Sessions with System & Soul

Reflection: When You Grow Your People, Revenue Follows

• Benj Miller, McKenzie Decker • Season 1 • Episode 23

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 What if your company’s biggest goal had nothing to do with profit? 

In this Reflection Session, Benj and McKenzie share a client story where the team set a destination called 200 opportunities in three years — supporting personal milestones like paying off loans, running marathons, and taking dream trips. 

This people-first approach to leadership development strengthened workplace culture, built team alignment, and sparked the kind of clarity that drives real business growth. 

It turns out that when you grow your people, revenue follows. 

👉 Registration for our first live workshop closes October 24. Sign up here: https://www.systemandsoul.com/public-workshops 

Sessions is hosted by Benj Miller and McKenzie Decker

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Benj Miller:

Hey, this is Benj Miller reporting live from the Sessions Desk, the System and Soul, and my co-host Mackenzie Decker. And we've got another fun episode today. Today's a reflections episode. So our reflection episodes are typically things that we are seeing experiencing in a session room or in conversation with clients that we. I wanna share, talk about process together with you, with each other. Uh, and we're gonna do that. McKenzie's got a great one. I can't wait to hear her take on this. Uh, but first I wanna thank fist bumps for making it all possible, putting the show together and keeping us accountable, putting it out there into the world. So, McKenzie,

McKenzie Decker:

yeah.

Benj Miller:

You had an aha or a what? Or a something,

McKenzie Decker:

something that

Benj Miller:

hit you some sort of way,

McKenzie Decker:

right? Yeah. So I was. I was in a peer group meeting a couple weeks ago and one of, one of our clients is actually in my peer group. And this kind of blew my mind. It, it was an expansion of the work that we do at System and Seoul in a way that I thought was incredibly unique. And I just watched every one of my peer group, kind of like their minds kind of blew up, like in that moment light bulbs going off and I'm like, oh, we need to share this with our sessions audience. So that's what you're getting today. You're getting this insight that, um. That one of our clients really took, took from the tools that we have and made something incredibly unique that is really enriching their team. On a previous sessions episode, we've talked about a destination and a destination is really the where the win and the alive and organization really looking out towards a long-term goal or vision and what this team did. So they took this idea of a long term. A big hairy nation's goal, and they focused it internally. So it didn't have anything to do with driving revenue. It didn't have anything to do with profitability or like, you know, expanding into their market had everything to do with what they could provide for the team internally. And so the, the destination that they set was, they called it 200 opportunities in three years. So opportunities were any kind of like goal, um, goal like in advancing, or it could be job related. It could be like someone had a goal to pay off their student loans or, I don't know, put hardwood floors in their house, like go on a, go on a vacation to the Caribbean. Like there's, there are these kind of milestone or maybe you call'em like bucket list things that. People inside of the team had on their, um, on a list. And so this, these, these were what they called opportunities. And so the company wanted to not only acknowledge these opportunities for their team, but also. In some ways like support or fund them. So there was, from what this owner is telling us, she's like, in some cases we could, like if someone, uh, I think one person had a goal to an opportunity to run a marathon and they paid for her registration for her marathon. So supporting, supporting her that way. Um, in some cases it was, uh, it was more like making sure that person was given the time they needed to go and enjoy or do the thing that they set out to do. What I think is so brilliant about this, it's almost like everyone in my peer group was like, oh duh, that's such a great idea. And it's like, but none of us have thought about it. And so I wanted to bring it up today because I think it's all for me, that was my reaction too. I'm like, how did I, like we incented this, we should have thought of this, but what I love is, is the taking something that's a business tool and turning it into a culture tool and um, and so I think it's worth us thinking about today.

Benj Miller:

Yeah,

McKenzie Decker:

yeah,

Benj Miller:

yeah. A lot of companies talk about growth creates opportunities for our people. Mm-hmm. And I think they think about that very linearly, meaning if we grow, then they can get a promotion. But not everybody shouldn't be promoted. Not everybody's going to be promoted. Not everybody's motivated by promotion. So it's really that. The dignifying, like what I hear, it's almost like our engagement index, right? And that there's different ways people want compensate. And so let's, let's get those on the table and then celebrate together. Whether, whether the company, uh, has a hand in that opportunity being mm-hmm. That or not, they can celebrate it and. Whatever, at least the, the company had this created the space for it to happen in their life, and so it becomes like a collective celebration even for the small things and you're getting to know what people care about, so that's really cool.

