Podcast Episode 121 Transcript: 5 Results of The Worth Work System

Discover Why The Worth Work System Creates Happier People, Stronger Teams, and Lasting Workplace Performance.

Welcome to Episode 121

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this episode of The How People Work Podcast. My name is Shane Jacob, your host, and I thank you for taking your time to be here with me today. Sportin, another one of the greats. Yes, that's right. one of the awesome cowboy cuff shirts complete with the cowboy cuff.

Custom Cufflink logo cufflink. I think you can see that. There we go. That's what I was looking for. here today. Love these shirts. Love the company. It's taken way too long to get launched. But I'm looking forward to that day. Hopefully it's coming. Hopefully it's coming very soon. See if I can get the See if we can get the distractions down to a minimum for the rest of this episode today. so yeah, we're talking today about the workplace and everything that goes on there and how to make the workplace a better place to be. a more productive place, a more profitable place, and a more I mean, for hell's sakes, we spend so much damn time in the workplace, it'd be nice if it was, well, a nice place to be. not just for ourselves but for for ourselves and for everyone in it. Well today I want to talk about the results of The Worth Work system. You know,

Today's Topic: The Results of The Worth Work System

I talk a lot about implementing The Worth Work System. and I talk about understanding it and this and that. And I I talk a lot about the details of the how. But I don't spend I haven't lately been spending a lot of time on the on the why. What the what's gonna happen in the end and why this the things that I talk about are so important. So today I wanted to take a closer look at that.

I want to move away from understanding the principle and implementing the principle and talk about more about the results. What happens when you implement it? What are the rewards? I mean, what does it matter? What happens inside of people and what happens inside of companies? it's important, I think, to know that this is not just another leader strip strategy. This is not just another good idea, it's not a new strategy. It's not another bullet point. It's not another just a series of steps where everything's suddenly going to change and it's going to make all the difference in the world and just follow, do these ideas and everything in the world. It it's not something that works for some people and not for others. This is this is much different. We're talking about concepts and ideas and belief systems that go to the core of human behavior. And so that's

If you can make that shift, that's why it's such a powerful and important thing. This isn't something that works sometimes, or this and a little bit here and there, or will help your company a little bit, or might help your company and might not. We're talking about straight up will make the difference if you're willing to put in the effort to make it work. And by the way, it's not that hard and it's fully worth it. it's important to know that Yeah, this is The Worth Work System is a bigger deal. It's not just it's not just a good idea. It's not just a series of steps that's gonna help your you know. We're talking about foundational, fundamental change of how people see themselves in the world around them. And when that happens, magic happens. human beings do what they do because of how they feel.

What Drives Human Behavior

You do what you do and I do what I do because of how we feel. we're guided by what we believe to be true about ourselves. So one of the most guiding principles that guides our behavior as human beings is what we perceive to be true about ourselves.

And also what we believe other people believe about us. Those two belief systems drive the very most nearly all human behavior. Okay. These drive human behavior. So after survival, survival drives human behavior, number one. So if you have enough food and shelter that you can survive and breathe and keep breathing and have enough sustenance, the next thing That drives human behavior is what I believe to be true about me and what other people believe to be true about me. And those thoughts, those beliefs, determine how I feel. So I'm gonna feel a certain way based on what I believe the answer to how I think about those, what my beliefs are about those two beliefs I just mentioned. What I believe to be about true about me is gonna make me feel a certain way, and what I believe to be true about What other how other people see me is going to make me feel a certain way, and that's gonna drive my actions, which is gonna give me my results. This is fundamentally about changing those belief systems, about what you believe to be true about you and what you think other people think about you. Okay. Now, listen, here's the thing. Just let me tell you a little story about me and why I'm even talking about all this, okay.

Shane's Story: Total Desperation

I basically figured this out out of total desperation. I mean total desperation. I'm at my wit's end. I got nothing left. I've tried what I thought was everything. Okay. I was so frustrated and angry and disappointed, almost to the hopelessness, you know. I just thought people problems were simply gonna be that way. People were just gonna be disappointing all the time.

