant] Like yea, if a Pokemon went up against it, it would be like, uh, I fainted?


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[Assistant] You are fucking him up too. Well, that's because I know the strategies of the Pokemons. Is that right? Yeah, I know. Did this joke.


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[Assistant] Look, when I send out my bee drill, shit's gonna get real. I'm saving it for the last one. Clark. Oh, use protect. What a cool guy. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Now if he tries to use it again? Why would a guy with a shell need to- a protect spell? Because he can't- he can't recede into it. Spell? That's not the correct word, is it? God, stop flinching, you stupid-


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[Assistant] God dammit, Blastoise! For fuck's sake, dude! What happened?


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[Assistant] Put a tag on it and you put it into a bag so that you can sell it for a profit. That's probably what it means.


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[Assistant] Let's tag him and bag him. It's like a, it's like a army term. Oh, oh.


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[Assistant] Oh, he's recovered, great. Great. I'm really good at not dying. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Can you one-shot me? I don't think soooo. His head is a star upside down.


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[Assistant] Cause, Jimmy's was a, that was like a New Hampshire thing. Was it? Yeah.


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[Assistant] Yeah. Am I a genius or what? I dunno. He's going to fight the Elite Four, but you know what?


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[Assistant] Even though The Tonight Show isn't a political show, it's my responsibility to stand up against intolerance and extremism as a human being.


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[Assistant] What happened over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia was just disgusting.


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[Assistant] I was watching the news like everyone else and you're seeing Nazi flags and torches and white supremacists and I was sick to my stomach. My daughters are in the next room playing and I'm thinking...


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[Assistant] How can I explain to them that there's so much hatred in this world? They're two years old and four years old. They don't know what hate is.


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[Assistant] They go to the playground and they have friends of all races and backgrounds. They just play and they laugh and they have fun. But as kids grow up, they need people to look up to, to show them what's right and good. They need parents and teachers and they need leaders who appeal to the best in us.


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[Assistant] The fact that it took the president two days to come out and clearly denounce racist and white supremacists is shameful.


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[Assistant] And I think he finally spoke out because people everywhere stood up and said something.


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[Assistant] It's important for everyone, especially white people in this country, to speak out against this. Ignoring it is just as bad as supporting it.


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[Assistant] And remember, there are people who have given their lives to make sure this kind of hate doesn't spread. They fought and died on the right side of history.


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[Assistant] One brave woman in Charlottesville, Heather Heyer, died standing up for what's right at the age of 32.


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[Assistant] I can't look at my beautiful growing curious daughters and say nothing when this kind of thing is happening.


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[Assistant] We all need to stand against what is wrong, acknowledge that racism exists, and stand up for what is right and civil and kind.


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[Assistant] And to show the next generation that we haven't forgotten how hard people have fought for human rights. We cannot do this. We can't go backwards.


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[Assistant] We can't go backward. Thank you all for watching and listening. This is The Tonight Show and we'll be right back.


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[Assistant] Everybody get in the circle. Okay. This is a story stick. Do not talk unless you are holding the stick, alright? Mr. Oscar, you can go first. What was this meeting about?


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[Assistant] Particularly as her appearance is in no way disgusting. She is slow to decide. She is permitted to decide. She is permitted to postpone. The Duke of Richmond is an indulgent father.


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[Assistant] This video is part of an audiobook series featuring Winning by Jack and Susie Welch, written in 2005. For more audiobooks, please visit my YouTube channel, find me on Spotify, or visit my website for downloads.


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[Assistant] I'm sure you've noticed the hand wringing and hyperventilating about change out there.


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[Assistant] For more than a decade, there's been a whole industry devoted to the topic, all of it selling pretty much the same line, change or die.


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[Assistant] Well, it's true. Change is an absolutely critical part of business. You do need to change, preferably before you have to.


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[Assistant] What you've heard about resistance to change is also true. People hate it when their bosses announce a transformation initiative. They run back to their cubicles and frantically start emailing one another with reasons it's going to ruin everything.


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[Assistant] Frankly, most people hate it when they find out their favorite coffee shop is closing.


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[Assistant] The Times of London changed to a tabloid format and the editor told me he received a letter asking him how it felt to be the person responsible for ending Western civilization.


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[Assistant] People love familiarity and patterns. They cling to it. The phenomenon is so entrenched that it can only be chalked up to human nature.


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[Assistant] But attributing to human behavior, to a behavior or human nature, doesn't mean you have to be controlled by it.


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[Assistant] Yes, managing change can sometimes feel like moving a mountain, but managing change can also be incredibly exciting and rewarding, particularly when you start seeing results.


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[Assistant] During my years at GE, we were in a pretty constant state of change. Most companies today are. You have to be if you want to stay in the game, let alone win.


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[Assistant] That said, I realize that change is not a layup. Over the past couple of years, I have been struck by the number of people at Q&A sessions who have asked me, my organization needs to change. How can I get them to do it when everyone wants things to say the same? The question is usually delivered with a level of despair.


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[Assistant] My first answer is always a question back, saying, are you really the only person who sees a need for change? If you are, and you don't have some authority, make your case. And if you don't get anywhere, learn to live with the situation or get out.


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[Assistant] But if the situation is not that extreme, that is, you have the power to get things done and a few supporters as well, then you can make something happen. It comes down to embracing four practices.


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[Assistant] First, attach every change initiative to a clear purpose or goal.


