Winning the Wright Way: Avoiding Overtime When Your Team is Already on a Path to Energy Royalty

Why would you lead your team to overtime if you have a chance to win in regulation?

That's essentially the question posed by Chris Wright (who will serve as the 17th U.S. Secretary of Energy) and his Liberty Energy team in this year's "Bettering Human Lives" report, which 1) outlines the proven playbook that's already led 1/8th of the world ("the lucky one billion") to "lifestyles that would make Louis XIV envious" and 2) asks why world leaders would choose to play a new game when victory over energy poverty is at hand.

That being said, this episode of The Energy Detox weaves together insights from Liberty's unique ESG report, Super Bowl XVIII, and Vladimir Putin's recent interview with Tucker Carlson to help you better articulate your team's prior victories and better define what future victory looks like for you and your stakeholders.

Note: the content of this and all episodes of The Energy Detox represents the views of Joe Sinnott and is not endorsed, sponsored, or approved in any way by Liberty Energy.

Download or request a hard copy of Liberty Energy’s “Bettering Human Lives” report here: https://libertyenergy.com/esg/bettering-human-lives/

Related content

“Keep it Sustainable, Stupid” (The Energy Detox, Episode 15)

The writer H.L. Mencken once said, “For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple…and wrong.”

And with this idea in mind, one could argue that the KISS principle—which commands us to “keep it simple, stupid”—may not be enough to provide truly sustainable solutions to the many complex problems facing our planet and its nearly 8 billion inhabitants.

And when it comes to leading teams, families, and businesses, it’s unlikely that merely embracing simplicity is going to yield the sustainable success that you and your stakeholders desire.

So, in this episode of The Energy Detox, we propose a slight tweak to the KISS principle that encourages you to “keep it sustainable, stupid” so that you can discover how to avoid wasting precious time and money on unnecessary complications that make achieving lasting success far more challenging.

"HARMFUL FOSSIL FUELS"

If you discovered those words strung together in your child's news magazine, what would you do to address this apparent instance of fossil fuel fear-mongering that could limit a child's ability to think critically?

Similarly, what steps would you take if you found evidence that a fear-based culture is hindering your team's ability to grow, develop, and innovate?

To help you answer those questions, this Halloween episode of The Energy Detox leverages both today's fear-fueled holiday and recent fossil fuel news to guide you through a 3-step leadership approach:

1 - IDENTIFY signs of fear by "flipping through your company's (figurative) magazines"

2 - ADDRESS fear-inducing leadership behaviors by communicating directly with your stakeholders

3 - CORRECT past issues and establish a future plan that minimizes the risk of fear undermining your organization

What do Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, Andy Reid, M&A-induced identity crises, and energy industry leaders have in common?

They're all covered in this wide-ranging mentorship-themed episode of The Crude Life.

Transcript

(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)

