Andre Christian, Founder of EvokeIQ - From Realization to Transformation: Andre Christian’s Catalyst Journey

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I'm Tracy Lovejoy.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: And I'm Shannon, Lucas. We are the co-ceos of catalyst constellations which is dedicated to empowering catalyst to create bold, powerful change in the world.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): This is our podcast move, fast, break ship burnout, where we speak with catalyst executives about ways to successfully lead transformation in large organizations. And today we are thrilled to have a visionary leader with us a long time, friend Andre Christian. He has a proven track record in spearheading business transformation and fostering innovation across diverse industries. He's adept at anticipating and solving complex challenges with a human centered approach.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): He served both as the Vp. Of innovation and the Vp of product design and engineering at ses satellites where we had the great pleasure of working with him, and today he has founded his own business, evoke IQ with the goal to simplify the lives of small business owners by unleashing the power of real time data. Andre, thank you for spending time with us today.

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Andre Christian: Glad to be here.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I would love to have you so. I just shared a couple of sentences, but would love to hear in your own words about your catalytic journey. Can you share with us a few career? Highlights

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): that are, you know, show the moments that you're proud, and allow us to see your catalytic nature.

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Andre Christian: Sure. So I'll start.

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Andre Christian: I'll go back to the beginning. When my Catholic journey started I was an intern

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Andre Christian: at Saic. I had built relationships with some senior leaders.

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Andre Christian: and he, the guy's name was Pete Angstrom

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Andre Christian: Super. Nice guy, willing to open doors and show us

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Andre Christian: how the world worked.

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Andre Christian: and one day he kind of caught me, understood what I was about. He said to me, Andre, you're a change agent.

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Andre Christian: and I looked at him like, okay, cool. Great. What does that do for me? Right?

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Andre Christian: Then.

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Andre Christian: throughout my career.

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Andre Christian: I've always had the ability to

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Andre Christian: see what's coming around the corner.

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Andre Christian: connect dots together

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Andre Christian: and actually start to move in that direction.

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Andre Christian: I'll give you 2 examples. I work for Ses.

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Andre Christian: which had an American American subsidiary called Ses American at the time.

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Andre Christian: and we pioneered a project called IP. Prime

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Andre Christian: ses, was distributing content to cable TV companies. We said no, we were going to give telcos completely new customer base, completely new

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Andre Christian: relationship we need to build to be able to deliver the triple play. This is voice video and data at the time.

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Andre Christian: It didn't work.

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Andre Christian: Technically

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Andre Christian: it did. But from a business model perspective, it didn't. And that opened my eyes and started me thinking about. It's not just technical. It's a holistic solution that needs to be put forward. And you really want to focus on the business model first, st

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Andre Christian: when it came to product design and engineering ses was caught in a little bit of a challenge.

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Andre Christian: In that we had

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Andre Christian: the inability to get product out the door right. It was clear we would take product from vendors. We integrate it, skin it, push it out, but we wanted to do our own thing. So how do we bring new ways of working into the business. I introduced agile devops and sre functions into the role. Because as a systems thinker, you continually think about, how do you optimize? How do you improve?

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Andre Christian: And

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Andre Christian: honestly, I had such an exciting time doing that

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Andre Christian: where you all bought in every day, I would wake up with a new solution to a problem that I heard about yesterday. I'd read, figure out, talk, discuss, and my vision continually iterated on where we needed to be.

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Andre Christian: And then, lastly, career highlight. I

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Andre Christian: I wouldn't say I like risk, but I love the startup rush

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Andre Christian: that you get where everybody's pushing in the same direction.

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Andre Christian: The the company I then went to war was called O. 3 B. Which stood for the other 3 billion.

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Andre Christian: and at the time satellite connectivity was very Geo. Synchronous.

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Andre Christian: heavy.

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Andre Christian: right? Other people had tried some different constellation constructs, but you know what

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Andre Christian: there was an opportunity for us to disrupt, and we built a medium Earth orbit constellation, which delivered way more capacity to

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Andre Christian: people on earth than had ever seen before. We brought the satellites closer to earth, so latency was reduced, and it really changed the game

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Andre Christian: for satellite connectivity at the time, and this was we launched in probably 2,014. Now you have Starlink, and so on, but I would say we were the first.st

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I love the conciseness of those really important moments, and throughout that I am hearing a definition of catalyst the the way you described it, and so I would love to have you in your own words, share. How do you relate to this this catalyst concept?

