5 Tools to Expand Influence and Drain Your Workplace Swamp
Do you know that a 5.2-mile well drilled from the White House lawn in any direction could reach beneath virtually all of the former — and some might argue present — swamp known as Washington, DC?
Do you know if the Oklahoma City Thunder have been invited to the White House in recognition of their NBA championship?
Do you know that Expand Energy drilled a record-setting 5.2-mile lateral that — some might argue — is even more deserving of White House recognition?
Do you know that Oklahoma City’s Expand Energy was born on this day — October 1st — one year ago?
Do you know how to expand your reach within your organization and, in turn, drain the workplace swamp of misalignment and toxicity?
Do you know that all of these questions are explored in Episode 123 of The Energy Detox?
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Which Oklahoma City team is more deserving of a White House invite:
🏀 The Thunder for winning the NBA Championship; or
🔥 Expand Energy for drilling a record-setting Marcellus well?
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Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
Today, October 1, 2025 marks one year since the birth of Expand Energy from the combination of Chesapeake and Southwestern. Today also marks the 101 day anniversary of the Oklahoma City Thunder winning the NBA title. And back in June, the day after their championship victory there in game seven, we said here on The Energy Detox that you know what, the Thunder should not only be invited to the White House to honor their achievement, but also should the Oklahoma City based Expand Energy team, who set a number of records that were announced just a couple days before the Thunder won their championship. And those records included the longest lateral drilled, the longest well drilled here in Appalachia, also included the pace of drilling. So 24 hour footage, 48 hour footage, all kinds of different things. And we said, hey, you know what? That's worthy of a (White House recognition), if not for that specific well, but in general, for everything that Expand Energy, and really all of its peers have done to transform the energy landscape here in the United States.
01:03
So again, why wouldn't they be invited to the White House as well? And in that conversation, we also noted that the length of that well that Expand Energy drilled was over five miles, five miles lateral length, not the total length, which was on the order of 34,000 feet, but 27,657 feet, which is about 5.2 miles. And one interesting fact would be, if you drilled a well out from any direction from the White House that was five miles long, you would actually have the ability to drain all of Washington, DC, except for a tiny little bit on the northern tip of Washington, and I think, a little bit to the east. But that being said, basically, if you did a five mile radius all around Washington, DC, well, you can drain it all. You can drain the swamp, if you will.
01:47
And so we're gonna build on that theme, that idea of draining the swamp today, in honor of Expand's birthday, and talk about five practical, easy ways that you can expand your reach within your organization to drain the swamp, drain the toxicity that exists within your organization.
02:04
But before we do that, I do want to revisit a little bit some of the themes we talked about back in June on The Energy Detox, because they are warranted in some ways, they're connected to what we're going to talk about today. Because back in June, again, the day after the thunder won the championship, we tied in what normally occurs at these White House ceremonies to honor sports teams. And we said, hey, you know what? Some of the parallels that you see there to what you know occurs in organizations can be very useful for you, starting with one, the idea that when a team wins a championship, they say what, you know, we're not done yet. We're going to keep going. We know that there's other teams out there vying for us, and we're going to keep going. And while we talked about that as a good mindset. It's also worth noting that since the time of the Expand energy announcement of their records, one of their records, the 24 hour footage here in Appalachia, was actually broken by EQT. In fact, EQT announced that just five days ago that they had beaten the record, I think, by a couple hundred feet, that Expand Energy had set about four or five months ago. So that being said, always looking to do better, never resting on your laurels.
03:04
Another thing that we talked about was related to this idea of who gets the spotlight when you go to the White House, you know, it's not just the best player, it's not just the coach, but sometimes, you know, they'll pass around the microphone. Sometimes somebody else will have a chance to say something. And that was on display when Expand Energy announced their record there a couple months ago, where a drilling engineer gave thanks to all the partners that made it happen, not the COO, not the CEO, but a drilling engineer, allowing him to take the microphone, so to speak, and deliver that praise.
