“The first step to transformation is to stop doing what no longer works.” – Marcia Daszko
On this episode of On the Brink with Andi Simon, I sat down with Marcia Daszko, a visionary leadership consultant and author of Pivot, Disrupt, Transform: How Leaders Beat the Odds and Survive. Marcia’s journey—from being “excruciatingly shy” to mentoring leaders at Apple, Boeing, and the U.S. Navy—reveals a rare combination of courage, curiosity, and clarity. Her lessons, rooted in the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, challenge leaders to abandon outdated management practices and embrace a deeper, systems-based way of thinking. Her key question is “How Can Leaders Transform Their Mindset to Thrive in a Changing Business Landscape?”
Systems Thinking: From Management Fad to Meaningful Leadership
Marcia began her career in marketing before being mentored by Dr. Perry Gluckman, a close associate of Dr. Deming, who revolutionized management thinking through systems theory and continuous improvement. What she learned was not just what to do, but how to think.
Too often, organizations chase the latest management fad—Six Sigma, Lean, “best practices”—without understanding the systems that create real success. Marcia calls these “tragedies” because they add complexity without meaning. She estimates that 50 to 80 percent of organizational waste comes from such misguided efforts.
Her process begins with a bold question: “What do we need to stop doing?”
Once leaders remove what’s not working, they can open the flow of communication, creativity, and collaboration—what Marcia calls the “system of profound knowledge.” When systems make sense, people thrive.
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Leaders Must Learn to See Differently
Like many of my guests, Marcia helps organizations “see, feel, and think” in new ways. She starts by asking questions that uncover hidden assumptions and systemic barriers. Employees usually know what’s wrong, she says, but no one listens.
When she leads workshops, she doesn’t rely on PowerPoint slides. Instead, she creates experiences—conversations, simulations, and reflections—that shift perspectives. “I don’t get resistance,” she explains, “because the exercises take care of that.”
It’s an anthropologist’s insight wrapped in a strategist’s toolkit: people don’t change because they’re told to—they change because they experience a new way of being together.
The Strategic Compass for an Uncertain Future
In today’s world of disruption, Marcia argues that leaders don’t need a roadmap—they need a compass. The future can’t be predicted; it must be navigated through exploration, experimentation, and learning. Her Strategic Compass helps executives pivot as they encounter new “rivers and mountains” in their business landscape.
Leadership, she reminds us, is not about control but curiosity. The most powerful organizations foster environments where everyone can learn, question, and contribute. Her three “legs of the stool” are:
- Innovation as a business strategy
- Continuous improvement as a business strategy
- Quality as a business strategy
Sadly, she says, quality and customer service—once foundational to success—have too often been forgotten.
Successful Leaders Build a Culture of Trust and Curiosity
Both Marcia and I share a passion for culture change. She emphasizes that great leaders reduce fear and build trust. When people feel safe, they can be curious and collaborative. It’s not enough to post company values on a wall; leaders must define the behaviors that bring those values to life.
Her workshops often transform even the most rigid workplaces. In one session, an employee of 15 years said it was the first time he had felt truly appreciated and engaged. That’s the power of inclusion, curiosity, and respect in action.
Leading in the Age of AI
As we discussed the rise of artificial intelligence, Marcia was unequivocal: “If you’re afraid of AI, you’ll be left behind.” She sees AI not as a threat but as a tool for learning and transformation. The challenge, she warns, is to build guardrails—policies and ethics that guide its use responsibly.
In an age when consulting firms can generate proposals in minutes, leaders must rethink how people create value. The winners will be those who empower their teams to use new tools, think critically, and continuously learn.
Key Takeaways
- Stop before you start. Identify and eliminate wasteful management practices that add complexity without results.
- Think in systems. Every part of your organization is interconnected. Problems are rarely isolated.
- Create flow. Open channels for communication, creativity, and collaboration.
- Replace fear with trust. People thrive when they feel safe to contribute.
- Stay curious. Learning is not a phase—it’s a way of life.