People sucked, and that's just they're undependable. They're not gonna engage unless they want to. There's nothing I can do about it. I'm just seeing if the effects of everything I was trying wasn't working, and it hadn't worked for a long, long, long time. So I was just about to give up hope on human beings and people and just keep pressing forward. The only way that I knew, which is just try to enforce consequences and you know, operate the systems that I had the best I could and just try to get my business to to be able to stomach it because it wasn't a a happy place or a good place for me or the people who work for me. Okay. And so as a result of nothing else, I decided to try this as I was studying human behavior. And let me just tell you something. What I'm talking about.

The Worth Work System

The worth, what I call The Worth Work system, which by the way, these aren't my principles. They're not, they're my ideas. I I judge the work, protect the person as my thing. The Worth Work System is my thing, but it's based on existing like natural law, like God's laws. This it's not something that I totally invented. I invented the system, but I just rearranged the ideas and go through and and created. an organized way that hopefully people can understand what's happening and they can make significant change and have better results in their life and in the workplace. And this isn't something that's going to happen overnight. Okay. It's going to take some time and I know leaders don't like to hear that, but here's the thing, it doesn't take that long. It's not going to take months and months and it's certainly not going to take years or a year or any of that. It's also not going to happen in a couple of days.

Okay, it's gonna take practice ,it's gonna take repetition, it's gonna take assimilation, it's gonna take it's gonna take it's gonna take effort. Okay. Because here's the thing, the the the belief systems that I'm talking about go against, totally, against the grain, totally opposite of what you and I have been conditioned to believe for our whole lives. And some of us have been around a while.

All right. I have, if you haven't. Decades of conditioning, of being of belief systems that are ingrained. And we're talking about turning those upside down and changing these belief systems. We've been taught how to think, we've been socialized how to think. That means everybody around us agrees with the same way of thinking. And these habits are deeply ingrained in our day-to-day living.

Two Transformations

There's two transformations that I'm gonna talk about. First of all, is our own thinking, okay, and then changing our belief system, learning to think differently. And then, secondly, so that's gonna be the way that we believe about ourselves, and the second part is is the relationship in the workplace. So there's two fundamental changes. The way it works is first of all, we need to look at ourselves. the workplace, the relationships inside the workplace change. and that's when the magic starts to happen. Now, in the workplace, you and I have been until we do something different, we've been doing the same thing for a long time. People have a history, so that's another aspect of this is that.

People that are used to the way that we do things here, when I the our culture, our way of going in this company, in this organization, this is the way we roll. Or I know this about my leader, my manager, and I know this about this company. And so when people have those ideas that they've experienced, okay, they didn't just invent those ideas. They've learned those ideas through repeated experiences over time, and they have a certain way of thinking about your company, okay.

Or you're you as the leader, or you have a certain way of thinking about your leaders, your managers, and your company, your culture, and the way things roll around there. And in order to change that, it takes time, okay, because people are used to the way and they think that that's the way it is. And so if you're gonna make a fundamental foundational change, it's gonna take a little bit of time to build up the trust. It actually happens faster than you think. I just want to set the expectation that it damn sure doesn't happen over. Okay, because trust doesn't get built overnight. It's particularly if we haven't if we've been doing things whether on purpose or not, whether we've been behaving in a way that doesn't inspire high trust. And let me just tell you, if you have and I have, I've done enough for both of us.

Employees already know how their leader relates to them. Okay. so let's just talk about when

Result One: You Begin to See Yourself Differently

What happens in the process, okay? The first thing is is that we begin to see ourselves differently. We'll call this result number one. We begin to see ourselves differently. So what I mean is that's number one. So as we begin believing that our value is non-negotiable, as we separate our value from our behavior we begin to we begin to feel more confident.

We begin to improve the relationship that we have with ourselves. We begin to accept ourselves more. We begin to love ourselves more. We begin to forgive ourselves more freely. And we actually begin to practice unconditional love towards ourselves. So and we know that that makes us feel better. So as we Accept the idea that hey, I want to believe that my value is a hundred percent, that I am invaluable as a person, that my value is a hundred percent, and no matter what I do or don't do, nothing can change that. As I begin to internalize and fully understand and believe that about myself, by practicing thinking it over time, as I more and more believe that about myself.

I start to feel better. Okay. and by the way, there are decades and mountains of research about this, including Kristen Kristen Neff's research on self-acceptance, Michelle Maidenberg, her who I've had on this podcast and her book, The Ace Acceptance, Compassion, AC, Empowerment.