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[Assistant] Change for change's sake is stupid and enervating.


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[Assistant] 2. Hire and promote only true believers and get on with it types.


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[Assistant] If a company's leadership implements these practices with passion and reward everyone who buys in, eventually all the noise around change will stop sounding like noise. Change will become business as usual, the norm, and when it does, mountains do move.


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[Assistant] I've seen it happen and it's not as earth-shattering as it's made out to be. Now let's get into those practices in more detail.


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[Assistant] 1. Attach every change initiative to a clear purpose or goal. Change for change's sake is stupid and enervating.


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[Assistant] It is a disaster when companies take all the hype about change literally and grab every new management fad that comes down the pike. It's change overload. Some big companies adopt 10 different change initiatives at once and run in 8 different directions.


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[Assistant] Nothing meaningful ever happens in these flavor of the month kind of situations except that for most employees, work feels very frantic and disorganized.


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[Assistant] Actually, change should be a relatively orderly process. But for that to occur, people have to understand, in their heads and in their hearts, why change is necessary and where the change is taking them.


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[Assistant] This is easier, of course, when the problems are obvious, as in the house is burning down. Earnings are collapsing, a competitor has dropped prices 20%, or a new product appears that totally threatens your market position.


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[Assistant] Change is made even easier when the media in writing stories about your imminent demise, perhaps the one time you welcome bad press.


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[Assistant] Many of the most notable large companies' turnarounds in the past decade had this going for them. GM, IBM, and Xerox, to name three.


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[Assistant] When the whole world knows about your problem, the wind is at your back. But sometimes the need for change is not scrawled across the skies. Competitive threats only seem to be emerging. They may not even be real. Or they may be your company's death knell. You don't know. And still, you have to respond.


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[Assistant] In those cases, lots of data and relentless communication about the business rationale for change are the best ammunition you've got.


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[Assistant] Take the case of GE's appliances business in the late 1970s. In those days, appliances and lighting were the mainstays of the company. The previous two chairmen and several vice chairmen had come from their ranks. As far as everyone in the business was concerned, GE was the leader in major appliances, and it would be that way forever.


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[Assistant] In 1978, when I was appointed head of the consumer products group, I found myself staring at an appliances business whose market share had been slipping for a few years and whose margins were sliding even faster.


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[Assistant] To an outsider like me, the situation looked frighteningly similar to the television receiver and automotive businesses, where the Japanese were making tremendous inroads with higher quality, lower cost products, while fat American companies sat by doing little.


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[Assistant] I showed them chart after chart illustrating appliances eroding position. And yet, early buy-in was minimal, to put it mildly.


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[Assistant] At the outset, I basically forced the cost reduction program.


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[Assistant] Almost immediately, I got the, got back the two refrains common to every cost reduction program ever launched.


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[Assistant] Saying, you've already cut the fat, you're asking us to cut the bone.


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[Assistant] Fortunately, the head of the business, a good old boy named Dick Donagan, who I had been prepared to write off, saw the logic of the case, came to my aid, and started to champion change at Appliances. His leadership was vital to fixing things. He had been with Appliances his entire career, so he knew the players well.


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[Assistant] He built a team of supporters around him and cleaned out detractors, literally hundreds of them, over a two year period.


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[Assistant] In the end, the appliances business went through drastic changes because it had to.


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[Assistant] The fact wasn't blindingly obvious in 1978 when the change was launched, nor was it overwhelmingly clear in the few years after.


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[Assistant] In fact, the Japanese never really sold large appliances in the US. Only recently have the Chinese and Koreans made inroads.


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[Assistant] The domestic competition was tough enough to make change necessary just to look at the price of a refrigerator today.


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[Assistant] That's why the appliances business continues to cut costs and still hasn't hit bone.


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[Assistant] It is now a business characterized by continual productivity improvements, modest innovation, and a team that understands that change is a way of life.


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[Assistant] One lesson from the appliances story is that you don't always have, at the outset of initiative changes, every bit of information that you'd like to make your case.


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[Assistant] Regardless, you need to get out there and start talking about what you do know and what you fear.


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[Assistant] Communication about change does get a lot more challenging as a company gets larger.


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[Assistant] It's one thing if you're the owner of a 200 person machine tool company to walk into work one day. Call a meeting and say, okay everyone, I just got back from a sales trip and guess what? We've got brutal competition from a really innovative new company in Hungary. Things are going to have to change around here.


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[Assistant] It's another thing entirely to make the case for change to a company with a hundred thousand people in multiple business units in multiple countries.


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[Assistant] In big companies, calls for change are often greeted with a nice head fake.


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[Assistant] People nod at your presentations and pleasantly agree that given all the data, it sure looks like change is necessary.


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[Assistant] Then, they go back to doing everything the way they always did.


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[Assistant] If the company has been through enough change programs, employees consider you like gas panes. You'll go away if they just wait long enough.


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[Assistant] This pervasive skepticism is all the more reason that anyone leading a change process must stay far away from empty slogans and instead stick to a solid persuasive business case. Over time, logic will win out.


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[Assistant] 2. Hire and promote only true believers and get on with it types.


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[Assistant] Everyone in business claims that they like change. To say otherwise nowadays would be career suicide. In fact, it's quite common to see someone describe himself as a change agent right on his resume.


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[Assistant] That's ridiculous. By my estimate, real change agents comprise less than 10% of all business people. These are the true believers who champion change, know how to make it happen, and love every second of the process.


