Small Hinges, Big Results: Transform Toxic Culture to High Performance with Dr. Joey Faucette
Welcome to SkyeTeam's People First with Morag Barrett. Here, we'll be exploring the people side of successful businesses, careers, and lives. We all have a story to share, and there's something to be learned in every story. Join us to learn from authors, business leaders, thought leaders, and people just like you to uncover the latest ideas, resources, and tools to help you become more effective at work and life. As it turns out, the secret to success is cultivating winning relationships.
Intro & Outro:Business is personal, and relationships matter.
Morag Barrett:Welcome to this week's episode of People First. And my guest this week is doctor Joey Fawcett, who transforms organizations and cultures from negative heaven culture to a positive work culture that increases productivity and profits. He is the culture architect of the work positive framework, certified executive coach, and best selling author of work positive in a negative world team edition. I think very pertinent for the worst state of the world as it stands today. His work has appeared on Wall Street Journal MoneyWatch, CNBC, Fox Business News, entrepreneur media, and countless other sites.
Morag Barrett:Hosts the work positive podcast, and you can get your free course, Something to Talk About at Work Positive today. Doctor Joey, welcome to People First.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Alright. I'm so delighted to be on People First. I love the name of your podcast.
Morag Barrett:Thank you. Well, I think our research and our focus on the human and the environment in which we are working, where we spend most of our lives, it there is so much intersection. I'm looking forward to a rich conversation. But as ever, I'm kind of interested in your origin story. And in the green room, you told me that when you were a wee lad, that founding an organization called Work Positive Today was top of your list.
Morag Barrett:And I responded, liar, liar, pants on fire. But, of course, maybe you did. So tell us, doctor Joey, what did you want to be when you grew up, when you were a wee boy?
Dr. Joey Faucette:Oh, that was a wee boy. Well, the earliest memory I have is that of being a pediatrician. I, had a viral infection in my lungs, which so bit of a longer story, but a viral infection in my lungs that almost took me away from here. And so I became enchanted with the work of medical professionals, doctors specifically. And since I was in third grade at the time as a nine year old, I wanted to help kids, to achieve better life.
Dr. Joey Faucette:So that that was what I wanted to be, was a pediatrician.
Morag Barrett:And so what was the pivot point to the work that you do on culture?
Dr. Joey Faucette:Yeah. I became, just enamored. I I realized that it was not so much the medical profession from a scientific standpoint, which I very much still enjoy to this day and and enjoy that a lot. But I began to realize that my concern was for the people. In In the case of pediatrician, obviously, children and their parents.
Dr. Joey Faucette:And then later, I began to really live into my superpower of empathy and intuition, which put me in a unique position to help people discover their very best version of themselves. And I began to understand, through, you mentioned Kevin Culture earlier, through early exposure to what makes for a work positive culture, and that was when I was in radio broadcasting. It broadcasting. It began in my teens, continued into my early twenties. And so my first station owner was, very much a work positive culture kind of person.
Dr. Joey Faucette:I thought all bosses were like that, even though I'd had a few other bosses, but I thought all bosses were like that until I went to work for another radio station. And the gentleman that I went to work for then is now a very, very, very, very wealthy broadcast owner. But at that time, in that season in his life, he was very much what I call a Kevin culture, just very negative culture and toxic, culture. Now you may be saying, hey, doctor Joey. Was his name Kevin?
Dr. Joey Faucette:No. It was not. So so so don't go googling and looking for a prominent broadcaster who's named Kevin. Instead, that was a a nickname that I gave to all purveyors of, and leaders of negative cultures based on a client's constant, repetitive recitation of exactly how bad her boss was. And so I just finally, in in the midst of about the third session where I heard all about this, I said, well, you know, you you keep saying him.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Let's give a name and and make it personal. What what's his name? She just spewed venom and said, Kevin. And so I was like, okay. And then that shall become we have Karens, which have a negative connotation.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Now we'll have Kevins and, just associate them as leaders of all things negative in terms of culture.
Morag Barrett:It's moments like this that I am grateful to have an unusual name. I hate my name as a child, but it's unlikely that someone's gonna write a book about the Morag culture. Well, they might be. But to the friends, it would
Dr. Joey Faucette:be lovely. Great if they did.
Morag Barrett:Yeah. Well, exactly. The Kevins and Karens that I have grown up with who have been delightful, then please accept that this is not a representation of you. But then tell us a little bit more then. What is a work positive culture?