McKenzie Decker:

Yeah, I kind of wanted. I, I, I, myself, am trying to think about how do we do this and what, what would our destination look like? And so I wanna talk through like what I think are some criteria that make a really good internal destination for a team. And then I would love your thoughts on just like, you know, as a coach, what do you, what do you think people need to keep in mind as they kind of cultivate or create this Yeah, this statement. Two things that stand out to me that are really important that I think this team really hit on was one, the, the goal, 200 opportunities in three years. It was inclusive of everybody, so it gave every, everybody could have their own, um, everyone could have their own take on that and still be included in the goal. So it made, it made it to where everyone can be involved. Ev everyone has their. Kinda seat at the table in this goal. It's also, the other thing about it is that it's incredibly tangible. So it's tangible and it's invisible, I should say that too. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of activity that can be, um, a a lot of activity that can be recorded or captured and shared to really continue to build the momentum and help everybody see what's going on, um, in a timeframe where, you know. In a timeframe that is realistic in a timeframe that, uh, you know, we can, we can watch the progress kind of build more quickly. And actually this team, the reason we were talking about in our peer group is because they hit their goal a lot sooner than they expected. And then the last thing that I think is really important. About setting this kind of internal destination is this, the internal goal supports the culture. So it's not just a fun thing that we do together. It's not just like a comradery building thing. It's something that actually supports the overall goal mission and the the values and the culture that you wanna have inside the organization.

Benj Miller:

So it's interesting because if we were. Just asking where this fits. We would probably, on a roadmap, we'd probably drop it in as an org habit,

McKenzie Decker:

right?

Benj Miller:

Is like celebrate opportunities or something. And you keep talking about like an internal destination. But if I'm correct, they made this their. Like this is their number one destination.

McKenzie Decker:

Yeah. She, part of what we talked through was how do they, now, now that they've met, they, they met the goal, the 200 opportunities in three years. And so the question for the peer group was like, what should we do next? And so one of the, one of the things that we talked through with her was how do you join, um, how do you join this idea of opportunities? With your team and, and join it with your customers and really make it kind of a blend of internal and external impact.

Benj Miller:

How cool was that? Yeah, I was in the room when they landed on that and it was a really cool moment. You asked a question about like, how do people do this for themselves? Yeah, and I think it has to do with like noticing where energy goes because the energy kind of went here and it was like, it almost passed it by as if like. We can't do that. That's not, that's not like a, you know, Harvard Business Review would frown on Nash. Like that doesn't make, that doesn't fit the criteria. But then when they came back to it, it was kind of like, that's where our heart is. That's where our energy is. Like, could we actually do that? Think about how cool that would be and the downhill ramifications of making that happen. Um, so that was a cool moment and I think like the takeaway for other teams is to like, look where your energy really is. Don't, don't come up with like the school answer, right? That you think you're supposed to have. Um, everybody can say, Hey, we're gonna double revenue in three years, and that makes perfect sense.'cause 20% year over year growth and we've got it all calculated in our head and it's in your head, not your heart, and there's no energy there. And it doesn't tell you like the, the real purpose of why you're doing those things,

McKenzie Decker:

right. It's really powerful. You're kind of the master of questions, especially when it comes to working with teams and these kind of conversations. So what kind of, what would you kind of ask or have a, have a team consider as they're trying to, I guess, like break outside of the rules of, or the, you know, the Harvard Business Ruby version of what the Yeah. Uh, destination should be?

Benj Miller:

Yeah. I think a lot of it starts with a personal reflection of like, why, why are you doing this business? Mm-hmm. You could be. You could be at any company, you could be in any industry. And so it's like this, this personal thing, like why am I giving 40, 50, 60 hours a week to this company and this job? And you'll probably get a, you know, little six bullet list of things. And then when you go around and share those around the table, you can start to find the things that you have in common, um, the things that you actually care about. And somewhere in there, um, it, it, this is, this is a place where. If the heart overtakes where the head is, you can do something really powerful.

McKenzie Decker:

Hmm. That may even be a little bit scary to say that the heart can overtake the head. Um, but I like the challenge.

Benj Miller:

Yeah, for sure.

McKenzie Decker:

If you're listening to this today, I highly encourage you to go take that time for personal reflection and really consider, is this something that we could have? Would this be. Would this be worthwhile for our team to consider, not only, um, for the internal team and the, and the cultivating of the culture, but also to really help inform and maybe build out a destination that is a little bit outside of the box but fits you. Better than anything else you've ever had. So,

Benj Miller:

yeah, and if you're like, what is a destination and what is a roadmap? Go back one episode. We just talked through the roadmap and there's not only the episode, but a free download for free tool with the tutorials. Um, you can go do an offsite perfect time of year to have that strategic planning session with your team. And as always, we're here if you need help. Thank you to fist bumps for putting the show on keeping us accountable and sharing this with the world. I hope you do the same. If you know somebody that this might inspire to get out of their head into their heart for their people, that'd be amazing. Build bold. See you next week.

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Benj Miller

Host
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McKenzie Decker

Host