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Andre Christian: So the Catliss concept for me

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Andre Christian: was eye-opening.

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Andre Christian: To say the least. When I 1st met Shannon through a mutual friend I was somewhat blown away. I just left another one role product design engineering. I was getting ready to take on another role, as I do, as all catalysts do. You end up with new jobs every every couple of years, and it was serendipitous, because it's exactly what I needed at the time. It's funny how the world works.

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Andre Christian: a lot of people go through school, and they end up figuring out the discipline of choice, and they get really good at it, and so on. And I would always kind of question, what was I great at? I could pick up

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Andre Christian: network engineering systems, infrastructure. You name it. I can do it. So I would say I'm a jack of all trades, but master of none.

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Andre Christian: And what that really then

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Andre Christian: gave me was

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Andre Christian: a moment to pause to say, Well, hey! What am I great at?

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Andre Christian: What are my unique skill sets, and you would end up going around in a circle. And

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Andre Christian: for me it was somewhat frustrating. Because, you know, you're affecting change. I just didn't know it was a thing right, as much as

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Andre Christian: as I was lauded for my future thinking, and so on. I never really thought of it as anything special, right?

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Andre Christian: I think, after reading the book, move fast. Break shouldn't burn out.

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Andre Christian: It solidified for me that I'm not mad. I'm not crazy.

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Andre Christian: I found my tribe. I found my people where we see the world through similar lenses.

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Andre Christian: and

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Andre Christian: I'm able to. If I employ the tools I can then harness that to be super powerful, and for me.

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Andre Christian: going through the journey as a catalyst, I talked from Pete Angstrom all the way up from sasc. All the way through I picked up bits and bobs on my own, hey? Probably I should meditate a little bit more, or I should be able to do this, and you know, when I play golf, I don't think about anything else

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Andre Christian: right. The little things I were able to pick up. I coached, I coached a lot of teams, and that also, then gave me a moment to pause. Because I'm in it. You're in it. You can't think about anything else.

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Andre Christian: So the way that

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Andre Christian: I was able to resonate with the catalyst concept

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Andre Christian: spoke volumes for me at the time, because I look I figured it out, and I think I remember telling Shannon, after after going through the course. Look.

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Andre Christian: my dear, you've made me forever employable.

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Andre Christian: because I know my value, and that right there is gold.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): So how do you synthesize your value now that you have this awareness, and you connect those pieces.

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Andre Christian: It's a phenomenal question.

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Andre Christian: Look, I think one is

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Andre Christian: finding the right organization

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Andre Christian: who's ready to embrace change.

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Andre Christian: You can read a job description and know

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Andre Christian: psychologically worthy companies are

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Andre Christian: right. That's the 1st red flag for me. Second, you also know what you need to succeed. So you're a lot more. I you're you're going into a conversation. Eyewise

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Andre Christian: right? And then I think, 3rd thing is.

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Andre Christian: you require a lot of support.

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Andre Christian: So how do you ensure that you have the support of the senior leadership to be able to execute. Right? Look! All catalysts are going to be quite confident. Taking spares out their back.

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Andre Christian: They're always that person right? They're always that guy taking them out. Okay, I'll run ahead. But what gives you credence is you knowing that people have got your back, and they're willing to support.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I love that. And so let's say you've identified the organization that's ready for you. You have a sit down with, maybe the CEO.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): How do you tell her

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I'm the right person for you. Given what I see in your organization, right? This is something that a lot of catalysts will struggle to find the words, for of this is the you know. This is what I bring you. This is how I can help you.

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Andre Christian: I think

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Andre Christian: I think

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Andre Christian: you have to be pretty

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Andre Christian: honest with where the other person's at it starts with empathy.

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Andre Christian: Right? Is what I would say, because

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Andre Christian: as a catalyst, you tend to be so much further ahead that not necessarily everybody will be there with you.

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Andre Christian: for the most cases Ceos are. But everybody else on the team needs to be there. So, making sure that

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Andre Christian: you ask the right questions

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Andre Christian: to feed them down a path

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Andre Christian: is what I would recommend if you come out, say, well, I'm the right best person. Because I did this. I did this. I did this. That's not helping the situation

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Andre Christian: right? The question is, Hey, what happens if we don't do this?

