How to Build High-Performing Teams in 2026
In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, we’re joined by Quilco Hasemann, Chief People & Culture Officer at OUTFITTERY, to explore how HR can build better leaders by focusing on strengths, not weaknesses.
Quilco shares what most companies still get wrong about people development, why culture is the true performance lever, and how experimenting with AI is reshaping HR operations. The conversation also dives into how leadership teams can work better together, and why now is the time to rethink development from the inside out.
🎓 In this episode, Quilco discusses:
Why HR must experiment boldly with AI and automation
What most companies get wrong about people development
How to shape a company culture that actually drives performance
How leadership teams can align better in fast-moving environments
Why leadership development must focus on strengths, not weaknesses
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Quilco Hasemann 0:00
The typical developmental dialog takes place the same way. If you would be my boss, you would say, like, let's talk about your strengths, and then we pin down a few of the strengths. And then you say, Okay, let's now talk about your development areas. Once you get to that point, you would say, like, what are we going to do there for the next six months? And in I would say 80, 90% of the times I see that both employee and boss focus all the attention on what was defined as the weakness, so let's get it up. Let's make it better. And for me, that was kind of logic. But then I looked at my own life. My first employer was Deutsche Bank, the biggest bank of Germany, one of the biggest in Europe, super professional, super conservative, and kind of like only the best of the best ended up there. I have dyslexia. I'm bad I'm bad at email writing. I'm bad at sending out notes. I'm bad at all of this. And every time I spoke to my bosses, they feel like, kill we need to do something about it. But I felt when I was making progress, or when my career progressed, it didn't have anything to do that I became best, better in my dyslexia. I actually was promoted because I was finding more space to play my superpowers. Let's try to get you into a space where you can play your superpowers. Because we all AI and I talking everyone here, or everybody who's here, is that everyone has made it to the place they are, not because they have reduced their weaknesses, but because they have found a space to play their superpowers.
Chris Rainey 1:58
Welcome to the show, my friend. How are you, I'm doing very well. How are you? I'm so happy we connected, because I need a new wardrobe. That's how I started the podcast. How things, how are you?
Quilco Hasemann 2:12
I'm doing quite well. I mean, like the spring is is coming up in Berlin, and that's nice and well, business is still tough, because, yeah, the customer sentiments are still not that exciting, because there's still a lot of uncertainty around the in the business, at least around here and but otherwise, I'm doing really well,
Chris Rainey 2:36
amazing. Tell everyone a little bit more about your role, but also the organization, because I think what you're doing is really interesting. So tell everyone a little bit about your role and the business.
Quilco Hasemann 2:46
Okay, role is very easily to be explained. I'm the chief people and culture officer. So we decided to actually call us cpco, because we wanted to have the sea of culture in there. I think I'm the only one I've never seen. I only saw CPOs, but we can't do that in my company, because P stands for product in our companies, Product Officer, so I couldn't be the chief people officer. So we added the culture, because that's what my team is called, and I have the privilege to lead here, the people organization at auditory and for the people that don't know, outfitry is a company that is helping people to find their personal style, ideally. So there's two main target groups. These are either people who are like myself, people who don't really like shopping, or there are people that just don't find time for shopping, and these people we are serving by that you have a personal stylist that puts together a box for you, depending on your needs or on inspiration. If you want to be inspired, you get it at home, you try it on. You can ask your family and friends what looks good on you, and then you keep the pieces that you like, and you send back everything else, and you only pay for the pieces that you keep. And kind of like the idea is latest by the second box, our stylist know you so well that at least every piece should perfectly fit. They might not yet meet your personal liking, but at least they know exactly what fits you. And then, kind of like evolve, and then their second group is, I would say it's more on the women's side is the side people that are saying that they want more inspiration. So they feel like, yeah, they have a good taste and they like shopping, but they feel like they need a new a new look, a new idea and new inspiration. And then, like our stylists are the ones trying to inspire the customer. Dollars. Also, we're sending boxes at home, and we're doing this for women and men, and we're doing this in 10 countries in Europe now, the German speaking countries, plus UK, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia. So these are the main countries. Yeah,
Chris Rainey 5:14
I'm generally really excited about what you're doing. You know, my wife and I, as I said, we're on camera every day, my wife has her own show as well. And we're always traveling. We are time poor. We don't have time we need to be on camera with, you know, different clothing, yes, all the time where we're all speaking at events that we do literally every month for a different event. And we just have time to go and shop. To your point, we kind of fit the exact categories, profile, profile. We've become a customer. I'm gonna. I'm saying it right now on cameras. I have no choice right now, but, yeah, I love what you're doing. What's really top of mind for you right now? Obviously, culture is an important part, because it's in the name, it's the name of your team is it's in the title. What does culture mean to you? You know, because I feel like that's everyone I speak to has a different, different definition of culture. Yeah,