- Use AI wisely. Embrace new tools, but balance innovation with ethical governance.
What You Can Do Next
- Run a “Stop Doing” audit. Gather your team and list processes or habits that no longer serve your mission. Eliminate one per quarter.
- Host a curiosity circle. Ask open-ended questions like, “What assumptions are we making?” or “What would our customers say if they were in this room?”
- Map your system. Visualize how information, decisions, and accountability flow. Look for bottlenecks or blind spots.
- Pair technology with humanity. Use AI or analytics to inform—not replace—human judgment.
- Model the behavior you want to see. As Marcia says, leadership begins when everyone sees themselves as a leader.
Marcia Daszko’s work reminds us that transformation is not about new tools—it’s about new thinking. If you’re ready to pivot from managing the past to creating the future, this episode will show you how.
To learn more about Marcia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marciadaszko/
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From Observation to Innovation,
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The full text is below:
Andi Simon 00:00:02 Welcome to On the Brink with Andy Simon. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I’m Andy, and as you know, we’re always here to help you see, feel, and think in new ways. Our job is to get you off the brink. And regardless of what’s going on in your own personal or business life, sometimes things feel like a wall and you’re not quite sure how to jump over it. Knock it down, bulldozer it. Whatever it is that’s keeping you from achieving whatever you can see for yourself, your business, your customers, however you define it. I like to find people who can come and help you help me do just this. This woman is a wonderful woman. Today, Marsha Nashville is here to talk about a program she’s developed to help corporate leaders. Now, when I tell you about her, you’ll understand why this is so important. But remember, we’re futurists. And if Martin Seligman is right. We can only live today if we know what the future is. I’ll give you a few more quotes from Peter Drucker that I just love but let me tell you about Marsha.
Andi Simon 00:01:09 She’s a provocative leadership transformation thought leader, consultant, keynote speaker, and author, and she’s all of those things. Her book is Pivot Transform How Leaders Beat the Odds and Survive. What sets her apart is her rare background in knowledge. She was mentored directly by Edward Cummings. Then pardon me. Edwards Deming now. I was a Deming neophyte way back when, but Deming was a gentleman who gave us all of them Six Sigma and all of the kinds of things to help us improve our productivity and get our systems operationalized in a perfect way. he was a visionary. He taught philosophy of management, made Japan a global competitor. He then worked with CEOs of GM and Ford to save the auto industry. For over 20 years, Marcia. Has been a strategic advisor for boards of directors, CEOs, executives, and their teams. She’s worked with giants like Apple, Boeing, PBS, Dow Chemical and Pepsi, the U.S. Navy. They improve, they innovate, and they scale. But I’m going to let her tell you more about her own journey.
Andi Simon 00:02:20 I find it’s much more exciting to listen to her tell you, and I can read what she has sent me, which is beautiful because she is challenging management, thinking about what’s important and what’s not. And I think today is a perfect time because you don’t want to be an ostrich with your head in your ground. You really want to see what’s coming. And let me tell you what I’m Peter Drucker said, because it’s always my favorite. The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence. It’s to act with yesterday’s logic. Now, I’m a blue ocean strategist. These are great times for us to create new markets, to open up opportunities. And I was doing an interview with a gentleman who was a client in the not-for-profit world. It says relevant and not for profits as it is in for profits or anything, even your own life. Yesterday is not good for tomorrow quite yet. Marsha, thank you for joining me today.
Marcia Daszko 00:03:13 Thank you for having me.
Andi Simon 00:03:15 It’s going to be fun.
Andi Simon 00:03:16 Tell the listeners about your own journey. You’ve had a wonderful, successful career, but it comes across so much better when you talk about it. I can tell them what you’ve done. But what have you done?
