From President to CEO | Step Two: The Flash Forward Story
We’ve all heard about the idea of visualizing it. For anyone who has studied the Law of Attraction or, as it’s been dubbed in recent years, “The Secret,” the practice of visualization is critical to reaching personal goals.
If you’ve ever gathered around a table at the start of a new year with piles of magazines, cutting and gluing pictures of things you want to a piece of poster board, then you have created a “vision board,” and practiced the art visualization.
So what is visualization? According to the Law Of Attraction, visualization is mentally picturing - in great detail - what you want. It’s your way of communicating your desires to the universe so that it can start spinning you in the direction you wish to see yourself move.
The key to visualization is to place yourself in the picture alongside the thing you want or the goal you are trying to reach. And don’t phone it in, either. This is not simply using your imagination or playing pretend. It is a mindful and purposeful action where you see yourself having and enjoying the thing you want. Your visualization should be so detailed that you bring yourself to a mental place where you actually believe you have what you’re after. From there, you place your trust in yourself first, knowing you plan to provide the action required to reach your goals while the universe opens the doors for you to succeed.
So, how does any of this tie into our story on Team Solutions Dental’s President and Co-Founder, Jason DeFranco’s journey to becoming CEO? Because it’s a rule he lives by. Visualization. A master business strategist, Jason has made a successful career in the dental lab industry by visualizing where he wants to go, and how he wants to get there, and then executing by putting the visualization into action. Two and half years ago, Jason had an executive huddle and asked his key people to write something called a “Flash Forward Story.” Our assignment? To picture where we see ourselves in two years and tell the story of how we got there. It was a powerful assignment. It was an assignment that not only forced us to think about the role we held here at Team Solutions but also gave Jason clarity on what we wanted to accomplish and how we saw our contributions bringing value to the organization.
In fact, it had such a powerful impact that we decided to make it part of every employee development plan moving forward. If you wanted to grow here at Team Solutions, you would have to be able to visualize your growth and tell the story of how you got there by writing a Flash Forward Story. We knew this story would give us insight into a few things that would help us craft the best development plan for the employee. 1. It would show us where the employee wants to go 2. It would allow us to see if the employee had a reasonable idea of what it might take to get there, and 3. It would help us chart a detailed path to help the employee reach their goal.
We felt so passionately about the positive impact of visualization when it comes to employee growth and development that we made it the second step of our four-step Employee Development Plan.
If you’ve been following our story on Jason’s journey from President to CEO, you might recall that Jason did not excuse himself from following the four- step Employee Development Plan.
Two weeks ago, we walked you through his Self Evaluation (Step 1). You can read that blog HERE.
This week, we’ll be taking a look at his Flash Forward Story (Step 2).
I’ve been in Human Resources for 18 years now. I can tell you that I have never known a President of an organization to sit down and write a visualization story about his own professional development. Writing something like this takes time, focus, and creativity- three elements that are difficult to tap into when you are running a successful business and have a family at home - both of which constantly vie for your attention.
The fact that Jason was willing to take the time to do this was impressive to me.
The story submission hit my email on a Sunday morning in February. I had no idea that what I was about to read would have such an incredible impact on me as well as those he would choose to share it with.
Jason’s flash-forward story opens on January 6th in 2025. He has finally reached his goal of becoming CEO and is about to share his journey with us.
It’s a Monday morning- our favorite day of the week here at TSD. No, seriously. TGIM is a real thing here. He mentions there are five people locked in a room to review the year-end closing numbers and to write the agenda for the upcoming annual Executive Retreat. There are whiteboards, reports, and data surrounding the unidentified group of 5. They are about to do a year’s worth of planning in three days and are gearing up to define the three big goals for the year and, hopefully, name their next Executive C-Suite member.
Wait. Stop the presses for just a moment.
We know that Jason is one of the 5, and one can only imagine that TSD partners, Chad Holman and Jason Borden are also there. But, there are two more unnamed players in the room and one on the way. Who are these mystery people? The suspense was killing me. I read on.
He goes on to say that there was a time he never thought he would have an executive team - making claims that he was “too picky” and “judgemental.”
“Heck a couple years ago I was doubting whether I even wanted an executive team, ready to give up and downsize to the lean organization we had been in the middle years. I can’t really point out a specific moment when it turned, just like I couldn't point out a specific moment when I had lost hope.”
paused as I read that last line. It held words that I found difficult to read coming from our leader and my personal mentor. Jason had lost hope.