She wrote a book called Ace Your Life, and so many others. There's so much research that basically says that it's research on self-perception, how we view ourselves, our self-image, and how that makes us feel. And so, therefore, when we feel a certain way, we act a certain way. because when we feel differently about ourselves, we start showing up different. Okay. We we behave differently.

We start showing up with more confidence. And while we can't control the people around us, we can't, we can only control ourselves. Okay. And if we're lucky to get that done half the time, okay, fine. Some of the time. A little bit of the time, occasionally, maybe. Okay. But we're damn we're surely not gonna control somebody else. But we have tremendous influence, and that comes from how. We relate to them, which comes from how we relate to ourselves. That's why everything begins right here inside of ourselves. So, number one is we start to feel better, okay, as we start to change the way that we view ourselves and how we fit into the world. When we start to accept these ideas that are part of The Worth Work System, which I mentioned, number one is that your value is invaluable, that your value is non-negotiable, nothing can change it. When we begin to learn how to separate behavior. From our worth as a human being.

Result Two: You Begin Treating Other People Differently

Number two, that comes out. Our beliefs about ourselves come out to the people we interact with. So number two is that we begin treating other people differently because the way that we relate to ourselves is the way that we relate to the world. Okay. And so we start looking at other people as invaluable.

And we begin separating what they do from who they are. We begin separating their behavior from their their value. And then as this happens, the concept of judge the work and protect the person becomes easier and easier because we're always holding people in high regard. We're always protecting the person. We're only judging the work. And criticizing the work.

Result Three: People Feel Safe From Value Judgment

We're always protecting the person. And as that as that happens, people start to, they relate to us and they start to feel better. Number three is that people people begin to feel safe from value judgment, which is, by the way, my definition of psychological safety. Psychological safety, according to me, is when people trust that they are safe from value judgment. Meaning when I come to work, what I do, I believe that what I do is not gonna that you're not it you're not gonna think negatively about me, about me as a human being, about my worth, my value. I'm not gonna be a certain kind of person or a certain kind of way or less than or deficient or an idiot or not good enough or any of that based on what I do. I trust That you are gonna hold me in high regard at all times. And the only thing that we're gonna do in this group is objectively judge the work, which is that's why we're there. And the right I bring this up because psychological safety, of course, has been proven by Project Aristotle and Google, Google's Project Aristotle, to be the number one thing that influences performance in teams. The number one thing.

Improves engagement, reduces turnover, tur improves engagement by I think it was like three times, four times, some crazy number. Engagement goes up, defensiveness goes down, turnover goes down, productivity goes up. when people feel psychologically safe, and they feel that as we start to relate to people based on what's inside of us. When people feel respected, when they feel revered, when they feel regarded. regardless of what they do or don't do in the workplace, when they actually feel that way, when this starts to come through, come out of us, our beliefs come that we are changing or have changed, when people start to feel and seethe because of the way that we're acting, okay, when they start to think differently and feel differently, engagement starts to shoot up. Okay. People come out of their shells, shells. They start smiling more.

They start engaging more because what was risky before. It's like, man, I don't know. It's too risky. There's too much, too much at stake. I don't want them to, I don't, I don't want to be perceived as this. I don't want them to think a certain way about me. I'm not gonna say nothing. I'm just gonna be quiet and just get by. That's what that's what happens with that's what happens when people feel When people feel that, when they feel unsafe, when the trust factor is low.

What Fear Costs the Workplace

Excuse me. I'm just gonna keep recording here, even through my coughing. When people when the trust factor is low and people fear, fear's what drives this. They're afraid to make recommendations. They're afraid, therefore, innovation is down. They're afraid to contribute. They're con afraid to participate. They're afraid to go the extra mile. They're afraid to report. They just want to do the absolute minimum, get by.

Am I going to get in trouble for this? They're not going to go out of there anything because of fear. Okay. And fear is what drives engagement down and productivity down. We're talking about increasing trust by the way that we treat people because we're changing what we believe inside. And so that's why it works. What was risky before is people start to feel psychological when they feel safe and the trust is going up, they feel safe.

