Transcript | Episode 4 - Unlocking the power of social capital & prioritizing rest for peak performance

0.01 to 0.45: Welcoming Matt Walter

Hello and welcome to Medtronic TalksAsia. I am Masooma, your host for this show, and here I explore different leadership styles and cultures with global leaders. It's my privilege today to have with me the CHRO of Medtronic, Matt Walter. Welcome, Matt.

Well, first of all, thank you very much for having me. It's great to sit here in India on the ground and have the opportunity to join the podcast.

Yes. I'm so glad that you're here, and I think it's been a busy week for all of you for the last four days. I'm so glad for this opportunity to have this face-to-face chat with you and hear from you about your leadership styles and more. So, it's my absolute pleasure to have you here, and thank you for accepting it.

Yes.

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0.46 to 3.55: Organizational psychology       

So, Matt, over to my first question. You are the CHRO of Medtronic, leading talent, culture, and the organization that supports almost 95,000 people across the globe. Tell us a little more about yourself. Where did it all begin and how did you start your career to reach this point now?

That's a very reflective and vast question that you're starting with. But I guess to say from a career perspective, where it all began, I'd probably go back to undergrad, into college, and I was just fascinated with the study of psychology, the study of human behaviour, and that really, I think began with me. I was big in sports and athletics and always thought about the value of the human mind in driving performance and optimizing your own performance.

So, with studying psychology, it was probably not unlike many other college students where you kind of hit your second year and you've got a passion for something, but then all of a sudden you're like, hey, I got to make a career out of this – what am I going to do?

What am I going to do with a psychology degree that's going to be of interest to me? I started exploring some other subjects as well, and I came across, took some business classes and really just, also just fell in love with management and organizational behaviour.

As luck would have it, there's an intersection, a really nice adjacency between psychology and business and management, organizational psychology, the study of human behaviour at work. So, I proceeded to go down, explore that path a little bit more, and got an internship in my senior year. It was in a kind of a talent selection assessment. I got to do a lot of job analysis, riding around in police cars and fire trucks, and doing selection for the public sector, which is fascinating. And that was it that was okay, this is what I want to do. And I went on and got a graduate degree. As a result of that I've now spent more than 20 years in the field. I had just incredible experience across multiple industries, healthcare, financial services, consumer, retail and then more recently spent nearly the last decade at Medtronic. And I've had just an incredible experience. I've had the chance to be in all of our portfolios serving as a business partner. I've helped build the HR COE and then most recently over in our global operations supply chain business.

So, I just have had a really nice diverse experience within Medtronic and that's led me to the role that I get to have now.

Great. I mean, what an amazing story. I mean, many a times people choose a career, then they don't know what to do with that. And I think when you say psychology, the first thing that comes to your mind is, okay, so are you going to be a psychologist or what are you going to do, what are you going to do with that degree? It's amazing to see how you've really kind of tied that to business and organizational behaviour.

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3.56 to 6.34: Leadership style          

So, great to hear that. Matt, I was reading through your profile and I know that you've lived in ten different cities across the globe, including LA twice, and Minneapolis, and also Beijing. So, with these diverse, absolutely different cultures altogether, how has that shaped your leadership style?

You’ve worked in those cultures in the sense of how you've adjusted to those kinds of environments that you have worked in, because again, it's very diverse, right? The US, and then you were in Beijing, a very different culture, way of working style, language. How have you worked around that, working in these different dynamics?

I think the first thing is just, you have to be aware that there actually is a shift, right? And that there's, you know the environment that you're in, the ecosystem that they're in.

There are different values, there are different principles, and there are different ways of operating. So it's really an understanding of that self-awareness of, hey, I'm going into a different situation here, and taking the opportunity to learn what those different needs are. Some of the most diverse experiences I've had, you mentioned the time that I was able to spend in China, it's very different in how they operate, what they value. You can't just take what you know in one culture, and take it over and just copy paste and apply. You have to understand what the business needs there?

What are they trying to solve, what are their values, what are their kind of beliefs, the unwritten rules of that culture? And you have to be able to adjust, right. A lot of what we do in our careers there could be ten different ways to do it, right? Probably not one best way, but ten best ways, depending on that culture that you're operating in.

So, once you understand it, then you can, and you're able to look through those different lenses then you're able to apply the solution in different ways that actually meet the needs of those cultures.

And whether that's operating from the US to China, or even in Medtronic, moving from a corporate role in Minneapolis, out to California to a frontline business, it's very different.

And what they're focused on and the priorities and the culture of the organization again, goes back to understanding that, learning it, and willingness to meet that culture where it is, versus trying to just embed what you already know.

