Leading the Customer Experience
Tugboat Institute® member Brad Cleveland is a global expert in customer strategy and management. His recent book, Leading the Customer Experience, along with his LinkedIn Learning Courses and numerous articles, have been translated into a dozen languages. He is a sought after speaker and consultant worldwide.
When Brad was a young man, he had the opportunity to speak with W. Edwards Deming, who gave him a piece of profound advice: drive out the fear! Many years later, Brad has come to fully appreciate the role that fear can play in limiting performance and success in an organization. In this short Tugboat Institute talk, he reminds us how important it is to create a culture in our businesses where everyone - from the customer to the employee to the CEO - can operate free of fear.
Watch and be emboldened to help drive out the fear in your organization.
The Deming Philosophy and the Evergreen Mindset
W. Edwards Deming is universally recognized as one of the fathers of Total Quality Management. His groundbreaking work helped numerous Japanese companies, with whom he consulted in the period following WWII, improve their efficiency and performance and surge onto the world scene as formidable business competitors in the 1970s and 1980s. American companies caught on eventually, and the Deming Philosophy that he created, with its 14 principles, serves as a guide for a great many companies to this day.
In this Tugboat Institute® talk, W. Edwards Deming’s grandson, Kevin Cahill, shares his grandfather’s philosophy and some of its central tenets, which happen to align nicely with the Evergreen 7Ps® principles, in particular People First. Today, Kevin is the Executive Director of the Deming Institute and a champion for his grandfather's important and highly relevant work.
Watch and learn about Deming's work and the incredible People First insights that helped him advise some of the world’s largest companies on their way to becoming giants in their industries.
Being a Guru
It is no secret that business leaders and leaders of all sorts are experiencing high levels of burnout and stress, especially coming off the last extremely challenging few years. Most leaders are aware, at least on some level, of the importance of self-care, yet many struggle to turn that understanding into concrete action. Ryan Redman, Founder and Executive Director of the Flourish Foundation, proposes a way to think about this and some steps that may help you get started.
Although many of us have predisposed notions of what the word “guru” means, in this short Tugboat Institute® talk, Ryan suggests a different way to think about the term. He explores the essence of the guru, which means “weighty” in Sanskrit, and he suggests methods for working towards becoming a guru. He further posits that this work will help us become better leaders, better care for our teams and ourselves, and create more good in our communities and the world.
Watch and be inspired to take some simple, concrete steps toward becoming a guru and finding stability and strength.
An Evergreen Twist on the PE Rollup
Early in his career, the dental group Samson Liu worked for sold to Private Equity (PE). He stayed on for 18 years, as the company was sold and re-sold over and over again. Eventually, it became clear that the practices and mindsets of the PE model were not in line with Samson’s values, so he left to start his own practice, SOH Dental.
In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Samson shares how he took what he learned from the PE playbook and infused it with his own Evergreen® beliefs to create a new model for acquisitions. This “hybrid model” allowed him to build a business that is People First, that will always be Private, and that is in line with his values. His endeavor has been remarkably successful.
Watch and learn about a great example of how values can be at the center of a successful business, and how Evergreen is not only a viable, but a powerful alternative to the standard, Private Equity model.
Note: this presentation includes a few mild expletives
Creativity in Action: Using the Creative Process to Live a Life of Excellence
Murray Hidary began his career as a tech entrepreneur, before a personal tragedy redirected his focus back to music, a lifelong passion. His work using music to heal and improve his own mindset led him to found his current company, MindTravel. MindTravel invites listeners to immerse themselves in Murray's original piano compositions, either alone, with a group, or in nature, to learn to find peace in the moment and connect with the stillness and calm that help us see clearly, heal, and succeed.
In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Murray shares his perspective on creativity, which he believes is not a gift granted to a lucky few, but rather lives in all of us. Following his short talk, Murray invites us to sit back and lose ourselves, for a short time, in music as he performs live on our stage.
Watch, listen, and be inspired to connect with your own creativity and to seek and find peace and clarity as a source of strength.
Take Care of Yourself, Create More Impact in the World
Anese Cavanaugh is the Founder and CEO of Active Choices, Inc., creator of the IEP Method, and the author of numerous books. The many tools she has developed and honed are all aimed at achieving the same goal; helping leaders take better care of themselves so they can build better companies, with cultures that thrive, and create impact in the world.
In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Anese shares her considerable wisdom on this topic and introduces us to the Intentional Energetic Presence (IEP) Method. She invites Evergreen® leaders, who already understand the importance of putting People First, to direct their care not only toward their families, employees, and communities, but also toward themselves.
Watch and be inspired to take care of yourself, and make it possible to increase your impact in the world.
Bouncing Back Better: Perseverance is my Superpower
Tugboat Institute® member and Co-Founder, Co-Owner & CEO of Headframe Spirits, Courtney McKee has experienced a series of enormous challenges in her life, both personal and professional, but she has overcome them all. Her secret weapons are her resilience and her Perseverance, both of which are fueled by her strong sense of Purpose.
In this Tugboat Institute talk, Courtney shares some of the challenges she has faced and overcome and how her values of courage and community give her the strength to persevere, even in the most challenging of times. Her story is a wonderful example of the strength and power of Evergreen® values in action, and the heights to which they enable us to soar.
Watch and be inspired to double down on your values, and become unstoppable.
Evergreen Strategies to Scale through Organic Growth, New Industry Verticals, & Acquisitions
Tugboat Institute® member and President of Supportworks, Inc., Dave Thrasher grew up watching his father found and build a company. When it came time for him to step into leadership, Dave was ready to take what his father had built and scale it. In the end, he founded his own offshoot of his father’s Evergreen® company, which is run today by his brother Dan, and he started the work of scaling Suportworks, Inc., always with an eye to maintaining his core Evergreen values.
In this Tugboat Institute talk, Dave shares his learning about the ways Evergreen companies can scale successfully. Many of them are the strategies used widely by companies of all types, but he has modified where necessary to ensure that as he scales, his growing company stays fully aligned with the Evergreen 7Ps® principles and the Evergreen mindset. He has had astounding success.
Watch and be inspired to explore new growth opportunities in an Evergreen way.
In Search of Excellence and Beyond
Tom Peters’ book, In Search of Excellence, stands as one of the seminal management books of all time. It had an enormous influence on Tugboat Institute® Founder and CEO Dave Whorton as a young man, as it did on so many others. Its foundation in People First aligns beautifully with the Evergreen® mindset, and offers great wisdom for the Evergreen leader.
In this Tugboat Institute talk, Tom engages in conversation with Dave Whorton and revisits the eight main points he detailed in his original book. Then they discuss some ways in which Tom’s thinking has evolved in the years since it was published. Still as relevant and Evergreen as ever, the takeaways from this rich conversation are numerous and valuable.
Watch and enjoy the wisdom and wit of this great leader and thinker.
Dear White Friend: How Are We Doing, One Year Later?
At Tugboat Institute® Summit, 2021, member and CEO of TriVersity Construction Mel Gravely took to the stage and spoke about his recent book, Dear White Friend: The Realities of Race, the Power of Relationships, and Our Path to Equity. His 2021 talk was powerful and impactful. This important conversation is one that continues to be relevant across the country, in all areas of our lives, including our businesses. So we asked Mel to speak again in 2022 and give us an update on his thinking and the progress of the conversation on a broad scale.
In this short talk, Mel shares his key learnings from the past year and the factors that he believes must be at the front of all of our minds when we recommit, as we must, to this effort. Only together, and with renewed commitment, can we work toward making our businesses, our communities, and this country an equitable place for all.
Watch and be inspired to commit yourself to this effort, for both the short and long term.
