The BroadCast | From the Front Line to the Front Office

New York Presbyterian Hospital location last week. New York City, of course, is the eye of COVID nineteen storm, and earlier this month, as the forecast grew more and more grim and a surgeon cases threatened to slam America's largest metropolitan area, the faculty and residence of New York Presby's Emergency Medicine Residency program took part in what else a zoom call. So, without any more ado, this is Captain Robert Nusson. Thanks. I appreciate your time. I appreciate everybody

being here, and it's truly an honor to me. What a time of service for you guys, So thank you. You'd only have to be paying a little bit of attention to the news to begin to comprehend the kind of massive pressure confronting hospital emergency impersonnel these days, a grueling, relentless, exhausted gut punch packed with equal parts duty, defeat, and fear. Grappling with these emotions was the focus of Rob Nuson's

talk with the New York Presbyterian staff. I hope my lessons from seal training and war can help you in this moment. For three decades, Rob Newson served and protected this country on the front line of battles and behind the scenes. His skills in crisis management strategy ultimately took him as far as the White House until he decided

to return to civilian life within the past year. In other words, he has the exact type of perspective that any person, business, or government would benefit from in the midst of a volable global pandemic. If you're an ear resident or a doc, you're a little bit left to center like me. I've spent thirty years in eighty seal, almost three years of my life overseas in the fight. I have feared for my life, and I've worried over my family back home. I know what you were feeling.

I've been where you are. I want to do this. I was made to do this, but I'd rather not die doing it. So you see we have a lot in common. How did Rob Newson, two months before the COVID nineteen outbreak hit the United States wind up with the seventy six Ers. I'm Brian Seltzer, and on this episode of the broadcast, I talked with Newson about his path and his new role as the Sixers vice president

of Strategy and Vision. Hey, out there, seventy six Ers pod people, hope you and all your peeps are staying safe, smart and healthy. Captain Rob Newson's resume, in short, is totally ridiculous. Here are some of the highlights from his

bio on the website of the Honor Foundation. Thirty years as a Navy seal, launched six new military organizations from scratch, spent fourteen years as a strategist and was deployed to fourteen different countries on five continents, led counter terrorism missions, and was the director of the White House Military Office and all he was responsible with the White House was overseeing these things called Air Force one, Marine one, and

Camp David. Rob Newson also decorated with the Bronze Star for acts of heroism, acts of merit, or meritorious service in a combat zone. In review, you could say that Rob is one accomplished dude. How the heck did Rob Newson end up with a job in professional basketball? And how the heck with the seventy six or so fortuitous to bring them on board just as a global crisis was beginning to emerge, Let's find out, Rob, before I brought you on. I just finished reading through some of

the highlights of your career track record. I mean, I gotta say, it seems like such a compelling and fascinating and fulfilling journey. How would you describe kind of where life has brought you up to this point. Yeah, so, you know, it was an honor and a privilege to serve as a Navy seal for almost thirty years and then go into being a government senior executive for a year working in the White House on the military side. So it's it's been such a treat to you know,

where the nation's cloth and serve the nation. And really I'm grateful not on only for that experience, but for the skill set I think we've developed in the seal community, and especially in my background, which is really about team's leadership and culture, and so that that was the foundation that I think brought me to the seventy six ers.

I certainly want to get into unpacking how your professional and personal experiences have shaped the skill set that you can now bring to the seventy six ers, But I'm sure a lot of fans would love to know for as much as you're able to bring us up to speed, just on you know, how the people in the front office are doing, how you guys are managing communicating these days and staying on top of obviously overseeing what needs to be overseen for a professional basketball team, but just

the day to day lives of people going through something like this. Yeah it you know, right after I think it was March eleventh when kind of the world blew upright the season went into hiatus, and it was a NonStop kind of crisis management for the first week or so, Um, what are we going to do from taking care of the people's perspective who needed to be in self quarantine,

what was going to happen with work and coordination? And so that turned into kind of marathon zoom sessions with different executives and different meetings, and um, that lasted for two or three weeks and it's settled down now to

a normal work rhythm. But it's it's and it's all virtual, so, you know, executives pulled together and then we have meetings with our folks throughout the week on Zoom and really it's been fascinating to see the you know, the two main themes from the organization have been how are we

