Podcast: Simon Sinek and Bob Chapman, An Experiment in Humanity

The way we lead impacts the way people live. This world needs truly human leadership. I'm Brent Stewart, your host. Thanks for listening. This podcast is an outreach of Barry-Wehmiller. You can find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, and Blue Sky at Barry Wehmiller. And find our podcast articles and videos at trulyhumanleadership.com. A few months ago, our friend Simon Sinek visited our BW Paper Systems location in Phillips, Wisconsin to record an episode of his A Bit of Optimism podcast with Barry-Wehmiller chairman Bob Chapman. It wasn't the first time Simon had been to Phillips, Wisconsin, as you'll soon hear. But for this podcast, Simon wanted to not only talk to his good friend Bob, but other Barry-Wehmiller teammates in Phillips, some he had met almost 15 years ago. That episode of Simon's podcast is out now. I highly encourage you to listen to it or watch the video version on YouTube, which is almost a mini documentary. You can find this and all things Simon at his website, simonsinek.com. On this episode of our podcast, we want to bring you something special. While in Phillips to record, Simon and Bob held a town hall for the team members there as a thank you and to recognize them for the inspiration they have been, not only to Simon, but countless others. And we're going to bring you that town hall which is great dialogue between Bob and Simon but also includes a couple questions from the audience including a high school-age son of one of our team members that is a big fan of Simon's and was very excited to talk to him. Also, Simon and Bob talk about the 10th anniversary revised and expanded edition of Bob and Raj Sisodia's book, Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family, which is available now. You can find out more about that at everybodymattersbook.com. So here it is a companion piece to Simon Sinek's A Bit of Optimism podcast featuring Bob Chapman and Barry-Wehmiller. Here's a town hall with Simon Sinek and Bob Chapman.

It's a treat for me to be back here. I think it's my fourth or fifth time back over the course of whatever it is 15 years. And it's one of my favorite places to visit if I'm honest. Beyond the fact that it's absolutely gorgeous here, this is a reminder to me of why we are doing what we're doing, why I'm doing what I'm doing. When I met Bob, he explained what he was building. He told me about this company that he was building and the way that people treated each other and the way that leaders were raised to lead and we got rid of the concept of managing people because nobody wants to be managed. We want to be led, which is true. He told me all these things and I'll be honest, he's a good storyteller, and I believed him. Because I hear a lot of people telling me stuff and I go see it and it's not really true, but I believed it was a good company and I said I want to see it. I was the first person that Bob invited from the outside world to come and walk around. He picked me up and we darted around the country for three or four days. We went to a whole bunch of factories and Bob was amazing. He said, 'Just go talk to people.' There was nothing set up. He wasn't with me. So, it's not like the CEO is with me and everybody's on their best behavior. I could do whatever I wanted and talk to whoever I wanted and ask whatever I wanted. After three days of meeting you and I spent two nights here, so I was with you for quite a long time. At the end, we went back to St. Louis. I remember saying to Bob, 'Bob, I can no longer be accused of being a crazy idealist because I write about what's possible. I don't actually expect it to exist in reality. Right? And I said to Bob, I can no longer be accused of being a crazy idealist if what I imagine exists in reality.'