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[Assistant] To make change happen, companies must actively hire and promote only true believers and get on with it. But with everyone claiming to like change, how can you tell who is for real?


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[Assistant] Luckily, change agents usually make themselves known. They're typically brash, high energy, and a little more than a bit paranoid about the future.


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[Assistant] Invariably, they are curious and forward-looking. They ask a lot of questions that start with the phrase,


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[Assistant] These people have courage, a certain fearlessness about the unknown. Something in them makes it okay to operate without a safety net.


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[Assistant] If they fail, they know they can pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and move on. They're thick skinned about risk, which allows them to make bold decisions without a lot of data.


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[Assistant] This description makes me think immediately about Dennis Naden, a managing partner with Oak Hill Capital Management, whom I've known for more than 20 years.


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[Assistant] Dennis joined GE Capital in 1977 right out of University of Connecticut and by 1989 was in char- was second in charge helping Gary Wendt expand the business from a few hundred million dollars in net income to more than five billion in 2000.


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[Assistant] The best way to describe Dennis is intense, but extremely smart and fanatical about growth also work well.


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[Assistant] He never saw a deal he couldn't make better. He never saw a routine or a process that couldn't be unpicked, shaken up and improved.


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[Assistant] In fact, Dennis always saw the status quo as something to be upended. And in doing so, he brought hundreds of GE Capital's deals to unparalleled heights of performance.


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[Assistant] He always gave people a view beyond what they were to what they could be.


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[Assistant] Now, Dennis, like most change agents, is not always easy to work for. He constantly asks questions, pushes people hard, and just never settles.


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[Assistant] The Home Depot, like GE's appliances business, was a company where the idea of change seemed ludicrous to most people in the organization.


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[Assistant] When Bob arrived in December of 2000, the company looked perfect from the outside and everyone inside was thrilled with the level of earnings and growth.


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[Assistant] The founders of the company had done a remarkable job of building the company from nothing. Along the way, sharing stock options with thousands of employees who loved the ride as the profits soared through the 1990s.


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[Assistant] But two things were happening that no one wanted to face. The business had gotten big, with few internal processes in place. Careful inventory tracking, stocking policies, and buying guidelines to name three, and was having trouble maintaining its competitiveness.


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[Assistant] Lowe's, principal competitor, was chipping away at Home Depot's lead with better service in more modern stores.


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[Assistant] Bob was running the company for about a month when he started boldly talking about these problems using tons of data.


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[Assistant] But few people at any level were buying his story of Home Depot as a fixer-upper.


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[Assistant] Many employees from the good old days openly pined for the times when the founders ran the company and everyone was getting richer by the hour. Who could blame them for the nostalgia?


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[Assistant] But things had to change. And Bob knew that he couldn't do that with the team he had inherited.


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[Assistant] He quickly brought in his own people, true believers, and promoted several longtime employees whom he had identified as get on with it's.


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[Assistant] Together, they put the missing processes into Home Depot and got growth back into the company.


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[Assistant] Bob had no wind at his back, but he did have the right people by his side.


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[Assistant] Fair it out and remove the resistors, even if their performance is satisfactory.


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[Assistant] When it comes to making change, this is the hardest practice to implement.


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[Assistant] In the last chapter, I talked about how hard it is to let anyone go, but it is particularly difficult to fire people who are not actually screwing up and may in fact be doing well.


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[Assistant] But in any organization, as the appliances and Home Depot stories show, there is a core of people who absolutely will not accept change, no matter how good your case.


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[Assistant] Either their personalities just can't take it, or they are so entrenched emotionally, intellectually, or politically in the way they do things that they cannot see a way to make them better. These people usually have to go.


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[Assistant] Maybe that sounds harsh, but you are doing no one a favor by keeping resistors in your organization. They foster an underground resistance and lower the morale of people who do support change. They waste their own time at a company where they don't share the vision and they should be encouraged to find one where they do.


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[Assistant] Take this extraordinary example. It's about Bill Harrison, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, who asked a well-respected high level executive to leave during his change process at the bank.


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[Assistant] His move was even more stunning in that Bill did it when his own political capital was low.


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[Assistant] In the middle of the Enron collapse when many people wondered if Bill would personally take the fall for the bank's loans to Enron and to other high-profile, troubled companies.


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[Assistant] During this period, Bill was instituting an executive training initiative focused on transforming the newly merged JP Morgan and Chase into a more market-focused bank, a big change for an institution whose businesses, like many of those on Wall Street, prided themselves on their individuality.


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[Assistant] The biggest resistor was the CEO of one of JP Morgan Chase's major businesses, a true star in his own right.


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[Assistant] He preferred the lone wolf culture of an investment bank and launched a quiet revolt over Bill's direction.


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[Assistant] So Bill asked him to leave. It took tremendous courage given the circumstances.


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[Assistant] But Bill knew, and he was right, that the transformation of JP Morgan Chase could not go forward with such a resistor and his following in the way.


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[Assistant] Kander, in fairness, made the departure go well. And Bill's program went on to succeed, too.


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[Assistant] In a survey of all bank executives taken two years after his leadership program started, those who participated in the initiative had a favorable impression of the bank's direction 20 points higher than those who had not participated.


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[Assistant] From a management perspective, few cases of removing resistors are as difficult as the one Bill Harrison faced. But even when the situation is not nearly as political or fraught, I have seen managers hold onto resistors because of a specific skill set or just because they've been around for a long time.