getting better? And are we ready? And so it's all been about taking this time to improve um processes and product on the organizations side, and then supporting the players so they can continue to stay in shape and prepare and are we all going to be ready when whenever

the season starts up again. In some ways, it's so fascinating because at least on our side, speaking to what's been going on on the business side, it's like this opportunity certainly would never want to see it come at the expense of the health and well being of people around the world, but it has lifted the curtain back on how things are done, what's the most efficient way

to do things? How can we maximize every opportunity to get the best possible output at whatever it is we're doing, whether it's creating a piece of content or trying to provide the best infrastructure possible for the most talented basketball players in the planet. Yeah, this, you're right. We wouldn't wish this on anybody, but you know, you find you find your opportunities in crisis. And one of the opportunities I think the organization is really grasp onto is is

how do we make improvements? And we have we have this time where we're not constantly traveling for games or preparing for the next game, and we've got time to sit back and really be positively critical of how can we get better? And I really enjoyed that aspect as well as just watching leaders lead. They're taking care of their people, they're engaging, they're trying to give a sense of both purpose and safety in a time of uncertainty.

So it's that's been really enjoyable too. You lude to some of the stops you've made of the course of your career with your work with the Navy, Seals, Department of Defense, fourteen countries in the White House, and that phrase that you touched upon, crisis management, diving into that immediately when the pandemic really erupted in the second week of March. What have you learned throughout your life about

what's essential to managing a crisis. Yeah, I think there are several aspects that I've been thinking about a lot lately. In crisis. Is not to be consumed by just the chaos of it all right, I mean, the noise can get so loud, the confusion can be overwhelming, and part

of it is a two step process. One you have to focus on the thing that's right in front of you and really not get distracted by anything else that you know, your task list can build and build and build, and if you step back and look at it, it can seem overwhelming. It's just eating the elephant one bite of the time to stay in the moment and take

care of what you need to take care of. And then the second piece of that is also lifting high enough that you're not seeing the madness and you know, just the crushing activity that you have to take care of, and you're looking over over the next ridge line and saying, okay, how do I as I'm taking care of the moment and piece by piece moving forward where are we headed?

And again, the organization, I really enjoyed watching them tackle both the immediacy of activity and thinking about what chart, what course they're charting to get to the new normal, because it's not going to We're not going to go back to what we used to know. I think it's going to be something else, and so that takes some planning and vision to get there. Did you find yourself having to walk a line or figuring out well, here,

I am. I would want to say at that point in time, back in March, what about two months on the job and trying to get a feel for brand new people that you're working with while also trying to lean on experience that I mean, listen, this is something I was thinking about before doing this interview. Any person, company, organization, country like could probably use someone Um with your experience

and perspective, let alone a professional basketball team. So how did you try and pick and choose your spots or get involved in some of these conversations. It was really funny, Um we were you know, we're kind of feeling our way through that and Elton. Elton brought me on because he cared about teams, leadership and culture and thought it was a great fit. But as you go into new organization, a huge part of that is learning and you know,

not just because you understand leadership. Applying it an entirely new arena is absolutely humbling and daunting, and so there's there's an aspect of learning that for me in in professional basketball, you know, is kind to go on forever that it's amazing what what people are doing and how

much knowledge is out there. Really, the crisis opened up that that window that I think I could jump in a lot faster than I would have and kind of thrown into the middle of working with our coronavirus task Force and kind of pulling people together in a time of uncertainty. That kind of I think accelerated my introduction to the organization ROB before the coronavirus became a global pandemic. What was your position supposed to entail with the seventy

six ers. It was really there's two parts of it. My title is vice president of Strategy and Vision, and so in that part, it's it's related to leadership, innovation, culture, and providing structure around that. So I'm responsible for a culture initiative we're calling Championship DNA, but it's it's really about being intentful about building the right kind of culture that will support winning multiple championships UM. The other piece

is integrating the best ball operations innovation efforts. M seventy six ers is known as an innovative organization from so many aspects, but it's it's providing structure and attempting to maximize innovations across the organization. And then the third piece is about leadership development and decision making and how I can support the senior leaders in the organizations as they lead and they're doing a great job of that. And then that's so that's one side that really fits under