He continued on.
“Sure, there were the trials: Covid, the betrayals, the recession, the feeling that I was always doing all the giving and never got back what I deserved had taken the wind out of my sails, but there were other things too…and it took me a while to realize that my anger at being taken advantage of was because of a different kind of loss. There was a hole I was trying to fill with generosity and outreach to help others. Trying to make a difference in any way I could, almost desperately trying to save everyone as fast as possible. After all, how much time did I have left to do it?
Let’s face it, 3 deaths in 2 years was a lot, especially when one was in my own home, one was from work, and one was from my history. It was like every aspect of my life was shrouded by that specter.”
In the short time I’d been with the company, I had seen Jason through two of the three deaths he was writing about. The quiet strength he exhibited through what could only be described as incredible grief was something many might not have even noticed because he managed to hold it together for everyone else. This was a response to grief that I didn’t quite understand at the time. I worried about him bottling up his grief and emotions and implored him frequently to talk to me about his grief. But he pressed on.
As an HR Professional, I have spent countless hours counseling people who were experiencing grief and loss in the privacy of my office. And I have watched and supported people processing the grief that comes with losing someone extremely important to them. Here was a man who had experienced three incredible losses in a very short period of time, and where many would collapse under the weight of that grief, he barely missed a beat. He continued to lead the organization, show up for his family, and show up for his partners, his friends, and his employees.
His story went on to describe how the impact of these losses caused him to suffer quietly and internally and with no real sense of what the grief was actually doing to him. So what WAS it doing to him? Was he lashing out at people around him? Withdrawing from those who needed him most? Engaging in self-destructive behavior? Not at all. In fact, quite the opposite - but still as detrimental in many ways.
“Like a close call with a heart attack galvanizes some people to fix their diet, or quit smoking, my encounters with death left me desperate to fix everything I could, acting reflexively to create safety nets for others, and rescue people I would have otherwise left alone. “
I found this to be the most interesting response to grief I had ever heard, but looking back, I can say that I emphatically agree. He had become hyper-aware of the number of people who were depending on him. He became relentlessly worried about what would happen to them if he were to be the next to die.
“Was I setting everyone up to fail because they all depended upon me? I had to go faster, make more, protect better, fix the broken wings on the little birds, and yell into the facemasks of the athletes, to get them to understand how much it matters…how IMPORTANT it is that they get my messages and lessons before it's too late!”
Anyone who has worked closely with Jason knows that he believes there are two main motivators - hope and fear. As he stood in reflection (which, if done correctly, these flash-forward stories will force you to do), he realized he was allowing himself to be motivated by fear. This did not sit well with Jason because fear was something he believed should only be used as a baseline to ensure compliance and care - not something that ruled your entire way of living.
“My fear of death was not for myself, but for those who would be left weakened or helpless without me. That might be one of the few times I can say I was truly arrogant…being afraid the world would end without me there to hold it together. I was ranting a lot about how I was ‘holding the whole company together’ with my will, my ideas, my work, my attention to all the flaws. It was true, but what good was I really doing ‘holding the company together’...shouldn't I have been growing or closing it?”
Jason shared that it was late in 2022 when he realized and acknowledged the poison that was living inside of him.
“It wasn’t the bitterness over people not appreciating my generosity and protection, it was more insidious, and dangerous, than that.. I had done it to myself. I was afraid I was going to die and leave everyone worse, not better, and was racing like a madman to fix all of it.”
As a reader, I was captivated by the story. As an employee, I had difficulty wrapping my head around the fact that our leader had been carrying this weight on his shoulders, all while trying to save us out of fear of leaving us worse off without him. As a mentee and a friend, I was deeply saddened by the next thing he shared:
“But there was another problem…all that death had left me adrift…I felt a lack of connection…the people who were gone were literally HALF of the people in my life that I might call when I needed a perspective or to rant or to be grounded and hear sanity.”
Watching Jason over the past (almost) three years, so much of what I had witnessed during that time was starting to make sense as I continued to read. His words were granting me access to a deeper understanding of where he stood, what he had gone through, and how he was attempting and/or planning to recover from it all.
Jason went on to tell the story of losing close friendships over deep personal disagreements- The falling outs were so large and painful, that no one was able to rise above it all to offer any condolences to Jason during his time of loss and grief. This caused him to become very aware of how alone he felt.