Great, thanks for sharing that. I'm definitely going to pick one of those.

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6.35 to 10.36: The drivers of building a strong, positive culture

In the current scenario, when the whole Gen Z and the millennial are driving a big part of the workforce, and things are getting so global, mainly after the COVID situation, what according to you, are the drivers of building a strong, positive culture because you have one, is that people are not seeing each other?

They're absolutely global. And the other thing is there is this whole diversity of thoughts, generation, gender, age, and many things. But I'm particularly thinking from the perspective of Gen Z and millennials, who really are kind of moving too fast. So, what is your advice? Or what could be the drivers for driving this culture?

I mean, it's a big question you're asking. And given how diverse we are as an organization, it's a difficult one to answer. I think there's also a history of Medtronic that we've been very fragmented, we've been much decentralized in our 75 years.

I think the good news is the huge advantage we have as an organization, it starts with the mission. You can't have any conversation about our culture without starting there. Right? I mean, it's the “why”. It's why many of us come here, and it's certainly why many of us stay. I think it's the one golden thread that probably weaves throughout the organization as well.

Regardless of what building, what country you go in and meet an employee from Medtronic, they've got a connection to the mission, and driving that mission. It's incredibly unique to us.

I think other companies try to replicate it as best they can – but you can't. It's incredibly special to us. The other thing I think that's special about Medtronic is at the heart of who we are. It's about innovation. We are an engineering company at heart. That’s where we get our growth from. So, all of us, I think, have a common mind-set of how we can continue to push innovation. We're encouraged to do that. Our mission, it's held within there, it's held within our Medtronic mindset. So, I think there's a couple of, again, these pillars that we can take and grasp.

I think our ID&E strategy as well – the inclusive culture that we've had. I think what's most impressed me about that is despite our growth over the past, I've been here ten years. So, we were a much smaller organization, then we acquired Covidien, we almost doubled in size.

We've continued to just naturally grow. But in some ways, I feel like our organization has almost remained smaller in some ways. We've more belongingness, more understanding of who we are across the globe. We've certainly globalized as an organization. So, I think as you talk about those things can democratize generations in some ways and make us feel connected back to a core. I do believe you mentioned the connectedness, the social capital side of this, I think about the differentiation, to me, like human capital is about how far we can go, social capital is about how fast we can go, and the connectedness that we feel with each other to the organization. The collaborativeness that we can get more done collectively than any one individual can get done by themselves.

Those are a couple, I think the special elements of our culture here at Medtronic that we can all count on, and certainly as a horizontal, across the organization.

Great answer there, because I think the mission binds us all. I think when you look at the Gen Z and the millennial at this point of time, irrespective of everything, they're all looking at something to look forward to from a passion and a mission perspective.

And I think even with 75 years, the mission just remains across generations as the most common thing that ties it all.

And it gives us, I mean, in my world, just from a human capital perspective, it allows us to recruit talent here and attract them on a different tier. And again, from a retention standpoint, and it's a unique advantage that we have, and it's incredibly strong.

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10.37 to 12.17: Staying connected in a virtual world

Yeah. I'm just spinning off a question from the same, you know, the answer that you gave, going back to this whole connectedness thing. But yet again, many a times, all of us are connected through Zoom and Teams, and all different kinds of platforms. How do you really still make, mission is one thing, but there's also this softer aspect of human, this thing?

And I think sometimes it just gets difficult as a leader to even get through someone face to face. How do you get through someone over a Zoom call or online? I mean, how do you deal, or what is your advice? How do you deal with something like this which seems so distant, but you still want to be connected?

Yeah and you have to. Especially, you know, we're 100,000 employees in 150-plus countries. So, you're not ever going to be able to touch everyone face to face or in person. I think you still need to prioritize that and take advantage of it when it is possible. But I think with the world that we live in today, you know, a virtual world we can still remain connected. Quite frankly, the regional teams have done a fantastic job at this.

And still feeling part of something, where you are going to constantly be kind of virtual or remote. So, I think the answer to your question really is about being purposeful about it, finding ways to prioritize that, yes, I'm going to be virtual, but how do I still make that personal connection?

I know there's plenty of best practice out there in terms of how to do that and how to stay connected in the virtual world. I think many teams have made that a priority and just become part of how they operate that makes it work for them.

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12.18 to 15.45: The future of jobs and human skills

Great answer there, and thanks for that. I'm going to move on to something related to a little bit about, from a data perspective. The World Economic Forum's report, which is the future of jobs report, actually reveals that seven out of the top skills that are needed for a job are soft skills, more than the whole technical skills that we are talking about. What, according to you, is the most critical skill both now and in the future, that is going to really, really work for global organizations?