that that strategy and vision bucket. And then the other side is leading the Athlete Care department, which consists of medical and performance UM. Great great leadership there with Scott Epsley and Lorna Torres, and I'm I'm learning from them on what their business is about and just providing a little bit of structure and organizational leadership on top of that so that they can focus downward on all the

great stuff they're doing. I don't know if this is an appropriate type question to ask, but was you thinking immediately when you could see perhaps on the horizon that this outbreak was making Twitter United States? Were you saying, man, I just left thirty years of service, putting my life in danger. I'm looking forward to this new civilian lifestyle professional basketball team, and I just can't escape this whole

crisis thing like it keeps following me. Or on the other side, were you kind of energized by it in some way? Yeah, it was both. It's a great observation on your part because it was. It was truly both. You know, I thought I'd left that behind, whether it was kind of terrorism or kind of managing daily christ in DD and really excited for some new and then the crisis hits. But you know, there's muscle memory and the fire that that you've built up over managing a

career that and so it just clicks in. It was so familiar and so natural to be in that spot. But I'll tell you, I'll be happy to return back to a different world of professional sports and me learning at the at the knee of people who really know the business. Amen to that. Why don't we get into your path? How did you end up on and this is probably something you could talk about for a long period of time, but how did you end up getting

involved with serving the country? I um, I was fortunate enough to receive a Naval ROTC scholarship the University of Kansas, and really my motivation was I would pay for college, and you know, I didn't want to to ask my parents to help out too much. And so, you know, the nation stepped forward and said, sure, we'll pay for your college and it you know, in return, you uh, you spend four years in the military. And so that's

that's kind of the path I started. And then as I looked at what was available in the Navy, I was a little bit concerned because nothing would really lit my fire. And then I discovered the Navy seal community and was fortunate enough to get selected and go to seal training and get through and you know that that just started one great assignment after another for almost thirty years. As you retrace your steps, do you always feel like you've had a sense of obligation service due to the

country those types of things. No, you know, as I said, it started out as I wanted to pay for college, and so those first four to seven years I kind of expected, Okay, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna do my part and then I'll see what else is available. And I think most guys going into the military kind of kind of think that way. I don't think too many people come in thinking I'm going to do twenty or

thirty years of service, um. But somewhere around the seven to eleven year point, UM, you know, it struck me that um, I was called to serve and that was incredibly important to me. And the type of service, you know, changes from being in a in a frontline operational unit to to being a kind of an operations guy that helps those guys and then moving up the leadership chain. But it was it was always about both serving the nation and as as importantly serving those around you to

help the team move forward. Well if one with Rob Newson in just a moment, but we all know that life these days is anything but normal or conventional. We see so many businesses, companies and services out there trying to do just a little bit more to make your life a little bit easier. At Wendy's, they've got you for breakfast, lunch, at dinner, and everything in between. Whether it's starting your day with their new delicious breakfast menu or ending it with a cool frosty Wendy's are open

to serve you. Swing by the drive through or get your go to meal delivered today. Back to my chat with Rob Newson, I saw the link to a video conference you did back on April the first, or sometime at the beginning of April, end of March with faculty at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia Cornell, obviously right at the epicenter of our nation's coronavirus outbreak. And I'm probably gonna get this wrong. I thought I wrote it down

the exact wording, but I didn't. But at some point during your introduction, you said, you know, whether it's being a Navy seal or being an ear doc on the front line of something like trying to contain COVID nineteen, there's a little bit of cow boy that we have in ourselves, where you're drawn and you feel this calling to selfless acts that you're being asked to you to serve, but at the same time, you don't want to die

doing it. And I thought that was a really interesting way to put into context what people who are working their way through this crisis right now have in relation to military service women and men. Yeah, I had it was fortunate enough to be asked to talk to the EUR residents and faculty and the reason why they wanted to talk to somebody like me was they're thrown into the breach, and it was it was a little bit new to be both at not only to save lives,

to put your life at risk as well. And you know, I've been thinking about this. Of course it applies to our amazing health workers across the nation, but I think it applies to almost all of us where we've we're faced with a broader per to protect ourselves and to protect others, right, and so we're doing things that that you'd rather not do. You know, people don't wear a mask on their face to protect themselves. That's to protect others.

