[Music]
felt like had a pretty typical childhood
grew up in northwest Iowa in a small
town typical of northwest Iowa small
town kids I wanted desperately to get
out I couldn’t wait to get away make a
name for myself make some money buy some
toys live a great life right went on to
college got a great internships did all
the things I was supposed to do got good
grades fueled by the idea that someday I
was gonna have the best stock portfolio
newest cars all those great things got
out of school went and got the first
jobs Fortune 500’s they weren’t for me
they can be for a lot of people maybe
mention that a little bit more in a
little bit
they weren’t for me I didn’t find the
work meaningful except for the
intellectual stimulation of it I suppose
and pretty quickly I again felt trapped
I wanted to get out but this time we’re
– there’s no college to escape – or new
jobs to get where do I go now if this
isn’t me very shortly after I started
coming to this realization I found
myself on the street in Iowa City
punched in the gut alone breathless
because I had just scored literally
hundreds of points below what I was
supposed to score on the GMAT score at
the GMAT exam anybody knows the GMAT
exam that’s the big test to get into
business school that everybody goes by
and I bombed it according to my
expectations at least Wow where am I
going this is not the path I’d planned
on at this point in life fortunately my
dad’s fret best friend Tom this is
pomme with his newest grandbaby gave me
a call and he said tada I want you to be
the co-director of this youth retreat
called chrysalis
well I knew about this thing and I was a
little apprehensive because I wasn’t in
a good place or was I to be leading
youth was my faith in a place where I
should be talking to youth about their
faith at this point in my life but I
adore Tom he’s my dad’s best friend I
agreed I was gonna do it so chrysalis is
pretty in-depth you go to meetings for
weeks to get ready for this thing so I
started going to these meetings you
practice talks and you do all sorts of
activities for team-building all that
and I immediately realized that this was
a place with energy these people were
excited to serve these young people they
were going to come to this retreat Tom
and his friends had something figured
weekend before the retreat happens Tom
and I decide we’re gonna go to lunch
talk a little bit he took me to the fine
dining establishment known as Wendy’s he
and my dad really enjoy their iced tea
and you know we’re talking hey what do
you want to do what’s your next step so
you know all that stuff you talked about
and I said Tom you know I just bombed
this test I’m off I’m off the rails I
thought I was gonna get an MBA maybe a
PhD but now what
and he said Todd do not worry about that
test and he started asking me things
like you know who do you really want to
be what do you enjoy what’s meaningful
to you why were you put on this earth
we’re talking about all this good stuff
and I didn’t realize it at the time what
tom was helping me do was discern my
values so Tom got me on track he gave me
that kick in the pants I needed at that
point in time shortly thereafter greatly
improved GMAT score followed
perseverance a word I’m going to come
back to in a little bit I got into the
ph.d program I wanted to ultimate
but more importantly what Tom did for me
was pull me out of my self-involved
indulgent materialistic bubble and he
showed me a different way to see he
showed me there as people all around me
who could be mentors and helped me be on
the right track
most importantly he helped me see my
grandfather Lyle Auggie great guy try
not to cry for too long right now passed
away a couple years ago and grandpas
amazing man you know about this time he
was retired he had time to time to spend
so I’d sit down with him as regularly as
possible and chat with them and you know
one of those first times I’ll never
forget the kind of this conversations
become really formative so he says to me
hey smart guy this is how he talked to
me all the time hey smart guy you’re
going to business school you’re supposed
to know all this stuff why don’t you
explain to me why people think they’re
gonna be happy buying all these big
houses I didn’t know I never thought
about it this is what you do all right
that’s not an acceptable answer my
grandfather you don’t do anything
without a reason
scratch my head walked away stored in
the mental bank shortly thereafter I’m
back talking with him again this time
I’m coming with a question I’m gonna pin
him down a little bit and I always heard
from my aunt’s and my mom you know your
Grandpa’s really smart guy and he was
gonna go get an engineering degree right
out of high school but his brother his
older brother was killed in World War
two so he had to stay on the farm and
you know take care of the farm with his
father
so I said grandpa you know once the farm
settled down why didn’t you go get that
engineering degree looked at me I think
I did pretty well I don’t think I needed
that degree started a couple of
businesses that did good things for
farmers ran a successful farm of my own
I took care of our family and he did he
took care of us in an amazing way
furthermore he took care of his
