Ep. 115: David Wray - Accelerating your “Power of Potential” for Business and Personal skills

Contact David Wray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-w-29627882/

David's Website: https://davidwray.com (*access David's book and/or blog here)
Want to join David's LinkedIn Group?! https://www.linkedin.com/company/37817090/

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Mitch: (00:00)
 Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA’s podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Mitch Roshong and I'm here to welcome you to episode 115 of our series. Today you will once again hear from finance executive and a fortune 50 multinational and now new author David Wray. David is the author of the recently published, The Power of Potential: A Straightforward Method for Mastering Skills for Personal to Professional. In 2019, the Harvard business review investigated where learning and development goes wrong. In his book and during this podcast episode, David calls for a new mindset and approach towards acquiring new skills and achieving the level of mastery desired. Keep listening to hear about his learning approach and perspective on personal development.

Adam: (00:54)
The Harvard business review in October of 2019 investigated where learning and development goes wrong. They found that organizations spend about 360 billion US dollars on training and ask the provocative question whether or not it was worth it. So David, if we start with this Harvard business review article, can you share your thoughts on whether organizational spend on learning and development offers a good return on investment?

David: (01:27)
Yeah I can Adam, it's a great question to set the context for our discussion. So the typical organization spend on development is definitely not worth it. If we start thinking about the reoccurring themes that seem to come up, you know, survey after survey. So as you mentioned, the Harvard business review, they found that about three quarters of managers across about 50 companies give or take were quite dissatisfied with their company's learning and development function. Gardener on the other hand, found that about 7 out of 10 employees don't feel that they have the skill necessary to master their roles and the findings go on and on. So I started to undertake my own research and thought, well let me find out what's happening and most of the individuals I spoke to experienced real frustration and disappointment with what it took to learn new skills for them. So hence they tended to give up. I heard a lot of funny things and some of them were interesting things I heard with things like, “I feel like I'm faking it, hoping it just comes to me one day, perhaps I'll have an epiphany” or “I'm pressured to work harder pitches doesn't help, I can't seem to master the critical thinking skills I need”, or “I've been asked to speak at an upcoming medical conference and I'm truly petrified and end up sounding like a toddler”. And when I started hearing and seeing firsthand these stories of people really giving up while trying to acquire a new skill, I began to wonder why, why do some people struggle when others seem to manage it almost effortlessly? Why is this happening? And it was really this curiosity that motivated me to start researching, identifying, and then eventually understand the differences that make a difference between those individuals that see it through and those that give up. And from the research that I did, the model I share in the book really comes to life. It's basically a methodology that's used unconsciously by masters in their field, and it offers real value for time and effort invested to learn a new skill. And it's a really a new way of approaching learning, especially for accountants where so much of the learning happens on the job.

Adam: (03:29)
Okay, now you've really piqued my curiosity. We at this podcast with Count Me In, we're really trying to help accountants, whether it's through learning or seeing what's happening in the industry. Can you tell me a little bit more about your approach and about how your approach is different from everything that's already out there?

David: (03:47)
Yeah of course, I'm happy to give some insights into the model. If you really start to think about situations where you've undoubtedly seen a really talented individual in action and you've been sitting there secretly wishing, “gosh I wish I could do that and do it as easily and effortlessly as they do it”. Well, you can. Now you might be wondering how. Well to do so, we all simply need to just understand both the visible and the invisible workings that an expert utilizes when they're doing their thing. And basically the power of potential teaches readers about these real, but invisible internal processing mechanisms that we all go through when we receive information. And basically think of the receipt as information as something like an external event or an externality. And these externalities, they occur every single day and they can range from very benign things, something as simple as being, for example, cutoff in traffic, but they can also range to the other extreme, which is life-changing. And an example of that might be for example, hearing a terminal medical diagnosis. So clearly a life-changing and difficult thing to hear and individuals react very differently to the same information or the same events. So why is that? That's what I started to really wonder. And what I determined on, what I discovered is that the differences in how we process information, because when we process information we do so using our own view of the world. We relay each filter information as we process it. So for example, some individuals may choose to ignore information or they may generalize by associating it to some past experience. Let me give you an example of that. Imagine that you're an individual who's giving constructive feedback to a peer or to another team member. While there are one or two ways that constructive feedback can be received. It can either be seen as an opportunity by the individual receiving it, or it could be seen as a threat. Now how that's received will depend very much on the person's prior experiences and that's what I mean by the view of the world. So each of these information filters that we have is basically influenced by how we see ourselves. So things like what we believe, what we value, any kind of powerful memories, whether they're positive or negative, and also how we speak to ourselves. So for example, is our inner chatter self-critical, or is it self-respecting? And as if all of this rapid processing wasn't enough, our current state of mind also affects outcome. Let me give you another example of that, to help bring it to life. If we're cut off in traffic on a day where we've just heard some great news, the other drivers lack of consideration, will probably roll away like water off of a duck's back. But if we've just received news of a layoff that relatively minor traffic slight could become a trigger to an uncharacteristically angry outburst. And it's that, that I mean when I talk about state of mind. So these rapid information processing systems basically result in the behaviors we exhibit and in turn, how others perceive us. And it's by understanding these inner workings that basically the reader is empowered with the knowledge and tools needed to harness them to their own advantage. Which means that the learning solution that I provide is really personalized. Let me give you another, a simple example. Imagine that you dream of moving into a finance leadership role, but you're really held back by your inability to present effectively. You feel physically unwell at the idea of be...