At one funeral, he was asked to give the eulogy. In typical Jason fashion, he gave a powerful, passionate, and moving eulogy that paid tribute and truly honored a beautiful life well lived. As people gathered afterward to congratulate him on his empathy and his writing and speaking skills, he was reminded that the congratulations were coming from strangers.
Admittedly, Jason shares that the realization surrounding this sense of being alone helped to perpetuate the ongoing “outreaches” and acts of generosity he began bestowing on the people within his immediate circle of influence. He acknowledges that he had hopes that he would uncover new friendships and develop good friends as a result of his generosity. He knew he was in a unique position to be able to offer powerful extensions of kindness and generosity that could impact lives in extremely positive ways - and he didn’t hold back. If someone needed help, he was there on the scene calling shots to help make their situation better - financially as well as personally. Oftentimes, I would be listening to an employee going through a personal crisis in my office, and he would step in and ask me what they needed. Once he learned how he might be able to help, and before I could stop him to discuss it, he was on his way to make it happen. I remember watching as, one by one, these generous acts were met with ugly qualities and characteristics like entitlement, a lack of appreciation, an overwhelming lack of gratitude, and betrayal - so much betrayal - both personally and professionally.
“I could not have seen, back then, how desperate I was, to have a circle of friends and people I could talk with again. So, some of those rejections stung me personally and set me back searching for someone I could connect with again, and that added to my anger about them not respecting/appreciating my efforts.”
Eventually, Jason’s story brings us to the moment when he made a pivotal decision to reclaim his place as the leader of Team Solutions Dental. It started at the beginning of 2023 with the mother of all company-wide memos, in which he announced that he would be resetting the game and reestablishing the things that made us great. He would no longer let guilt keep him from dismissing weakness from the organization. A lack of work ethic, dedication, commitment, and loyalty would be your fastest ticket out of the company. He committed to pressing forward with intentionality and let the entire company know that “the sleeper had awakened.” to which the vast majority of employees responded with “Good morning, Sir!”:
“There were some stumbles at first, we were not used to walking, much less running, and it shook people up…but they needed it. Pretty quickly, the ‘wailing and gnashing of teeth’ got quieted and was replaced by something else…intent, achievement, accomplishment. One success built a position to reach for the next one, and almost overnight (ok it was months of pain and overreach but..)things shifted. We started to see better results out of people, the good became better, the really good became great. The mediocre, well, they had to go. They had needed to go for a long time, but, like a man living alone with depression, I had let the mediocrity pile up around me and not really noticed.”
His story goes on to share that we had 3 C Suite-capable people right here within our ranks the entire time and highlights that finding, training, and empowering these people was a game changer. He described how our technology efforts hit their stride, and how standards around quality, productivity, and behavior were used as the key to empowering this newly created executive team in 2025.
Jason ends his flash-forward story as the CEO with a group of executives working directly with him- helping him to push his vision forward with strategic mastery, financial know-how, and the ability to pivot with grace and fiercely execute every initiative that adds to our greatness - a mighty army executing the will of its general.
“The experience of transforming the company was intense and exhausting, but it also resulted in a new best friend, and the time I’m spending away from work gave me time to find another. So my circle is slowly rebuilding along the way, my family is healthy and growing, and we spend more time together than ever. My strategic and financial plans for my personal life have evolved into having a sanctuary and a playground, nights for family, and nights for recreation. Trips for bonding and trips for blowing off steam. Balance has been found by balancing extremes, authentically me.”
This story may take place in 2025, but, I’m here to tell you (spoiler alert) that, like everything else Jason puts his mind to, our story is WAY ahead of schedule.
Once Jason puts a vision into action, it quickly becomes a reality.
So let this be a message to all Team Solutions employees: There is opportunity knocking right now that is not readily available to most people in the general workforce, manufacturing, or the dental lab industry.
Here, within our 14,000 SF lab (as well as our remote locations), we are watching carefully. Now is the time to stand up and stand out. Now is the time to rise above your own limitations. Now is the time to learn, grow, sharpen your tools, increase your value, and pull yourself to your highest and greatest potential - kicking and screaming if you have to some days. Now is also the time to seek guidance on how to do that if you are unsure.
Oh! And one more thing. Those mystery players at the beginning of the story? Those seats are up for grabs. It’s just a matter of who really wants them and who’s willing to work for them.