Marcia Daszko 00:03:27 Well, I started out being excruciatingly shy, but no one believes that today. So I moved on to my first career with corporate communications and marketing. I’m a writer, and then I transitioned into marketing for a small consulting firm owned by Doctor Perry Gluckman. He was a very close friend of Doctor Deming, and he helped corporations like HP, ET cetera. Learn and apply the Deming philosophy. So I joined him in marketing. After a couple of months. He said, I want you to do business development. I said, what am I selling? He sent me off to Doctor Deming’s four-day seminar. So I’m in a room with 1500 people, senior executives of corporations, the military, health care organizations, education. It was across all sectors. And Doctor Deming was in his 80s and speaking to them for four days.
Marcia Daszko 00:04:29 And at the end of the four days I went back to the office. I said, Perry, what was that all about? Because he was using vocabulary, I wasn’t familiar with theory of variation systems thinking, you know, on and on. And he wasn’t so easy to understand because he was in his 80s and I was in the back of the room, be my shy Myself and listening. And so, Perry said, don’t worry, I’ll teach you. I felt like the next few months I went through a PhD program. I was reading 5 to 10 books a week that he selected for me, and I just was learning, learning, learning. After a few months, I said, I think I want to go back and hear Doctor Deming again. And that next four-day seminar I went to was when I was introduced to him. He knew that I was working with Perry. He said, then I will teach you. That scared me because I thought, I don’t want to learn statistics from two PhD statisticians.
Marcia Daszko 00:05:33 But then, that was then. I attended 20 of Doctor Deming’s four-day seminars over the next few years. Learned from both of them how to consult, how to apply, how to how to, coach executives by asking them questions, not telling them what to do because that’s not how people really learn. So that was kind of my kickoff. And then in 1993, 93, both of them passed away. And while I had other mentors like Doctor Ras off and Doctor Myron Travis, I was super fortunate in my career timing. I then went on to start my own business because we had clients like Dow Chemical and Pepsi and so forth. So I continued working with them. So that’s what I did not have a dream to be an entrepreneur to, you know, work with fortune 500 companies and so forth. And I have worked with the very largest corporations as well as smaller, privately owned, family and family organizations and across all sectors. So it’s been a beautiful learning journey for me.
Andi Simon 00:06:56 My hunch is that it isn’t a thing that you learned.
Andi Simon 00:07:01 You learned a way of thinking.
Marcia Daszko 00:07:03 Yes.
Andi Simon 00:07:04 And your joy is helping others understand that it isn’t what they do. It’s how they think about what they’re doing. Could you tell us a little bit more about this mindset that is so relevant for today but developed as you worked with all of these major companies on how to help them grow in new systematic fashion. Help me. What kind of mind is it?
Marcia Daszko 00:07:27 It’s through a new lens of management and leadership thinking. So we have, especially in what Doctor Deming called Western style management. Across North America, we have this old way of thinking, and it gets us into management. Fads, buzzwords, the latest shiny trend, best practices, and tools that are not helpful. So when they, for example, grab, the Baldrige Award when it first came out, Six Sigma, they would call it Lean Six Sigma and so forth. Doctor Deming would call those tragedies because they were not systems thinking, they were not leadership thinking. And so when I wrote my book, pivot, disrupt, transform.
Marcia Daszko 00:08:21 Part of the reason was to identify what to stop doing. The first third of the book is what to stop all these management fads and best practices that cause I haven’t seen less than 50 to 80% waste in organizations when I go in, and it’s coming from those management fads and best practices that cause the complexity and the infighting and the dysfunctional, sometimes toxic work environments. But if we work on getting rid of those, then it opens up flow. Flow of work, flow of communication, flow of information. So that new lens, first we have to assess what’s going on and stop so that for me, it’s when I go into an organization, when I’m working with a board or an executive team or their teams, it’s like, what do we need to stop doing? And then how can then I start teaching how to, what are the concepts and the philosophy, the foundational philosophy that they need for better decision making, improved processes, designing and creating systems where all the parts are. interconnected and interdependent.
Marcia Daszko 00:09:51 And once they have a system that makes sense, then the people that work in the system, their productivity and their communication and their collaboration and creativity just explodes. So that’s like part two, how to think differently through the system of profound knowledge that Doctor Deming gave us four parts and it’s integration. And then and then part three is how to apply it.
