An Army of Normal Folks - What Counts As Serving Others?

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

For Shop Talk, Clay Routledge challenges our culture's perspective on what counts as serving others.Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney with Shop Talk number 46. Welcome in. Hey Alex. Hello. How are you? I'm good, once again. Good. Great morning with you.

Have you gotten any responses on our PSA for... We're recording number 45 and number 46 at the same time, so it's not fair to ask that question. Our listeners don't know that. You just blew it. Yeah, I know. Okay. Well, should I do the PSA again? No Okay, speaking of positivity on the last one. I need to stop mentioning it probably it's probably annoying to people what?

About trying to find somebody it's good. It actually he's got one in the if poem. What are you talking about? here This kind of relates to my story It says if you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss. Here's the part and lose and start at your beginnings and never breathe the word about your loss. When I was preparing last night, like I've for the previous shop talk, I thought about that, too, with obviously like the divorce and stuff. But it's too easy to talk about it too much.

You know, either that, you know we're trying to find somebody new so it's I mean, it's a good reminder for me You know here and lose and start at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss And it's it's probably important not to talk about it too much and dwell on it too much And so anyway, we don't need to do another PSA about it. I Got it. Is that too much you want me to edit all that out? No, I mean, I'm sitting here thinking about that and wishing better for you, frankly. So okay, shop talk number 46. We get a lot of folks that are inspired by an army of normal folks, and inspired by shop talk, and inspired by some of the stuff we do. And they just want to do more or don't feel like they have an opportunity to serve.

Because of their life, their busy work schedule, whatever. And we always talk about how you don't have to be part of some big organization to be a member of the Army of Normal Folks. And even in speeches I do, I often talk about in servant leadership, that the most important servant leadership that we can perform is often down the hallway. Just down the hall of your home. So, Vox's Rachel Cohen was a guest, which man, that was a great interview and just witnessing that young lady's transformation from someone who actually regarded volunteerism as old school, dated, worn out. And even I think the words were even at the very least ineffective. And there's this concept that even at the very worst, it can be counterproductive to volunteer. That's a mindset of some people in our country and in her words and in her generation it's been taught and she's transformed her thinking on that.

Well she shared an article with us later called, We Need to Expand Our View of Societal Contribution, written by Clay Rutledge. I wanna share that with you, and I wanna share it with you in the vein of how you can be a member of the Army of Normal Folks without even leaving the hallway. Shoptalk number 46, expanding our view of societal contribution

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All right, everybody, welcome back. Shop Talk number 46. We need to expand our view of societal contribution by Clay Rutledge. Here's what Clay had to say. In my last newsletter, I shared the human flourishing labs. What is that? The human flourishing labs? It might be the name of his group.

I'll double check it. I'll read you check. In my last newsletter I shared the Human Flourishing Labs latest progress pulse survey which revealed an encouraging picture. Most American adults believe they have the power and responsibility to improve the power and responsibility to improve the world, and that they are actively doing so.

However, it also found that over one-third of Americans don't believe they are making important contributions to the world. It's interesting. Americans want to, but a third don't believe they are. In this week's newsletter, I want to explore how our culture's narrow view of what counts as meaningful societal contribution might help explain this finding. Before exploring how our culture potentially shapes perceptions of contributions, I should acknowledge other important factors. Some Americans might feel they aren't making important contributions because they face external barriers to pursuing their ambitions or reaching their full potential. Such barriers often require public policy solutions. Our team at Archbridge Institute is doing work in this space,

focusing on topics such as barriers to social mobility. But here I want to focus on culture and psychology. More specifically, I want to examine whether we undervalue certain types of contributions in our culture. Our views about what counts as valuable contribution could affect both how people recognize their own impact and their engagement activities that are critical to human flourishing and progress. As noted, just over one-third of Americans don't believe they are currently contributing to improving the world. What's more, education correlates strongly with

whether individuals believe they are making a difference. 70% of college graduates believe they are contributing to proving the world compared to only 57% without a college education. A recent series of studies published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology offers valuable insight into why so many Americans, particularly those without college education, don't see themselves as making meaningful contributions to society. I'm an interjector. I don't find that surprising at all. And when you talk about an army of normal folks, and you talk about people being inspired and wanting to do something, but not feeling

valuable enough, or not feeling what they're, what they do not feeling valuable enough or not feeling what they're what they do is important enough or not even feeling like they have the capacity to serve or be an army of the normal folks it's interesting that Clay Rutledge's data and research here agrees with the stuff that we say all the time. Kind kind of reminds me of Mike Rowe talks about like you go into a college counselor's office And they got a picture of a kid in a white dress shirt And he's smiling and then you got a guy working under a car and he's all grimy and he's not smiling

And it's like what we've culturally communicated is like yeah these kids who go to college and work in these jobs that they're contributing to society and Everybody else is doing these jobs that are just whatever. I'm just a Automechanic right and you know, what's interesting is also about Mike is Recently he was asked what are we gonna do? you know, he's he's big on the trades and getting people on the trades and people can find happiness in the trades, contribute to society in the trades. And every year we lose people to retirement from the trades and we're losing three to everyone that goes in it.