Quilco Hasemann 6:05
I usually go very simplistic. For me, culture is in the simplest form, the way we do things here. So just like this is AI, like people that join out victory will have, after a while, a taste of Ah, okay. This is how things work here. This is what people are like celebrating. These are things that people seem to not like so much. This is this type of style that we speak about. These are this is the sensitivity. This is the openness, this is the transparency. So they're different, and all of this like for me, is culture. And for me, I think from all HR themes that we have to deal with, from recruiting to leadership, from people development, talent management, etc, I think nothing is more challenging or a bigger beast than the theme of culture, because it is quite interesting to identify culture. And I think that's not the big issue. You can, like, analyze cultures quite well. But then the next step of shaping culture saying, like, okay, how can we actually adjust the culture so that it is beneficial for the employees but also for the business. I think that is the beast of all themes that we have in people and culture and human resources, however you call it. I hate human resources, by the way. Yeah, I
Chris Rainey 7:35
know. Sorry, we got we need to change our name of our company at some point when we started the company, HR was the name. This is, Oh, absolutely. 20 years ago.
Quilco Hasemann 7:44
That's when I started my career. 27 years ago, when it became international, like it was
Chris Rainey 7:49
HR, personnel, right? Second Thoughts, personnel before HR, when I started personnel, then it was HR. And
Quilco Hasemann 7:56
I had no problem with that. But then later on, realizing it's like human resources. We're, like, making
Chris Rainey 8:02
I'm a re I'm a resource. No one wants to hold a resource.
Quilco Hasemann 8:06
It sounds like like we're just next to capital or or real estate. We're just one thing to be used. And I feel like no humans are something different. So yeah, yeah, HR is a little difficult. Now,
Chris Rainey 8:18
when I think human resource, I felt like we're the people in the matrix
Quilco Hasemann 8:23
exactly, exactly.
Chris Rainey 8:26
I feel like I never thought about that before. I want to go back to your point, though. You mentioned how to shape it is, but you said how to identify as easy. What does that look like for you? Because you mentioned that's the part which is less challenging, but shaping culture is a bit more difficult. But so how do you identify what aspects of your culture are working and helping create a better employee experience, a better customer experience? How do you do that?
Quilco Hasemann 8:54
I think there's multiple ways. There's very simplistic ones. So for example, when I almost four years ago, when I joined art fitry, the first question I asked my boss, CEO Julius, like Julia, the first weeks, if possible, I would like to work as minimum as possible, because I would like to speak to people, people, people, people, and get a sense of the culture. And what did I do? I put up a list of questions which were identical to each person that I talked to, no matter if it was sea level or if it was just like at some trainee that just joined recently, just asking these questions of like, what do you like? Like, what is it like? How does it feel like? How would you describe outfit, AI, etc. So there's very simple question. And once you get to a certain number of people, you realize, okay, this theme is coming again and again and again. And you can do it both on the good and on the bad. Like, if you ask, like, what are you really not like here, like, what is ticking you off? What is annoying, etc, again. Like, like, some people. People are very individualistic, but over time you get like the same, same topics. And if you kind of like measure, you can do that very, very structured. And you can ask consultants to come in. But I feel like usually, to get to a feeling of what the culture is like, you can pretty much do that on your own. You just need time to speak to as many people as possible. And then I put out that kind of like this Wordle of like, okay, on the positive side, I'm hearing these themes, and some are sticking out. These are I'm hearing most often, and on the negative side, the same, like, it looks like we're like this. And these are things you're very transparent. So you were very transparent with that as well. Oh, super. Like, first to the executive team. So it's like, okay, this is what, what I found, like you, I just came in, and this is how I get the impression. And ask them, like, if you look at this, does that make sense? Like you are here, you have founded the company, you are here for many years. And usually they say, like, yeah, yeah. You're probably Yeah. The people are probably right, yeah. These are, these are like, they're celebrating the positives, but on the negatives kind of like, yeah, shit, yeah, it that's probably us, yeah. And that's kind of good start. And then you can verify, for example. Then later on, I introduced that we're going to do, like, surveys, employee surveys, like, twice a year, one big one and one pulse check, and depending on the themes that you ask for, you can verify, like, Okay, if people are neutral, like, nobody knows who they are, they can say whatever they want to. They can rate however they want to. You can get confirmation if your assessment, your original, was kind of like to the point
Chris Rainey 11:38
approach, yeah, yeah, what were some of the positives that came out?