And it's heartening to see people UM kind of embrace this broader service and responsibility to to the rest of the world to to try to you know, defeat this this virus in a in a timely and efficient way. But yeah, it was interesting to and again, my better half's ear docs, so we talk a lot about the

similarities between UM seals and ear docs. We are we are a bit of cowboy and buccaneer in us that uh, that are drawn to UM the close end fight and you know, running to the sound of the guns or the accident for as many details as you're able to offer, Would you mind giving an overview of the tours and perhaps some of the missions that you were part of where you had to serve, what you might have been

involved with, for again as much as you're able to share. Yeah. So, UM, my early career is kind of focused on the Pacific. UM mostly a West Coast Navy Seals, so deploying to Guam and the Philippines and then UM after nine to eleven, it was a lot of deployments. I went to to Bosnia and then Kenya, Iraq, Afghanistan almost two years and Yem and all of that was kind of focused on counter terrorism and hunting terrorists. A lot of my background is in strategy and UM designing kind of the hunt.

I was fortunate enough to be UM to help start one of our our premier seal organizations that is the targeting engine for the Seals, and so we put all our intelligence capabilities together to help UM fine and point the Seals in the right direction for their missions. And so that that was unique and special and I think helped me throughout my career because it was really about working with subject matter experts where I'm not the expert in any of these areas, but it's how do I

help lead and pull them together? And that's been very useful as I've worked with athlete care and amazing people with medical and performance that are the experts, and I'm just trying to provide communication and leadership so that they are better able to do their great work on a way smaller and certainly far less significant scale. I felt that when I first started traveling in my job with

the seventy six ers. You know, you get to go to twenty seven, if I'm not mistaken, other cities in the country, and you just get a better feel for what's out there, and how did your tours and seeing the world better inform the way you view things and look at things? Um well, certainly I think you know, going into the developing world a lot you you you have an appreciation for how wonderful America has it, and the United States is truly blessed in so many levels.

So you get to see a level of um suffering in humanity that that is daunting at times, but you also get to see a great human spirit in people who are fighting and overcoming those circumstances and it. You know, we've worked with partners around the world, and so some things transcend cultures and ethnicity and it's just about you know, trying trying to do the right thing and work with a group of people to to move things forward. So it you know, teamwork and um leadership I think kind

of transcend. Thats another lesson that that around the world people want a place to belong that they want to they want to be able to take ownership and lead and follow as as best they can. One of the positions that you previously held was the director of the White House Military Office. I mean, listen, I'm posing for saying is I'm trying to think of how to articulately the question. I mean this is it's it's the White House. I mean, it's almost like a part of someone's imagination

at times. There's this, uh certainly just the stature of it, um, the importance of it that you think of growing up as a kid. And then you know, if you visit Washington, d C. You walk past and like your mind kind at least for me, runs wild about the the importance of that institution. What was it like for you being such a career military service person to be presented with the chance to serve in the White House. Well, there's

so there are several aspects of that. One is just the gravitas of the building, you know, what an honor. And every day I walked around there, I try to remind myself that, you know, not too many people get to be on the inside walking around the White House, and so you stopped to take it all in, every every step I took. It's amazing place. You know, um, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, you know, a Roosevelt, all of them walking around, Franklin Roosevelt. You know, they were

standing right here. So that's an amazing piece. And then working in the White House Military Office, it was it was an absolute amazing organization of top notch professionals. You know, these are people at the at the absolute height of their profession, whether it's the Air Force pilots that are flying Air Force, one of the Marine Corps pilots, the Army Transportation Unit, um, the communications guys who are just phenomenal, and really the White House Medical Unit and the Navy

mess were phenomenal as well. And that was kind of my introduction to executive Medicine, which I'd offer that that's kind of what the seventy six ers medical Department is doing, as well as providing executive medicine to the players, And so it was it was a nice way to see what tremendous service and professionalism is all about. Is that ever something that you have an idea that's coming, you know, when you think about what you're doing, how you're advancing

in your career. Does it ever? Do people have a sense Maybe it's a different case by case. It's like, hey, you know what, at some point I might get a call from sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue. You know, well, it's funny.