Andi Simon 00:10:26 This is really interesting because you and I have both worked with many companies, and you walk in and the first thing the leadership does is sit there like this. I always love the body language, you know, it’s my first book. On the brink has eight stories of companies that were stuck or stalled and they were stuck with stalled. Because I’ll use your word flow. Because what we saw as anthropologists, they couldn’t see, but they knew how to do their tasks, called jobs very effectively. And so they got a paycheck. and the disconnect. and I have a hunch that’s what you found also was profound because the fear of change, you know, humans hate to change.
Andi Simon 00:11:10 And so the first thing they do is say no button. And that’s not the way we do it. I say no, but the problem is, the way you’re doing it isn’t working. but it’s a really interesting your first part where you cleanse the place. They need to be aware of what it is they’re actually doing. And what I’ve discovered is that people live the day with habits. The brain’s efficient. It’s very happy, driven, and they don’t really know what they’re doing. How do you how do you help them see that?
Marcia Daszko 00:11:38 So when I go in and I’m asking people the questions to assess what’s happening here. And that takes a few days a week. What, you know, depending how large the organization is, then, they know what’s going on. The employees really get it and but no one listens to them, for one thing. And then, as you said, they get into their habits and it’s routine. And if it’s really dysfunctional mindset, they’re there to them.
Marcia Daszko 00:12:11 They’re thinking another day, another dollar. So they get in that automatic mode and they’re not asked to contribute. But great leaders create the environment where people can contribute and are self-motivated. Yeah, they and that’s where the power is. We talk there’s a lot of talk about how can we motivate our people? How can we engage with our people. It’s like you, you probably are demotivating them and you’re not listening. And so part of it is creating new communication with executives and giving them that new lens. So once I assess and give them a summary report with suggested next steps, they almost always a, you know, like 100% agree with the report. It’s I, I tell them these. This should not be a surprise to you, but it lays it out where they can really see the whole picture and it makes sense. And they’re ready to move to step two, which is a 2- or 3-day working session of strategic thinking. So that when they come into this, I don’t PowerPoint them to bits.
Marcia Daszko 00:13:33 I put them in an exercise and then I say, what did you learn? What else, what else, what else? And how would you apply this to your work and to your customers? To your company? And by doing that, they learn deeply. And I’m not getting any resistance trying to tell them something that they need to change because the exercises take care of that. And the two days are exercise after exercise after exercise conversations. And so I don’t get that resistance because other and I, we talk about fear and trust, how to reduce fear and build trust because I’ve given many speeches on that topic. So that’s how we move forward. And then when they walk out of the room, they think differently. They have a plan. They know who’s going to do what. And we create teams and town halls so that communication is already beginning to flow.
Andi Simon 00:14:40 It’s so interesting listening to you. I’ve had a couple of inquiries and I do culture change, which is what you’re talking about. it’s not, you know, it is the way we do things here.
Andi Simon 00:14:52 It’s how we do things here. What do we value and how do we make sure that we value? We act on the things that we value trust, communication, collaboration. You know, we don’t work in silos. We work in teams, all kinds of cultural things that can move an organization forward. One is from a large accounting firm who wants us to help change their accountants, so they become more customer focused as opposed to the taxes and how to get it done. And you’re taking people who are really good at what they do and asking them to do things. You remind me of that when you were shy, that they’re really not necessarily all that good at which is communicating and listening to customers. So how do you take an aardvark and turn them into a giraffe? It’s not easy but could be done. Another one is how do you take financial wealth managers and get them to be a little less concerned with the sale, at a time when their clients are becoming retirees and want to manage their money for long term, you know, security as opposed to additional money sales? And how can the old world that you’re in now become the new world that’s going to be asked of you? My hunch is that you’re smiling at me.
