Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Judy Goldberg about her book WonderSHIFT , a guide and program for results driven transformation
This Inspiring Women conversation was recorded in the New York office of Redesign Health and followed by a WonderSHIFT workshop.
Judy’s life’s work is centered around education and teaching. This started in her basement at 8 years old where she would “teach classes”. Fast forward to years of teaching in schools and abroad and then focusing her studies and work on what happens when change, or shifts, happen. Shifts can come in the form of natural shifts (getting older), imposed shifts (things thrown at us – natural disasters, health issues), and initiated shifts (starting a business, making a career change).
Judy had been developing her SHIFT methodology (Shape; Harmonize; Imagine; Focus; Team) for a few years when an imposed shift of a breast cancer diagnosis occurred. What she thought would be six weeks became a significant care journey. Judy brings us into her life (and health!!) and how this experience, amazingly, fueled her work of Wondershift. She also describes the power of Wondershift for more than just those imposed shifts but also those that are initiated. And how to bring methods and tools into your professional life for more purposeful results driven transformation.
Closing out the conversation, Judy provides her best advice for other aspiring women. Show Up even on the darkest, hardest of days, as that is where growth and change happen.
And Be as intentional about the recovery, as you are about the grind.
Guest Bio:
Wondershift can transform your leadership, your team and through world class design can ensure positive, long lasting results. Whether you have a new team, an established team, or a group who don’t yet work together or are located around the globe, Wondershift will find the right approach to achieve the results you need to navigate tough targets and unique challenges.
Those who succeed develop skills and awareness to appreciate individuals, engage in healthy debates, recognize valuable ideas, and ultimately enable the organization to thrive.
[00:00:00] Wonderships comes in two parts, but it starts with the essence that sometimes when we talk about change it's so overwhelming right and it feels like this whoosh of like oh I can't do all of this it feels so big. And so I really wanted to think about okay how do we break down that bigness and overwhelminess of change and that's where the ship comes in if we take baby ships and we break it down it's more manageable it's more nuggetable it's more
[00:00:30] acceptable for our brains really to move through those and then the wonder piece is around taking the wonder in our control. So it's not about like I wonder how many stars are in the sky it's more like I wonder if I restructured my business what would that look like and what would the shifts need to happen in order to get there or I wonder if I left and started my own business and what would it take to get there so that's sort of the blend of the two.
[00:01:00] This is Inspiring Women I'm Laurie McGraw and I'm here with Judy Goldberg and we're here in the redesign health New York office i'm so excited we're here with an audience of the rising women in health care, which is a group put together by Meg Meg and Chelsea to really bring together a community of exceptional women leaders.
[00:01:20] Here in the redesign family as well as some other New York professionals who are here Judy and I are going to be talking today about her new book which is Wondership we're going to understand what that means.
[00:01:33] And then we're going to spend some time interacting with this exceptional group of women leaders so Judy I am excited to be speaking with you we met a couple weeks ago when you were telling me about Wondership and
[00:01:47] Before we even get into Wondership let's talk about you I mean you started as a teacher, you're a coach, you went and traveled internationally for several years and now you're back in New York and so give us a little bit of the bioscapes.
[00:02:02] Thank you well first of all thank you so much for having me here today and being in this beautiful office it's such a treat and a great way to start a money morning.
[00:02:12] So my background is I think the threat of my background is all in education. I was teaching classes in the basement of my house when I was eight years old with the neighborhood kids.
[00:02:24] Yes they would come over I would tap my roller on the desk and get them all in order to do all of the exercises and I think I knew from them that teaching and education was part of my beat.
[00:02:35] I ended up going and getting my undergrad in education. I then moved to Costa Rica and I taught in an international school there and it was there that I got really into curriculum design
[00:02:46] And going from teaching third grade to high school and I loved it and I really love the design aspect but I also started teaching teachers.
[00:02:55] So that was my first move into educational adults.
[00:03:00] Okay then from there I went to the adult speed educated still is that so that's so that's so that's so I moved into corporate learning and development.
[00:03:08] So I transferred all of my skills in design, a leadership development and all of that into corporate learning and development working with discovery for 10 years.