community when the tiny little town in
central Iowa he lived
needed something lyall Auggie was there
he also was able to pursue his passion
projects and hobbies the one I’m most
proud of is that he went and dug wells
in in Central America he lived a great
life he lived a life of meaning and
purpose by his own design he was
satisfied I took note that I wasn’t
there yet
fast-forward we’re doing a lot of
fast-forward in these talks today fast
forward a few years earned that PhD
blessed with a job an amazing University
this one doing research I cared about
teaching amazing students as you will
see throughout the day and already have
I bought the big house my grandfather
warned me against I was living a good
life by most any standard but I still
wasn’t satisfied so a guy standing in
the sitting in this room right now one
day comes and taps me on the shoulder
and says hey congratulations you earned
tenure right every young academics dream
shortly thereafter I head to the
mountains of Colorado spending some time
with aunt Kay and uncle Ron and about
that time I’ve been reading around that
reading a lot about this concept called
minimalism anybody checked this out
everybody watched the movie on Netflix
yet I actually haven’t watched the movie
on Netflix yet I was reading about
before that and I’ve heard it’s good
though
and minimal minimal ISM is all about
cutting away the clutter from our lives
that does not add value boom that hit me
right where I was at so in the mountains
with the people I love wife kids aunts
uncles in God’s creation I said I’ve got
to organize my life around this new way
of thinking I am gonna build an
existence where I focus on the things
that provide me meaning and those I love
great value that’s what I’m gonna do
we can all do this you don’t have to be
this amazing entrepreneur we just have
to choose so I began thinking about it
and I thought I bet other people are in
the same place I’m at hence the
minimalist manager this blog I started
minimalist management is all all about
helping people find meaning
self-determination and purpose in their
life so they can strive we do this for
ourselves we should do this for our
teams we should do this for our
workplaces we should do this for our
organizations we do this by reflecting
on the things people and activities that
provide us with meaning so that we can
determine our purpose and then construct
an environment where we can live out
that purpose we prune away the things
and activities that are not Purpose
Driven we can all do this and I would
argue it’s our obligation to do this for
ourselves and those we love so you know
is this some kooky idea by a guy had too
much time on his hands
read too many blogs no this matters
turns out this guy named Aristotle
studied this stuff thought about this
stuff way back when
this is ancient wisdom Aristotle argued
that when we live intentionally
purposefully and for meaning that we
will live great lives subsequently
scholars for years have studied this
rigorously and with a lot of data
mountains of papers have supported the
fact that people’s motivation and life
satisfaction are related to living in
this way we also have greater resilience
in the face of obstacles and are more
likely to remain satisfied when bad
things happen in our lives when we’re
living
purposefully we tend to have better
relationships with those we love and
those we work with we tend to have more
fulfilling retirements when we are
living purposefully in retirement and
consequently I might argue we tend to
live longer in studies of people who
live in what are called blue zones which
are areas where people
disproportionately live past the age of
100 they found that there were common
themes of all these different blue zones
you guessed it one of these common
themes is purposeful living subsequent
studies showed that purpose actually
improves longevity across all adulthood
and then finally and very importantly
for the work that I do a ten-year
longitudinal study of organizations
showed that organizations that were
purpose and values driven outperformed
those that were not on various business
outcomes this stuff matters at this
point I hope you’re thinking there’s
only one choice here I have to find my
purpose but how
here are three tools that I found useful
as you can see they all interrelate they
all build on each other the first is a
personal strategic plan that then
informs our bill of rights for work and
Beyond and then we use what I’m calling
the succinct sabbatical to reflect check
in and make alterations so the personal
strategic plan starts with us
determining our values lots of different
ways to do this I don’t in any way
pretend to have the corner on the market
for good ideas here but three questions
I like one that I’m sure you’ve all
heard our what do I is what do I want
people to say about me when I die a
second is what do I truly love and a
third is who do I truly love because I
think those things will uncover our true
values once we know our values we can
move on to our strengths you can take
great assessments for this but I think
just as importantly is that we go to
people we value respect and Trust
and we asked them we asked them what our
strengths and our weaknesses are and at