Quilco Hasemann 11:43
Positives on our end was super dynamic, I mean, very fast and agile. In taking decisions, testing things, checking out if it works, if it works great, if it doesn't work, we have learned something. Let's like do something else instead, so that that dynamic in speed was one of the biggest themes. Another one, which I love very much was the theme of respect and what you in the bigger bubble. You would call it, like the diversity and inclusion piece, where people really felt like they can have psychological safety, so they can be the ones they are really are they don't need to, like, do all this masking. Like, I'm kilco for my boss, I'm kilco for my team. I'm Coco for my family at home. But it's kind of like, no, we want the people to be themselves when they come here. So these were the on the positives, on the negatives, usually it's a little bit the flip side. Like, for example, on the speed side is we always have, I would say, against also the big corporations, etc, a quality topic, because if you're so fast, and if you're trying so many things kind of like, then usually you don't have the diligence to, like, make it really, really good. And that's often a problem. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but sometimes it's kind of like, oh gosh, we should have spent more time, or, Yes, we did something, but looking backwards, it wasn't really stellar. So kind of that were themes that came up when I when I joined the company,
Chris Rainey 13:14
yeah, so once you gathered that I will firstly, I love the fact that you got out the office and actually spent time speaking with employees, I think even, and I was speaking to a Citro the other day who was on on a plane flying all over the world to different manufacturing sites and plants, etc, to be there firsthand, right? You know, we're talking in a 50,000 plus employee organization, but she's like, Chris, it's important I get out there and have these conversations. Yes, you know, yes, I can do a survey, but that doesn't really show the respect and the thoughtfulness of actually traveling to meet these people where they're at and truly in experiencing what you know, what they're doing on a day to day basis, in a role. Then you followed up with the more quantitative approach with the pulse surveys, etc, to then have the data, and then you combine the both with the feedback from the board, you have a very clear picture exactly.
Quilco Hasemann 14:10
Then you can trust, then you can trust your assessment. And yeah, and I fully agree, the higher you go up in the ranks, the more stuff is filtered. Yeah? So if you really want to know what's cooking, you need to be there on the floor. And even there, it's not easy, because they know who you
Chris Rainey 14:29
are, yeah, oh, HR is here.
Quilco Hasemann 14:32
So, so even then, it's kind of like you need to find that trust, and you need to find their language. It's like, okay, come on. Like, tell me what's really, really like taking you off, what did you really like? Or when you are in a bar, like, what do you tell your friends about, what you like, about the car? And then maybe you actually get the full answer? Yeah,
Chris Rainey 14:51
one of the things that you did, which you mentioned, which most companies don't, is you led with trust and transparency by sharing the negatives. Yes. So a lot of companies don't do that, but what does that do? It sends the signal that we hear you, but we're not what we don't listen like. Because if you do that and then you don't share, here is the feedback and be transparent, and people aren't gonna they're not gonna be they're not gonna feel psychologically safe, they're not gonna feel they're gonna you're gonna lose the trust, right? You know? So especially because
Quilco Hasemann 15:19
they feel like it's all now green washer, it's already marketing. So
Chris Rainey 15:23
once you've done that, you're on the journey, you communicate that with a team. What does it mean to shape culture? Walk us through that? Yeah,
Quilco Hasemann 15:34
and I think most importantly for me, shaping culture is, is it's a strategic task, meaning just shaping it for the purpose of shaking it, shaping it makes no sense. Kind of like, it's a question, like, where do you want to go? Kind of like, what is your your vision of what you want to be like? And then you can look at your cultural map, and you can see, like, Oh, these positive effects, what we are like, what's our DNA is going to be super, super helpful. So there I'm kind of like talking about what I usually look like, preservance management. Like to say, like we need to keep this because off too often, we're focusing on the negative that we want to get rid of, and nobody, like thinks about the positive that are already there that we need to preserve, because we need them in the future as well. So kind of like, okay, what are the key aspects that we definitely need, also two years, four years from now, but also kind of like, what on the cultural side is right, really not helping, and we need to change it to achieve our ultimate goals, and as culture is nothing that you change from one day to the other kind like you need to be in there for the long run, because maybe in six months you start sensing a little bit of movement, but really changing culture that you would say, like Now, people that come into the organization say something different. That takes time. And for me it was often, it was a two, three year journey to really get to the point where people say, like, yes, we are different now. And I think that is the question, where do you want to go? Then look of what you have, and then decide, okay, which aspects do we want to change? And then comes the magic is, how do you actually get it from A to B?