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[Assistant] Don't. Resistors only get more diehard and their followings more entrenched as time goes on. They are change killers. Cut them off early.


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[Assistant] Most companies capitalize on obvious opportunities. When a competitor fails, they move in on their customers. When a new technology emerges, they invest in it and create product line extensions.


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[Assistant] But to be a real change organization, you also have to have the guts to look at bolder, scarier, more unpredictable events, and assess and make the most of the opportunities which they present.


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[Assistant] This capability takes a certain determination and sometimes a strong stomach, but the rewards can be huge.


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[Assistant] Take the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Currency traders certainly capitalized on this awful event. They live on exploiting change. But they're not the only ones who should do this. GE had real success buying undervalued Thai auto loans on this period. Others prospered by buying real estate at fire sale prices.


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[Assistant] The Japanese banking woes of the 90s gave numerous companies a chance to pick up assets at attractive prices and participate in a market that had previously been closed to them.


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[Assistant] Companies like the buyout firm Ripplewood Holdings, AIG, Citigroup, and GE to name a few made huge gambles in a horrible looking environment that had just about every pundit predicting the permanent demise of Japan.


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[Assistant] Those bets are turning out to be big winners as Japan recovers.


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[Assistant] Bankruptcies are another calamity that provides all kinds of opportunities. They're tragic to the employees. Jobs are lost and pensions disappear into thin air. But jobs and futures can also be created from the cinders.


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[Assistant] When Enron fell apart, a tragic business story if there ever was one, Warren Buffett was able to take a position in his former pipeline business at a bargain basement price. And GE picked up its wind power business at what is considered a very good price.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Vivendi collapse was a disaster for CEO Jean-Marie Mazier, many employees and company shareholders. But its financial needs provided the opportunity for Edgar Bronfman to re-enter the music business at an attractive price and for GE to purchase terrific media assets.


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[Assistant] It goes without saying that no business person wants disasters to occur, but they will. There will be spikes in oil prices, buildings will be destroyed in earthquakes, companies will go bankrupt, and countries will come close.


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[Assistant] In today's world, there is the persistent threat of a terrorist attack.


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[Assistant] Yet even if terrorism is eventually contained, unfortunately something that is not imminent, there will always be elections and revolutions that change the course of history.


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[Assistant] Most companies take advantage of obvious opportunities, but some also have the ability to make the most of regrettable circumstances those car wrecks, and they should.


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[Assistant] Since 9-11, for instance, an entirely new kind of security industry has emerged.


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[Assistant] Of course, you wish with everything in you that such an industry didn't have to exist. But these companies will benefit for having realized that change means seizing every opportunity, even the ones wrought by adversity.


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[Assistant] With all the noise out there about change, it's easy to get overwhelmed and confused. But there are really four practices that matter. Communicate a sound rationale for every change. Have the right people at your side. Get rid of resistors. And seize every single opportunity, even those that might be from someone else's misfortune.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This video is part of an audiobook series featuring Winning by Jack and Susie Welch, written in 2005. For more audiobooks, please visit my YouTube channel, find me on Spotify, or visit my website for downloads.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chapter 7, People Management. You've got the right players, now what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've got the right players on the field, and that's a great start. Now they need to work together, steadily improve their performance, be motivated, stay with the company, and grow as leaders. In other words, they need to be managed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are libraries of books on people management, not to mention plenty of courses in business schools. There are training programs, magazines, and websites, many offering sound advice. And then there is experience. That's mainly what this chapter draws upon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] During my years at GE, once I was out of the laboratory at Plastics, managing people was really what I did. After all, I didn't have the expertise to design jet engines, build CAT scanners, or create a comedy program for NBC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Obviously, as CEO I got involved in everything. Strategy, new products, sales, mergers and acquisitions, and the like.


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[Assistant] But in that job, I always believed that people part was how I could help GE the most.


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[Assistant] People management covers a wide range of activities, but it really comes down to six fundamental priz- uh, practices.


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[Assistant] No person can undertake these activities alone. Far from it. So let me phrase them as company-wide practices.


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[Assistant] To manage people well, companies should do the following.


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[Assistant] One, elevate HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization and make sure that HR people have the special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers.


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[Assistant] Use a rigorous, non-bureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrity with the same intensity as Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance.


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[Assistant] Face straight into charged relationships with unions, stars, sliders, and disruptors.


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[Assistant] Five. Fight gravity. And instead of taking the middle 70% for granted, treat them like the heart and soul of the organization.


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[Assistant] Six, design the organizational chart to be as flat as possible with blindingly clear reporting relationships and responsibilities.


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[Assistant] After being on the road for several years, I realized that some people may read these practices and wonder how, if they are adopted, they'll ever get any real work done.


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[Assistant] I always thought that they were real work. But many Q&A sessions have left me with the impression that at lots of companies, people management is what's done when there's time left over.


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[Assistant] In the hope that that might change, here are the practices in more detail.


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[Assistant] Practice number one, elevate HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization, and make sure HR people have the special qualities to help build managers, build leaders, and careers. In fact, the best HR types are pastors and parents in the same package.


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[Assistant] About three years ago, I was in Mexico City, speaking at a convention of 5,000 human resource executives.


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[Assistant] As usual, the event was set up as a Q&A session with two seats on the stage.