On the heels of the Kansas City Chiefs big overtime victory last night and Super Bowl 58. Today's episode of the energy detox is going to take a couple themes from last night's big game and weave them together with two other significant events from the last week, that being won the two hour interview between Vladimir Putin and Tucker Carlson, and to the release of liberty energy's annual bettering human lives report, which I'm holding right here in my hand, because all three of those events actually do have some things in common that can help you, as a leader, especially a leader in the energy industry be more effective and be more likely to lead your team to victory. And so before we dive into all of the details of those various events, what are those two big themes that we're going to talk about today? Well, the first is history, and the importance of providing context so that your stakeholders have an understanding of what's been done before so that they're more likely to execute effectively and again, move towards victory in the long run. And the second big piece is purpose vision, again, a common theme here on the energy detox and certainly a common theme in any sort of leadership conversation, but one that I think is articulated better than virtually any other vision out there in this report bettering human lives with better vision, what better purpose is there, then bettering human lives, you talk about a long term, impactful mission, vision, whatever you want to call it, it's there. And it's here in 180 pages from Liberty, energy. And so we're going to take those two things, the importance of history, the importance of purpose. And again, we're going to help you ask better questions so that you can be more effective at articulating the history, the context in which you're operating and articulating the purpose that you and your team should be driving towards. And of course, there's no better place in my mind to do that. Then here in front of Pittsburgh's Heinz History Center, and Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, which is chock full of what history you walk inside here, you're gonna get all kinds of history, certainly related to sports. And when it comes to the Steelers, you know, certain fans around here are breathing a sigh of relief, because the 40 Niners did not tie the Steelers and the Patriots for the most number of Super Bowls because of their loss last night. So 40 Niners are stuck at five and the Steelers and the Patriots all and they have six, but we're significantly behind me I think is the history side of things where again, if you stepped foot inside here, you can see how impactful energy has been here to Western Pennsylvania and more significantly, how impactful the energy that's been developed here in western Pennsylvania has been for the world, which again, mirrors a lot of what was talked about in this report. So again, let's come back to this report here for a second, let's talk about history. This report starts with 120 pages, which in many ways are history setting context, rarely talking about Liberty energy itself as a company, but talking about the importance of energy and how throughout human history, our ability to thrive and survive, is based on our access to energy. And over the last 200 years, or access to increased energy readily available energy cleaner energy than it has ever existed before, has allowed us to thrive. The results are clear its objective. And again, Chris Wright and his team do an excellent job, perhaps one of the best jobs I've seen of setting the stage here of history. In last night's Super Bowl again, the beginning of the game, how much history was shared with the audience, the history of the Kansas City Chiefs in recent memory, the history of the Super Bowl going back again, almost six decades and how many people are trotted out on the field, heck, before kickoff, they talked about the lack of history, if you will, brought 30 The quarterback for the 40 Niners and how it was perhaps a shrewd move to have him have the ball first. Because you know, again, he's not as familiar with those surroundings, you know, which is unlike, of course, the Kansas City Chiefs who are quite familiar with the surroundings. All that being said, How does this connect to Vladimir Putin? Well, again, if you listen to the two hour interview between Putin and Tucker Carlson, as I did you know that the first 30 minutes were spent by Putin, talking about history, setting context. And now again, regardless of the veracity of that history, and regardless of whether that context actually has anything to do with the fact that he took some actions, of course, in recent memory here that were not so positive and and didn't do anything to better human lives. The reality is he saw the importance of what setting context before jumping in and answering other questions. So with that being said, I think it's probably important to lay out two quick disclaimers, the first of which is in no way shape, or form. Are we lauding Putin or holding him up with some sort of standard that we should follow? No, we're simply taking something from current events and recognizing quite frankly, some of the things he did say that might actually demonstrate more clarity of thinking and more energy sobriety, if you will, then many leaders in our current country and again that is stated with the utmost objective, fact based approach here that again, mirrors liberty and Here's the other piece, of course, I should say is that in no way shape or form, am I comparing or or trying to link Vladimir Putin to Chris? Right? Again, that is absolutely not what we're doing here on the energy detox. And the other part of that disclaimer, of course, is in no way shape or form is this endorsed by Liberty energy, these are my own thoughts, I have no affiliation with Liberty energy, I do no work for Liberty energy. Again, they have not approved this message. But again, they have done a service to all of us by putting together this report publicly that I was happy to digest over the weekend. And, again, kind of weave together with some thoughts of other headlines as I watched the game last night to again, share them with you to help you be a more effective leader. So with that intro out of the way, with all those disclaimers out of the way, what's what's the point? What's the goal for you, if you decide to continue listening to this episode of the energy detox? What are you going to walk away with? Well, at the end of the day, what I hope you walk away with is a simple roadmap, some simple questions that you can ask to help elevate your stakeholders to a status of royalty, if you will. Because throughout this report, Chris Wright and his team talk about the lucky 1 billion people on planet earth who have full access to all of the benefits of cheap, reliable, clean energy, there's about 1 billion people on the planet who, again, they call and sort of level one in terms of their access to energy, who again, are able to live longer, more fulfilling more creative lives, if you will, because of their access to energy, unlike the other 7 billion people on the planet who don't have the same level of access, again, to varying degrees, which you can read about more in this report. And the reason I use the word wilty is not just because, again, as was pointed out here, you know, we live lives that in many ways are better than any kings or queens throughout human history. You know, I think Louis the 14th is referenced in here again, he has nothing his life had nothing on what your average American has right in terms of our access, again, to health to food to well being to the ability to do what it is I'm doing right here. I mean, this is amazing. This perils are what what you know, kings and queens have had pale in comparison to what we have today. The other reason I mentioned royalties, because, again, thinking about the fact that one out of 8 billion people have this level of access this amazing level of access to energy and all the benefits. You think about 1/8. Right? Why don't you well, and gas industry,