Andi Simon 00:16:12 For those of you who are listening, a marsh is smiling at me because these are not uncommon situations for you. Do you have any wisdom, perhaps, that we could impart onto some of these prospects? Because, you know, the idea is that you’re asking people who have been rewarded for certain things to now trust that they can be Acknowledged and recognized and respected for a whole new set of skills that there. That’s unfamiliar. I often say it’s like theater. You’re going to put them on stage. And they used to play Macbeth really well, and now you want them to play hamlet, and they don’t even know what the script is because.
Marcia Daszko 00:16:52 Yes. So that’s where the exercises that I put them in are so powerful. I remember doing one with, it was an all staff meeting and, we, we, I had them in a circle and then and I’ve done it also with, community groups of 400 people where I had eight mayors in the room and a very controversial topic in California. We were talking about high-speed rail and how where it was going to run and how it was going to run and so forth.
Marcia Daszko 00:17:32 And so they had had a meeting previously, and they had to call the police, and they and I was facilitating this meeting. And two days beforehand, they mentioned that to me. And I said, I’m facilitating this, and you’re just telling me this now.
Andi Simon 00:17:52 So I there was lots of love and hope there, Oh my goodness.
Marcia Daszko 00:17:58 So we, so we began, you know, the eight mayors were introduced and then the city manager, someone introduced me and I said, the aim for today is this. And we will do it with respect, that’s all. And the whole room just it you can feel like they calmed and I said you will all have the opportunity to share your ideas because of the, the exercise itself, the how it was designed. So they. They did they over the next few hours. They got their opinions out there. They had their conversations. It was really healthy. Through those few hours, every single one of those mayors came up to me and said, Marsha, this is amazing.
Marcia Daszko 00:18:54 They are engaged. There is no, you know, bickering, fighting my way or the highway type of stuff. You really have control. And I said, well, I used to be a seventh-grade teacher. You don’t let them run amuck. So. So that was that was one thing. And with a smaller company, I did this the same exercise. And at the end, everyone the microphone goes around and one of the Shire, staff members said, I have worked here for 15 years and I’ve never felt so engaged, so appreciated, appreciated and so in a place where I thought I could contribute. I was in shock. The president, I think he was near tears because it’s like 15 years and this person couldn’t contribute, but today he could.
Andi Simon 00:20:02 Good. So I mean, this is really important. Now, you and I were talking as we began about a new program that you have created that I’d like to make sure we have time to discuss. Because in today’s tumultuous times, as Peter Drucker said, the past isn’t a good way to live for the future, but you need to see the future.
Andi Simon 00:20:23 If my if Martin Seligman is right, if not, you can’t see it. And so you are beginning to work with C-suite about how do you begin to prepare and act in a new world that’s most difficult or different from the past? Help us.
Marcia Daszko 00:20:40 So we many people think that there’s a blueprint or that there’s a roadmap. I think that those are the wrong terms because vocabulary can keep us trapped. So if we think that there’s a roadmap from today to the future, that is not at all true. That’s why I created a strategic compass. So it’s like the pioneers coming across the United States. We explore and we pivot. We change course based on, oh, we ran into the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. So we need to keep pivoting as we learn. And the role of leadership is to continually learn and develop their people so that everybody is learning together the power of everybody learning, the power of developing that natural leadership in the organization, for everyone to help create that future and to see the possibilities and the opportunities, that is the direction that we need to go.
Marcia Daszko 00:21:49 So we identify what are what are the roadblocks that we see, the barriers, the issues that challenges. Identify them, but don’t let them keep us stuck instead. It’s not even a question of what if. It’s what if we dot, dot, dot. Try this, do this, apply this. And through the lens that Doctor Deming gave us with his system of profound knowledge, we look at the system. We see the variation. We understand theory of psychology. We, understand how important it is to not only. I say there’s a three-legged stool. There’s innovation as a business strategy. Strategy. Continual improvement as a business strategy, and quality as a business strategy. We have forgotten this quality and quality customer service. I was just on the East Coast the past week, you know, different cities flying back home. And it’s like, where’s the customer service along that, along that journey. So we have a lot of work to do. But there is so much potential there because we have forgotten some really great concepts that we used to apply.
