Walt Brown

I believe confusion and dysfunction at work drives fear that results in unhappiness and bad behavior at work. More Technically: I believe organizational confusion and dysfunction fuels fear and the result is unhappiness and bad behavior at work. And the unhappiness and bad behavior fuel more confusion and dysfunction that fuels more fear, unhappiness and bad behavior. It is a never ending flywheel until you stop it. How you go about stopping this negative flywheel is what I write about. Another core belief that shapes my writing. I believe your company is a fiction, a fiction that is only given meaning and power by those who buy-in. He says: “If you have 400 people and 201 buy-in to this and 199 buy-in to that, then you have two organizations and you have been divided and are on your way to staying average or being conquered.” My passion is the removal of organizational confusion and dysfunction. He points out that when humans are confused, they become fearful, and when they are fearful, they don’t think clearly and just do stupid things and this stupidity creates more confusion which drives a never-ending cycle of growing dysfunction. His mission, his life’s work is focused on stopping this cycle. Walt is a statistics, finance and accounting nerd who connects with people, businesspeople, simplifies hard concepts, tells stories, teaches and facilitates – all while never losing track of risk and the bottom line. His gift is connecting with leadership teams, taking them into the future and then helping them map a path back to the present. They go out into the future and image what it will look like, then they come back discovering and proving what works, and finally they put systems and people in place to execute and repeat what they discovered that works to drive a dependable bottom line. Peers have described him as a “seasoned multi-company entrepreneur and CEO”. Walt has four successful companies under his belt. He enjoyed his entrepreneurial exit in 2006 and since has focused on simplifying why and how successful companies work. He has been doing this simplification work in what he calls his laboratory. In his laboratory, Walt has worked with the Sr. Leadership teams and CEOs of over 200 small and medium sized privately held companies. He is typically sequestered with teams 130 days a year and has over 2,000 full client days to learn from. From this focus, from these sets and reps, Walt sees repeating patterns that have statistical merit. He is constantly journaling and writing, spending time on the whiteboard like a scientist, boiling down what he sees, learning from each client team interaction, finding the repeatable patterns, and then simplifying them into models so everyone in an organization can see and understand the same thing. These models are communicated in his writing. In addition to working directly with client teams Walt teaches and speaks on the following root confusion and dysfunction topics. 👉 Measurable and actionable BITE™ – Buy-in, Inclusion, Trust and Engagement. The BITE Framework leverages the discovery that in order for people to enjoy psychological safety, trust, engagement at work they must have Seven Critical Needs constantly met. He speaks about the framework and his firm teaches companies how to run it. 👉 Organizational clarity and cognizance. OCOG – The root of confusion is often buried in unclear job and role accountability and responsibility. Walt teaches an approach that brings to light the difference between organizational awareness and organizational cognizance. Word example: If we smell smoke, see the shadow of flames, feel heat, we are aware there is fire. But, when we know the smoke we smell, the flames we see and the heat we feel is coming from the cozy fire place in the den and not an electrical fire in the wall, we are cognizant. 👉 S.M.A.R.T. Strategic Thinking and Tactical Execution – Walt speaks on the history and science of strategic thinking. Presenting an up to date model every team member can use to understand where they are in their strategic thinking and the next step they need to take.