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[Assistant] In this case, the interviewer was Daniel Cerviche, the thoughtful and engaging CEO of Grupo Bimbo, one of the country's largest food companies.


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[Assistant] Daniel and I spent the first 45 minutes talking about strategy, budgets, global competition, and other business topics before the microphone went into the audience for their questions.


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[Assistant] The first person to speak identified herself as the head of personnel for a Brazilian manufacturer.


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[Assistant] With an urgent voice, she asked me about the role of HR company and what did I think it should be.


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[Assistant] From the point of view of the CEO, the director of HR should be at least equal to the CFO, end quote.


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[Assistant] There was a strange hush. In fact, it was so quiet I thought that my Boston accent had thrown off the translator.


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[Assistant] I asked, isn't that what happens in your companies? I mean, let's get a show of hands. How many of you work at companies where the CEO treats the director of HR and the CFO with equal respect?


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[Assistant] 50 hands went up. That's 50 out of 5,000 people. No wonder no one clapped. I had accidentally stepped on the toes of about 90% of the crowd.


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[Assistant] Later, at a reception after the session, one person after another from the audience told me how HR was belittled and underutilized in their organizations. In all, about 30 people told me stories in the same vein.


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[Assistant] Worse, the reports turned out not to be an exception. I have asked my Statue of HR question at about 75 other speaking events since Mexico City, and the results are always disturbingly similar.


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[Assistant] It blows my mind. Even if your company is too small to have its own HR department, somebody has to be doing HR. And HR has just got to be as important as any other function in the company.


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[Assistant] In fact, why wouldn't HR be as important as finance? After all, if you managed a baseball team, would you listen more closely to the team accountant or the director of player personnel?


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[Assistant] The input of the team accountant matters, he sure knows how much they can pay a player. But his input certainly doesn't count more than input from the director of player personnel, who knows just how good each player is.


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[Assistant] Both belong, alongside the CEO, at the table where decisions are made.


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[Assistant] Unfortunately, at a lot of companies, human resources isn't even in the same room. The reasons, I think, are threefold.


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[Assistant] First, the impact of HR is hard to quantify. You can see how sales and R&D affect performance and how finance tallies it up.


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[Assistant] But HR deals with air, or people skills. Not only are people skills squishy soft, most people assume that they have them in spades. How many times have you heard someone say, I'm a people person?


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[Assistant] Second, HR too often gets relegated or pushed into a benefits trap, administering insurance plans and overseeing scheduling issues like vacation and flex time.


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[Assistant] It also gets saddled with health and happiness activities, putting out the plant newspaper or organizing the summer picnic.


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[Assistant] Someone has to take care of these tasks, but if HR gets stuck doing them all the time, its stature will never be what it should.


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[Assistant] Third, HR becomes twisted up in palace intrigue.


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[Assistant] Back in the 1960s and early 70s, GE went through a period like that. Its HR system ran on gossip, whispers, and tattling. A small and frankly terrifying group of HR executives held secretive opinions about every manager, and they could tar you for life if they wanted.


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[Assistant] On the other hand, they could also move you up very quickly. They thought of themselves as kingmakers.


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[Assistant] Ted threw open the shutters and let the light shine in. HR processes soon became transparent and, more importantly, they began to make sense.


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[Assistant] By the time Ted retired in 1985, HR was on its way to doing exactly what it should. Listening to people vent, brokering internal differences, and helping managers develop leaders and build careers.


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[Assistant] That's why the best HR people are a kind of hybrid. One part pastor, who hears all sins and complaints without recrimination, and one part parent, who loves and nurtures, but gives it to you fast and straight when you're off track.


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[Assistant] I found over the years that the best pastor parent types have usually run something once in their careers. A factory, a product line, or another function.


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[Assistant] They see the hidden hierarchies in people's minds, the invisible org chart of political connections that exists in every company. They know the players and the history.


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[Assistant] Along with stature, pastor-parent types have got integrity oozing out of them. That integrity comes from unrelenting candor and trustworthiness.


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[Assistant] Pastor parents listen with uncommon care, tell the truth, and hold confidences tight. They also know how to settle a disagreement.


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[Assistant] We'd all like to believe that good companies don't need referees, but they do. People get passed over for promotions.


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[Assistant] Inter-divisional sales cause all kinds of who gets the credit issues. Bonus pools are perceived to be unfairly distributed.


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[Assistant] I was lucky enough to have a few pastor parent types on my team at various points in my career, the last one being Bill Conaty, who I've mentioned before in this book.


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[Assistant] Bill started out in GE's manufacturing training program and eventually became the manager of the locomotive diesel engine plant in Grove City, Pennsylvania.


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[Assistant] He then jumped ship to the HR business, and he was a natural.


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[Assistant] No matter with whom he was dealing, a senior executive or an hourly worker, he was as straight as could be with good news and bad. He was a great listener and so discreet that you couldn't squeeze a secret out of him with a vice.


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[Assistant] I came to appreciate Bill when he was head of HR for aircraft engines.


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[Assistant] What impressed me was how Bill dealt with the people involved in the mess, some of whom were his peers and friends.


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[Assistant] He had to make incredibly painful recommendations about letting people go, and he did it with the kind of candor, compassion, and diplomacy that is the ultimate hallmark of a pastor parent.


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[Assistant] If your HR is on track, pastor parents are ready to handle frictions and crises, channeling anger, forging compromises, and if need be, negotiating dignified endings.