Marcia Daszko 00:23:14 And then now we can through the disruption because we’re always going to have disruption. We are always going to have change. We need to just grab on to Into what are the values. What do we believe in, what’s important, and then not just talk about them? I, you know, having the values, you know, placed on the wall, that’s a waste. Unless the executive team as well has talked about what are the behaviors that are acceptable and not acceptable in our organization. And, and I think the, the greatest, some of the greatest concepts that leaders need to apply going forward are curiosity like exponential, curiosity like never before, and communication. So that two-way communication, listening, listening, listening, asking questions, you know, they can learn more and more about prompting. They can use AI to go deeper, that they can bring people together. That’s the most important thing. And that’s what people are wanting. They want community. And it’s not just, you know, virtual and so forth.
Marcia Daszko 00:24:32 Every so often, even if they’ve got remote workers bring people together every so often, whether that it’s the whole company. I don’t think Apple would typically do that. But I remember a time when I was working with Apple, and they brought all of their attorneys from worldwide together for a two-day workshop or retreat, and we worked with them for a couple of days, and it was a few hundred people. those times are important. The AHA’s are powerful. And the leadership communication that’s necessary and the leadership thinking and that foundational philosophy of leadership has to be taught. So with all of my clients, I start with the executive team or an expanded executive team or the board of directors. and then it never fails. Those leaders because they personally transform their thinking in a couple of days generally. Sometimes it takes longer, but that’s variation. they say to me, Marcia. Everyone needs to learn this. All of the employees need to learn this. And we begin that process of teaching everyone through the organization and helping them figure out how can we apply this in our work to help our organization and our customers move forward through disruption, through challenges, whatever we face.
Andi Simon 00:26:08 Marcia, as I listen to you and knowing the kind of work that I do, you are a fascinating woman who’s focused on the way they get things done, not necessarily what they’re doing. Am I right? Because it sounds like what they do is important, but not the focus of the way we get things done, how we talk to each other, how we build community, how we treat each other respectfully, how we enable everyone with their curiosity to apply the new ideas, how they think in new, innovative ways and don’t get stuck in boxes. Am I correct in what you’re thinking about?
Marcia Daszko 00:26:47 That’s exactly true. And then through the lens of the system of profound knowledge one, one of those that people really get stuck in is all around numbers. So how they do it today? and then they really transform that thinking to at least to better decision making, better outcomes, much, you know, can be exponential, Prophets. And Doctor Deming used to begin, you know, one of his days at the workshop saying, does anybody care about prophets? He would.
Marcia Daszko 00:27:30 He would just boom! That question out there. And people are like, well, yes, of course. But what he taught was that, so if you care about the prophets, you’ll stop doing what you’re doing because it you’re ending up struggling, declining, failing, and going out of business. And that leads us to, well, it’s true, 60 to 70% of fortune 500 corporations that began in about on that list in 1955, more than 60% no longer exists. I haven’t even heard of some of the names before. And they were a fortune 500 company, so it’s not like I was asked my, you know, at attendees in it when I’m speaking. So what if Amazon, Apple, Boeing, Dow Chemical. What if what if they disappeared next year? They can’t imagine that. How could that happen? That couldn’t happen. Well, actually it could. We saw blockbuster, Circuit City, Kodak poof gone thinking, you know, and the if.
Andi Simon 00:28:51 You know, even watching what AI is doing to Google and to the websites that depend upon Google, search for the visitors that are declining and visiting, because you don’t need to go through Google to find out about a website that might be selling X, you just ask chat, you know, where should I go? These are the five places you should go and then you can go or not.