03:34
And then the third thing that we expanded upon back in June was this idea of false hurdles, and how very often teams use a false hurdle, a false chip on their shoulder, to try to motivate them. You know, sometimes it's warranted, sometimes it's not, but the reality is, it could pay dividends. And so again, we explore that idea in more detail. And if you want to hear more on that, you can revisit episode 114, of The Energy Detox.
03:57
But today we're going to build on that idea of draining the swamp. And again, built on this idea, as I mentioned a couple minutes ago, that if you started at the White House and you drilled in any direction, five miles, you would be able to drain essentially everything that was above you there in Washington, DC. And so the question remains for you, well, what can you do to figuratively drain the swamp, drain the toxicity within your organization. What proactive, practical steps can you take to actually reduce the toxicity, reduce the tension, if you will, to again, drain that swamp.
04:32
And so we're gonna get started here with item number one, and that's to map what you got in front of you, map the existing connections, map those areas that might be more toxic or ineffective than others. And this exercise is a fun one that I do with lots of different teams, and it's usually under the umbrella of network mapping. You know, network mapping, you can use it from an IT standpoint, but it works out really well when you talk about where you sit within an organization and where you map out, if you will, all the different flow channels. And, you know, obviously, the oil and gas industry is all about maps, all about GIS, all about making sure that we know where we're going and what existing infrastructure we have in place. And it's a critical exercise that you could do, or your team can do as well, to say, hey, look, you know, here's how we interact with this team and that team, internal parties, external parties. And you know, it's not just a great way to break down those fair to silos, but at least to see in front of you how circuitous your route might have to be to get from A to B, to see where those weak connections are, and just as importantly, to see where those strong connections are.
05:31
And by mapping out those connections, you can actually come up with a plan of attack, if you will, to go and reinforce existing connections or improve connections that might need a little bit of work, or, of course, to form new connections that don't currently exist that can allow you to, again, more efficiently get from A to B. And what happens when you do that? What happens when you build those connections? What happens when you paint that picture? Well, again, becomes easier to operate, and in turn, it becomes easier to nip toxicity in the bud, if you will. So again, I encourage you to do that exercise. Again, each one of these you know, warrant a whole podcast or workshop discussion in and of themselves, but these are some quick hits that again, if any of these are interesting to you, reach out, happy to share more resources about the idea of networking, network mapping, and again, the the dividends that it could pay for you and your team.
06:17
Item number two here, in terms of how you can expand your reach, reach to drain the figurative swamp, if you will, road shows, very simple concept, one that you've probably done consciously or unconsciously throughout your career, but one that could pay huge dividends to again, reduce toxicity or reduce some of the unknowns, or at least proactively attack existing narratives about you or your team, to go out and just listen to have conversations with others, meet them on, you know, in their own territory, if you will. As cliche as it is, you know, taking a group out to lunch, taking an individual leader who's maybe you know your colleague, or you know somebody that's on par with you, or, again, could be above you could be below you. It doesn't matter, but going out and having those conversations. And what's nice about that is, you know, essentially, no matter what your role is, you are in a customer service role, right? You know you don't have to be a formal business development person or sales person if you happen to be in a, again, business development or service industry. It's just as important if you happen to be working for an operator, like Expand Energy. In essence, everybody in every role is, in essence, a salesperson is offering some sort of service, some sort of support. So why wouldn't you go out there and, again, go on a road show, listen, offer, of course, what you know you might have to bring to the table, but more importantly, ask what needs other people have.
07:36
Which brings us to the third item here, and it's a question again, one of my favorite questions, one that we've talked about here on The Energy Detox quite a bit, and it's the old "How can I help you?" question. And again, I always have to give credit to a coach that I had years ago, David Goldman, who made it very clear how important this question was and exactly how it's worded is, HOW can I help you? You know, you might be inclined all the time to say, Hey, can I help you? Can I help you? Can I help you? And in a busy industry like oil and gas, with a lot of hard working professionals, you know, what are you often met with when you ask somebody, Hey, can I help you? "No," right? "No, I got this. Don't worry about it, thanks. But I got this."