that point we can then start to think
about what is our purpose what am I put
here to do what do I exist to do and
that’s what you might ask is what do I
exist to do and who do I exist to do it
for that’ll help us uncover our purpose
then we can move in to our strategy once
we know who we are and what we need to
do we determine a strategy to get us
there within the strategy we need our
objective
that’s our longer-term goal for what we
want to exceed six do – in order to
reach our purpose then we think about
what’s our scope where are we going to
do this at work at home not-for-profits
in our family and then finally what is
our unique differentiator where we add
value and I assure each and every one of
you that you have a way to add value
finally we determine those shorter term
goals that will help us meet that
objective the next tool is our Bill of
Rights this is a list of statements or
rules that will help us work toward
purpose this is especially useful when
we work in teams because it helps us
understand how we’re going to relate to
each other one right I have that I
really value is that everyone deserves
to have clarity of task and purpose of
work I think every team should have that
right so you should reflect and discern
your own Bill of Rights for your
operating context your your life context
third is this succinct sabbatical plan
times to step away reflect on meaning
and progress celebrate successes and
determine the adjustments we need to
move forward intentionally these tools
work together this isn’t easy tools can
help mentors can help now the choice is
yours
this is about you are you going to
choose your purpose based on what’s
meaningful or
you be sucked into the culture of
materialism and self-centeredness will
you step forward and help the people you
love find meaning and purpose or were
you let them struggle we can all do this
whether it’s your fortune 500 context or
your helping those around you or it’s
your not-for-profit you can do this I
was really fortunate to have amazing
mentors in my life
Tom my grandfather and countless others
including my parents who are the
ordinary people in your life that can
help you get on the right track that
will step forward and kick you in the
pants to get you where you need to go I
was fortunate I could have gone down a
different path for much longer where I
was chasing things without meaning but I
was fortunate I strive daily to help
people grow into their god-given
potential I don’t do it well every day
I’m not successful every day but that is
my purpose and it is meaningful what is
your purpose god bless [Applause]
felt like had a pretty typical childhood
grew up in northwest Iowa in a small
town typical of northwest Iowa small
town kids I wanted desperately to get
out I couldn’t wait to get away make a
name for myself make some money buy some
toys live a great life right went on to
college got a great internships did all
the things I was supposed to do got good
grades fueled by the idea that someday I
was gonna have the best stock portfolio
newest cars all those great things got
out of school went and got the first
jobs Fortune 500’s they weren’t for me
they can be for a lot of people maybe
mention that a little bit more in a
little bit
they weren’t for me I didn’t find the
work meaningful except for the
intellectual stimulation of it I suppose
and pretty quickly I again felt trapped
I wanted to get out but this time we’re
– there’s no college to escape – or new
jobs to get where do I go now if this
isn’t me very shortly after I started
coming to this realization I found
myself on the street in Iowa City
punched in the gut alone breathless
because I had just scored literally
hundreds of points below what I was
supposed to score on the GMAT score at
the GMAT exam anybody knows the GMAT
exam that’s the big test to get into
business school that everybody goes by
and I bombed it according to my
expectations at least Wow where am I
going this is not the path I’d planned
on at this point in life fortunately my
dad’s fret best friend Tom this is
pomme with his newest grandbaby gave me
a call and he said tada I want you to be
the co-director of this youth retreat
called chrysalis
well I knew about this thing and I was a
little apprehensive because I wasn’t in
a good place or was I to be leading
youth was my faith in a place where I
should be talking to youth about their
faith at this point in my life but I
adore Tom he’s my dad’s best friend I
agreed I was gonna do it so chrysalis is
pretty in-depth you go to meetings for
weeks to get ready for this thing so I
started going to these meetings you
practice talks and you do all sorts of
activities for team-building all that
and I immediately realized that this was
a place with energy these people were
excited to serve these young people they
were going to come to this retreat Tom
and his friends had something figured
weekend before the retreat happens Tom
and I decide we’re gonna go to lunch
talk a little bit he took me to the fine
dining establishment known as Wendy’s he
and my dad really enjoy their iced tea
and you know we’re talking hey what do
you want to do what’s your next step so
you know all that stuff you talked about
and I said Tom you know I just bombed