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Andre Christian: Hey? How have you thought about doing this

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Andre Christian: right and and really do your research and make sure you understand

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Andre Christian: some of the other dynamics that might not be evident.

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Andre Christian: Or they might not be visible. Let me put it that way right.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I love it so. What I'm hearing is while you've had this awakening of what your value is, and you're forever employable.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): You're not going in with a sales pitch. When you talk to people

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): you're going in understanding. First, st I need to do research. I need to know that they're really ready for what I can bring.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): and then I need to understand them and kind of bring them along. So they themselves have the awareness that they understand what I can do for them.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): It's like a Jedi mind trick.

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Andre Christian: Well, you give me a lot more credit than is due. Look! I think I think this

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Andre Christian: change journey that people are on, and you can see it in this Vuca world right now. Everybody's being disrupted, everybody's being challenged and everybody's being forced to innovate. So so I was speaking to a distributor a couple of months ago, and he was saying, Andre, I was speaking to CEO of the division, and he basically said, Andre, you know what look? We have this concept called

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Andre Christian: beyond X,

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Andre Christian: and this is what we think it means. And I said to him, Well, hold on! Where does it

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Andre Christian: beyond X. Stop!

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Andre Christian: Right? So now you've also been freed them to think about Whoa! You know what I had my guardrails right here. But no, the lens. The aperture we need to be looking at the problem through is a little bit wider, and then they're able to then go away, reflect, and then come back and have a much more spirited dialogue about. Well, okay, if we think the vision is there

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Andre Christian: and you can then ultimately co-create division with them. So then they're bought in. It's no more selling the dream now it's about, hey? Can you execute? Can you deliver?

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Andre Christian: Can you show them proof points that they would feel super confident in funding you more, and so on, and so forth, right.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: It sounds like the process is like there's a meta level to your process.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: which is, you are walking them through. You know how you will show up, and and the and the ways that you'll be able to help the organization. From the 1st conversation which is taking the blinders off thinking about the problem statement showing up with empathy, bringing the curiosity. It's really fascinating.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Yeah, Tracy, you wanna you wanna ask your next next question.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): So, hearing what you've come to see as the superpowers that you bring, and I'll also pull on a couple of the things I heard in your journey as you talked about seic ses, and O. 3 BI heard words like, you know, Peter Instrom, you're a change agent. I heard systems. Thinker, I've heard, you know, holism. So I'm curious how you feel. Being a catalyst supported you once you were in that executive rank.

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Andre Christian: I think

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Andre Christian: the catalyst support again.

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Andre Christian: when I saw the catalyst formula

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Andre Christian: for me. Division, iterate action

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Andre Christian: it

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Andre Christian: it kind of brought it together in that. Now I know my process. I know how my mind's going to think.

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Andre Christian: Let me not run 2,000 miles ahead of the organization. Let me manage my conversation and it honestly. It's a little bit tough.

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Andre Christian: right? Because I see it. I want it. I want to go there, and I say, well, hold on, no.

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Andre Christian: I left that person last week Friday in our tag up talking about

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Andre Christian: Problem A. I've gone 20 steps ahead. Well, guess what they're still

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Andre Christian: taking one baby step along the way. So how do you again go back to empathy? How do you bring them along? Right? And I think

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Andre Christian: I think, in the catalyst formula, being more mindful about what you're trying to achieve and how you engage with your senior leadership is is key. It helps, you think, and even your reports, instead of my reports at the time, or the people I was supporting at the time. Andrew is all over the place now I'm able to more measure and control the information delivery. So while I see it and I can get there, they understand. We're just gonna take 2 steps to get here, as opposed to 15

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Andre Christian: bye.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: It sounds like the the process of self discovery, and I relate to this deeply. Andre, like, you know, I was still imperfect. I'm still imperfect, but just like having that awareness like you're talking about can help you navigate it. I wanted to go back to something that builds sort of on that, though, because you were saying when Tracy was asking like, How do you articulate your value? And you're like, well, first, st let's find the right org and go in wise eyes wide open. And you said at this point.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: you know what you need, so you can ask the questions. I'm wondering if you can share a little bit about what you need from an organization to be successful, for the people who haven't sort of had that awareness yet.

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Andre Christian: So

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Andre Christian: that's really interesting. If you are in that predicament.