Dr. Joey Faucette:Yeah. And by the way, no Karens or Kevins were harmed in the recording of this podcast. Right? I just wanna make that clear. A work positive culture is one in which the emphasis is around growing people and understanding that so people first.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Right? Growing people and understanding that that's the pathway to financial sustainability for a company, or as I like to say, grow people and profits. So our partnership really sets out to do that quite intentionally.
Morag Barrett:So it it's not rocket science. So why is it then that so many leaders, so many organizations, so many teams still struggle to connect those particular dots?
Dr. Joey Faucette:It's not rocket science Morag, but it is brain surgery.
Morag Barrett:Oh, say more.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Because it starts and stops a positive word culture starts and stops in the heads of all the persons who are a part of work teams within a company. And that's the what I like to call the perceived core practice because we see what we look for within a company. And so helping employees focus on the positive things that are going on in the company culture and the company results as opposed to the negative is really truly important. And so we begin to set our sights on the positive manifestations, if you will. And doing those things which bring mindfulness to the forefront, mental health becomes important at that point.
Dr. Joey Faucette:So just helping people institute daily habits into their professional lives as well as their personal lives is if you could separate those. Right? Which will inform the way they think about their work. The that leads to that brain surgery leads to then relational surgery, and that is the what I like to call the conceive core practice. Conceive is all about the relationships that we have, whether it's on our teams, with our bosses, with, the owners, with people that are our employees, with vendors, with customers, clients.
Dr. Joey Faucette:So focusing on positive people and choosing to spend the right kind of energy with those people is the forefront. Jim Rohn was is my still in his past, but he my favorite business philosopher, and he was very fond of saying you're the average of the five persons with whom you spend the most time. Now, many of us have heard that, but how many of us have enacted that to see to it that those five persons that we spend the most time with, are those who are bringing out the best in us, putting enough pressure on us to bring out the best in us so we can move forward. So it's brain surgery. It's relational surgery.
Dr. Joey Faucette:It's also heart surgery. The believe core practice is all about the emotional engagement with one's work. Morag, when I come to work, I wanna know that I'm contributing something, first of all, so there's that enactment of purpose. I also wanna know that I belong. In fact, that's the latest book I'm working on is belonging at work.
Dr. Joey Faucette:I I wanna know that I belong, and here are the ways that I contribute to the work. Here are the ways that I institute the work. And I also wanna know that I can become at work, and that is that there's a designated career path by which I can continue to advance myself. So belonging and becoming are part of believing that the positive is here at work, and that's the key to engagement. So that's the heart surgery.
Dr. Joey Faucette:The final surgery is hand and foot surgery, if you will. We achieve core practice, and that's where I really put my hands to the work. That's where I move my feet. Because until someone takes action on those matters to which they give attention, that is their head and their relationships, plus their intention, which is a matter of the heart, nothing happens. There are no results to report.
Dr. Joey Faucette:We've paid attention to something and intended to do something but not done anything. So getting our hands and our feet moving is so vitally important, and that's the key to productivity. Companies that intentionally pursue to create to grow people and profits, Morag, companies that intentionally pursue a positive work culture see upwards of 30% increase in productivity among their employees, and they see a 19% increase in operating income year over year and then a 28% increase in revenue growth. HBR has lots of articles that will support that, and those are just average numbers. I'm very blessed to have some amazing clients that, do better than that.
Dr. Joey Faucette:So the fifth type of surgery has to do with if you wanna think of this as carving a turkey because we we tend to associate Thanksgiving and gratitude with that particular holiday here in The US. So the type of surgery we're talking about here is really understanding the receive core practice, which is all about saying thank you to everyone who keeps the lights on from customers and clients to vendors to the boss to our our fellow coworkers, learning how to serve others, and really enact the law of reciprocity, which means that I understand what I sow will grow. And so I'm ensuring that I sow those qualities that the perceived conceived, believe, and achieve core practices are positively instituting for our company, but also for me personally, because I wanna grow as an expression of my work and my work to have meaning.
Morag Barrett:I love that. So and as I listened to you, there was a movement in those five practices from what I describe in our books, you, me, we, and cultivate from a me first to a we first mindset. So the five practices that you just summarized for us were perceive, conceive, believe, achieve, and receive. Perfect. So of those five, which is the one that you find most common get commonly gets short shrift, the least care and attention from leaders when they're looking at the culture that they're creating on their teams or in their organizations?