Chris Rainey 17:24
Yeah. What is the biggest challenge in shaping culture? And can you give me an example? I
Quilco Hasemann 17:32
would say the biggest challenge is that top management people in the executive suite are not role modeling it. They are communicating it everywhere, like in any town hall or all hands meetings or in internal communication, maybe even external communication, everywhere you can. But then when you see people act behave in their setting, especially when they are under time pressure, when they have when problems are coming up and projects don't work and sales are down, etc, then to see kind of like, are they still in for the cultural change or not? If you get that piece right, I think you have maybe 40 to 50% of your cultural change, you will be successful. There's good other stuff that you need to do, from my perspective, but these are the most important one, yeah, because if they see, like, Okay, this is talk, they want that culture. I should, as employee, behave differently. They want from me, like this and this and this, but I don't see them doing it. It's like, hell no.
Chris Rainey 18:40
Like, yeah, it's, and I'm being a culprit of this. Is easy to do that when things are going great, yeah, but it's when things are coming at you and your business is facing challenges or external disruptions and factors, that's really when it's for most important to demonstrate, right? But it's not, it's not easy. So how do you, how do you, how have you tackled that, like, how have you, how have you ensured that you maintain that even during challenging times, for
Quilco Hasemann 19:11
me, it was mainly working with the executive team. I mean, really, like, not thinking about the companies like us, the ones that are coming together here as the sea level. Are we in this together? Are we number one, all in on the vision? Like, do we really have the same picture if you wake us up at three o'clock at night and says, like, Okay, what's our chitry gonna look like in three years from now, or two years from now, will people describe the same picture, and if not, go over and over again until we are aligned. Like, okay, now I get it. Okay, this sounds sexy. We really want this so, so having that vision, and number two, then to say, let's be transparent about, like, also our flaws, because we're. Not perfect. So if we want to role model, we need to also role model that sometimes we behave differently, but if people call us out on it, we actually react in a way that we apologize, like you're absolutely right. We want this culture. My behavior didn't fit to that new culture that we want. So you're right. I was wrong, and I need to apologize, and I see so little that that top leaders are willing to show weakness and apologize. So I think working with the exact team to say, Okay, are we in this together, and are we now willing to also show the weak sides on us, but also on the business. If business is going, Well, don't go out there, do Chaka? Chaka, if at the end you're saying, like, No, we are struggling, and we need all of you, and we want to be completely transparent with all of you. And that builds trust, and that, I think, is the best step to then shaping culture further.
Chris Rainey 20:56
Yeah. And I love that point, by the way, because that builds that also creates that psychological safety where leaders, like leading with empathy and being vulnerable is not a weakness, it's a superpower, right? Like the more vulnerable and open I can be with my team, I used to think that that would, they would see that as like a sign of weakness or yes or be or be scared and leave the company, etc, whereas actually people lean in even more right? And they're even more engaged, and they go above and beyond, and they feel like, oh, okay, this is like, I had the same example when I was going through the pandemic. We lost 90% of our revenue because we did in person events, and I had to come to the team and say, I don't know what we're going to do. I don't have a plan, but together, we're going to create this plan and we're going to get through this together? And that was one of the hardest things that ever had, because I, you know, everyone's looking at me like, What do we do? Chris
Quilco Hasemann 21:49
and I probably have the solution, and telling them, you don't.
Chris Rainey 21:53
And I was really worried about that. But actually the response was, was, was the opposite. You know, people kind of worked harder. They showed up as in full selves, even more they actually then could share more of the challenges that they were facing with me. They felt safe that they could do that as well. But that's not easy and traditional leadership. When I first became a leader 20 years ago, that you didn't do that, you know, it was kind of you are supposed to have all the answers. You know, command and control is, there's quite a lot to unlearn.