Andi Simon 00:29:16 But there’s no direct line between the question you’ve asked Chad, and therefore there’s no Google revenue coming to advertise on Google for the website that you want them to come to for this X, Y, or Z. And this becomes interesting. I wonder what will happen to Amazon because it’s diversified itself. But remember there was a Sears catalog. My in-laws bought a house from the Sears catalog after the war, and it was a perfectly good way to bring products to people in a time when the post office delivered them. It’s not that different than now. Exactly right. But now it’s become a place where Amazon delivers from instead of a company unto itself. And the brands that it had, no longer have any of the value they did. So your point is extremely powerful. You know, this is so interesting because you and I are also watching a world going through transformation, and I have no idea what’s going to come out the other side. We never can predict, but we can prepare. And what we’re talking about is that the persons who are going to be doing this with are going to be different people.
Andi Simon 00:30:25 And I had enough for profit I was working with on Blue Ocean Strategy and we have a new podcast about them, but they have brought all kinds of new ideas to the marketplace to be valuable to their members. and to many of the associations have been talking about, my goodness, I’m losing members and I don’t know what to do. Well, let’s get them involved. Be curious. You know, take some time to see what matters to them and how you can matter to them. Don’t assume what you were doing mattered. And as opposed to that’s what people did. There’s a whole time of great change. Wow. So it’s a little bit like fire has just been invented or discovered and now and it was discovered, and now we’re eating meat that’s cooked instead of raw. And our brains are going through a great Transformation. People are afraid. I met a gentleman not too many days ago who said, I’m not going to use AI. He said, well, then you might as well just go out of business.
Andi Simon 00:31:22 It’s okay with me. But what makes you think that your competitors aren’t going to be expediting what they’re doing? Oh, I’m all into paper. I said good bye.
Multiple Speakers 00:31:33 Yeah, exactly. I mean, I, I.
Marcia Daszko 00:31:35 Was thinking when I was hearing about AI and then I thought, oh my gosh, I, I just threw myself into it to learn. I was like into workshops. And one of my, one of my friends who is a serial entrepreneur and he’s created several, multimillion dollar companies and some, I think, billion-dollar companies. And he started two AI companies this year. And I said, how are you learning so fast? I’m like, I’m buried. I’m just I’m trying to do my work, but I’m trying to learn at the same time. And they’re I like 100-hour workweeks. Right? And he said, I started intensively learning 18 months ago, but there are people that have been doing it three years, ten, 20 years before we kind of even heard about it.
Marcia Daszko 00:32:29 And now it’s like full, full blast forward. And if people don’t want to touch it or they’re afraid of it, we have to help them get past that because it is going to be fantastic. I mean.
Multiple Speakers 00:32:44 There’s a whole.
Marcia Daszko 00:32:44 Picture. There’s a system, right? Of course, like anything, there are all the possibilities and opportunities that we can’t even imagine yet. And there are the risks and there has to be some governance around it. I wrote an article recently about what leaders need to think about, or what boards of directors need to think about when it comes to what should their policies be that they put in place? There have to be some guardrails. And so that’s.
Multiple Speakers 00:33:15 It?
Andi Simon 00:33:15 Maybe. I was reading a newsletter. I get in 173,000 city bankers are going to go through an expedited training on how to use prompts properly.
Multiple Speakers 00:33:25 Oh, good.
Andi Simon 00:33:26 And then in the same newsletter was about how one of the consulting firms is getting their proposals done in three minutes or so using AI, whatever it’s clod or perplexity or it doesn’t much matter which becomes your favorite.
Andi Simon 00:33:41 but and then we’re learning all about how organizations are going to have to find either new ways to do things or new people to do things in new ways. but if you can get a proposal done in three minutes, not three days, then what will the staff be needed for? And I have a hunch that’s why they want to know how do I turn my financial wealth managers into people? People. So now.
Multiple Speakers 00:34:08 We’re about to.
Andi Simon 00:34:09 Wrap up 2 or 3 things you’d like our listeners and not to forget. And then we’ll talk about how they can find both your book and you please your last thoughts.