And he's been asked, where do we find these kids? Where do we find these people going trades? Do you know where they are? What are we going to do? And he says, yeah, I know where they are. They're in eighth grade. But when those eighth graders go into a counselor's office and they see the image you're talking about, they immediately say, well, I got to wear a white collar and be an accountant to be happy. And contribute to society. And contribute to society, which is exactly what this data from from Clay Rutledge says. So sorry to interrupt middle midway through the thing. But the point is, you know, we're talking about the same thing and here's data that

supports it. Okay. So he goes on similar to our progress pulse findings, the researchers found that Americans with less formal education reported feeling they contributed less to society than those with more education. This pattern extended beyond personal assessment. Those with less education also believe others saw their contributions as less valuable. To understand why this disparity exists, the researchers conducted studies examining how Americans evaluate different types of helping behavior. For example, in one revealing study, participants evaluated two people who each spent one evening

per week tutoring a younger student who needed academic help. Okay, so two people tutoring a young student who needed academic help. So, two people tutoring a young student who needed academic help. The only difference was that one person tutored a student in an after-school program, someone they didn't know, while the other tutored their younger cousin. Participants consistently rated the after-school program tutoring as more of a contribution to society than the family tutoring, even though the help provided was identical. I find that fascinating. This preference emerged regardless of participants' education level. The researchers also found this indifference stemmed in part from perceptions of choice.

found this indifference stemmed in part from perceptions of choice. Helping individuals outside of one's family was seen as more of a free choice, while helping family was viewed as more of an obligation. The researchers' final study drew on data from a large representative sample of Americans tracked over several years. They discovered that people with more formal education spent more time doing volunteer work for strangers and people with less formal education spent more time helping family members and close others. Moreover, these differences helped explain why those with less education have lower perceptions of societal contribution. Specifically, volunteering for strangers is merged as a stronger predictor of self-perceived societal contribution than providing unpaid assistance to a family and close others. These findings reveal that our cultural

conceptions of societal contribution and human agency are too narrow. The fact that we feel a stronger sense of duty to help family members doesn't make these contributions any less valuable to society. Like I've said a thousand times, our greatest servant leadership call is first down the hallway of our own home. When family members invest time and energy in helping each other develop capabilities, pursue opportunities, take creative and entrepreneurial risks, and overcome challenges, they're making really important contributions to both individual and societal well-being. In addition, the presence of family obligations doesn't diminish our agency. Choosing to act on perceived duties to family and other loved ones represents a meaningful

expression of personal agency. While we may feel strong pressures or obligations toward family, each individual must ultimately decide whether to embrace these responsibilities and how best to fulfill them. Even in the face of powerful family expectations, we exercise choice when we decide to invest our time, energy in supporting those close to us. In closing, better recognizing family support as an agentic action and meaningful societal contribution could help many Americans understand that serving loved ones is also serving society. Recall that over one-third of Americans and 43% of those without college degrees don't believe they are making important contributions to society. Many Americans are engaged in activities focused on helping their families, friends, coworkers, and neighbors thrive.

It appears that many don't view these vital efforts as contributing society. What's needed is a broader cultural recognition of how serving those in our immediate social network enriches our communities and advances human flourishing and progress. Those are the words of Clay Rutledge in an article he wrote, we need to expand our view of societal contributions that our former guest Rachel Cohen from Vox shared with us. I love it. Here's the deal guys. Yes, we produce a show that has an Army of Normal Folks every Tuesday and Shop Talk every Friday and we do it every week and we're constantly highlighting people who are sharing their talents and gifts and meeting need

at a place where need exists employing their discipline and their passion yes but maybe we also need to think about our own narrative because I want to tell you when I coached at Manassas a friend of mine named Aaron Hayden who played at the University of Tennessee and then he played for San Diego and Green Bay and NFL I Think he's got a Super Bowl ring. I know he's got an FC Championship ring Anyways, great guy good friend of mine played running back When I was at Manassas, I had him come and visit and talk with the team a couple of different times and one time,

he was making a point and he said how many, as he was addressing my players, he said how many of you in this room I want you to raise your hand, have two parents in the household, both of whom graduated from college, and 71 kids in the room, and not a single one raised their hand. And then he said, how many kids in this room have had one or more family members who lived in the same house you live in,