[00:03:17] Okay and then from there I started my own business so this is actually my 10th year of having started one-dorship.
[00:03:23] Okay and it was something that part of the inspiration of being a discovery is I loved my job.
[00:03:32] It took me two years to leave. I didn't leave for any ill reasons.
[00:03:36] I left because there was something inside of me that said there's more.
[00:03:39] There's this entrepreneurial spirit in me and I had to let loose.
[00:03:43] And so then formed one-dorshiped.
[00:03:46] Okay so let's talk about Wondershen and I think this is actually a really timely conversation because you know we're here in this New York office of incredibly talented professionals and we've got the various generations.
[00:03:58] We've got the older millennials or younger boomers like me but not out here.
[00:04:05] We've got millennials, we've got the Gen Z and we're talking about a very very workforce.
[00:04:10] We've got hybrid, we've got remote, we've got in office.
[00:04:14] We have people who are engaged or not engaged or who are looking to supercharge their careers or sort of wondering what they're doing now.
[00:04:22] So what is the what is Wondershen?
[00:04:25] Why don't we just start there.
[00:04:26] Okay so Wondershen comes in two parts but it starts with the essence that sometimes when we talk about change it's so overwhelming.
[00:04:35] Right and it feels like this whoosh of like oh I can't do all of this it feels so big.
[00:04:42] And so I really wanted to think about okay how do we break down that bigness and overwhelminess of change
[00:04:49] and that's where the shift comes in.
[00:04:50] If we take baby shifts and we break it down it's more manageable, it's more nuggetable, it's more acceptable for our brains really to move through those.
[00:05:01] And then the wonder piece is around taking the wonder in our control.
[00:05:05] So it's not about like I wonder how many stars are in the sky, it's more like I wonder if I restructured my business what would that look like and what would the shifts need to happen in order to get there
[00:05:15] or I wonder if I left and started my own business and what would it take to get there.
[00:05:19] So that's sort of the blend of the two.
[00:05:22] Is it is it is it meant to be about sort of like you know finding your path on your career journey?
[00:05:27] Well so it could be both, it's working with businesses.
[00:05:30] It could be anything from building a new team to restructuring an organization looking at organizational design.
[00:05:43] It could be even shifting the way you run a meeting right or a retreat and bringing people together changing that up a little bit in terms of businesses.
[00:05:53] One of my things I always say about working with businesses is I want to maximize the brains in the room because you have like you said earlier we have amazing brains in the room.
[00:06:03] How do we maximize them knowing that all of us think and behave differently?
[00:06:07] So I use a tool called Emergenetics which looks at our different behaviors and the different ways we think.
[00:06:14] And so I'm always trying to design something with our whole brains in mind.
[00:06:18] Okay okay so you know we're here at redesigned health now.
[00:06:21] We design health just as an organization they have put together and spawned 50 different companies in healthcare.
[00:06:29] They're right so the forefront of innovation many would say and they are going through a lot of shift in terms of how they're organized and who they're working with.
[00:06:38] They're always bringing in new talent and working with teams.
[00:06:41] Let's maybe talk about the different pieces of ownership.
[00:06:44] I get to show the book it's kind of fun.
[00:06:46] I feel like a really fun thing here.
[00:06:49] You've got these different sections that you have and so let's just say what they are.
[00:06:54] So they are shape, harmonize, imagine, focus and team.
[00:07:00] So yeah shift.
[00:07:02] So tell us what shape, harmonize, imagine, focus and team are all about.
[00:07:07] Okay well share first how it came to be.
[00:07:10] Okay so the idea of the book probably came five years ago.
[00:07:14] Okay and it came through and was the foundation of the book came from my own personal shift that I went through.
[00:07:22] And I like to think of shifts there's three different kinds of shifts.
[00:07:25] There is natural shift.
[00:07:26] There's a like the shifts that happen in our lives like we get older, we go through men and paws.
[00:07:31] Like these natural shifts you can't just kind of help.
[00:07:33] Then you have imposed shifts and these are shifts usually thrown at us.
[00:07:38] Yes right or if something natural disaster happens and something happens with someone's home or something like that,
[00:07:44] a health care issue.