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[Assistant] Practice number two. Use a rigorous, non-bureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrity with the same intensity as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance.


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[Assistant] Remember what happened when corporate scandals rocked the American economy? The government reacted quickly by passing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which mandates a fine or jail time or both for any CEO or CFO who wittingly signs off on bad numbers.


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[Assistant] The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was necessary to get credibility in financial reporting and restore investor confidence.


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[Assistant] I just wish that that kind of evaluation system got the same kind of attention and rigor. After all, financial violations happen because of people. Yet people evaluation systems are often just exercises in paper pushing.


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[Assistant] Earlier in this book, in the chapter on candor, I mentioned that I often ask audiences how many of you have received an honest, straight-between-the-eyes feedback session in the past year where you came out knowing exactly what you have to do to improve and where you stand in the organization.


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[Assistant] To repeat, only about 20% of the audience raised its hand on a good day. But the average yes response is about 10%.


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[Assistant] If this unscientific research is anywhere near right, very few companies have meaningful evaluation systems in place. That's not just bad, it's terrible. You simply cannot manage people to better performance if you do not give candid, consistent feedback through a system that is loaded with integrity.


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[Assistant] There is no one right way to evaluate people. Every company will devise different forms and different methodologies. But any good evaluation system should share some characteristics.


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[Assistant] First, it should be clear and simple, washed clean of time-consuming bureaucratic gobbledygook.


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[Assistant] If your evaluation system involves more than two pages of paperwork per person, something is wrong.


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[Assistant] I evaluated my 20 or so direct reports with frequent handwritten notes that included two pieces of information. What I thought the person did well and how I thought that they could improve.


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[Assistant] Next, it should measure people on relevant, agreed upon criteria that relate directly to an individual's performance.


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[Assistant] The criteria should be quantitative based on how people deliver on certain goals, and qualitative based on how they deliver on desired behaviors.


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[Assistant] Next, it should ensure that managers evaluate their people at least once a year, preferably twice, in formal face-to-face sessions.


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[Assistant] Informal appraisals should happen all the time. But when it comes to formal reviews, one of the face to face sessions should let other people know where they stand in relation to others. If your company practices differentiation, a good evaluation system is where the rubber meets the road.


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[Assistant] Finally, a good evaluation system should include a professional development component.


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[Assistant] Managers should not only talk to their employees about next career steps, but should elicit from them the names of the two or three people who they think should replace them should they be promoted.


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[Assistant] Even with all these characteristics, no evaluation system is first rate unless it is constantly monitored for integrity.


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[Assistant] Someone has to have the responsibility and the accountability to ask if the evaluation system is just capturing the truth, just as a good audit team does with the numbers.


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[Assistant] Does it really get implemented with sincerity, or do people blow it off as a waste of time?


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[Assistant] Do people really learn at the end of it what they must do to improve their performance?


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[Assistant] Only integrity can keep evaluation systems from becoming paper pushing.


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[Assistant] Since there is no law to make it happen and no audit team either, it is up to every boss giving an evaluation with the rigorous support of HR to take this responsibility upon himself or herself.


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[Assistant] You won't get thrown in jail if you don't, but do it anyway, because it will make you and your team better.


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[Assistant] Practice number three. Create effective mechanisms. Re-read money recognition and training to motivate and retain.


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[Assistant] I'll never forget the time I was at a meeting about how GE should reward the winner of the Steinmetz Award, given annually to the company's best scientist.


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[Assistant] I was a group VP at the time, and so my ears really perked up when one of the vice chairmen, a guy with a lot of stature and a lot of dough, registered his opinion.


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[Assistant] He said, these people don't want money, they want recognition. He must have forgotten where he came from.


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[Assistant] Of course people want to be recognized for great performance. Plaques and public fanfare have their place. But without money, they lose a lot of their impact. Even the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes come with cash awards.


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[Assistant] If your company is managing people well, it tightly aligns good performance with rewards. The better you do, the more you get, and you get it in both the sole and the wallet.


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[Assistant] There is hardly anything more frustrating than working hard, meeting or exceeding expectations, and discovering that it doesn't really matter to your company.


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[Assistant] People need to get differentiated rewards and recognition to be motivated, and companies need to deliver both for retention. It's that simple.


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[Assistant] Despite the grueling hours and low pay, this woman showed immediate promise. Her selections for the sportswear department broke sales records for six straight quarters, and she managed to repair the store's relationship with two disgruntled vendors.


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[Assistant] Although it was not part of the job, the other buyers tease her for overdoing it. She worked the floor in the cash register to better understand her department's customers.


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[Assistant] For two years, this buyer got very little public recognition for her success. That was bad enough, but her bonus was also standard, exactly what the company described as average during the interview process.


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[Assistant] She had to quit to find out how much she was valued. When she handed in her resignation her boss was shocked.


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[Assistant] She asked, but why are you leaving? You have a great future here. To which the employee replied, it's so draining and no one ever tells me I'm doing a good job.


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[Assistant] No one ever tells me I'm doing a good job. The boss replied, that's just the way it goes here. You've got to have a thick skin.


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[Assistant] Retail is a notoriously tough working environment. But the practice of not rewarding performance is commonplace in plenty of industries, and one of the main reasons why good people leave.


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[Assistant] A winning company does not let good people walk out the door for lack of recognition, financial or otherwise.


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[Assistant] Another key way to motivate and retain is through training.


