Edward J. Van Luinen
Appearances
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
I would offer that the five behaviors of generosity, co-creation, action, resourcefulness, and gratitude are first in Collaborate to Compete. Why are they first? Because the root about how we work is much more important than what we're doing. You need the what.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
But in most performance management systems that we've all been in, we've created, we've designed, we've led, and we've had to communicate to our team members, put what first? What are your goals? Oh, okay, you did your goals wonderfully. Okay, you were a nice person at the same time, but oh, sometimes you weren't a nice person, but that's okay because you accomplished your goals.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
In a way, the five behaviors are radically human and they have to be put in the first position because the how you work is based on it being more important than what you're doing. Now, the noble purpose, as we've just been talking about, is vital and has to happen as well, but it happens next. That makes sure that we're all aligned.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
But first we focus on, as Trish said, the unit of collaboration is not the tool or whatnot. It's the human, it's the team member. And that's why that focus on the behaviors first and foremost and consistently demonstrating are really important. And then we add the noble purpose.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
not just feelings that are ambiguous. Trish and I made a commitment to each other with senior leadership when we had to update them over the three-year lifespan of our project, is we did it together. And I think that was important so that we were hearing the same thing. It also showed that we were truly collaborative. We were showing up collaboratively. The visual is sometimes very important.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
So that the collaboration looks like in big actions, small actions, every action are collaborative. It's a practical example of how we did that. We also depended on partnering with our leaders in this three-year knowledge transfer project that we led.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
So we were very grateful and generous at the same time in providing feedback to the leaders in specific thank you written form for the contribution that they made to our project. And that not had happened that often. So they remarked to us that they really liked that. Finally, the other leaders of the people that were on our team noticed, hey, what are you guys doing over there?
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
People love going to your meetings. They want to be on your collaboration team. Would you please come and speak to my leadership team about what you're doing over there in collaboration? So I feel that that was co-creation. We were helping them out, but we were also generous with sharing our time.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
And when people are generous in sharing your time in the organization, that's another example of a collaborative behavior.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
We have to focus on ourselves. And going back to that Gandhi quote, be the change that you seek. And I feel that we have to focus first on ourselves, and that's important in collaboration. And the external influences, as you say, Trish, are very strong, but it really has to start with the internal. We also have the challenge of company structures and resources and rewards
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
really being based on a 1900s industrial competitive productive model.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
So not only are we needing, as Trish brilliantly says, start with ourselves, recognize how difficult it is to be collaborative. When we're competing for bonus dollars, we're competing for headcount, we're competing for promotions, It's very counterintuitive.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
That's why, again, we call the book Collaborate to Compete, because sometimes those collaboration behaviors are rewarded or recognized or valued. As Trish says, the values are off. But we feel that our noble purpose is really important with collaboration and can make a vast difference as we've talked about in innovation, engagement, efficiency, career development, happiness, and many things.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Being able to say, going back to our metric, I love my job.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
You bet.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Thank you. And great question, Vince. I love the application because that's what we're all trying to do as leaders is be better every day. One of the things we recommend is with the five behaviors, generosity, co-creation, action, resourcefulness, and gratitude, we ask leaders to take just a quick informal poll of yourselves. Which one of these collaborative behaviors am I good at?
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
that I understand and I show consistently at work, on the team, with my peers. So pick the one or two of these five collaborative behaviors and recognize that you're good at this because we as leaders are not starting from scratch. When we launch a new leadership model or trying to be better, we're always building and improving and also leveraging what we've done in the past.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
So we feel that one, two, or possibly even three of these collaborative behaviors, leaders are already demonstrating now, but spend the time to understand them and keep demonstrating and applying them on the job.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more, Trish. I believe the problem that we solve with collaboration is radically increasing innovation. Every CEO, every C-suite leader, every middle manager is trying to increase innovation. That's the problem that collaboration solves is we deliver innovation.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Not only in leadership and building teams, but using the five behaviors, as Tricia says, to be more efficient, to drive career growth, to drive better solutions because they're collaborative decisions and solutions. In a virtual world where running a business has never been more difficult. So the why is expanding innovation. And we reflect that in our book title, which is Collaborate to Compete.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Let's not compete with our colleagues. Wasted effort, waste of time. We collaborate so we as a company can innovate and compete better with others outside the company. So it's really the focus of what we want to do is collaborate. And the why, Vince, with your excellent question, is to increase innovation exponentially.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Yes. But don't become a competitor. Use the same to your excellent earlier question, Vin. And Trish, as we're all talking about, use the behaviors. Use the noble purpose outside as well. Don't turn into a different person once you're outside the company. You're a collaborative leader. You've built a collaborative team.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Extend those behaviors and noble purpose and process and roadmap that Trish was describing to your life. That's the true, we feel, innovation here.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
First of all, articulating what the noble purpose is and the why. So link that, Vince, to your earlier question about you being motivated to want to go to work at one of your past workplaces. What happens? We are in back-to-back meetings for 10 hours a day.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
We're just trying to get tasks done, but we need to spend time, as Trish says, sharing what is the noble purpose with the team and with each individual to ensure they understand the why and tie it back to Vince, what you said, so that I do feel like I want to get my head off the pillow and go to work, which I did at Disney. because the noble purpose is incredibly motivating at Disney.