[00:07:46] Then we have imposed shift or sorry initiated shifts which are the shifts that we initiate.
[00:07:52] I'm going to leave my job.
[00:07:53] I'm going to move to a new country things like that.
[00:07:55] So I had an imposed shift thrown at me.
[00:07:58] Yes.
[00:07:58] 2017 and I think let's talk about that.
[00:08:00] Okay Judy if you don't mind daring that story at all.
[00:08:03] I'll share it in brief because it was it's so common now but I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017.
[00:08:10] I was living in London at the time and my family is very steeped in health care and they're like,
[00:08:16] Judy come home you can't do this on your own.
[00:08:19] So coming to New York was not a choice.
[00:08:21] It was based on a situation.
[00:08:24] Yep.
[00:08:25] And I came home thinking I'd be here for six weeks.
[00:08:27] Done dusted.
[00:08:28] No that is not the case.
[00:08:31] It was a year long science experiment and through that year long science experiment of going
[00:08:36] through breast cancer, double mastectomy and plants all of that stuff.
[00:08:40] I realized how lucky I was to have so many tools
[00:08:45] that I had been teaching for the last 20 years at my disposal.
[00:08:49] And those tools are shipped.
[00:08:52] So I'll talk through the chapter.
[00:08:54] So well first of all thank you for sharing that story and it's wonderful to see you in very
[00:09:00] healthy form and so yay for that.
[00:09:02] Yes.
[00:09:03] And it's also one of those sort of like a ronic twist of life right here you have been working on shift.
[00:09:10] And then you have that imposed shift upon you that you had to deal with.
[00:09:15] So then that you've now fueled that further into your work.
[00:09:19] So let's talk about that some more.
[00:09:21] Okay so in a nutshell the shape chapter is all about shaping your mindset because I also
[00:09:28] realized that when you go through shift that is imposed it is all about your mindset.
[00:09:32] It makes the biggest difference.
[00:09:33] And so even in my first pages of my journal I wrote I went back and looked at it.
[00:09:39] I wrote I will start with a smile and with a smile because it feels like the right thing to do.
[00:09:43] That was in my first paragraph of my caring bridge journal which I wrote it.
[00:09:47] So shaping the mindset and it's not just growth mindset.
[00:09:50] I went into a scientific mindset.
[00:09:52] I was like I'm not going to ask why this happened to me but I'm going to get to understand
[00:09:56] my body and new ways that I've never known before.
[00:09:59] And I wanted copious information and notes that I took throughout the journey to write this 150 page journal.
[00:10:07] Then harmonize harmony and you've got to find the harmony within yourself when you're going
[00:10:13] through this. And part of what I think about when it comes to harmony is being alive with your values.
[00:10:18] So if you're not sure what your values are then doing the work to understand
[00:10:21] your values so that you know that every decision you make is actually driven by your values.
[00:10:26] And if you're driving your decisions by your values then you personally can be in harmony.
[00:10:30] But it was also about finding harmony with everyone else because when you're going through a journey
[00:10:34] like this, you don't have time for energy for anything that's out of harmony.
[00:10:38] So being able to find harmony with others was really important as well.
[00:10:42] Okay.
[00:10:42] I was imagining the possibilities and visualizing the future.
[00:10:46] So I went instead of what's going to happen in a negative way.
[00:10:51] I went to visualizing what the end would look like,
[00:10:54] what I would be looking like, what I would be feeling like,
[00:10:57] how I would go through and imagine what I could do after.
[00:11:01] Can we just pause on that?
[00:11:02] Yes, Judy.
[00:11:04] I mean, that's hard.
[00:11:05] Okay, so thank you.
[00:11:06] So I mean, you're using your health example and with this optimistic and just getting to end.
[00:11:14] But I mean, let's be honest like that stuff is like incredibly draining.
[00:11:18] Yeah, physically draining most certainly but it's you know,
[00:11:21] just having the mental capacity to deal with something that challenging.
[00:11:25] Yes.
[00:11:26] So so when you're in that or in your in a big job shift or in a big career shift,
[00:11:32] you know, how do you how do you help people get that energy because being optimistic
[00:11:39] is on a challenging enough itself?