Dr. Joey Faucette:Great question. Great question. It's like asking me to choose for my children. Mhmm. I it all starts and stops in your head.
Dr. Joey Faucette:And and so I the the experiences I've had with culture leaders, whether it's a CEO or CFO or a CHRO, they expect people to come with a certain mindset to work. Mhmm. I'm not sure they can define that mindset that they want them to come to work with. They just know they want them to come to work ready to work. Well, what does that mean, and how can you assist in the development of that person's mindset so that they are ready to work?
Dr. Joey Faucette:Far too often, the attitude has been and I'm talking about my generation here, Morag, because I guess this is what we were raised with or or grew up working out of, and so we could blame it on that. But we know better, so we can do better today. But it's just a, hey. Suck it up, Skippy. Get in there.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Get the work done. Come ready to work without truly considering the complexities of life today. The fact that we have four sometimes, my friend Marissa Andrade says she's worked with clients that have five generations at work, and the distinctions between those generations and the way they approach their mindsets and their experiences in setting their mindsets. It's time well, it's really past time, but it's time for we who lead cultures to recognize the complexities of life today that we're bringing our whole selves to work. And if you truly want me to come and give my best work, put me in a position to do my best by helping me interpret the chaos and the complexity of the world around me and to really set my sights on what my best work is, a noble cause, the noblesse oblige that I can look to that's greater than myself, and I wanna see how my daily activities contribute to the sustainability and profitability of the company.
Dr. Joey Faucette:And once you make that connection of becoming, then also help me belong, help me achieve that identity, not just as a member of of this company, but help me achieve my identity as a human being. And when you do that, I'll run through that brick wall for you to get the job done.
Morag Barrett:And I I think you've you've hit on it there with the belonging because I know from our own research that it doesn't matter which generation we're from. There are three real three underlying drivers. One is to come and do my best work. Nobody gets up in the morning thinking, oh, I hope I can really mess up today. These things happen.
Morag Barrett:To feel like I've been set up for success, success, not just thrown in at the deep end, that somebody has my back. And then you just said it there, that third element of feeling like I belong, that I'm part of the team and that it's not that there's the cool kids at the lunch table and I'm on the edge, but I am actually in it, whether I'm physically there or maybe working at a distance through time and camera as we are today. Mhmm. So when you're working with leaders that are looking to foster that sense of belonging, how and where can the people listening and watching this conversation, where can they start?
Dr. Joey Faucette:Shifting awareness is the first step in to create a work positive culture where belonging at work happens, And that shifting awareness is so multifaceted today. But first of all, as I was talking about with the perceived core practice, that shift has got to be recognizing that I can choose, right, the thoughts that I entertain, and I could take captive those thoughts. I'm not gonna geek out, but all of us have in our brains an amygdala, and therein resides the reticular activating system wrapping around that amygdala. Think of that as a movie that plays constantly our formative experiences. Ramit Sethi talks about it in some of his mastery work as invisible scripts, and so we all come with an invisible script.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Typically, we go to the next job making sure that we're not gonna have an experience we had in our previous job. Right?
Morag Barrett:Mhmm.
Dr. Joey Faucette:So I know I'm looking in my next employer for what my previous employer lacked. Well, there's still a whole another host, a large range of activities that we need to be mindful of and predispositions. But I want to ensure that I am putting that best movie in the theater of my mind possible. I wanna connect my work with others. I want to have that best self that come to work.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Because I while it's true, we may not wake up in the morning and saying, hey. I'm gonna see what I can screw up at work today. We do present less than our best selves. We aren't engaged. We do look for someone to blame in that.
Dr. Joey Faucette:I mean, Sherm continues to tell us fifty seven percent, I think it is now, of all people leave a job because of a bad boss, and the two thirds that are remaining are considering leaving because of that same boss. There are a lot of bosses out there that suck. Don't get me wrong. However, you're the captain of your own destiny right at that point when you begin editing the movie that's playing in your head about your work, begin getting very specific by setting metrics. I wanna do this kind of work, which leads to this kind of experience for me.
Dr. Joey Faucette:And just because I had those other experiences does not mean that this work experience is predicated upon those. So I in my reticular activating system, I dial up a new movie and create a new movie. For me, I discovered an invisible script of a very specific childhood event, and I'm not a psychotherapist, and I don't play one on TV. But there was a very specific childhood event that was casting a long tail shadow over how I saw myself in that personal identity. So the shift of awareness for me came from creating another movie in my mind based on a more positive experience from childhood in which I saw myself in a far different light.