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
to create things every day so tie the noble purpose explaining the why making sure it resonates and is real for the team member so that they want to get their head off the pillow and want to go to work and also at the end of the day have a dinner conversation that's exciting oh this happened at work today oh this team member did this our leader shared this information with me
Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Those are the deeply human metrics that drive collaboration. And I think we were able to do that.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Absolutely agree with you, Trish. And I feel that what was fundamental but still unformed until after we left Disney were the five collaboration behaviors. And we demonstrated them, right? And then others also did. And that was how we first role modeled it and grew the team.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
So coupled with the five behaviors, which were essentially pretty innovative and pretty human behaviors and very original because we've hired a researcher to validate that they are unique. They were coupled with a noble purpose, and that's not just the vision and mission of the company that people memorize or try to memorize or try to live.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
The noble purpose of the project is that it's commonly understood, but also internalized. I am here to do this, to meet this goal, but I'm here first to work closely and support the career growth of my team members. And in that first meeting, it was not to receive a list of tasks and come back and say how many you did. That first meeting was, who are you?
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
What's your skill that you offer everyone here? And how can you support this team? And at the end of the meeting, a little bit about the noble purpose so that we're all focused. I think when we ask people, what do you want to learn on this team? They were quite surprised. No one had ever asked them that before on a project team meeting.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
So there were some really essential elements that I think that we did to build this collaboration approach. And then fast forward over the last 10 years, we carried, as Trish said, what we did and defined the five behaviors, coupled it with noble purpose, but also launched a business, Authentic Collaboration Incorporated, virtually. We've also started a book and did that virtually.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
So not only does collaboration work in person, it also works virtually because we did it the last 10 years, launching a business, writing a book. So it's applicable to everyone, wherever you are. And there's a great quote by Gandhi, which many people know, which is, create the change you want to be. So I feel that that's really at the heart here is be the change you seek.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Be the collaboration leader that you want to be and the organization the team is asking you to be.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Exactly.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
You have asked a really excellent question. One is that relationship is vital in certainly a work situation, but also it comes with respect and awareness of the strengths that what each person brings to that professional relationship. And as Tru said earlier, we have some similarities because we care first about the company and the team and our own success.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
So we've got our priorities in order, but also we demonstrated those five behaviors consistently. So that built up trust. that built up a track record of what we call positive deposits in the emotional bank of goodwill, of trust, of also delivering. It's not all about feeling, because we do have to deliver, and we did accomplish our three-year project wonderfully.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
So, Vince, I really like what you said about relationship as the focus. The second thing I believe I heard you say is that this is a process. There's an evolution to building professional relationships, which of course becomes friends and in the personal domain as well. Like collaboration, it takes a while to establish collaboration with yourself as a leader.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
With a co-leader like Trish and I did, it took three years. And that's why we have this method and process because we built it. But also it has to be expanded to our team, to champions, to peers in the company, and then expand it even in our lives if we so choose in how we approach people, in how we assess talent, how we hire people.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
what are the qualities that of collaboration that are really important so it's truly evolutionary and it's relationship focused and it takes awareness but also discipline to want to live these behaviors more and more in the areas of our lives that are really important because we're all trying to change and companies are trying to change and leaders and teams are trying to change and we found our we believe is a really strong formula to do that
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
I couldn't agree more, Trish. Metrics are important. The noble purpose is what drives the team and you and I in collaboration. And over three years, our team on the project went from two to 70 people. Now they cycled in at different times and different numbers of team members. But I feel you and I with collaboration created a team that people wanted to be on.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
And that's truly the challenge of leaders today. is not saying you must go into the office five days a week. It is wanting and creating the environment that team members want to be on. So I absolutely agree.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Thank you. Great to be here.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Thank you very much, Vince. I'm delighted. We're delighted to be here and grateful for this opportunity to chat with your worldwide audience. I'm Edward Van Lunen, and I always start my origin story this way. I was a United States Peace Corps volunteer in the 1980s.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
And I was sent to the Republic of Guinea in West Africa to be an English as a foreign language teacher at two high schools in a mid-sized town about 600 miles in the interior of the country. And on the first day of my teaching, I had two overriding emotions. One was fear. Edward, these students are listening to you. Are you making any sense? If not, you better start making sense really fast.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
And then after about three months or so, I had that other emotion happen, which is, I think I like this. I'm enjoying this work. Fast forward 35 years to where we are today, and I am still making Keem's companies and leaders better. In between, I was privileged to work for some great companies and having been mentored by incredible human resources leaders, mostly female.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
at Avon Products, at Heineken, at Sony, and at Disney. And I am really a talent development leader and grateful to be in this space and business and here speaking with you and Tricia today. So thank you for having me.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
At Disney, working at Imagineering, I would say a talent leader who gets business. And I met Trish initially when I was new at the company and saw her in a meeting, and I thought, this is a business leader who gets talent. So as in a talent development role, You're always looking for business leaders who get talent as much as their technical or functional skills. And that certainly was Trish.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
So I was delighted to meet her. So from a professional support and business relationship perspective now, I had a goal to lead talent development at Imagineering, which was to make sure that leaders and teams globally were working and successfully at building their next level up leadership goals. I could in no way do that by myself. So I was always looking for business partners.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
And Tricia was that business partner. And I was just delighted to that early meeting. We had a couple of meetings and I thought this is something that is a beginning of a collaboration that I think could be very promising.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Absolutely. And such great memories and thoughts and feelings of how we got started. Absolutely. Really fun.
Chief Change Officer
#235 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Yeah, I would say it was 20, 20, let's see, 14. Yes.