serve jail time. And every single one of them raised their hands. It was stark to me that Aaron knew that that was the answer he was going to get. It's in the movie, it's in the movie, Undefeated, if people haven't seen it. That, yeah, well, it's a little different, but that was another time but it's exact same thing yes it is it's a scene in the movie it is but what was cut from the movie and again i was uh i was just shocked that you know aaron knew that that's the answer he was going to get before he asked the question and i didn't and i was the guy that spent seven years with these kids, you know. Just another, you know, revelation about how so much we have to learn about one another from different worlds. But as it pertains to today's conversation, he asked another question. And he said, who in this room

conversation, he asked another question. And he said, who in this room can name one bedtime story, can just stay with a title or just give me the theme of one bedtime story you've been told or either sing the words or even just hum the words of a single lullaby that you ever heard as a child and not one kid raised their hand. And Aaron said, he challenged my team, break that, because he said, guys, Aaron is very real. He said, guys, if you don't read on grade level by third grade, you are three times more likely to be unemployed or in jail than you are to have a job by adulthood. You have to read on third grade level. And he said, yeah, the school's got to teach you how to read. But that starts at home. Kids learn phonetics, kids learn alliteration,

phonetics, kids learn alliteration, kids learn how to read, kids learn the appreciation for words and grammar by having been read to by their parents and having played word games with their parents and having ABC coloring books. They also learn prose and how to be creative and write through poems which are often time given to children in the form of lullabies or songs. And absent that, in early childhood development, children are much less likely to read on third grade, on third, on grade level by third grade, which then the data shows that people that don't read on grade level by third grade are much more likely to not contribute to society and possibly be a drag on society.

And his whole point was, it starts at home with your children reading and lullabies and nurturing. And if you think about that, the greatest service the army of normal folks can do before they ever go out and save the world is make sure you're serving and leading and being an army of normal folks to the people down the hallway from you. Yeah, and to me it's frankly a good challenge for us as storytellers doing this podcast too of finding more stories of people serving their family. And if people have ideas, make sure to email Bill at normalfolks dot us and share them and I'll give you an example one. I've been trying to book but I've not been able to get it yet

This woman's husband had an affair and he ended up impregnating this girl and this girl It was kind of a disaster or life wasn't together. The baby wasn't gonna end up in a good situation And she finds this out and she goes to the girl's house and says, I want to adopt the child. What? And raise it. Yeah, and paid for the pregnancy. Yeah, I mean, she literally brought in the. What a saint.

I know. But it starts at home, right? And it's like, that's the thing about an army of normal folks. If we all took care of our families, there wouldn't be any problems. I mean, so many families are so broken that it's still going to need more of us to step in and help them. But if everybody took care of their families, a lot of these problems would go away. So true. So Rachel Cohen, thanks for sharing the article with us. Clay Rutledge, thanks for doing the work. We need to expand.

Clay's job, just so you know, he focuses on human flourishing, his whole job. He's like a researcher and writer on it. Well, that makes sense from this. I know, but it's not just look that up. No, no, I've actually talked to him once before, but isn't that a cool gig? Like your whole job. Why don't we have him on the show? Maybe his whole job is on human flourishing. I want to hear about it. I think we need to do that. Shop Talk number 46. We need to expand our view of societal contribution. I'll subtitle it my own words. Take care of your families. Be a part of the Army of Normal folks and serve at home first. And then when your home is healthy, then we can get outside and do work.

And for goodness sakes, if you are serving at home, give yourself a break. Your contributions are no less than anybody else's. And continue on. So that's Shop Talk number 46. Expand your view of societal contribution, serve at home and then serve out in the world. If you have any ideas for shop talks, email me anytime at bill at normalfolks.us and I will respond. And if I think we have something to add to your questions or ideas, we'll take them up.

And beyond that, what else, Alex? You're going to start pitching this to me every time now. Pretty much. I can't ever remember it. And when I do say it, you always correct how I say it. That's because you say here, share us on social. I see I can handle that. Yeah. Subscribe to the podcast. We're going to review it. Subscribe to the podcast.

Subscribe to the podcast. Join the army at normalfolks.us and consider becoming a premium member. There you go. You nailed it. Yeah. What else? Join the army at normalfolks.us and consider becoming a premium member there. There you go, you nailed it. Yeah, what else? The thing you always would mess up is subscribe to the podcast on the website, which you can't do. Okay.

That's the thing. But you didn't do it this time, you did well. Well, I was kind of watching you do it and figuring it out. So that's it, Shop Talk number 46. Expand our view of societal contributions. be a servant leader with those people down the hallway, and then once that's under control, get out in the community and do the same elsewhere. And our immune normal folks can change the world. I'll see you next week.

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