Why Fast-Growing Companies Blame People for Structural Problems

Living Your Legacy

Christopher McCormick, founder of Visionary Consulting, challenges the tendency to blame employees for organizational failures, arguing that

Key takeaways

• Blaming employees for cultural or performance issues often masks deeper structural problems in organizations.
• Culture fit should not mean homogeneity; diverse teams that reflect customers drive better innovation.

Main topics

• Organizational structure and growth
• HR architecture and talent strategy

Notable quotes

"Opportunity never shows up as opportunity. It shows up as a problem."

Conclusion

True organizational success comes not from blaming people but from bui

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) I support leaders and teams in all facets of business and I'm helping people design their life and design their leadership. They have to build the architecture to make the company work, to have their people be happy. That's what I'm coming in to do is to give you the kind of insights that you need. to move forward. Speaker 1 (0:17) Christopher McCormick is a visionary business leader, executive strategist, and the founder and CEO of Visionary Consulting. Drawing from more than 25 years of experience, he helps leaders navigate AI and organizational change by strengthening the conversations that drive meaningful transformation. Speaker 3 (0:34) Opportunity never shows up as opportunity. It shows up as a problem. It shows up in many different ways. But really, if you step back and remove yourself from labeling it a people problem or a... an employee issue and you start to look at what are the things that we've built as an organization that are allowing that behavior to happen. You're only hiring people like you and only hiring leaders that fit your mold. That's problematic. Your employees should look like your customers and then you're going to have better ideas and know how to innovate. So whenever I get the culture question or culture fit, the first thing I ask is why? Speaker 2 (1:12) It spans the globe like a super high school internet. Elvis, Brendan, I agree. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over until I win. The Speaker 1 (1:25) Living Your Legacy podcast. For those who live to leave a legacy. That's extraordinary. Speaker 2 (1:45) Hey, Speaker 4 (1:46) welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy podcast. I'm your host again, Jay Slangen. And yeah, we have the privilege to talk to some of the greatest entrepreneurs from around the country, the disruptors. And yeah, like today we have the legacy makers. And yeah, we have a special guest with us here. What's your name? Where are you from? And what's your business? Sure. Christopher McCormick. I am from San Speaker 3 (2:10) Francisco, California, and my business is Visionary Consulting, which is an HR consultancy. I support leaders and teams in all facets of business and corporations and help them show up with leadership, change management, and with culture. Sure. Speaker 4 (2:28) Before we dive into all that, right, you are all swagged out, man. I mean, you got a great look. You got a super awesome jacket. Shit, that's really cool. Where does fashion fit into all this? Oh, I just I've always loved fashion. Speaker 3 (2:42) I always loved. Well, and I would also say one of the things about my business is architecture and structure and figuring out how things work and how they become that way or how they're created in that way. Yeah. So fashion sort of fits in there as well as. like architecture and design and just sort of, as I think about my business, I'm helping people design their life and design their leadership. Speaker 4 (3:05) Yeah. And Speaker 3 (3:06) it, you know, they have to build the architecture to make the company work, to have their people be happy. And so all of that sort of fits in, in some way, shape or form. But I do just, I love fashion. You got to just look good, feel good. Exactly. It's that confidence, right? Exactly. Exactly. Speaker 4 (3:21) So yeah, consultant for... building HR teams for top companies, right? So I guess, you know, when people are talking about HR, we're talking about culture, right? We're talking about staffing. So what should we talk about first? Let's talk about the culture first, right? Sure. You got a company out there and, you know, how do you get the team to fit that company culture? Speaker 3 (3:48) First off, I wouldn't have them fit it. I would have them be added to it. When we talk about culture fit, I think that can get us into a lot of trouble with, then you just want to have a room of people that are in sort of a echo chamber. So if you're only hiring people like you and only hiring leaders that fit your mold, that's problematic. You want to have somebody who's going to come in and actually ask different questions, different challenges, potentially come from a different demographic. Gotcha. So that they're, they should. Your employees should look like your customers, and then you're going to have better ideas and know how to innovate. So whenever I get the culture question or culture fit, the first thing I ask is, why? What's going on? And how does that support your business? Speaker 4 (4:34) Yeah. So maybe let's rewind it back, right? Sure. What kind of companies are finding you? I Speaker 3 (4:39) support everyone from early startups that are... funded venture capitalist funded startups to fortune 100 companies so it runs the gamut i i do a lot of work with small to medium-sized businesses as well yeah i'd say my sweet spot at the moment is early startups again i'm in san francisco a lot of ai stuff going on now it's it's crazy over there Speaker 4 (5:02) with the ai yeah yeah Speaker 3 (5:03) it's in my backyard and so i have a lot of those clients i do a lot of executive coaching in that space I work with a lot of teams in that space. And then on more of the Fortune 100 side, I spent 25 years of my career in Fortune 100 companies. So I have clients that I pulled in and work with projects that they come to me for because I'm a trusted person and I've been in their life for a long time. And they know what I do and what I can provide. Gotcha. Speaker 4 (5:33) All these companies, right? Yeah. They're coming to you with the problem of we need staff, right? We need people, okay? Tell me, like, because it's not just general. It's also very specialized, right? Now, do you have a specialization that, you know, is your kind of thing or you just generally like any Speaker 3 (5:52) staffing problems? I can do, I mean, from a staffing perspective and just an HR in general experience. My background, I have a background in life sciences, so pharmaceuticals, healthcare. I spent years in technology and then also several years in financial services. So inside of all of those, those are sort of what I would say are the verticals that I know really well and can come into that with. I'm coaching a lot of people in the tech and AI space right now. And that is really, that tech background has helped. Even when I was in financial services, the last few projects I worked on in that company were all tech related. So it's sort of, I kind of know what their day-to-day challenges are or what's keeping them up at night. Speaker 4 (6:43) Gotcha, gotcha. Speaker 3 (6:44) Yeah. Speaker 4 (6:45) And so what's the toughest part of your... you know, of your job and your, not your job, but your business and kind of matching people to