Dr. Joey Faucette:And once I began that, life got a lot easier and my work became more purposeful.
Morag Barrett:You remind me of a good friend and colleague of mine, Cynthia Burnham, and she has a two part phrase that she uses as part of her executive coaching that I have found so powerful. And it goes to the rewriting of those movies and scripts that you just touched on. The first part is until today.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Mhmm.
Morag Barrett:Until today, I could, I couldn't. It whatever. It's the until today, I couldn't deliver an effective, keynote presentation. Mhmm. I don't know why that's top of mind right now, but there you go.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Sure.
Morag Barrett:And then the second part of it is from today. From today, I will, I can, or whatever. And to your point is breaking that rabbit run, that pattern of default behavior that we can be operating on a a subconscious level. Instead, we're now making a choice to let go of those limiting beliefs and choose new ones that move you forward.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Exactly. Great example. So what are you doing as a leader to create a, from today forward, kind of atmosphere and environment for a culture for your persons to find themselves in. And the the innovation that you experience as a company, the creativity, by the way, both of which are competitive advantages in a global economy. Mhmm.
Dr. Joey Faucette:When you move into the we economy, as I like to call it, those soar when you're able to look forward and understand you're empowered to choose your future expressions of work. I think particularly with the rise of AI, but especially generative AI now, And then today, the big announcement about deep sea. I think the human spirit captured and expressed through work is the next great frontier, and how can we as leaders release empower and release people to solve problems at a faster rate than ever before. Mhmm.
Morag Barrett:I'd like to just go back to that point of belonging that you were talking about earlier on. And as I think again about those five practices, that whole the connection piece is so important. What role have relationships, professional relationships played in your success?
Dr. Joey Faucette:Like so many entrepreneurs, I'm highly gifted in lots of different areas and bought the lie that I could do everything.
Morag Barrett:Mhmm. What
Dr. Joey Faucette:I what I discovered was, Morag, that I I might can do everything, but I can't do it all at once. So if I truly want to leverage my superpowers and have the positive influence on the world that I've been called to have, that means and this is the second part of belonging at work for me. That is I gotta create a team that knows how to collaborate. That is each of us bringing our own superpowers. And as a business owner, it's up to me then to identify what are those superpowers I lack that that I want or what are some that I have that I wanna augment the influence of.
Dr. Joey Faucette:And so putting together a team that collaborates is supremely, supremely important. So finding a way to be on a team that does collaborate, a team of people for whom that awareness shift has occurred. Right? And so they now, begin to see work as an opportunity to express themselves in new ways. By the way, that shifting of awareness also means that I become aware of and therefore can collaborate better as a team member.
Dr. Joey Faucette:I become aware of my, biases, my my bent towards confirmation bias. Again, you see what you look for. So if I'm you know, it it's the old adage about if a hammer's the only tool you've got, the world is filled with holes. Right? So, and and if I can release the challenge, though, is those the biases that I don't know I have, those unseen biases.
Dr. Joey Faucette:And that's where teams really soar when I we can collaborate in such a way that respect is a part of that. I respect you and what you bring to the table. And so we're working on the same project, and you hold up a mirror for me to see myself in. Hey, doctor Joey. Here's how you're coming across.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Here's what I heard when you said that. Now you may not have intended it because that that bias is unknown to you, but I just want you to hear that and to see that, and that that's a bit of a barrier for me. That level of authenticity and transparency allows for those human spirits to connect at a much deeper level, and that's when it gets fun. And so we can respect each other, we can love each other, we can do the work together, and we can celebrate one another in more powerful ways.
Morag Barrett:Well, what I love about that is when you have that courage and vulnerability to say, hey, doctor Joey, is that what you meant? And maybe you did, in which case, okay. Well, that stung, but okay. Now I know he meant it. And if the answer was no yeah.
Morag Barrett:How and I need to then process my reaction. But also then if the answer's no, we both learn. Because otherwise, I'm writing a story that goes back to either that unhelpful movie that you described earlier on or worse, turning what was just an average soap opera drama into some sort of, psychological thorough stroke horror story that really doesn't need to exist. And when you can remove that barrier, to your point, we can achieve so much more together and more quickly and responding to what the business and our customers need.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Oh, yes. And that's the hallmark of an emotionally intelligent leader to be vulnerable, to be transparent, to be authentic, to say, hey, team. Here's an experience I had last week. It was a fail for me. Here's what I learned from it.