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Andre Christian: I feel for you 1st off.

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Andre Christian: because

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Andre Christian: you end up feeling like you're on an island.

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Andre Christian: Hopefully you can get something out of this. Look, it's

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Andre Christian: it's looking at.

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Andre Christian: Look, I'll say. Firstly, the 1st thing I'll do is, look at the numbers

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Andre Christian: is the 1st thing I would do, because it's

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Andre Christian: you kind of have to follow the money. That's the 1st thing. Hey? Where is the money going? What are they investing in?

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Andre Christian: What's the growth? Because one of the things I learned you have to speak the Ceos, the Cfo's language? That's number one. Right? You have. You can't be building this great technical widget without understanding materially how it's gonna impact the old because he or she somewhat controls the destiny.

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Andre Christian: Of the resources controls the resources. Right?

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Andre Christian: I think the CEO and senior leadership engaging with them to understand

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Andre Christian: their perspectives.

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Andre Christian: Right? We call it a listening tour, really being able to hey, have a coffee conversation with these people, not in the workplace, not where constrained, constrained, and people are expected to act the same way. Go and have a drink with them, or or a non alcoholic beverage, if you will, just to engage in dialogue and understand

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Andre Christian: off the record. What's going on? How is it going? Right? Because you're going to do yourself a massive benefit

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Andre Christian: because one, you built a a start building a great relationship which you're gonna need down the road, and then number 2, he they also understand a little bit better about you, and where you're coming from. I would say. Those are the 2 key things I'd wanna look at in terms of

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Andre Christian: one the financial and resources and 2 the the broader, I would say, senior team, if you can engage if you have the ability to engage with them.

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Andre Christian: Yeah.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Yeah, I I love it. There's a little bit underneath. That is the slowing down to understand the fundamentals, because we can get caught with the thing that we think is the big idea. But if we're not really aligned and you had asked a great question a couple of years ago in the catalyst leadership trust about like strategy, because cat as catalyst, we have to understand and align with the strategy. But what is the new? The new way of of articulating strategy.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: You've been wildly successful in your career. I loved your intro where you talked about all the things that you got done, what were one or 2 of the biggest challenges that you encountered trying to drive change along the way.

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Andre Christian: There were 2 there were 2 I would think of.

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Andre Christian: the 1st is running too far ahead.

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Andre Christian: that's the 1st thing, and I didn't really clue into

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Andre Christian: the ramifications of until too late.

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Andre Christian: It took a lot of selling internally a lot of engaging and a lot of. And even though you're saying and and sharing people might be listening, but not hearing.

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Andre Christian: Right? So how do you?

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Andre Christian: How do you get them to really

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Andre Christian: understand what you're saying? Yes, you could actively listen, but giving them other proof points, showing them that it's working. Being tangible in. I said I was gonna do this, and I delivered this

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Andre Christian: right, and then, conversely, getting them out of their little bubble to go and see something else.

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Andre Christian: Hey, this is what's happening at Company XYZ. This is the problem they had. Now, you're not

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Andre Christian: only an internal change agent. Now you bring external ideas into the business

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Andre Christian: right where now you can get them more confident in. Wow! Okay, it's not only Andrew, running around with his head cut off talking about this. It's that company there, that company there we, we you. And if you could also create relationships at organizational levels where it's not you anymore, they can then have a relationship with a direct pair. It would be fabulous.

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Andre Christian: So I would say, those are some quick lessons learned from running too far ahead. That's your 1st one, and I would say the second thing is, burnout

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Andre Christian: burn out for me.

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Andre Christian: Look what

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Andre Christian: I burnt out twice

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Andre Christian: at ses in a startup, woo

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Andre Christian: sorry at 0 3 b.

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Andre Christian: We were pushing so hard, and I ended up getting tasked with solving the problems the CEO would say, Andrew, hey, go and take a look at this. Go and figure out this, go and fix this. And

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Andre Christian: I just remember being so numb. And at the time I didn't really realize what was happening. But I was just so withdrawn, so numb. And even people, Andrew, you're right. No, this is months where I was just completely. I was a shell of myself.

