Michael VanDervort (00:00)
Hello everyone, I’m Michael VanDervort. I am one of the co-hosts of the Left of Boom Show, and I’m here with my other co-host, Phil Wilson, who has a lot of other roles at LRI Consulting Services. And we’re getting ready to start a new series. We had done a series a few months ago on collective bargaining and preparing for that, and we’re going to do another series today based around The Next 52 Weeks.

And to get us started, I’m going to kick it off to Phil and let him explain what The Next 52 Weeks is and why he wrote the book about it. Phil, welcome back. And can you pick us up and get us started on that topic?

Phil Wilson (00:35)
The 52 weeks—the idea of the 52 weeks and the consulting behind The Next 52 Weeks—came basically when I very first moved back to Oklahoma to go into the family consulting business.

I was really passionate about being proactive and trying to create positive workplaces. So even though we’re involved in a lot of union campaigns, I always from the very beginning was kind of like, what can we do to prevent these things from happening in the first place?

I designed a program of different things that I had seen work and things I wanted other clients to try in their own workplaces to create a work environment where unions basically weren’t necessary.

The title of that series of interventions is something we call The Next 52 Weeks. And the reason you call it that is that if you win a union election, there’s a one-year bar on having any other elections with that same group of workers. You have this one-year kind of grace period to try to get your workplace turned around so that whatever led to the election in the first place isn’t a problem when you come up on that year.

The idea is you have this next 52 weeks to get your house back in order—to create the kind of workplace where employees don’t see the need for representation.

Michael VanDervort (01:56)
You have a bit of a grace period where you can begin to heal and get your culture hopefully headed in a more positive direction.

The title of this episode—and there’s gonna be a dozen or more shows in this series that’ll be dropping over the next couple of months—is The Boom Will Come: Why Every Workplace Has a Blind Spot.

We’re going to talk about what Left of Boom means, what sets up and gets these kinds of situations started.

But I guess as you wrote The Next 52 Weeks or designed that program, and it later morphed into your book Left of Boom, the first question I want to ask you is: when you wrote The Next 52 Weeks, why did you start with the idea that “the boom will come”?

Phil Wilson (02:45)
Yeah, well, Left of Boom and that whole idea came later. So it literally started—I’ve got, like, this is the OG Next 52 Weeks binder, right? There wasn’t even a book. It was a bunch of pages in it.

This one was actually modeled—a little history of our company—we sold a lot of videos back in those days, and the video preview package came in a binder.

Michael VanDervort (02:55)
The 500-page three-ring binder.

Phil Wilson (03:11)
Exactly. When we started The Next 52 Weeks, I decided we would build on what was already working. We built this new binder for proactive work. Inside it were different ideas about things you can do to create a positive workplace.

That ended up becoming the book The Next 52 Weeks. In the book, I describe many of those ideas, build on them, and talk about client experiences using the program.

That became the Next 52 Weeks book, and it was the program for a number of years—late 1990s into the mid-2000s.

Then came the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, where this Left of Boom idea came up. The whole idea of Next 52 Weeks is being proactive—trying to prevent problems before they grow into ones that make employees want to organize.

As I’m fond of saying, nobody wakes up in the morning saying the only thing missing from their life is that they’re not a Teamster. They choose a union as a solution to a problem. So, as an employer, if you don’t want a union, you need to solve those problems yourself—so employees never feel the need to pay someone to represent them.

During those conflicts, the Army came up with Left of Boom. When you have a boom event—like an explosion or, in company terms, a union campaign—many things have to go wrong before that happens.

The military investigated each attack like a crime scene, identifying the steps that led to it. That gave them leverage to intervene before a bomb could ever be made, placed, or detonated.

I carry that same idea into employee relations: work backward from a boom event and identify what to do to prevent it.

So it can be confusing—the show is called The Left of Boom Show, but we’re also talking about The Next 52 Weeks. They’re really the same thing—it just evolved.

Phil Wilson (06:14)
The 52-week component is: what can I do in a year to transform my employee relations environment?

You don’t have to have a union campaign for this to work. Left of Boom isn’t just about avoiding unions. If you start today, a year from now your environment could be substantially better. That’s what this program is about.

Michael VanDervort (06:46)
Exactly—and these same activities can be done before a union petition or election. You’re doing proactive early work that helps avoid these events entirely.

The things we’ll talk about in this series apply at any point in the labor relations process, though it’s built around the idea that you’ve had a union election and now need to take urgent steps over the next year.

Phil Wilson (07:23)
This stuff works if you’re already unionized, too. Just because you have a union doesn’t mean you want a poor workplace. Many of these same principles apply—you might have to work with your union, but not on everything. Whether represented or not, these principles are good management and good workplace building.

Michael VanDervort (07:55)
That’s a great segue to talk about what the core ideas behind a Left of Boom strategy are—and how it differs from traditional reactive approaches.