I I'm a strategist, you know, by training and bent and so I had my eye on the National Security Council and eventually hoping getting to work there's a military guy and that didn't work out, and it was kind of a surprising call as I was retiring to go and be a civilian in the White House Military Office. I you know, there's just like the seventy six ers, there are opportunities that I drove of that just kind

of happened, and you got to jump at them. I think that leads to a nice segue, I've taken up a lot of your time already. But the opportunity with the seventy sixers, how did that come about? Well, so there's a great organization called the Honor Foundation, and it is a it's a transition academy for seals and other special operations personnel absolutely tailored to, you know, elite military guys that are getting out of the Navy and or the military. And these guys have spent their entire career,

you know, in an elite force. Being the best that they can be is both daunting and scary, and it's an unknown aspect to transition into civilian life. And so the Honor of Foundation was designed to be that bridge. And so I was in in the White House and I took a leave of absence because I had a PhD that that I had too long delayed getting done, and I took a leave of absence to finish that up.

I let the Honor Foundation know that I was interested, and the seventy six ers had somehow become affiliated and new about the Honor Foundation, and so they reached out the Honor Foundation and we got connected that way, and then it was just an opportunity I couldn't couldn't refuse. Was there something that clicked you felt with you and Elton when you guys first started talking. Yeah, immediately, you know, we our conversation revolved around culture and what culture was

and how you build how you intentionally build culture. It was about leadership and kind of Elton's philosophy and the need for um, a little bit of structure around all those things, you know, not allowing them to happen without thought. And so we clicked around those conversations, and you know, we Elton's just a fascinating guy to get to get to meet and engage with, so he and Alex Rucker and the rest of the Vice presidence. I had a ton of interviews with those guys and came away thinking,

this is a great organization. It's a great team of people who care about each other. And so that's what really drew me to the organization. I wanted to go back when with time to the call that you had with the faculty at New York Presbyterian. And one thing that stood out was you kept referring to and you can correct me if I'm wrong with me, it seemed like you kept referring to what they were up against trying to help contain and mitigate the threat of COVID

nineteen as quote unquote the fight. And I feel like that's a concept that could apply to perhaps any part of anyone's life. It could be on the front lines in the Middle East, it could be in an emergency room. It could be for a professional basketball team trying to ultimately fulfill its goal of bringing a title back to

the city of Philadelphia or something like that. As that notion of trying to persevere through the fight, that ideal is that something you feel has been consistent as part of your outlook, something that's been alluring to you throughout your life and career. Yeah, it's it's you know, it's it's really They say that that seals aren't made, they're kind of uncovered, but the you know, the crucible of seal training is really about never quitting and and leaning

into the fight. And I tell you, everybody in the nation today is facing some kind of fight, right or there's massive unemployment, there's unknowns around every corner, health fights, and so it I think it applies to a lot of people on how you get through it, how you maintain an attitude that isn't that that is positive and focused on the right things instead of the negative aspect

of what you're dealing with. Captain Rob Newson, amazing story, outstanding stuff, a privilege to be able to speak with you. Thank you so much and terrific to have you now part of the seventy six as family. Thanks Brian. I'm thrilled to be here and can't wait to get back on the court again. Rob Newson, the new vice president of Vision and Strategy for the seventy six Ers, just an awesome, awesome story of service and now he of course is providing the Sixers with invaluable and timely perspective

and leadership. That'll do it for this episode of the broadcast. Hope you found it insightful. Keep checking our seventy Sixers podcast network feed for fresh content throughout the rest of the week. The seventy Sixers GC podcast crew of head coach Jeff Terrell and Alexanderste's Bernstein have got arguably the best NBA two K League player on the planet on their latest episode of the podcast. That would be radiant.

You don't want to miss that. Plus we have new episodes of Coach Check the official podcast of the seventy sixers gee League affiliate, the Delaware Bluecoats, and Tom's Talks. Our new pod with the Man, the one on only radio voice the seventy six ers, Tom McGinnis, out later this week, So again check the feed. Brian Seltzer saying so long for now. Stay healthy, stay safe, and stay smart out there. Talk to you next time. See it.