That's a really tough one to answer. I think there are two ways to answer it. One is more job specific, which is more probably the technical skills. But I think as we think about just broader relatedness and leadership skills, I think it's certainly going to start to tilt more towards human skills.

I think about the way that we are thinking in the future around technology and AI and machines. We're gonna have to operate in a way that lets technology do what technology does best and let humans do what humans do best.

That's where you're going to see this rise. So, if you think about all the things that computers and machines can't do, those skills are going to be increasing in value.

So, things like creativity and innovation. I think on the people's side, interpersonal relations, certainly emotional intelligence.

Those are the things that I think are really becoming more valuable. And we have to make sure that leaders, I mean, we just talked about staying connected in a virtual world. How do we do that? Right? It's human skills.

Those are areas where we're going to have to continue to invest. I think they're going to be increasingly important, as you see employees that want to grow their career and advance their career, they're going to become increasing, especially for leadership and senior leadership. So, we've got to stay committed within Medtronic to how we continue to develop those skills; give people opportunities to learn them and practice them early on in their careers and develop them.

One of your points, where you speak about the whole skills, human skills that are needed for the future, it also brings me back to this dialogue when the whole ChatGPT and the AI thing started, oh, you know what, they're going to take over our jobs. But the reality is the technology is going to do what only the technology can do. It's the other side that we are going to play a very important role as humans at our job, to really communicate and connect the dots and really do the logical stuff and the human EQ stuff more, that's our job. So, I think you really kind of answered that well and it just immediately when you were speaking about technology and the human side of it, it just kind of came to me that, yes, that's the answer. When you say that, oh, technology is taking away my role, but how do you use it?

I think one more way you can split that, too, a little bit is, low cognition, high cognition, in terms of what are the tasks that a computer does well? Right now, it's at a lower cognition level. AI is great, but it's also backward-looking.

Everything that we teach it and have it learn is from the past, and we've got to be able to look forward, and that's uniquely a human skill as well. I think there's still plenty of opportunity that yes, technology can help us become more productive. But there's plenty of skills that humans will continue to add value with.

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15.46 to 19.09: The role of luck in one’s career

That brings me, the way you just answered the question, it brings me a very interesting question I have for you. You know, as Steve Jobs said, you can't connect the dots forward looking forward, but connect the dots looking backwards. So, what is that one decision in your life you think has been very pivotal in the way it has shaped your career to be now the CHRO?

Yeah, one decision. I don't know if I could pinpoint one. I often reflect on it. I do sometimes sit back and think about, how did I get here? Right? And the one thing that kind of comes to mind that's more common is luck. The number of times. What role has luck played in your career?

The way I think you define that is you look at the outcome, and you think about the outcome being a function of what skills, abilities, experience you have, plus luck. Right? So, if you kind of work that backward and say, okay, the outcome minus the skills, everything else is explained by luck. I think that's one thing where I look at the different turns in my career, how many times that it's just been, yes, I've been prepared, but there's a circumstance or happenstance of something that happened that I had absolutely zero control over.

I think even about my first job coming out of grad school, and I had multiple offers on the table, and I actually had a job that was paying 20% to 30% more.

I didn't choose to take that one. I happened to meet somebody at a conference and I really liked the work that they were doing and the meaningfulness of that work, and so I chose to go that direction.

But the luck of running into that individual at a conference I had no control over. There was nothing that I was trained for or educated on.

And so I just think about all the moments that have happened throughout my career that luck has kind of played a role, and it's more than you probably like to give it credit for, but it's been a constant.

Very well said. It's also being there at the right place at the right time. That's one thing and I think the other thing is also, you took a risk. Look at your first job that you just mentioned. I mean, you could have easily gone for something which was paying more, but you believed in what you saw when you spoke to someone, you trusted that person. And that's again, the risk that you take and act boldly to believe in someone's vision and what they are doing and then kind of join them. And many a times, I think that also needs a lot of courage. You know, you really don't go that path many times in your career.

Sometimes, it's just the courage to trust your own judgment. Your own intuition on a matter. There's no facts that are going to back that up. It's a feeling that you have, and there's a lot of times you just have to trust yourself and have the willingness to say, hey, look, I've got the confidence in myself, and I believe in myself, and therefore I'm going to take this risk. And I think it's also so well said.

It also is about many times, you don't need to go to something just by thinking that what I'm going to get out of it. It's like you said, you met someone at the conference. I'm sure it was not about that. I want to work with you, but it was more about, okay, I'm here and I like what they're doing, and that's how it is. I think many a times we really need to not look at everything from a benefit point of view. It's also from a point of view of how you're growing and how it's helping you.