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[Assistant] If you've hired the right people, they will want to grow. They will be bursting with the desire to learn and do more.


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[Assistant] A good machinist will want to know how to operate more machines and eventually how to run the shop.


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[Assistant] A good manufacturing engineer will want to travel to Japan to visit companies using advanced techniques that he has only read about.


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[Assistant] Good people never think that they have reached the top of their game, but they're dying to get there. A company that manages people will, well, helps make that happen.


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[Assistant] If it can afford it, it has an in-house training led by its own executives, who serve not only as teachers but as role models.


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[Assistant] A company with fewer resources can facilitate training outside at any number of good programs. In either case, it makes sure that training is seen as a reward for performance, not a sought for time served.


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[Assistant] Companies cannot promise their people lifetime employment. Global competition is too fierce, and economic cycles too frequent for any such guarantees. But they can promise to give their people every chance for employability, skills that will make them more attractive if they are forced to part ways.


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[Assistant] Practice number four. Face straight into charged relationships, whether that be with unions, with stars, with sliders, or with disruptors.


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[Assistant] But managing people well means paying special attention to these hard relationships. Not just letting them fester or float into neglect. Approaches that are entirely human, but often end in a mess.


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[Assistant] Good people management requires companies to confront their charged relationships with candor in action. Let's start with unions.


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[Assistant] When I was at GE, it was well known that I was not a fan of unions.


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[Assistant] I use the word unnecessary because in my experience, unions only arise when a plant or an office is being managed by someone who is abusive, remote, or indifferent and whose actions have taken away the voice and dignity of employees.


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[Assistant] Without a doubt, the boss needs to be reformed or removed because unionization is an excessive response with negative long-term consequences, really for anyone.


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[Assistant] We did have several long time unions at GE during my time at CEO. I always felt that our relationship was candid and respectful and we never had a national strike. I can think of two reasons why.


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[Assistant] First, we always stated our principles and stuck to them. And second, we never started a relationship at the negotiating table.


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[Assistant] Principles first. The most important thing to remember about unions is that they are made up of your own people.


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[Assistant] You work together, reside in the same towns, and oftentimes your kids go to school or play together. Your lives and futures are intertwined.


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[Assistant] Make every effort not to have your first date there. A warzone is no place to get acquainted.


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[Assistant] Almost every time I traveled to the businesses with Bill Conaty, we met with local union representatives. These sessions were mainly to get to know one another and lay out positions without any immediate agenda.


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[Assistant] Everyone would get a chance to talk. And even better, in these settings, we were all more inclined to listen.


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[Assistant] Bill and I always learned a lot, and it served Bill and the company well in every national negotiation.


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[Assistant] Let's take a look at another charge relationship to manage with stars.


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[Assistant] One thing is certain, you need stars to win, and I have always identified, advocated identifying your stars, that top 20%, and stroking and rewarding them in an outsize way.


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[Assistant] I've seen talented young people promoted too quickly, and their ambitions spin out of control.


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[Assistant] I've seen terrific financial analysts, engineers, and network executives get told one too many times that they are irreplaceable and they start swaggering around to the point that the rest of their team resents them.


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[Assistant] I've seen smart, capable individuals come to believe that they are so indispensable that they should not be bound by anything, including the company values.


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[Assistant] Stars can become monsters if you let them. That's why someone has to be on the lookout, namely the boss, with support from HR if you have it.


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[Assistant] This job cannot fall through the cracks. The minute a star seems to be getting arrogant or out of control, someone has to call the person in to have a candid conversation about values and behaviors


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[Assistant] You can never be afraid of your stars. They cannot hold a company hostage.


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[Assistant] Now, sometimes stars surprise you and up and leave. That can be a defining moment. Ideally, the star will be replaced within eight hours. Yes, that's right, eight hours. This immediate reaction sends the message to the organization that no one is indispensable. It shouts out that no single individual is bigger than the company.


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[Assistant] One morning in the summer of 2001, just as Jeff Immelt was about to take over as CEO, Larry Johnston, who is CEO of our appliances business, came to headquarters to tell us he was taking the job as CEO of Albertsons, the large west fo- west coast food and drug chain.


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[Assistant] Larry was a big presence at GE with a strong track record and great reputation.


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[Assistant] Even though the announcement of his departure knocked the wind out of us, we moved quickly.


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[Assistant] Albertsons got a great CEO and we never missed a beat. Jim was off and running from day one.


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[Assistant] The only way to be able to replace a star swiftly is to have a slate of people ready to do so.


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[Assistant] That's where good evaluation systems come in. In particular, career development planning.


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[Assistant] That process can surface one or two in-house candidates to replace any star who departs.


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[Assistant] The third complicated relationship is with what I call sliders. These are employees who are once good performers but have hit a wall, for some reason or another, ranging from a midlife crisis to a job-related disappointment.


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[Assistant] A slider, while generally well-liked, now just shows up at work and goes through the motions. In most cases, no one knows what to do about it. In fact, the situation is usually so awkward that people look away.


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[Assistant] Otherwise, they fossilize in their jobs and they often grow bitter, slowly but surely infecting these groups with disaffection.


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[Assistant] Often, managers take a long time to let these individuals go because of their previous accomplishments, which were more than acceptable.


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[Assistant] But a company that manages people well quickly moves to get its sliders back in the game. And if that doesn't work, tells them that the game is over.


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[Assistant] The final relationship that cannot be ignored is with disruptors. These are the individuals who cause trouble for sport, inciting opposition to management for a variety of reasons, most of them petty.