Quilco Hasemann 22:24
Exactly. I think that's where the magic of, I think my, our profession is working with humans, is that often the reality contradicts, like the concept. So as you said, like I didn't have the answer, and actually it helped us bond and get over it. For me, another example is like, when people want to build trust, like, usually people think like, saying like, Can I help you? Is the best way to get trust. But if you look in science, it's not the best way to get trust is if you ask for help. Like, if I ask you, like Chris, like, I don't know, can you please help me with that struggle that I have? Interestingly enough, why does that? But it does, does create trust on your end, into me, even though I just said, like, I'm not the superstar and I need help. Like, usually it should deteriorate trust, but it doesn't. It's exactly the opposite. So I think sometimes the magic of working with humans is exactly that things are not so linear as we often think they are. I
Chris Rainey 23:31
feel the same way about feelings, because it's normally the things that you're feeling negative, negatively about, are the things that are holding and that you're avoiding are the things that are holding you back? Yes, absolutely. It's really hard to describe that to people like, What do you mean? Well, in you feel everything the opposite, right? But you kind of got to run into the headwind, and that's where you see progress and the magic and the aha moments and the collaboration. But it doesn't feel good, right? So why does it, why doesn't it feel good? Like you should? Shouldn't that feel good doing that? So I completely get Yeah, and once I learned that when I was quite young, it became I feel like I unlocked something special, because I realized that as long as I was willing to fail forward and lean into discomfort, that magic happened on the other side. It didn't feel good during, oh yes, the time, but I probably, but you could build a muscle there. I kind of realized the more now i I'm constantly we always been shamed my founder, we always talk about seek discomfort is one of the lines we say. And I always have this in my mind. And when and when I get too comfortable, I get worried now. I'm so used to seeking discomfort that when I'm like, everything's going good, I'm like, oh, what's wrong? What's wrong? Like, it's too it's too comfortable right now. So you're right, everything, it shouldn't make sense, but it does. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. One of the things you spoke about as well is you. And a lot of people focus on trying to fix weaknesses, instead of focusing on the superpowers that each individual has. And I love the word superpower, by the way, because my coach always says to me, you know, Chris, your superpower is resilience, you know, like, that's what and and creativity and other things like that. But for years earlier in my career, I spent most of my time trying to fix my weaknesses, you know, which was maths, you know, science and grammar. And I always struggled with reading and writing, and I was, like, obsessed with fixing that, instead of leaning in to to my superpower as which is, I love that. What do you use talk to more about why, why that's so important? Yeah,
Quilco Hasemann 25:46
for me, it was both a personal journey, but also a professional journey. I come from the same same spot as you, but the problem is, what I learned like in university or in the first companies where I was working in human resources and personnel departments, I had this disconnect. What was the disconnect? The typical, and I would say in so many companies until today, the typical developmental dialog takes place the same way, like, if you would be my boss, you would say, like, okay, kilco, like, we have this quarterly or half year or once yearly, talk like, so let's talk about your strengths, collect, and then we pin down a few of the strengths. And then you say, Okay, let's now talk about your development, development areas which are already hate because it already indicates event development areas. Means that's probably where we need to put the focus on the development I learned later on. That's just a fact, because the US is so polite that they didn't want to speak about weaknesses any longer, and they were looking for a different word of weaknesses. So they decided to call it developmental areas. And then once you get to that point, you would say like, okay, let's what. What are we going to do now for the next six months? And in I would say 80, 90% of the times I see that both employee and boss focus all the attention on what was defined as the weakness, so let's get it up. Let's make it better. And for me, that was kind of logic. But then I looked at my own life, and for example, the easiest example is I have dyslexia, so I like, I can't really make a lot of with written words, I have my problems. I had problems reading my entire life. And even if I write, write something wrong and you tell me it's wrong, I have to look for hours to actually see what I have written wrong. And it's not like, oh, sorry, yeah. Like, I don't see it. And with that kind of like attitude, if you then my first employer was Deutsche Bank. It's kind of like, was the biggest bank of Germany, one of the biggest in Europe, super professional, super conservative, and kind of like, owned the best of the best. Kind of like, ended up there, and for whatever reason, I was accepted. And then I realized, kind of like, I'm bad. I'm bad at email writing, I'm bad at sending out notes. I'm bad at all of this. And every time I spoke to my bosses, and they feel like Cook, we need to do something about it. But I felt when I was making progress, or when my career progressed, it didn't have anything to do that I became best, better in my dyslexia. I actually was promoted because I was finding more space to play my superpowers. And for me that was kind of like, for example, the I think one of them is Winning Others Over, kind of like making easy connections with people, building trust, etc. So these were my super and I feel like it doesn't matter what I do with my writing or reading, it's not going to get me there. But if that's the fact, why are we always focusing on it? And then, kind of like I started getting into the topic, then I learned about the strengths finder and anything that Gallup does about that research, and I felt like, wow, they're talking very different language, and that's how slowly I became this. Yes, let's openly and transparently talk about weaknesses, because they need to be addressed, and maybe we need to find bypasses like you can't write. So please don't send emails directly from your account to all employees. Let's please, let's look over it, and then we send it out. It's just a bypass. It is a waste of time. Yes, it is. It's not effective, but it is needed for me. But let's try to get you into a space where you can play your superpowers, because we all AI and I talking everyone here, or everybody who's here, said everyone has made it to the play. Case, they are not because they have reduced their weaknesses, but because they have found a space to play their superpowers. And if that's the case, why do we then all of a sudden want to focus on the weaknesses? It makes no sense to me.