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19.10 to 21.59: Using rest as part of the performance

Great. Thanks for that. I'm going to move to my next question, which is, as a CHRO of such a large company and with 95,000 people, I'm sure your day is full of many different facets – good, bad, and a lot of other things that you're taking care of. How do you really unwind after a long day?

Yes. So I'll answer this from perspective again, going back to my early career and when I was growing up, always involved in sports and big in athletics, and what I learned through my training right. Because sports is always about how you maximize your ability and your performance. And the one common theme across every sporting event that I was involved with was how important rest was in order to actually perform at your best. And so if you're a marathon runner, if you're a cricket player or a badminton player. The day before the event leading up to the event, you always want to kind of wind your training down so that you're rested and you're able to perform at your peak. And so that really resonated with me in my professional career as well, to say, hey, look, I can't just constantly be performing at peaks because eventually you burn out.

So, I have purposely made a decision throughout my career to say, look, rest isn't separate. It's actually part of the performance. Then I think the second part of that is recognizing as an individual how do you rest?

What's important to you to recharge your batteries? And for me, there's kind of two. One is I'm more introverted, so I need peace and quiet. Sometimes, solitude is maybe the way to best describe it, and the second thing is family.

So, a lot of energy from my family, my sons, into sports, so right now, I have an integrated calendar between work and my family. It's usually work and then on weekends, it's family. It's my son's sport. So that, to me, is rest. Also, I enjoy traveling with my family and kind of getting away from things a little bit. But those are, that's my kind of mix that's right for me.

Thanks for that.

Because, I also take a tip back from what you just mentioned, that performance is not just about what you're doing at work, but rest is actually a part of the performance. So, I think many a times we forget that we absolutely you know, don't talk about it. We're so involved in that goal and that vision that we are chasing that seems like, oh, I'm wasting my time.

I could be more productive right now. But it actually is productivity because you're. You're getting your energy. Right.

So, I very recently learned something called the balcony view. Like, just be up there and just don't do anything and just kind of give it a view. So, yeah. Good to know.

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22.00 to 22.47: Exploring sports with son

What kind of sports are you interested in? What do you play?

Flying with my son around right now, he's still, he's only eleven, so it's all about diversity of experience for him. So, he's playing American football and basketball and baseball and so we just kind of chase him season to season around the different sports times. So, that's where we go.

Good to know. My son is ten and I'm still not able to find out what he wants to play. I keep asking him, do you want to go for this badminton coaching or football? And then he's like, okay, I want to play football. After two years he's like, I don't want to play football anymore, can I play some other games?

Still young enough, you should be exploring and trying different things for sure.

Thanks for that. Thanks for sharing that.

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22.48 to 24.28: Book recommendations by Matt

Talking about unwinding again, is there a book or a podcast or something that you would like to recommend to our listeners?

Where I get a lot of my insights from, going back to your Steve Jobs quote about connecting past dots, so I love going back and just reading and, and learning about history and other organizations, other leadership lessons and understanding kind of from the tip to tail of those experiences and then extracting from that.

So, really understanding the dots that they connect and then how do you apply those back to your own world? So, a lot of books in world history and just the rise and fall of different nations or organizations, or personal biographies as well. That's really where I tend to find and gain most of my insights and really enjoy my reading.

Is there any one book that you would recommend that you recently read or something?

You know, again, just going back and thinking about it, there's a great book. Some of these are more kind of American business stories, but there's one called American Icon, which is about the recent fall and rise of Ford Motor Company. There's one by Phil Knight around the Nike Company and how he kind of started that from nothing and the funding and so really enjoyed that. And then there's one around the first flight, the Wright brothers, and understanding their journey to innovation and taking their first flight. Those are some of the ones that I've enjoyed historically and have, I've taken a lot out of.

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24.30 to 25.05: Thank you, Matt!

Great, thanks for sharing that. I'm definitely going to pick one of those, maybe the first flight. I have not read that one. So, great. Thank you very much, Matt, for joining us today. It was a real pleasure to talk to, you know, your perspectives, and I definitely take back a few tips. Adversity, diversity. And yes, so thank you very much once again for joining us for our podcast.

Absolutely, it was my pleasure. And thank you for having me today.

So, that was Matt Walter, what an amazing conversation, talking about different leadership styles sharing his anecdotes throughout his career. And I think I also learned and took tips along with me, and I hope you, too.

With that, we come to the end of this episode, and I'll see you on the other side with another guest.

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