this test I’m off I’m off the rails I
thought I was gonna get an MBA maybe a
PhD but now what
and he said Todd do not worry about that
test and he started asking me things
like you know who do you really want to
be what do you enjoy what’s meaningful
to you why were you put on this earth
we’re talking about all this good stuff
and I didn’t realize it at the time what
tom was helping me do was discern my
values so Tom got me on track he gave me
that kick in the pants I needed at that
point in time shortly thereafter greatly
improved GMAT score followed
perseverance a word I’m going to come
back to in a little bit I got into the
ph.d program I wanted to ultimate
but more importantly what Tom did for me
was pull me out of my self-involved
indulgent materialistic bubble and he
showed me a different way to see he
showed me there as people all around me
who could be mentors and helped me be on
the right track
most importantly he helped me see my
grandfather Lyle Auggie great guy try
not to cry for too long right now passed
away a couple years ago and grandpas
amazing man you know about this time he
was retired he had time to time to spend
so I’d sit down with him as regularly as
possible and chat with them and you know
one of those first times I’ll never
forget the kind of this conversations
become really formative so he says to me
hey smart guy this is how he talked to
me all the time hey smart guy you’re
going to business school you’re supposed
to know all this stuff why don’t you
explain to me why people think they’re
gonna be happy buying all these big
houses I didn’t know I never thought
about it this is what you do all right
that’s not an acceptable answer my
grandfather you don’t do anything
without a reason
scratch my head walked away stored in
the mental bank shortly thereafter I’m
back talking with him again this time
I’m coming with a question I’m gonna pin
him down a little bit and I always heard
from my aunt’s and my mom you know your
Grandpa’s really smart guy and he was
gonna go get an engineering degree right
out of high school but his brother his
older brother was killed in World War
two so he had to stay on the farm and
you know take care of the farm with his
father
so I said grandpa you know once the farm
settled down why didn’t you go get that
engineering degree looked at me I think
I did pretty well I don’t think I needed
that degree started a couple of
businesses that did good things for
farmers ran a successful farm of my own
I took care of our family and he did he
took care of us in an amazing way
furthermore he took care of his
community when the tiny little town in
central Iowa he lived
needed something lyall Auggie was there
he also was able to pursue his passion
projects and hobbies the one I’m most
proud of is that he went and dug wells
in in Central America he lived a great
life he lived a life of meaning and
purpose by his own design he was
satisfied I took note that I wasn’t
there yet
fast-forward we’re doing a lot of
fast-forward in these talks today fast
forward a few years earned that PhD
blessed with a job an amazing University
this one doing research I cared about
teaching amazing students as you will
see throughout the day and already have
I bought the big house my grandfather
warned me against I was living a good
life by most any standard but I still
wasn’t satisfied so a guy standing in
the sitting in this room right now one
day comes and taps me on the shoulder
and says hey congratulations you earned
tenure right every young academics dream
shortly thereafter I head to the
mountains of Colorado spending some time
with aunt Kay and uncle Ron and about
that time I’ve been reading around that
reading a lot about this concept called
minimalism anybody checked this out
everybody watched the movie on Netflix
yet I actually haven’t watched the movie
on Netflix yet I was reading about
before that and I’ve heard it’s good
though
and minimal minimal ISM is all about
cutting away the clutter from our lives
that does not add value boom that hit me
right where I was at so in the mountains
with the people I love wife kids aunts
uncles in God’s creation I said I’ve got
to organize my life around this new way
of thinking I am gonna build an
existence where I focus on the things
that provide me meaning and those I love
great value that’s what I’m gonna do
we can all do this you don’t have to be
this amazing entrepreneur we just have
to choose so I began thinking about it
and I thought I bet other people are in
the same place I’m at hence the
minimalist manager this blog I started
minimalist management is all all about
helping people find meaning
self-determination and purpose in their
life so they can strive we do this for
ourselves we should do this for our
teams we should do this for our
workplaces we should do this for our
organizations we do this by reflecting
on the things people and activities that
provide us with meaning so that we can
determine our purpose and then construct
an environment where we can live out
that purpose we prune away the things
and activities that are not Purpose
Driven we can all do this and I would
argue it’s our obligation to do this for
ourselves and those we love so you know
is this some kooky idea by a guy had too