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Andre Christian: right? So, being able to recognize

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Andre Christian: and hopefully manage it before you're there is the key to this change. It happened when I was

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Andre Christian: doing a bunch of agile stuff I pushed for 3 years really, really hard to climb this mountain, and I was just done. I couldn't do it anymore. I didn't want to think about it. I was just done so then

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Andre Christian: how do you manage your transition? So it continues to exist. How do you? How do you recognize that you're gonna get to that point, and you prevent yourself from getting there. What methods are you gonna employ

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Andre Christian: to make sure that you take care of yourself? Mental health is now a big thing, and everybody's talking about it

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Andre Christian: more so for the for the catalyst slash change agent who's trying to

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Andre Christian: climb Mount Everest? Right? How are you going to support yourself? Give yourself the right oxygen. Make sure you have the right, Sherpa, with you to be able to get up that that mountain, you know.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: How do you do that, Andre?

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Andre Christian: Gosh! Here we go.

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Andre Christian: I think

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Andre Christian: I think each person's different

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Andre Christian: is what I'll see.

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Andre Christian: And you somewhat need to find what works for you, but I think there's some tried and true ways that I have learned.

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Andre Christian: and and the number one thing for me is mindfulness.

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Andre Christian: That's for me, just being spending 10 min every day

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Andre Christian: where I can take some deep breaths right and really center myself.

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Andre Christian: gives me the opportunity to be crystal clear on what I'm trying to achieve.

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Andre Christian: and it eliminates all the clutter I brought up golf earlier on for me golf.

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Andre Christian: Many people think of it as his pastime outdoors and so on. To me. It's great.

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Andre Christian: I don't use my phone when I'm on the golf course, and for me. That is gold.

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Andre Christian: because my mind's not running. I'm not thinking, and everybody I love to cook as well. So

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Andre Christian: anything where you can get

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Andre Christian: in somewhat a meditative state where you focus

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Andre Christian: deeply focused on that thing for me

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Andre Christian: is what will help you. And that's why I said, everybody's different, right? Cooking for me is something that I'll do.

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Andre Christian: and I'm happy as a lark to do it.

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Andre Christian: I don't. You don't need to ask. Beg. I'll cook dinner every night because I get an hour and a half of just pure focus and execution.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Tracy and I will be over. What are we? What are you making.

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Andre Christian: That's a good question. That's a good question.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Do you one final question on the burnout? Ha! How do you do? You know now, when it's coming like, have you been able to sense into some of the early early warning signs.

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Andre Christian: It will never happen again.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: It will never happen again.

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Andre Christian: Yeah. Yeah. So because

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Andre Christian: I've changed the way I operate, I've changed

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Andre Christian: how I manage it. So I'll never get let it get to that point where I'm a pain to be around at home, or I'm a pain to be around at work because the side effects and they're too detrimental to even let it get to that point right? So I'm really, actively trying to incorporate a lot of these things in how I do my day to day

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Andre Christian: right.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Amazing.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: You're you're my model. I'm gonna try. I have a follow-up question because you talked about all of these really big going back to your systems thinking and your systems level changes that you've created at organizations like having people move to being a more product focused organization when they didn't have that capability and bringing an agile and devops

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: a question that we, you know we were sort of testing a lot is, how do you bring in all of those new ways of operating which is disruptive without disrupting it too much. At the same time.

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Andre Christian: So like perform, while transforming

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Andre Christian: right.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Great way to say that.

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Andre Christian: How we characterise it. I think.

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Andre Christian: I think

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Andre Christian: in organizations you have to realize that during this change you need both. You need to be ambidextrous. You need to be able to ensure that

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Andre Christian: the teams that need to perform understand why and the benefit to the all

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Andre Christian: the transformation side

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Andre Christian: is really about, hey? Giving them the awareness.

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Andre Christian: making sure they have the desire, making sure they have the knowledge to be able to then

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Andre Christian: embrace the change and implement it, and then, if you could end up with both of those, you're then able to show proof that this new way of working will bear

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Andre Christian: the fruit required, and then it's not forgetting the people that are

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Andre Christian: performing. It's how do you get them on the journey as well when their time comes along?

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Andre Christian: trying to do everything at the same time is obviously a recipe for disaster.

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Andre Christian: But I would say, as a catalyst leader, you would be most adept at being able to

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Andre Christian: hold multiple plates

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Andre Christian: and understand the state in the evolution of each.