Result Four: Defensiveness Goes Down

Okay. And the what felt risky before, now not so much. Okay. Now employees can the defensiveness is down. And I always say defensive is expensive, but defensive because it is so expensive because we spend so much time. I'll come back to that. But when employees can objectively look at their work, okay, without believing that their work is going to define their value, that you're not going to think about. negatively about them based on what they're have done or not done in their work, then then people feel safe. Okay. And as they feel safe and engagement goes up. and of course number four is defensiveness goes down. That's part of this that I meant to I said I'd come back. Defensive is expensive. It's also expensive because people are busy. They are busy defending Explaining, making excuses, giving you a thousand quote unquote reasons of why they did what they did. And basically, do you know why they're doing that? They're attempting to protect their value. They're attempting to protect their worth. They're protecting to pre attempting to show you that, hey, it's not their fault. Hey, they did everything they could. Hey, it was simply a bad communication. Hey, you know, and by the way, they're not. assuming responsibility, they're not being accountable, they're just making up a whole bunch of reasons and excuses in order to protect their own value. And All of that takes up time because until a person a lot of times people come around to accepting responsibility eventually. They're like, Well, I can see that we need to change this, so I'll just go ahead and do it. But remember, it didn't happen before and it wasn't my fault.

There's so much time and energy lost to defensiveness. And I mean, that's on a good day if somebody eventually comes around to accepting the accountability for it and agrees to move forward the way that you want them to or that you need them to. Because a lot of times they'll just check out, get so angry and defensive, and then they spread that around to other people. Defensiveness is a is a money suck. I mean, it's a time killer. And between the time and money, it's bad news.

As the defensiveness goes down down, ownership goes up. Okay. And all of that saved time is money. And there's tons of saved time. When people, when you go to somebody, when you come, when you go to somebody that you need them to change what they're doing. Hey, what you're doing isn't working. I need you to do it differently. And they're like, my gosh, I've been doing it wrong. What do they think about me? And so then they that's where all the defensiveness comes in.

When you go to somebody and you say, Hey, hey there, Shane. Remember, I just want you to, I'm gonna preface this with this is not about you. I hold you in perfect regard. Just wanna let make sure that that's clear. Just some of the things that you're doing here, we need to change so that we can so that we can what whatever the thing is, sot hat we can be more efficient, so that we can be more profitable, so that we can waste less time, so that we can have more sales, so that whatever the reason is, we need you to change what you're doing. And if I can look at if you I can simply look at the change. That you're requesting me to do. And I can evaluate my previous work and my current work, and I can make the change. I can look at work objectively without interjecting me and what it means about me that I did it. It saves so much time. And by the way, it saves so much energy and feelings, negative feelings, and people drama. It's incredible.

Result Five: Relationships Begin to Change

As a result of that is number five, number five result is that relationships just begin to change. Okay. Relationships change, and that is a big result of the worth work system. Some years have started out, like I said earlier, have years of low trust, years of resentment, years of, you know, they can heal. And that's why I say they're not gonna heal overnight, but they're gonna heal, and it doesn't take months. It may take It may take weeks, but it's not going to take months and years. and you can and you can begin the process immediately because it's a series of small interactions on a daily basis. And you can start with one at a time. You can start right here, right now. Those relationships heal. And people are generally more when they see that you're honest and sincere, people are generally pretty forgiving, generally, more than you think.

And I think it's appropriate to say to people that, hey, I recognize my what how I've been. I mean, humility, humility is strength. And when you when you show humility, when you show people that you're humble, when you go to your team, your people, your subordinates ,the people that you're responsible for, whatever you want to call them, your employees, the people that work for you, and you and you're honest and open with him, and you You let them know that hey. I'm the same as you. Same as you, meaning I'm no more worth no more than you. Same value. We're both in this when we're all in this together, and I'm imperfect the same as you. I'm gonna make mistakes and I'm gonna make bad decisions the same as you. And here's what I've been working on. And I can see that in the past I've done some things that haven't helped this relationship, that have been damaging to this culture, that have Caused you to possibly have low trust in me and in this company. And when people hear stuff like that, they're automatically like, hmm, wait a minute, is this real or is this just another one of his speeches? And then as you back it up over time, people are generally pretty accepting and pretty forgiving when they see a repeated pattern. And it's definitely appropriate to to have a a new way of going and to say, here's what I'm going for, and here's what we're going for in this workplace. Okay. And also to set the expectation that I'm not going to get it right every time because these judgments, these value judgments that I make are ingrained in me just as much as they are in you. So when I come and I see that there's a great big problem, my first thought for a while might be to think you're a certain way and be angry with you because of what you've done.