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[Assistant] Usually these people have good performance. That's their cover. And so they are endured or appeased.


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[Assistant] Usually it won't. Disruptors are a personality type.


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[Assistant] If that's the case, get them out of the way of the people trying to do their jobs. They are poison.


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[Assistant] Practice number five. Fight gravity. And instead of taking the middle 70% for granted, treat them like the heart and soul of the organization.


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[Assistant] As practice four would suggest, managers end up spending the vast majority of their people management energy on charged relationships, too often trying to salvage sliders or disruptors. That's natural, but it's a mistake.


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[Assistant] Most work in an organization gets done by people in the middle 70, those solid performers who don't quite shine but work hard and well, and perhaps could shine with enough care and attention.


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[Assistant] You can't, you just can't allow the middle 70 to toil away in a form of obscurity like a well-behaved, mild-mannered middle child in a family of attention-grabbing progenies and troublemakers.


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[Assistant] Well managed companies fight that poll. In fact, they make sure that managers spend at least 50% of their people time on their biggest constituency, evaluating and coaching them.


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[Assistant] Further, they don't forget the middle 70 when it comes to rewards, recognition, and training.


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[Assistant] One important note. In larger companies, the middle 70 can be a highly differentiated group.


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[Assistant] In a way, it had its own top 20, valuable middle, and bottom 10. You need to recognize those performance variations. You can be sure the employees do.


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[Assistant] In fact, a common and damaging dynamic is the departure of the best performers in the middle 70


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[Assistant] Some of these individuals are almost stars their performance is that close.


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[Assistant] But when they get lumped with the middle 70 and are not managed attentively, they leave in frustration for a company where they will be more appreciated. That's a real loss.


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[Assistant] A good company recognizes that and makes it clear that this ranking is just a snapshot in time. It encourages this group using every tool in its people management kit.


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[Assistant] The point is, the middle 70 matters a lot. It is the heart and soul, the central core of any company.


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[Assistant] If you're going to manage people well, you simply cannot forget the majority of them.


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[Assistant] Practice number six. Design the org chart to be as flat as possible with blindingly clear reporting relationships and responsibilities.


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[Assistant] In 2004, Clayton de Bouillier and Rice purchased Culligan International, the water treatment and supply business with about $700 million U.S. dollars in annual sales and about 5,000 employees spread across 13 countries.


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[Assistant] George was well aware that Culligan had been through 10 owners in the previous 15 years, and he couldn't believe the organizational disarray that hit him when he walked through the door.


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[Assistant] George found that many employees simply didn't know where they fit in, whom they reported to, who reported to them, and what results each person was responsible for.


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[Assistant] George had the luxury of studying the business for 90 days prior to CDNR's closing the deal, so we had a clear idea of how Culligan should be organized.


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[Assistant] Within 30 days, George and Culligan's relatively new CEO, Mike Katchmer, had designed and implemented a new org chart that eliminated any confusion.


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[Assistant] It's too early to talk about the impact of this change on Colegan's bottom line, but based on my all too frequent GE experience clearing up confusing and otherwise ambiguous structures, it will be significant.


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[Assistant] Kulligan's situation, unfortunately, is not unique to old established multinationals.


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[Assistant] Dara also walked into an org chart quagmire when he arrived on the job at the end of 2004.


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[Assistant] Expedia, less than 10 years old and highly entrepreneurial, had been growing so fast, no one had taken the time to clarify reporting roles and responsibilities.


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[Assistant] As his first priority, Dera set out to fix that.


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[Assistant] My goal here is not to describe how to come up with the perfect org chart. Each company will do that differently, based on its size and the business it's in.


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[Assistant] But some principles apply across the board. If you want to manage people effectively, help them by making sure the org chart leaves as little as possible to the imagination. It should paint a crystal clear picture of reporting relationships and make it patently obvious who is responsible for what results. Just as important, it should be flat.


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[Assistant] Every time a piece of information travels through another person, it changes.


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[Assistant] Layers do that too, adding interpretation and buzz as information travels up and down the ladder. The trick then is to have fewer rungs.


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[Assistant] Layers have other vices. They add cost and complexity to everything. They slow things down because they increase the number of approvals and meetings required for anything to move forward. They have an odious way of burying new businesses or small units in big companies in honeycombs of bureaucracy.


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[Assistant] They tend to make little generals out of perfectly normal people who find themselves in hierarchies that respond only to rank.


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[Assistant] The awfulness of layers is nothing new to anyone, and yet companies gravitate toward them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For some, layers feel like the only way to respond to growth. More sales. Quick, add more district managers in the field. More employees. Quick, add more staff at headquarters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For others, the reasoning is even worse. Layers are a way to give people a feeling of growth when there is none. Layers allow you to give employees promotions instead of raises. That's better than doing nothing, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wrong. The inexorable pull towards layers is why I suggest that you make your company 50% flatter than you'd normally feel comfortable with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Managers should have 10 direct reports at the minimum and 30 to 50% of them more if they are experienced.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you've got great players, you'll get the most out of them if their reporting relationships and responsibilities are blindingly clear. Your org chart is not the only way to accomplish that, but it's a necessary first step.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After you've hired great people, your job becomes managing them into a winning team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make HR matter with a cadre of pastor-parent types at the helm. Ensure people really know what they're doing with evaluation systems that are honest and real.