Bob Stoneking Podcast Transcript
Bob Stoneking joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, Home of The Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Bob Stoneking. Bob Stoneking is the Principal at Pachydermos, a consultancy and advisory firm that serves small and medium technology businesses. Experience shared with incredible partners over 30 years helps Bob drive change faster than most.
He’s held management consultant and advisor positions in public and private sector settings. Bob is a customer success zealot who builds his perspective through the needs of others. Teaching teams how to understand internal and external customer requirements is a proven core competency for Bob. He has a track record of effectively distilling market demands and then orchestrating required changes in organizations, systems, policies, and processes.
Well, good afternoon, Bob, welcome to the show.
Bob Stoneking: Thank you, Brian. Thanks for having me today.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. Appreciate you jumping on, Bob. Got to spend a little bit of time with you before a podcast. So, love to hear more about you and your story today. So, we’re just going to jump right into your first question here.
Bob, with over 30 years’ experience in management, consultancy, and advisory roles. What strategies have you found most effective in driving change within small and medium technology businesses?
Bob Stoneking: So, I would submit first thing is never underestimate the difficulty of making organizational change or complex change in general, irrespective of if it’s organizational or not.
And I always recommend that, you know, to manage that and to be in full view of that complexity that you should apply a model. Like, there are a number of different models that are helpful in that context. And I always bring 1 to the table and work with organizations to figure out if it’s a good fit or not.
And then use it as something that sort of drives discipline and adherence to focus on the change. And then, you know, secondly, I would submit that, you know, fundamental to making change is focusing on incremental change and I think it’s important because. You know, incremental change allows you to sort of find success stories and celebrate them, which becomes critical to sort of changing mindset and mindset is always a precursor to actual results.
So, I find it helpful to change mindset and then allow the results to happen. Is that helpful?
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. And I like how you highlight that. You know, if you take those bite size chunks it allows people obviously to see some success along the way reinforce that. Right? But also gives them time to adjust because people don’t like change typically.
So again, appreciate you highlighting some of that there and Bob, you’ve mentioned employing management techniques that you create trust within teams. Could you elaborate on these techniques and how they contribute to building a successful organizational culture?
Bob Stoneking: Yeah, sure thing. So, first thing first is to give first.
I think that is a fundamental tenet. From a leadership perspective to simply give of yourself 1st, and I think that opens a lot of doors. To allowing trust to occur. So, in my opinion, like, nothing is more important. Then giving 1st, and then 2nd, we, you know, setting expectations and I think that giving 1st allows you to set expectations in a way that is graceful.
And quite frankly, just helpful, right? So, setting expectations. I can’t. I just can’t stress enough how important it is to set expectations and goals. And I’m, I’m never I never ceased to be amazed at how many organizations simply don’t go through that exercise in a way that’s relatable to the teams.
So, give 1st set some expectations and then trust simply happens around those things.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. That’s awesome. And you’re right, this is something that I’ve embraced over the years, obviously, is. Giving helping again, making trying to make the life better for your staff makes a big difference. But to get there, sometimes you also need to build that trust as you mentioned.
So, I appreciate that. And Bob, next question for you, you consider accountability to be a state of mind, not just a tracking mechanism. How do you instill this mindset in the organizations you work with and what impact does it have on performance and growth?
Bob Stoneking: Yeah, so I try to live by example in that context.
I’m accountable by nature, and I find that if you can create that contagion in an organization, and if you can be that person, that’s simply accountable to everyone. It sort of propagates the teams, and it usually does it in a way that that’s you’ll notice as a leader and you’ll see people adhering to that structure.
And sort of living that ethos and the changes that it brings about in an organization. Really? And this kind of goes back to the trust conversation that we were just having. When you become accountable, then people can trust you and then they trust that things get done and they can rely on you. So, it’s just a fundamental tenant to just start that.
Irrespective of your place in the organization and just be that accountable person. Is that helpful?
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. I appreciate that. You know, that’s something that again, we need to kind of build into that DNA. We’ve all worked at organizations where there’s a little bit of apathy or just not a sense of any type of urgency to do things.
And you’ve got to kind of again, build that trust and build that teamwork. So, we can start. Holding each other accountable and in a positive way. I appreciate the share and Bob last question of the day, your diverse experiences from operating a nuclear submarine to facilitating productivity changes in employees are quite remarkable.
Can you discuss how these varied experiences. Have contributed to your professional acumen, particularly improving team and process improvements in the mature business models.
Bob Stoneking: I think one of the underlying themes there is just perspective. I’m able to bring in sort of a broad view. In perspective, that’s typically helpful and a lot of it’s really rooted in, you know, listen, there’s a high probability that nobody’s going to die today.
So, let’s just, you know, wrap our arms around the problem, sort of focus on the work that needs to be done and get through the anxiety as quickly as possible. So that we can make change.
Brian Thomas: Thank you do appreciate that. And of course, you know, there’s been a lot of career experience that you have that you can contribute to this and you can actually share some of those stories where people can relate to you.
And I know. Operating a nuclear submarine obviously is, is a big, big role. And sometimes we’re thrown into that 19, 20, 22 years old. So, I appreciate that, the share and thank you for your service, by the way. And so much. I appreciate that. You bet. And Bob, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Bob Stoneking: Thank you so much, Brian. Have a good day.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Bob Stoneking Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