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Andre Christian: Right? So you can be that calming voice to say, Hey, yeah, we got it. This might not be working as well as we wanted. We can fix that, or we're seeing outsized gains. Here, let's double down on that quicker right, and you can then help providing navigation to the business.

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Andre Christian: so that everybody's not freaking out.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I love that. That's definitely a new catch phrase for Shannon and I perform well transform. That's really powerful.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Is that is that an Andreism or.

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Andre Christian: No, no, I was just about to say I'm not gonna take credit for it. It was a ses as a.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Yes. Yeah.

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Andre Christian: That's that's how we we, we we characterize some of the change we.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): That's good. We can. We can credit us as yes, and it's funny because we got to work with you there. But that wasn't something that that made it into our language at the time.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): and I'd love to ask you a little bit in relation to that. We had the great honor to work with you and other executives at ses in bringing in a catalyst program.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): and I would love to, you know, have some time for us to reflect on that

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): for our listening audience. A catalyst program is when we come in help organizations identify their catalysts and put them together with strategic initiative. Very much like you're talking about Andre, and you know, kind of

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): make sure that it's the people who have the desire. Give them the tools and knowledge to be able to implement, begin to show proof of a particular concept where it's just a small group.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): So would love your thoughts on that work that we got to do with you and share your thinking with other catalyst executives out there.

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Andre Christian: Sure, not a problem. Look,

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Andre Christian: the story that people don't know

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Andre Christian: is when we tried to undertake that work. We actually didn't get through the 1st year, if you recall Shannon right. We tried. We pushed, and I was a little bit taken aback right? It was a slap in the face. We had done all the internal

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Andre Christian: selling, co-creating, marketing internally to get this program out, and it didn't fly the 1st year. But we were persistent, like all catalysts are, and we came back the second year, and for me I couldn't have been happier to be honest. Because I was able to see it 1st hand.

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Andre Christian: Look, you have a organization with a hierarchy, and everybody's looking up for change.

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Andre Christian: Right? Senior leaders in the orga stress. They're fighting multiple fights and the opportunity we had with the catalyst program. After having gone through it myself, we were able to bring 4 people along other catalysts. We had kind of identified. So they were able to quote unquote drink the cool aid they saw they saw the opportunity, and then we were able to launch it across a much wider cohort. That wider cohort

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Andre Christian: went through a very interesting process to be down, selected into it. It wasn't just here. I want to do it, and you are in. We actually tried to match, make, and find the best people who

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Andre Christian: would

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Andre Christian: be receptive to

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Andre Christian: what they were going to be taught, but also be willing to then act upon it after

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Andre Christian: right? There's no point here. I'm gonna how many people in organizations go to courses come back and never really

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Andre Christian: impact the organization. And we don't want to be that.

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Andre Christian: So we were able to. Then with those 18 people.

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Andre Christian: then work with the senior team, get them initiatives that were championed by the senior team, and then have people self select into what resonated with them. One of the things about being a catalyst is.

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Andre Christian: Everybody has their passion projects. What? What gets them super excited? You can't dictate it. You're not going to tell them what it is, and we all know when you.

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Andre Christian: when you're connected to

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Andre Christian: a project and you're invested in it.

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Andre Christian: there's nothing better. You would work

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Andre Christian: umpteen hours at night to solve it, you would

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Andre Christian: do as much as you want

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Andre Christian: to make it a success, or much as you can, rather to make it a success.

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Andre Christian: But some other things emerge, which I thought was super interesting in that you then created this network

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Andre Christian: of change agents across the organization, where, in a globally distributed company where

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Andre Christian: I was speaking to Buddy last week, and he said, Andre, a lot of how ses worked at the time was, Hey, you had to pick up a phone. You had to know somebody to get it done. You now create this fabric again, where

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Andre Christian: you know the other person at the end of the line. You've solved the problem together. You can now help move the organization forward to tackle big and better things. So I think there's so many benefits of running the program that

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Andre Christian: yeah, I can't

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Andre Christian: understand why any organization who's embarking on that level of change would not try to incite as many change agents so that you could perform while transform again. You go back there. You need people who are willing to jump out and run forward while you have them in the org. It's how do you? How do you free them up to? Then? Say, Look.

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Andre Christian: this is the mountain we need to climb. Go after it, guys, you have our support.