Chris Rainey 30:12
Yeah, I love this topic, and we don't talk about this enough on in general, let alone our podcast as well, because for most of my childhood, I was ashamed that I, you know, I didn't have, I don't I don't have any education. By the way, I've been doing this since I was 17, and one of the reasons I didn't continue with college university is I had such a bad experience in school because they would always focus on your weaknesses, you know, your failure in English, math, science, etc, but, but the fact I'm massively accelerating, accelerating in art, art, graphic design, ceramics and physical education, that wasn't you know that it was always focusing on what you are not good at as opposed to what you're great at. And one of the activities that unlocked a whole different level of growth in our businesses for the first few years. And Shane and I, my co founder, kind of split tasks? Sorry, not split task. Yeah, we've kind of both had 5050 of sales, 5050 of marketing, 5050 of finance, right? And we were both just exhausted, and we sat down and did a very simple exercise where we wrote down on a piece of paper, each all of the things that we were doing to give us energy, and all of the things that do to take away energy. And then we looked at our our our calendar, and looked at how much time we were spending and with each on each and the funny thing we realized is all of the things that were draining me are the things that Shane loved and all the things that Shane didn't like, I loved, and so we immediately removed, you know, so myself, I focus on marketing, product and content, right, and sales, and Shane focused On operations, finance and our production of our events and all of the organization, organization of that we 5x star revenue the next year. See, because we lent into and anything outside of my scope, I delegate exactly. I don't want any of that stuff. I think
Quilco Hasemann 32:18
if you do what you just did with your partner. I think two magic things happen. Number one, yes, you get much more energy because you can spend more time with your superpower, but you completely lean, lean into the concept of team. Because one, like, if you kind of only do like, like, I do everything and he does everything. Well, somebody can ask you, like, if you were in a fight, like, do you actually need him? And you feel like, No, I don't. I don't actually need him. I could do this alone. The moment you do what you just did, if somebody then said, like, Oh, could you do without him? Like, hell, no, I absolutely need him. He is kind of like he is the other 50% and it feels usually that the other 50% is the bigger, more important one, because it feels so easy on your end, yeah, and so like that. So the concept of team becomes so powerful if you do that, and the diversity and inclusion topic, meaning that you start loving differences that not we are like, Oh, we are best partnering with people who are just the same as us, but it is like, we need the difference and the other superpowers to be really successful. So completely. Love the example. But lastly, not like, I think you, you said, like the educational system. I fear it's not only the educational system that are making big mistakes, but I, as a father of three, I would say we as a parents do the same. Because if you think about it, if we as a kids, or our own kids, if they come home with their report card and they are some great grades on there and there are some bad ones on there, what do we do? We look at the 90% of the time we talk about, let's give you an extra curriculum support on your bad ones. Oh, you're bad in math. Let's give you a some support and a tutor in math. Or you're bad in languages, you need to tutor in languages, so we focus with our intention and all the money on the bad side. What would happen to our kids if you get you bring the report card back? Is like, okay, what are your two, three best grades? Oh, it's sports, it's math, and it's, I don't know, it's science. You want an extra tutor for sport, math and science? Yeah, yeah. The kids would love
Chris Rainey 34:32
it. And they were like, Yeah, are you serious? And that Excel giving extra person
Quilco Hasemann 34:36
extra money that I become better at something that I anyway, good. And you say, Yeah, of course, because that's probably your superpower, and that's what you're going to shape your future on. But who does that? Nobody?