[00:11:41] That's true.
[00:11:41] And I am not about the toxic positivity.
[00:11:44] Like there are, oh, trust me like I cried a river.
[00:11:47] There were moments when I was cursing up the storm.
[00:11:50] I mean, it is not just like happy,
[00:11:51] lucky smile all the time.
[00:11:53] Yeah, it's not about that.
[00:11:55] One of the questions that I asked my clients when I'm coaching them and then I'll ask myself
[00:12:00] is when they come to me and they're like, oh my god, this is awful.
[00:12:03] This is tragic.
[00:12:04] This is going to ruin the business or my career or whatever.
[00:12:07] My question is, is it possible that what you're labeling as negative doom,
[00:12:14] gloom, etc.
[00:12:15] could offer a positive in the future or benefit in the future?
[00:12:21] And the idea of that is not to negate how they're feeling.
[00:12:26] It's more to move them from a brain perspective into what the possibilities could be
[00:12:31] okay rather than staying here which keeps people stuck.
[00:12:35] So that's one of the things that I'll look at.
[00:12:39] And like even for me, I was like okay, I will gain a new community of people I never knew.
[00:12:47] I will learn more about my human body and the template than I ever thought.
[00:12:52] Right?
[00:12:52] So I leaned into what I would learn and how I grow as a human versus what I was losing.
[00:12:58] So I think that is really incredible.
[00:13:00] I'm just like, that's amazing.
[00:13:02] So I think that's yet like so with COVID, like COVID was hard for a lot of people.
[00:13:07] I did not find it as hard because I had been through and built resilience from that experience.
[00:13:12] So I was like okay, COVID, I'm alone in an apartment in New York City.
[00:13:17] But what I can do is get out and go for a walk in the park every morning.
[00:13:21] What I can do is get on zoom with my friends across the world that I haven't talked to for a long time.
[00:13:26] What I can do.
[00:13:27] So it's really focused on that can first camp.
[00:13:30] Okay, so give us the last couple of pieces.
[00:13:32] The last couple of pieces are focus.
[00:13:35] So once you've imagined all the possibilities, if you keep imagining all the possibilities
[00:13:40] which I can do sometimes, then you go in a million different directions.
[00:13:43] So being able to narrow down and focus is so critical.
[00:13:48] And one acronym that I love for focus that I learned from another podcast,
[00:13:53] I'm totally blanking out on it, but John Lee DeMoss did it.
[00:13:58] And it's about entrepreneurship.
[00:14:00] Okay.
[00:14:00] And he said focus is follow one course until success.
[00:14:06] And I love that.
[00:14:07] So it's about okay, well what I'm going to focus on and follow that course so
[00:14:11] that I can be successful in that and just really figure out what do I need to do?
[00:14:17] What do I need to let go of?
[00:14:19] Okay.
[00:14:19] Because we only get a certain amount of energy every single day.
[00:14:23] Okay.
[00:14:23] And then the last one is team.
[00:14:25] Team to me is like all to my heart.
[00:14:27] It's about building the team you need around you in order to move towards your next goal or through
[00:14:33] your shift.
[00:14:34] And I would say my team was the most important thing that I had going through my journey.
[00:14:39] Yep, I had an incredible team of friends.
[00:14:42] I had a team of doctors.
[00:14:44] I had a team of support network that people strangers.
[00:14:48] Yeah.
[00:14:49] And that was pretty powerful.
[00:14:51] How would we apply that to a work environment?
[00:14:54] Okay.
[00:14:55] So where you have colleagues, colleagues maybe friends,
[00:14:57] colleagues may just be acquaintances, they may be people you just need to tolerate and but
[00:15:03] you need to work together with them.
[00:15:04] So how do you apply?
[00:15:06] Wondership to the professional environment.
[00:15:10] So much of it.
[00:15:11] I mean I work with different organizations and teams all the time.
[00:15:14] So mindset comes in every single one.
[00:15:17] Okay.
[00:15:18] And there's no question that we can do a ton of mindset exercises.
[00:15:21] I might even do one physical one with you if you're okay.
[00:15:25] And finding harmony, I mean sometimes that takes some mediation.