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Andre Christian: And and hopefully, that would help organizations tackle this transformation challenge that everybody has.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Amazing. Thank you. We hear 2 things when we're talking with organizations about catalyst programs. And I'm wondering if you had advice for them. One is, we often hear, and it's like across the catalyst leadership trust. This is true, too, where they're like, oh, our leadership team has just been shaken up. There's a new CEO like the whole Slt or Elt is not totally, you know, nailed down right now, so we can't do anything new there.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: or it's an and or or the strategy is in flux, and we're waiting for the strategy to be totally nailed down. And so we can't do anything. I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on catalyst programs in the face of those 2 challenges.

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Andre Christian: So

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Andre Christian: as a catalyst, I have about 15 thoughts. I'll give you the 1st right. So.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Before.

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Andre Christian: This is simple.

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Andre Christian: everybody talks about having a strategy.

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Andre Christian: but I think Amazon has taught us best. It's wrap yourself tightly around that customer and run as fast as you can to solve their problems

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Andre Christian: right? So I think we overthink the strategy thing. I think we we want to put Powerpoints together, and all this kind of stuff. No, look, guys, it's pretty simple. Get closer, engage faster.

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Andre Christian: disrupt yourself, that's it.

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Andre Christian: so that's how it answered the strategy question. The reason I answer it that way is because

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Andre Christian: you don't have time to sit there and wait till the Powerpoints dry to then publish it so everybody could subscribe to it. You don't have that gestation cycle, it should be, and you should be willing to say, Hey, what? How do I find people who can tackle these problems today to help me tomorrow.

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Andre Christian: I don't have 6 months. I don't have a year, so I'd get them running immediately, so that for me would be key

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Andre Christian: and then, in terms of change in the Clt.

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Andre Christian: The fact in matter is organizations. The the best organizations are going to continually evolve.

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Andre Christian: So you have to be able to withstand

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Andre Christian: the slt evolving. And this is

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Andre Christian: why I mean, we say, top down.

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Andre Christian: having a relationship with the CEO and having it a champion thought to the CEO to to unlock this type of change program is key, because, as people move around, you still understand the core reason why you're doing it, and the benefits you want to see. And if

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Andre Christian: person X leaves on person, Y comes in, they have to ascribe to the theory, because that's the only way the organization evolves and will be able to compete tomorrow.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Amazing. Thank you. All right. Final fun question. Who's your favorite famous catalyst, past or present? And why.

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Andre Christian: Oh, good question! I I so look!

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Andre Christian: My favorite catalyst is

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Andre Christian: drum roll, please?

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Andre Christian: it's about

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Andre Christian: right, not because he won the Nobel Prize.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: So I was drum rolling over you. I'd missed it. I'm sorry.

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Andre Christian: Oh, Teddy Roosevelt! Sorry!

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Else. Yeah.

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Andre Christian: Not because he he won the Nobels Peace Prize.

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Andre Christian: and

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Andre Christian: I mean he was a big conservationist, affected change across the board, but it's because of his.

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Andre Christian: his fabulous speech. The man in the arena right? It speaks

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Andre Christian: volumes. The 1st time I read it I was like honestly like I I wanted to cry. I got Terry and it's on my desk right now. I'm looking at it like that's for me.

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Andre Christian: You again. You know how long

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Andre Christian: ago. Change agents have been here disrupting, changing, pushing throughout all of history. Right? And he's 1 of them. So if I could be

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Andre Christian: a little bit as good as he was, I'd be winning.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: So good, and I have to say every time, cause I use this in a lot of workshops. Every time I watch Brene Brown read it. I get so teary like

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Andre as always, and Tracy and I started this conversation by saying, like the mindfulness and the way, whatever you do, and the way that you show up for us is like a calming salve on our nervous system, and we also get inspired and learn something every time we talk with you. So thank you, Andre.

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Andre Christian: Great to be with you all.

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Andre Christian: and very much.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: And to our listeners. Thanks for tuning in.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: If you'd like to learn more about how to create bold, powerful change in the world, be sure to check out our book the one that Andre was referencing, move fast, break ship, burnout, or go to our website at catalyst constellations.com.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): And if you enjoyed this episode as much as Shannon and I have, please take 10 seconds to rate it on itunes, spotify stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcast, and if you have other catalysts in your life which we know you do as a fellow catalyst hit the share button and send a link their way. Thanks again.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Once again!