08:12
Whereas, again, if you ask, "HOW can I help you?" that's not a yes or no question. It forces the other person to come up with some idea, some creative idea. And if you've already done your road shows, if they already have a feel for maybe what you bring to the table, they're going to come up with an answer here. Now, again, be careful what you wish for. They they might offer something else up in a way that you can help them, that maybe you weren't looking for. But again, that's the idea, if you're sincere, if you're genuine, about helping other people, which, again, can, in turn, reduce toxicity, break down silos, all those cliches, drain the swamp, if you will. That's the question that could help you do it.
08:46
Moving on to item number four, expand your invitations to your own meetings, to your own showcases, if you will. Again, cliche example one that could go overboard, right? You know, we've all been part of meetings that have 50 to 60, people on them, and there could probably be like 10 or, you know, not even have the meeting at all. But again, ask yourself, when you have conversations, who else should be involved? You know, I don't know how much toxicity, how much of the swamp, if you will, is fueled by people being left out of conversations. And it's a simple question, it's a simple filter, it's a simple check, if you will, that I get to use on people that I work with to say, hey, who else should be involved in the conversation? Who else could add value to this conversation? Can't hurt to ask that question, which is why it's your job today to say, hey, in this next meeting that I'm going into, especially if it's one that I called, who else might need to be involved in the conversation, or at least be the beneficiary of a follow up summary of that conversation, of that meeting, without them having to go hours, days, months, perhaps trying to, you know, extract information from a conversation that was had, that you know, what they probably should have been privy to.
09:53
And finally, item number five here, in your attempt to drain the swamp, to expand your reach. Meet at 60%. And this one actually came up, oh, a couple months ago now, and a client that I was working with, and he said to me, he said, Joe, you know, we always talk about, you know, meeting people where they're at, meeting people where they're at. He said, You know what, Joe, it doesn't matter meeting people where they're at. That implies some sort of halfway, right? No, instead, shouldn't the goal be to maybe meet them at 60% not step on their toes, not totally get into their business, but get to the point where you know what the default, the culture within an organization says, You know what? You should have a little bit of knowledge of what the other person does, and you know what? Every group, especially within the same organization, or even again, from an external party to an internal party, clearly has some overlap, clearly has some vested interest.
10:47
So instead of the default, again, meet people where they're at and hand off a baton, shouldn't we always have a little bit of overlap? And, you know, it's an open question for you, but I would argue, if you agree that, yeah, you know what, meeting at 60%, not just meeting where you're at, but having that overlap is ideal. Overlap is ideal. Then if you do these prior four steps, it's gonna help you get to that point, right? It's gonna help you get to the point where, again, you have a very good sense of how all parties are working together towards some common goal. And you know what? You shouldn't have to apologize for crossing that line just a little bit and, call it 10%, into the other person's domain.
11:23
So stew on that. Think about that. Certainly for the first four items here, go forth and execute those. Think about those. These are readily available things that you can do. And as I said, if any of these things are interesting to you and you want more information, reach out. Happy to talk about the ways that I've helped implement these within teams, for individuals, within larger organizations, and happy to talk about, again, how they can be translated to you and your specific needs.
11:46
So with that being said, I would be remiss not to make one final pitch here, if you will, for the White House to not just invite the Oklahoma City Thunder to the White House, which, again, as of today, October 1, I don't know that they've actually been invited to the White House. I don't know if an invitation will be forthcoming. Sometimes it is months removed from a team winning the championship, but either way, I do make a case for Expand Energy to be invited, and I do, before we wrap up here, also need to give credit to Jason Spiess, because he actually, in the conversation that he and I were having a couple days prior to the Thunder's victory, were actually talking about the Expand Energy achievements. And it was really Jason that said, Hey, wait a second, you know, why don't we celebrate these achievements? Why don't we celebrate these milestones? Why doesn't the White House bring teams from different industries, including the energy sector, and showcase what they've done, especially when it's as impressive as what Expand Energy has done?
12:03
So that being said, credit to Jason, credit, of course, to Expand Energy. Credit to EQT for keeping Expand on their toes there, and challenging at least one of the records that Expand had set just before the Thunder's victory. And all that being said, I wish you the best as you attempt to break down silos, reduce toxicity, and drain the swamp in whatever organization you happen to be a part of.