much time on his hands
read too many blogs no this matters
turns out this guy named Aristotle
studied this stuff thought about this
stuff way back when
this is ancient wisdom Aristotle argued
that when we live intentionally
purposefully and for meaning that we
will live great lives subsequently
scholars for years have studied this
rigorously and with a lot of data
mountains of papers have supported the
fact that people’s motivation and life
satisfaction are related to living in
this way we also have greater resilience
in the face of obstacles and are more
likely to remain satisfied when bad
things happen in our lives when we’re
living
purposefully we tend to have better
relationships with those we love and
those we work with we tend to have more
fulfilling retirements when we are
living purposefully in retirement and
consequently I might argue we tend to
live longer in studies of people who
live in what are called blue zones which
are areas where people
disproportionately live past the age of
100 they found that there were common
themes of all these different blue zones
you guessed it one of these common
themes is purposeful living subsequent
studies showed that purpose actually
improves longevity across all adulthood
and then finally and very importantly
for the work that I do a ten-year
longitudinal study of organizations
showed that organizations that were
purpose and values driven outperformed
those that were not on various business
outcomes this stuff matters at this
point I hope you’re thinking there’s
only one choice here I have to find my
purpose but how
here are three tools that I found useful
as you can see they all interrelate they
all build on each other the first is a
personal strategic plan that then
informs our bill of rights for work and
Beyond and then we use what I’m calling
the succinct sabbatical to reflect check
in and make alterations so the personal
strategic plan starts with us
determining our values lots of different
ways to do this I don’t in any way
pretend to have the corner on the market
for good ideas here but three questions
I like one that I’m sure you’ve all
heard our what do I is what do I want
people to say about me when I die a
second is what do I truly love and a
third is who do I truly love because I
think those things will uncover our true
values once we know our values we can
move on to our strengths you can take
great assessments for this but I think
just as importantly is that we go to
people we value respect and Trust
and we asked them we asked them what our
strengths and our weaknesses are and at
that point we can then start to think
about what is our purpose what am I put
here to do what do I exist to do and
that’s what you might ask is what do I
exist to do and who do I exist to do it
for that’ll help us uncover our purpose
then we can move in to our strategy once
we know who we are and what we need to
do we determine a strategy to get us
there within the strategy we need our
objective
that’s our longer-term goal for what we
want to exceed six do – in order to
reach our purpose then we think about
what’s our scope where are we going to
do this at work at home not-for-profits
in our family and then finally what is
our unique differentiator where we add
value and I assure each and every one of
you that you have a way to add value
finally we determine those shorter term
goals that will help us meet that
objective the next tool is our Bill of
Rights this is a list of statements or
rules that will help us work toward
purpose this is especially useful when
we work in teams because it helps us
understand how we’re going to relate to
each other one right I have that I
really value is that everyone deserves
to have clarity of task and purpose of
work I think every team should have that
right so you should reflect and discern
your own Bill of Rights for your
operating context your your life context
third is this succinct sabbatical plan
times to step away reflect on meaning
and progress celebrate successes and
determine the adjustments we need to
move forward intentionally these tools
work together this isn’t easy tools can
help mentors can help now the choice is
yours
this is about you are you going to
choose your purpose based on what’s
meaningful or
you be sucked into the culture of
materialism and self-centeredness will
you step forward and help the people you
love find meaning and purpose or were
you let them struggle we can all do this
whether it’s your fortune 500 context or
your helping those around you or it’s
your not-for-profit you can do this I
was really fortunate to have amazing
mentors in my life
Tom my grandfather and countless others
including my parents who are the
ordinary people in your life that can
help you get on the right track that
will step forward and kick you in the
pants to get you where you need to go I
was fortunate I could have gone down a
different path for much longer where I
was chasing things without meaning but I
was fortunate I strive daily to help
people grow into their god-given
potential I don’t do it well every day
I’m not successful every day but that is
my purpose and it is meaningful what is
your purpose god bless [Applause]
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