Dr. Joey Faucette:And leaders' words weigh more, and so when you as a leader cast those words out, it literally frees others to say, hey, man. I had something that didn't turn out the way I thought it would either. Let me tell you about that, and here's what I learned. And so we then create that Peter Shinji talked about it so long ago, that learning community, peer to peer learning being the strongest learning among adults. And so we can all say, well, here's mine, and learn from one another, and then that heightens the level of collaboration even greater.
Morag Barrett:There was a a concept in your work that, just peaked my curiosity and you use the phrases or the question would be around small hinges. How do small hinges swing big doors of innovation? And since many of my clients are saying we need more creativity and innovation, the idea of these small hinges swinging big doors piqued my curiosity. Tell me more about that.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Yeah. That began with an experience a personal experience that I had, if I may share that, Morag. My wife and I, twenty six we're working on twenty six years here on our little 22 acre horse farm. We set out to renovate a barn to create, stalls for horses. We love horses.
Dr. Joey Faucette:We had two daughters. My wife loves horses, especially. And so we wanted to help other people enjoy horses. And so I began doing things that I'd never done before, like going to the local hardware store and buying hinges to put up for these big heavy doors, for the small. And so I just walked in, and I my basic philosophy, Morag, is that I'm ignorant about a lot of things.
Dr. Joey Faucette:I'm not stupid, but I am ignorant. And so there's someone out there who can inform me and cure my ignorance with knowledge. And so I just walked into the hardware store, told the guy, I I don't have a clue what I'm doing, but here's the dimension of the door. Here's about what it weighs. I I wanna buy some hinges for it.
Dr. Joey Faucette:I assume, I said, because of the weight and the size of these doors, I need that huge hinge over there. Oh, no, doctor Joey. He said, small hinges can swing some big doors. And so he began to talk to me about the size of the hinge and more the critical location of the hinge and how many screws went into the hinge. So what I've discovered is and and Jim, look, Jim Collins has sold more books than I unless I live to be 239, has sold more books than I ever will.
Dr. Joey Faucette:But the reason I wrote that book, Small Hinges Swing Big Doors, is because of that experience that I discovered that rather than and most of us swinging for the fences, to use a baseball metaphor, rather than trying to become a b hagger, as I like to call it, the big hairy audacious goals, which everyone needs big, hairy audacious goals. Right? You should be scared of your goals, you know, have to work on yourself to tell other people about your goals. But rather than there being so many of us that are beehaggers, I find more of us are d o t, and that's do one thing. That's an emphasis on small hinges.
Dr. Joey Faucette:What's the one thing you can do today? And this is the final question I ask all of my podcast guests. What's one thing Work Positive Nation can do starting today to create a positive work culture? Because, Morag, I can do one thing today. Just give me one thing.
Dr. Joey Faucette:It may seem pedestrian. It may seem trivial, but just give me one thing that's gonna move us forward to a work positive culture. Let me dot it. Do one thing. What's that one thing I can do today?
Dr. Joey Faucette:So that's the whole notion of small hinges swinging big doors because it has a cumulative effect, almost like an avalanche. Right? It builds slowly. Sometimes you wonder if you're making any difference, but then one day, suddenly, you wake up and you go, wow. I'm excited to go to work, and so is she and so is he and so are they.
Dr. Joey Faucette:And we're all together at work because those small hinges began swinging big doors.
Morag Barrett:Powerful words. We're all better together. Thank you, doctor Joey, for sharing some of your insights and research. Where can people learn more about you and the work that you are doing at the work, work positive culture?
Dr. Joey Faucette:Yeah. Right. Thanks so much for asking. If you go to workpositive. Today, that's workpositive.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Today, You'll find an opportunity there to get lots of information. We're in the process, and I don't know exactly when this will air, but we're in the process of literally shifting the the website over to where you can come in and do a free work positive culture assessment. We've identified three stages that companies work through and organizations work through on their path to creating a work positive culture. You can discern where you are in that journey, what are some things that you can work on, and send you some free tips. Then you also will have an opportunity to join one of our three mastermind groups based on those three stages where you can experience and be empowered by peer to peer learning yourself with other persons who are in HR and who are seeking to put people first and create that positive work culture.
Morag Barrett:Peer learning, we're all better together. Doctor Joey, again, thank you for joining me here on People First.
Dr. Joey Faucette:Morag, the privilege has been mine. Thank you so much.
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