Marcia Daszko 00:34:18 So not to forget. Keep learning. Oh my gosh. Just grab on to learning. Some people, I think they got out of high school or college or what? Some program. And that’s like, okay, got that degree, got that certificate, I’m done. And like, too many people think that way. But and that was a pivot that I went through when I started working with Doctor Perry Gluckman and Doctor Deming.
Marcia Daszko 00:34:48 And I was like, you know, I, I definitely did a pivot and, and then intensive, like, I love learning so that that that’s easy. So but the focus to continue for leaders and natural leaders, I believe everyone is a natural leader and that can be developed. Just question more and really think. I don’t want to say think differently, because that’s hard to just say that without some, resources to help you. I was so fortunate to have the mentors I did, and I think everyone needs a mentor, but I don’t want them to get a hack. That was something that we also had to be very careful of through the Deming era, you know, into the 90s, 1990s. there and there are thousands, if not millions of leadership hacks out there, consultants that don’t have a philosophy of management. They don’t have a foundation. They’re just taking the latest buzzword and management fad and then running out and teaching it or putting people into training. So be curious, be questioning.
Marcia Daszko 00:36:09 But I would say to get a good foundation and, and that’s what I offer is through my book, and a lot I write every week, I write columns. like for the Business Journal, for Biz Women magazine, as a guest contributor. And so I would. And I have so many resources on my website, and I offer that to for people to go to that. And. I am very open to getting, you know, a text asking me to can we talk and we’ll set a time and. I really want to help people. And so if they have a question, I can usually at least guide them. To a, a video or a book or something or an article that can help them, or I ask them questions to get them, you know, through that. That bump in the road.
Andi Simon 00:37:15 We don’t want any bumps in the road. So, and we’ll put on to the blog where they can reach you. But what is your website, ma’am?
Marcia Daszko 00:37:23 It’s m so m and my last name, D as in David a s is in Sam, Z is in zebra Co.
Marcia Daszko 00:37:35 And they can also, you know, find that I mean if they Google or, or put, you know, a request through ChatGPT they’ll find me. I think I’ve got tens of thousands of either YouTube videos or podcasts or where I’ve been a guess like wonderful questions today. the book,
Multiple Speakers 00:38:01 I.
Marcia Daszko 00:38:02 Love to communicate and love to help people so hopefully I can help more. boards and executive teams move their organization forward and through the disruption that we are having right now.
Andi Simon 00:38:18 I bet you don’t think Marsha was ever shy.
Multiple Speakers 00:38:21 No. Exactly.
Marcia Daszko 00:38:23 Everyone says that it’s like it’s true.
Multiple Speakers 00:38:25 It’s true. But, well, you can have a.
Marcia Daszko 00:38:28 Shy side sometimes.
Andi Simon 00:38:29 You were just learning how to be you. And this has been a pleasure for all of you who come. I thank you. Remember, our podcast has been ranked number 18 of the top 100 podcasts on the topic of change. I’m honored. We’ve also in the top 5% of global podcasts, and there are only millions of them. But it’s sort of a cool place to be.
Andi Simon 00:38:49 And all of you who listen or watch you send me great people that you want me to interview and share their stories with you. Remember, storytelling is how we grow. So if you’re curious about Marsha, I promise you on our blog we’ll put in where you can find her. It’ll be on the back page of the video and all of the time is for us to connect. We’re collaborators. It’s much more fun to collaborate than to stand alone. My books are all on Amazon. Just look up Andy Simon and you’ll find them there. Or Andrea Simon. People say, what do you go by? I say, yes, my mother called me Andrea and my husband and I are both Andy, so we enjoy ourselves. So for all of you remember my tagline is take your observations, turn them into innovations more. Shall we tell you? You got to go see, feel, and think. If you’re going to have observations and let your mind free from all the constraints it would rather have, and let it be open to opportunities, they are all around us today.
Andi Simon 00:39:48 You’ll be amazed at what comes next to AI, machine learning, blockchain. It’s a time of change and it’s an exciting time. Good one. Good bye now. Thank you, Marcia, it’s been a pleasure everybody. Have a great day. Bye now.