My point is is to however you lay it out for people to hear is that you let them know the expectation is that you are not perfect and you are gonna have a failure in this. And when you do, you'll do your best to recognize it and repair it sooner soon as possible. And you expect the same from them. Okay. You'll apologize when you make a valid judgment. And as people consistently see your effort and they consistently see the change.

That trust shoots up. Okay. It it does not take again, it does not take months. it just takes micro decisions. And every day we're making thousands of decisions a day. And it's about those decisions that we're making. trust, you know, we hear we we talk about trust and like what is trust, who trust is who, to do what, where, okay.

How Culture Actually Changes

Trust changes the culture, but really, what is the culture? The culture is the relationships that people have inside the workplace. And we call the general feeling like a culture or the way that we attempt to do things. This is the way we roll here. We have a certain set of values. Okay. And if high regard for people and no personal judgment and always regarding people and always judging the work and Always protecting the person and never judging the person, but always protecting the person. If that's the way we roll. And when we error, when we don't do it, when we don't get it right, if we if we repair, if we change it and repair, the conflict just starts to go down, okay, as the trust increases, resentment goes down, defensiveness again goes down, and all at the same time.

Engagement's going up because people are feeling more, they're feeling safe from value judgment. Participation goes up, collaboration goes up, cooperation goes up, and this whole workplace begins to feel different. People get begin smile more. And because people enjoy being there, because They want to be around people that they can trust and people that respect them all regardless of what they do. Period. Okay. And one of the biggest ideas is that here's the thing. When people feel better, they do better. When people feel better, they do better. Okay. And the worth work system applied influences. You have the ability to influence how people think, and that changes how they feel.

When People Feel Better, They Do Better

And as people change how they feel, everything else turns upside down. That's when the real change starts to happen. Okay. If you want a high performing team. Create a team where people trust each other, where they respect each other, where they look forward to coming to work because they like working together. Okay. Fear is the enemy. Fears what's hurts productivity. Fears what's hurts profitability. and profitability is not a bad word, according to me. It's a very positive and good word because. That's what the hell we're here for. We're here to make a profit because that profit is the idea is that i increases the quality of all of our lives from everybody in the entire organization. And that's what we're all about. So profitability is important. And these concepts that I'm talking about lead to pro profitability, to higher profit, to Not just more engagement, less defensiveness, less people problems, happier people, higher productivity, more ownership, more accountability, more personal responsibility. And here's the here's I just want to say this. If even if nothing changed, okay, if you began to apply the principles in your own life.

If nothing in the workplace changed except one thing, and that one thing is is that you just felt better. Okay. Just you, nobody else, but just you. If you simply felt better coming to work, okay, if you felt better about you and you and how you were interacting with people in the workplace, the whole thing would be worthwhile. Okay. But but it doesn't, it doesn't stop there because everything that's That you're doing is influencing everybody around you. your coworkers begin to feel better, your team starts feeling better, there's less conflict, less drama, less resolve, more call collaboration, more innovation, more work-related information instead of interpersonal problems being the subject of a lot of the conversations. And that transformation, That is the results, okay, of The Worth Work System.

Closing: This Is the Result of The Worth Work System

it's not a quick fits, it's not a hack, it's not the tip of the week. This is a fundamental, a foundational belief system change that begins inside of leaders and it transfers through our influence to our people, our teams, our employees, and it transforms workplaces.

It transforms the culture. It transforms teams. It works. Okay.

Appreciate you taking your time to be here with me today. I'm hoping that you have a good week and until next time. Remember, my friends, one thing. Your value is non-negotiable. Stay with me.

The Results of The Worth Work System for Leaders and Teams

What creates better workplace performance? According to Shane Jacob, the answer is not more policies or stronger accountability systems. Better business results begin by changing what people believe about themselves. In this episode, Shane explains why The Worth Work System increases trust, reduces defensiveness, improves accountability, and creates happier, more productive teams. Shane shares the personal story of desperation that led him to develop the system, walks through five specific results leaders can expect, and explains why defensive is expensive for every business that tolerates a low trust culture. Business owners, executives, HR leaders, and operations leaders will learn why lasting workplace culture change starts with belief systems that drive human behavior.

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