Phil Wilson (08:07)
We like to call ourselves preventionists. A preventionist looks for where something could go wrong and tries to prevent it before it does.

At a 30,000-foot level, the core elements are:

• Identifying potential problems as early as possible (“solving molehills before they become mountains”)
• Building processes to receive suggestions and surface concerns
• Committing culturally to creating extraordinary workplaces (EXWP)
• Coaching leaders to encourage openness and safety in conversations
• Ensuring fairness in hiring, promotion, and discipline

You don’t want to rely only on annual surveys. That’s not enough.

Michael VanDervort (10:38)
It’s just one data point of many, right?

Phil Wilson (10:46)
Exactly—not even close.

You have to invest in first-level leaders—they’re closest to the work and see issues first. You want them to solve problems, not just report them. That shows you’re serious about listening and responding.

Create a fair workplace with clear expectations, strong communication, and accountability. When things go wrong, employees should still feel like they were treated fairly.

Michael VanDervort (12:21)
Some companies do all the proactive work and still face union campaigns. Others do nothing and get blindsided. How do you talk to clients about that?

Phil Wilson (13:15)
If the only reason you’re doing this is to avoid a union, that’s not a good motivation.

There are three ways to think about vulnerability:

1. Fear – You don’t want a union because you’re scared. Toxic culture.
2. Pragmatism – You weigh pros and cons; it’s okay but unstable.
3. Relevance – You’ve created a workplace people love. The union isn’t even on their radar.

That’s where you want to be.

Even proactive companies can get hit with campaigns—but they’re better positioned to win because employees already value the direct relationship. You have to earn that privilege.

Michael VanDervort (16:49)
We’ll go into more depth on those things in future shows. Why is vulnerability assessment the foundation of effective employee relations?

Phil Wilson (17:37)
It’s really about listening—understanding when someone has a problem or concern.

We call it a vulnerability assessment because if you have a lot of unresolved issues building up, you’re vulnerable.

You need multiple ways for people to speak up—anonymous options, skip-levels, surveys. Once issues are raised, fix what you can. If you can’t, explain why.

Then ask: is this a one-off issue or a systemic one? What can we change permanently? It’s about learning from feedback and eliminating problems at the root.

Michael VanDervort (20:07)
Companies do this in lots of ways—dashboards, heat maps, risk mapping. What does that look like?

Phil Wilson (20:13)
It’s a structured way to combine feedback and performance data.

You look for indicators—turnover, safety, quality, productivity. They tell you where the culture might be slipping.

A heat map helps visualize that across locations. You can see where things are great and where they’re not—and prioritize resources accordingly.

Michael VanDervort (22:32)
And one of the most important pieces is that first-line supervisor.

Phil Wilson (23:16)
Exactly. Legal training matters—but it’s a small part of their role. We overinvest in legal training and underinvest in relationship training.

Your culture isn’t words on a wall—it’s what your interactions with your first-level leader are like today. If those are good, your culture is good.

Companies need to train leaders to have tough conversations, notice when something’s off, and ask, “How are you doing?” and mean it.

Too often, companies promote top performers without relational skills and don’t train them. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Michael VanDervort (26:20)
During COVID, we had to promote people quickly and couldn’t train them. It created cultural crashes in certain areas that took a long time to fix. And with AI and automation now, we may see that again—leaner teams, less training. It’s risky.

Phil Wilson (27:27)
Absolutely. As technology expands, spans of control increase, and human connection gets harder.

We have a generation less practiced at face-to-face communication, and that’s only going to increase. That’s why you have to invest in human relationship skills—they’re getting rarer but more critical.

Michael VanDervort (28:35)
We’re at like 32 minutes, so let’s close. These skills—approachability, Left of Boom—they apply beyond work. They make you a better manager and a better person. Where do you see the rest of this series going?

Phil Wilson (29:06)
People skills don’t stop when you leave work. These are life skills.

We teach leaders that these tools also make them better parents, spouses, and friends.

As for the series—we want to make Left of Boom more accessible. The book is long and dense. This series gives people quick, practical steps they can take right now.

We’ll share our greatest hits—things you can do over the next year to make a real difference in your culture.

And anyone who’s gone through a union election will get access to this program as a way to rebuild trust and stability.

But really, these principles apply everywhere—to any organization that wants an extraordinary workplace.

Michael VanDervort (32:11)
You could share it with your HR team, managers, or peers. It’ll be about 14 shows, dropping every two weeks, running through the end of January. Phil, thanks for doing this. Any last thoughts?

Phil Wilson (32:38)
I’m just excited to do it together. For us, it’s the next two months—but for everyone else, it’s The Next 52 Weeks.

Michael VanDervort (32:44)
Exactly. We’ll also introduce our expert guests as we go along. Thanks, Phil. Take care.

Phil Wilson (32:52)
Yeah. Thanks, Michael.

End of Transcript