How to Get Employees Engaged at Work

by Jason Treu | May 16, 2018

Jason Treu returns to Vroom Vroom Veer for episode #3 to talk about how to get people to like and trust each other at work, a fun game called “Cards Against Mundanity” and a little bit about self-awareness.

From Jason Treu’s website:

“You know those times when everything lines up perfectly and you want to pump your fist and yell, “YES!!!”? We all have those brief moments when we’re at our best. Everything flows powerfully and naturally. We’re like Michael Jordan shooting the ball into the hoop. Like Adele hitting that impossible note.

Most people reach that place infrequently at best. They spend their entire life searching for it, just to keep hitting dead ends. I’ve solved this. When you work with me, “peak state” becomes your normal state. I help top people like you smash through goals, build extraordinary relationships and become a leader who easily hits the high notes and makes the shots.”

Jason Treu Vroom Veer Stories

• How to use “Card Against Mundanity” in a team building workshop to help people connect and create deeper relationships
• Wanted to do a TEDx speech and wanted a topic with real impact; followed “grounded research”; let the data lead you to the conclusions rather than having a theory and prove or disprove it
• Found project “Aristotle” which was Goggle’s attempt answer the question; How do we build the perfect team?  How do we re-invent the company to increase everything across the board?
• One key finding is that a team of ivy league super stars doesn’t make a high performance team
• The #1 key factor required found universally in all high performing teams was “psychological safety” which includes 1)  vulnerability,  2) caring;  3) sharing; knowing people on a deep personal level
• People can throw out crazy ideas and questions; and those are not only supported; but the group actually wants and encourages team members to share them
• Teams of average people with psychological safety consistently out perform teams of “superstars”
• In traditional teams with “super stars” you may have 1 or 2 leaders generating all the ideas in a group of 10; when you have 10 “regular folks with psychological safety you are getting 10 people working in a true collaboration
• Senior people in leadership roles have less self-awareness and almost always assume they are right; where as average people are more open to thinking they might be wrong
• Google this:  Harvard debate team lost to a team of prison inmates
• People believe that trust leads to vulnerability; the opposite is true; sharing vulnerability leads to building trust
• Once trust and friendships are established in teams, people are motivated and inspired to work harder to avoid disappointing their teammates and friends; they do this because they know their teammates care about them personally and professionally
• Professor Arthur Aron 1997 asked the question:  “How can we enable people to become fast friends?”  54 grad students played a question and answer game for 45 minutes; 30% said they made closer relationships than they ever had in their lives
• No one questions a leader if they drive a company to earn $1 billion; no one asks the question; do your employees like each other
• Part of the magic of the “game” is that the cards are random and it’s not a stranger or someone you don’t like asking the questions, it’s just a random card in a game, so the fight or flight mechanism is bypassed automatically and people feel safe to share
• A highly developed skill can hide a lack of self-awareness; like a great sales person is really not a very good manager but they get by because of their high skill in sales; a person who is more self-aware and socially aware may not be a great manager but will be aware and open enough to learn from others what corrections need to be made
• A leader with low self awareness asks for help to improve performance; the team says the boss doesn’t listen.  What doesn’t work is just tell the boss that the team says he doesn’t listen; he will shut down.  If you look for the pattern in the bosses history that supports the behavior; you can help the boss change that pattern is small easy ways.

Jason Treu Connections

Jason Treu’s Website

Cards Against Mudanity