Juice , livre ebook

About the Author


Brady G. Wilson is the co-founder of Juice Inc., a solution provider for leaders who want to boost their organizational energy levels and employee engagement. He has unleashed profitable results for leaders, managers, and sales professionals in many of North America’s Fortune 500 companies. His passion for creating breakthroughs for companies has spawned such innovative tools and programs as Pull Conversations™, The Five Drivers of Engagement™, and The Juice Check™. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.
REVISED EDITION

The Power of
Conversation
The Secret to Releasing Your People’s Brilliance and Expanding Your Leadership Influence
BRADY G.WILSON
FOREWORD BY JOHN WRIGHT
Copyright © 2009, 2006 by Brady G. Wilson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Revised Edition published in 2009 by BPS Books Toronto, Canada www.bpsbooks.com A division of Bastian Publishing Services Ltd.
First published in 2006 by Bastian Books
Cataloguing in Publication Data available from Library and Archives Canada

Note: Great care has been taken care to protect the identities of the people in the following stories. Where individuals’ real names have been used, as indicated in brackets, we have received permission to do so. Every effort has been made to identify, obtain permission from, and credit all sources. The publisher would appreciate notification of omissions or errors so that they may be corrected. Chapter 2 excerpt from Communication World, July–August 2004, courtesy of International Association of Business Communicators. Chapter 5 excerpt from The Language of Love excerpted and adapted from The Language of Love by Gary Smalley and John Trent, Ph.D., a Focus on the Family book published by Tyndale House Publishers. Copyright © 1988, 1991, 2006 by Gary Smalley and John Trent, Ph.D. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission. Chapter 7 excerpt from “Tell Me More: On the Art of Listening” by Brenda Ueland from Strength to Your Sword Arm: Selected Writings by Brenda Ueland (Holy Cow! Press, 1993). Used by permission of the Estate of Brenda Ueland and Holy Cow! Press. All rights reserved.
Cover and interior design and typesetting: Daniel Crack, Kinetics Design www.kdbooks.ca
To the memory of J.C. Wilson, my Dad, a man who pulled more laughter out of life than anyone I have ever known
Contents

Foreword
Preface
1 My Journey to Pull Conversations
2 Conversations Release Energy
Accessing the Power of Pull Conversations
3 The Logic of Pull Conversations
Creating Capacity in Your Listeners
4 Pull Out Their Reality
Harnessing the Power of Context
5 Pull Them into Your Reality
Tapping the Power of Pull
6 Pull Out the Bigger Reality
Performing the Magic of 1+1 = 5
7 Pull Out People’s Best Stuff
Releasing Brilliance Through Respect
8 Juice Your Environments
Understanding the Five Drivers of Engagement
9 Juice Your Relationships
Repairing Broken Connections
10 “Cultural Architects to Work!”
Sixteen Ways to Produce Juice
Conclusion
Appendix
Debunking the 7%–38%–55% Communications Fallacy
A JUICE Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Foreword

A FTER working for twenty-five years in the communications and public affairs arena, and after spending the last twenty years looking at absolutely every dimension of public opinion imaginable, both out of curiosity and on behalf of many clients, I have learned one truth that transcends all other truths I’ve ever learned, and that is this: It’s the simplest things that are the most profound and the most likely to make a difference in whatever we’re trying to accomplish.
Brady Wilson and his business partner, Alex Somos, have found, and implemented, some simple and central truths about the workplace. That was clear to me when I first met them and it’s even clearer to me today, now that I have read this book.
I was very excited, a few years back, when they asked me to do some public opinion research among employees in the workplace. For lack of a better metaphor, I was “juiced” by their assignment. I instantly grasped, from their spirit and their questions, the simplicity and profundity of their approach to work and life.
In my world you can ask 100 questions and then sit and look at data tables at least 300 pages thick and be no farther ahead than when you started. Unless, that is, you know three things: the story in the data, be it of romance and adventure or challenge and inspiration or anything else; the context, without which the data will not make sense; and concrete examples that anchor and illustrate the findings.
Brady and Alex provided me with these three essentials. They showed me that in a world of bits and bytes of information, zipping and zapping around from e-mails and videoconferences and pod-casts and Web streaming, the most important element in the workplace and beyond had been lost: conversations between human beings.
And when we stop to think about it, we all know that the empathy of human relationships and the ability to motivate people have been sucked out of almost every dimension of the workplace as technology has made it easier and faster for us to communicate our thoughts and information.
Anyone who works in the workplace today can relate to this. Managers and people involved with clients in service relations can, if they choose, hide behind their computer screens, and elude the office with their BlackBerries, almost all day (and night). They can communicate without ever being heard or met – or understood. Ours has become a push-key world in which commands and ideas are pushed out and onto people, with the human touch so diminished that workers and others argue over whether or not e-mail phrasing can have a personal tone.
The following pages are profound and incredibly energizing because they say to managers and workers alike that engaging with others in a very simple, contextual, and human way in the workplace can produce extraordinary results. This book is backed up with numerous examples and written so that once you start reading it you won’t put it down until you’re done. Through it, Brady Wilson provides the way to navigate, nurture, and necessitate the most productive relationships possible.
If the Tom Peters maxim of “managing by wandering around” drove the workplace a step further than Peter Drucker’s views on workers and motivation, then this book signals the next leap forward in human-resource productivity, for a world that has changed inextricably with the advent of the Internet and the explosion of technology. Brady Wilson takes you back to the basics of relating to workers, gives that process context and meaning in today’s nanosecond setting, and shows how it can be made to work in any workplace environment.
I have no doubt that this book will juice you to greater insight, creativity, and intelligent energy. Just watch what happens the next time you enter your place of work.
J OHN W RIGHT
Senior Vice President,
Ipsos Reid
Preface

I AM fortunate to work with a passionate group of people. Our company, Juice Inc., exists for one simple purpose: to co-create cultures where it feels good to work and it’s easier to get results. That is the raison d’être of this book. After seeing our methods enhance the enjoyment and achievement of our participants, we felt that this material needed to be offered to a large audience. As you engage with me in this book, my hope is that you will experience this dynamic shift.
I am also fortunate to have had the privilege of working with business leaders and managers from across North America. I will be introducing many of them to you throughout the book, recognizing the ways in which they have released intelligent energy in their work environments.
I am profoundly grateful to my business partner, Alex Somos, who championed the writing of this book, in both its original and revised editions, with unflagging commitment from beginning to end. Alex’s creative ideas, practical business sense, and wise advice have shaped so much of this book. I have never met a man more thoughtful and loyal than he.
I am also grateful to my friend and colleague Crista Renner. She is Pull Conversation personified. Her ideas and well-crafted questions brought intelligent energy to the table, boosting the book’s coherence. Crista is also a brilliant sleuth. Time after time, at the most critical junctures of the writing, she brought forth salient pieces of research.
Loretta Rose was a key player in the formation of this book. She captured much of our initial material on tape and in interviews, channeling my thinking and doing the tough slogging of creating the first draft. Several revisions have come and gone, and most of the book has morphed into a different form, but stories transformed by Loretta from oral to written form are featured throughout. Her intelligence, passion, creativity, and storytelling flair have enriched Juice in many ways.
Through his editorial and publishing prowess, Donald G. Bastian of BPS Books has brought immense value to this book. I am thankful for the day we met.
My thanks also to Sue Krautkramer, Christy Pettit, Rick Boersma