07:22

what is typically one eight, what do you think about when you hear one, eight, when you think about royalties, right? If you have interest in oil and gas? Well, the minimum royalty payment typically is on the order of 1/8, sometimes higher, but typically, again, 1/8. So again, the goal for you and for your team and for your company, for your stakeholders, is to elevate them to royalty, again, move them into that magic 1/8, the lucky 1 billion people Chris Wright says or, again, the Golden 1 billion, which was referenced by Vladimir Putin last week, with Tucker Carlson. So all that being said, that's the goal. How do you elevate your stakeholders, which again, is essentially the goal of this report bettering human lives? Well, again, it starts with history. It starts with providing context, because if there's one mistake that I see quite regularly with the people that I work with, and the companies that I work with, it's that we want to reinvent the wheel, right? We want to, in essence, and often unwittingly, snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It would be like, you know, again, having victory and being able to declare victory in regulation of a sporting event, like last night's Super Bowl, but taking some actions that essentially cause you to go into overtime and start the game and new, which is exactly what the referee said, right? You know, just before overtime started, he said, Hey, gentlemen, we're basically going to start a brand new game. Those were his words. And again, thinking last night, that's in essence, what Chris Wright and his team are saying, right? Why would we want to start a brand new game? Why don't we want to march towards 2050 and achieve some sort of net zero goal. And at that point, reboot, you know, basically begin again, in the process of bettering human lives. We've already got a winning strategy, we're already winning in so many ways, when it comes to bettering human life. You've already got a billion people on this planet who, again, are enjoying this this royal existence, if you will, why not continue down that path and get the other 7 billion people moving in that direction, instead of starting the game a new so again, why force overtime, when we've already got proven ways to win? That's history. That's context. That's what you'll find, especially in the first 120 pages of this report context of how human beings have been winning, at least those human beings who have access to the again, proven playbook, if you will, of the energy industry, particularly the fossil fuel industry. And once you have that idea in mind, again, for you today on the energy detox, the question is, how are you providing that context? Are you reinventing the wheel quarter by quarter, year by year and causing people to be confused about what you've done before and where you're headed? Or can you say, hey, look, we've done this and it's worked. We've done this and it hasn't worked. Let's build on the things that have worked that allow us to again and be more creative and innovative and find new ways of doing things not start from scratch, not move backwards, which, again, is largely what is described here, when it comes to so many leaders in our world, so many government leaders who are well intentioned, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt. But unfortunately, don't place as much emphasis on what has already been done to achieve so many victories over the last 200 years when it comes to energy. That being said, once you have that context, once you have that history in mind, now, you can better articulate your mission, your vision, your purpose, which we said at the outset, is perhaps not articulated anywhere, any better than the idea of bettering human lives. And so I'm not going to beat that idea to death again, go ahead and read it. It's clear. But the question for you is, can you articulate your specific mission as a leader? can you articulate your vision as a team, and as a company, again, a very common topic here on the energy detox, but one that bears repeating, because when it comes back again, to football, victories, the goal, right, whether you were the 40, Niners or whether you were the chiefs, your goal was victory, there's so many distractions when it comes to the Super Bowl, of course, but none of them matter at the end of the day for those players other than winning, winning is their goal, winning is their mission. But for so many companies, for so many individuals, for so many teams, there's so many, so many things that really don't matter. At the end of the day, again, from a macro standpoint, there's a lot of things that we are doing, that don't really matter, that don't move us closer to ultimate victory, which is bettering human lives. So what can you do? What should you do? Take the time right now. And if you don't have a simple, simple headline that your team can use as a filter, craft one, reach out to somebody else, brainstorm, come up with something come up with a draft that you want them moving towards. Because again, if you don't do that, you're not going to be successful, you're gonna get distracted, you're gonna get caught up again in Travis Kelce, and the distractions of Taylor Swift. And I guess you could argue that they're royalty of some sort. But again, at the end of the day, none of those things matter to anybody on either team other than victory. And again, if you're here in Pittsburgh, you said before, you're probably happy that victory came to the chiefs and not to the 40 Niners because, again, the 40 Niners are stuck at five Super Bowls and have not tied the the Steelers and the Patriots for six Super Bowls. Anyway, that being said, and kind of moving to conclusion here, the challenge for you is to embrace in many ways, the the brain of Chris, right, because in listening to Vladimir Putin again, we're in the middle of the interview, prompted by Tucker Carlson talking about I'm going to have the quote here, Tucker Carlson says, you know, maybe the world is breaking into two hemispheres, one with cheap energy, the other without it. And what was interesting is that Vladimir Putin then says, Yes, you know, he talks about Yeah, you said the world is breaking into two hemisphere, a human brain is divided into two hemispheres, one is responsible for one type of activities, the other is about more creativity and so on. But it is still one in the same head, the world should be a single hole security should be shared rather than meant for the golden billion. And again, going back to our disclaimer from before, this is not to give credit to Vladimir Putin. But it is to say that in some ways, it says if he has more energy sobriety than so many leaders on this planet, he recognizes that we need to balance the the left brain that again, is logical and likes facts and likes things orderly and likes to keep things simple, and the right brain which is meant to look at the whole picture and tie things together. And again, I think Chris Wright does this better than probably most human beings on the planet. He's incredibly intelligent. Clearly, he thinks like an engineer in so many ways. But at the end of the day, is there any other leader out there who's able to articulate the big picture better than Chris Wright, and better than this report? And again, in my humble opinion, the answer is no. So do yourself a favor, download this report, read it, digest it, and then go ahead and ask yourself how it relates to you to your team, to your personal mission, and to your ability to provide real important context that ties to your mission so that you can get people moving towards victory. And so, with that, thank you, as always, for tuning in to the energy detox. And as one final public service announcement if you find yourself as I am here on the edge of Pittsburgh Strip District, and you're in need of some Valentine's Day treats or flowers. I don't think there's ever any better place here in Pittsburgh for cheap, abundant flowers in here in the Strip District. So come on down here. And while you're here, check out the Heinz History Center and the western Pennsylvania Sports Museum. So with that, again, I'm Joe Sinnott, hope you join me again next time here on the energy detox and in the meantime, take care and bye for now.