[00:15:30] So there's other skills we can build in.
[00:15:32] Sometimes we have major conflict.
[00:15:34] Oftentimes when people come to me they'll say can you please help me work with this
[00:15:38] difficult person?
[00:15:38] Yep.
[00:15:39] And my response is who's the difficult one?
[00:15:42] And they kind of laugh like you did it.
[00:15:44] I'm like could it be that they're just different?
[00:15:46] Yeah.
[00:15:47] Right. So that's where I use a mergenetics which really looks at your profile.
[00:15:51] So if I'm very conceptual and analytical and I like to weigh pros and cons and think big picture
[00:15:56] and I'm working some with someone who's very structured and very about the people and wants
[00:16:00] to stick to a plan, we look at that and we work to figure out how we can both flex
[00:16:04] to get the best out of those situations.
[00:16:07] Okay.
[00:16:07] All right so let's just like bring it back and we'll close out sort of with you know what have
[00:16:12] you seen with clients, with company if you work with what are some of the results of applying
[00:16:17] some of these leadership principles?
[00:16:19] So I have seen in a nutshell I've seen tears.
[00:16:23] And I don't I think tears are so positive because they're a release.
[00:16:27] So sometimes when we're going through certain exercises tears come out and I'm like
[00:16:33] goodness it needed to come out it's being held in and that messes with harmony.
[00:16:37] So tears actually could lead to harmony.
[00:16:41] Uh-huh moments especially when people realize that the people on their team aren't doing things
[00:16:46] purposely to upset someone but they realize oh you need more evidence and data to shift your
[00:16:55] eye and come on board with this like so those uh-huh moments.
[00:17:00] I'm thinking about also I was working with a client and she had
[00:17:07] my test. She's been working together five years so she has personal access to me and she
[00:17:11] wrote me one day and she's like I'm quitting.
[00:17:13] I I'm done it's over like I was like um can you get on the phone?
[00:17:18] Let's let's talk through this.
[00:17:20] And she was just jumping right to the negative of everything.
[00:17:26] So we had a conversation and coached her through okay like what's at a harmony here?
[00:17:32] Well I'm just not feeling appreciated or I'm not feeling valued
[00:17:35] and my voice isn't speaking up so we talked through different strategies took us through some
[00:17:39] exercises in the book and um she did not quit. She is still there. She just got a promotion.
[00:17:46] Yay.
[00:17:46] And I just spoke to the CEO yesterday who was telling me that she is the best person in the company
[00:17:52] in terms of building culture on her team.
[00:17:54] That is great.
[00:17:55] Yeah that is great and I think that actually that's pretty applicable to I think most professional
[00:18:00] environments right now because you know when you talk about sort of like like work is work
[00:18:04] it's hard there's always more to do than you have time for or resources um to do and sort of
[00:18:11] you know and and being heard as a team member is one of those things that really gets to
[00:18:17] employee engagement um and the likes so that's great that they can buy you know people can't
[00:18:22] apply these principles and hopefully find more.
[00:18:25] Yeah.
[00:18:25] Um of that Wondershift um in their work.
[00:18:28] So this has been great and Judy I just want to close out with you know your I always love to
[00:18:32] ask experience women um their best advice for younger aspiring women.
[00:18:39] Oh gosh.
[00:18:42] I think I'm too can I give two you can give two okay one okay quick one is show up on the
[00:18:51] darkest of days the hardest of days the toughest of days show up and be present because it is
[00:18:57] those days that you will grow the most as a human.
[00:19:00] The second is be as intentional about your recovery as you are about the grind okay um
[00:19:10] I hear so many people who don't stop and then they get sick and taking a pause is okay
[00:19:17] and it's part of what makes us successful so those are great and this has been an excellent
[00:19:22] inspiring women conversation and I'm just speaking with Judy Goldberg and Judy thank you so much.
[00:19:27] Thank you so much for having me.
[00:19:29] This has been an episode of Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw please subscribe right in review
[00:19:35] we are produced by Kate Cruz at executive podcast solutions more episodes can be found on
[00:19:42] inspiringwomen.show I am Laurie McGraw and thank you for listening