Chris Rainey 34:49
Yeah, it's interesting, because as you grow and you see in sports, right? So sports athletes have performance coaches, so they're already. Incredible at tennis, and they have this coach to help them excel even further. We don't. We don't do that with our kids or our employees, but you see, in professional sports, is the easy analogy I can think of right now, right to be able to do and I agree with you. I've been my daughter's six years old, and whenever I do, the parents even in even when the teacher is giving you feedback, they spend most of the time talking about the negatives. And I'm sitting listening to Robin's teacher, and I interrupted her. I was like, What about art? Because she loves art. What about, you know, the creative side? What about like, you know? What about the technology? Because she loves like, you know, she does a little bit of coding. We have a little app that we use for kids. And she's like, Oh, didn't even speak about that. And then she's like, Oh, by the way, here's an entire art book. Robin loves art, and here's all the stuff she's I was like, what? Why did you not mention any Exactly?
Quilco Hasemann 35:52
I think the entire system is so focused on the negatives, on the on the weaknesses, and that's kind of like, why I'm so passionate about it. I love this talk because I think it just doesn't help us and it doesn't help companies. Yeah, and
Chris Rainey 36:06
I mean we have to, we mean you have to do, I know I gotta let you go. At some point, we're gonna have to do a whole other podcast about this. But that's one of the things that AI is unlocked for many people. I don't have to worry about my emails anymore because I have, I have AI to help me a lot of the weaknesses, or perceived weaknesses that we have. Technology really can help unlock a lot of that right now, and what would really be painful for me to write now I can do in AI because I can create creative prompts, which is because I'm a creative person, so I'm leveraging a technology in a creative way, you know, to be able to get what I need from it without having to, you know, go through the pain.
Quilco Hasemann 36:50
I'm not creative at all, but kind of like, since my power is the communication side, so I started using my communication strengths with chat GPT. So like, Okay, this is kind of like, good, but it's not my style. I wouldn't write it like this, and they're like, oh, okay, I understood it. And now to know, like, they exactly find my wording, but they are writing it correct. They are putting the commas where they need to be, and all of that good stuff. I mean, that's amazing.
Chris Rainey 37:16
Yeah, I'm literally after this call. It's so funny. I'm about to write some contracts, which I always stress about, and I'm literally going to use chat GBT, which I've trained on a particular agent, to help me write them after this call. And obviously it's got a it's got memory, right? So it just gets better and better as as use it. But listen, I could talk to you forever. I really, I love the fact we went down this rabbit hole. I think it's such a fascinating topic, and it's not something that we talk about enough on this show. And I think trans transcends, like you said, from our inside the walls of our organizations to to our homes to to our schools, this is fundamentally a topic that has profound impact, right? And not just on business, but on society as a whole. So I appreciate you taking the time to join us. What would be your parting advice for everyone? And then, where can people connect with you if they want to reach out
Quilco Hasemann 38:14
and say hi? I don't know if I have famously last words, AI. I would just say, I think everybody who works in the people space, if they get frustrated, I would still tell them, like, like, take the second and reflect that. I think we have the most wonderful jobs on the planet, because we can work with humans, and there's nothing more exciting than working with humans, like not only with humans and then on a different product, but we are working with humans on humans. I think that's kind of like at least heaven for me. So that will be my my advice. How can I connect? I'm in LinkedIn. Yeah, perfect. And since my name is so unusual, because my mom comes from Bolivia, and this is a Quechua Indian name, so there's no other kilco around as far as I know, so kind of like everybody can super easily find me. Yeah,
Chris Rainey 39:12
you're the first qualco I've come across. Yeah, sure. And it's hasselman,
Quilco Hasemann 39:17
it's hassleman. It's a very, very German conservative last name because my mom met my father in a train in Germany and never left. That's how they kind of decided the first names go to like the Bolivian side, and the last name is gonna stay German. Interesting.
Chris Rainey 39:31
Well, it'll be easy, or to make it easy, and whoever's listening right now, the link in it will be in the description below to connect with Coco but and also be a link to out of history as well, if you want to check it out as well. But thank you for taking the time to join the show. I really enjoyed our conversation, and I wish you all the best until we next week. Thank
Quilco Hasemann 39:50
you, Chris and you have a good time and good luck with the contract writing.
Chris Rainey 39:55
Thanks, bye bye, thanks, bye bye. You.
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