“I am often asked by
would-be entrepreneurs
seeking escape from life
within huge corporate
structures, ‘How do I
build a small firm for
myself?’ The answer
seems obvious …
Source: Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics
LONG
Excellence.
Always.
Gartner Group/PPM & IT Governance Summit
Tom Peters/San Diego/22 June 2011
To appreciate
this presentation [and ensure
that it is not a mess], you need
Microsoft fonts:
NOTE:
“Showcard Gothic,”
“Ravie,” “Chiller”
and “Verdana”
What Works.
What Doesn’t.
“I am often asked by
would-be entrepreneurs
seeking escape from life
within huge corporate
structures, ‘How do I
build a small firm for
myself?’ The answer
seems obvious …
Source: Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics
“I am often asked by would-be entrepreneurs seeking escape from
life within huge corporate structures, ‘How do I build a small firm for
Buy a
very large
one and just
wait.”
myself?’ The answer seems obvious:
—Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail:
Evolution, Extinction and Economics
“Mr. Foster and his McKinsey colleagues
collected detailed performance data stretching
back
40 years for 1,000
They found that
U.S. companies.
none
of
the long-term survivors managed to
outperform the market. Worse, the
longer companies had been in the
database, the worse they did.”
—Financial Times
You don’t
get better
by being
bigger. You
Dick Kovacevich:
“Data drawn from the real world
attest to a fact that is beyond
Everything
in existence tends
to deteriorate.”
our control:
—Norberto Odebrecht, Education Through Work
“Not a single company that
qualified as having made a
sustained transformation
ignited its leap with a big
acquisition or merger. Moreover,
comparison companies—those that failed to make a
leap or, if they did, failed to sustain it—often tried to
make themselves great with a big acquisition or
merger. They failed to grasp the simple truth that while
you can buy your way to growth, you cannot buy your
way to greatness.” —Jim Collins/Time
“When asked to name just one big
merger that had lived up to
expectations, Leon Cooperman,
former cochairman of Goldman Sachs’
Investment Policy Committee,
I’m sure there are
success stories out
there, but at this
moment I draw a blank.”
answered:
—Mark Sirower, The Synergy Trap
M & A success rate as measured
by adding value to the
acquirer:
15%
Source: Mark Sirower, The Synergy Trap
Spinoffs
…
systematically perform
better than IPOs … track
record, profits … “freed
from the confines of the
parent … more
entrepreneurial, more
nimble.” —Jerry Knight/ Washington Post/
#4 Japan
#3 USA
#2 China
#1 Germany
MittELstand*
*“agile creatures
darting between
the legs of the
multinational
monsters"
Source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek on the German
MITTELSTAND
Seymour CT
Fairfield OH
Frankenmuth MI
Basement Systems Inc.
Jungle Jim’s International Market, Fairfield, Ohio: “An
adventure in
‘shoppertainment,’
as Jungle Jim’s
1,600
cheeses and, yes, 1,400 varieties of hot
sauce —not to mention 12,000 wines priced
from $8 to $8,000 a bottle; all this is brought to
you by 4,000 vendors. Customers come from every
call it, begins in the parking lot and goes on to
corner of the globe.”
Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, Frankenmuth, Michigan,
98,000-square-foot “shop” features the
likes of 6,000 Christmas ornaments, 50,000
trims, and anything else you can name if it pertains to
pop 5,000:
Christmas.
Source: George Whalin, Retail Superstars
“Be the best.
It’s the only
market that’s
not crowded.”
From: Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best
Independent Stores in America, George Whalin
What Works.
What Doesn’t.
No.
“Optimization”
“We’ve got to get
this right.”
“Perfectly compatible”
“Synergy”
“Big”
You don’t
get better
by being
bigger. You
Dick Kovacevich:
“It is generally
much easier to kill
an organization
than change it
substantially.”
—Kevin Kelly, Out of Control
“The secret of fast
progress is
inefficiency, fast
and furious and
numerous failures.”
—Kevin Kelly
Regis McKenna*: “A lot of
companies in the Valley fail.”
Robert Noyce**: “Maybe not enough
fail.”
RM: “What do you mean by that?”
RN: “Whenever you fail, it means
you’re trying new things.”
*McKenna was the original Silicon Valley “marketing guru”
**Robert Noyce was an Intel co-founder and one of the fathers of the
modern information industry.
Source: Fast Company
“Once a system grows sufficiently
complex and centralized, it doesn’t
matter how badly our best and
brightest foul things up. Every crisis
increases their authority, because
they seem to be the only ones who
understand the system well enough to
fix it. But their fixes tend to make the
system even more complex and
centralized, and more vulnerable to
the next national-security surprise,
the next natural disaster, the next
economic crisis.” —Ross Douthat/NYTimes on the financial crisis
“Don’t ever use that word
‘synergy.’ It’s a
hideous
word. The only thing that
works is natural law.
Given enough time,
natural relationships will
develop between our
businesses.” —Barry Diller, responding to a
student question, address at the Harvard Business School
(from Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
Yes.
“Satisfice”
“Requisite variety”
“Radical
decentralization”
“Resilience”
“Focus”/“Niche”/
“Mittelstand”
“Rose gardeners face a choice every spring. The long-term fate of a rose garden
depends on this decision. If you want to have the largest and most glorious roses of the
neighborhood, you will prune hard. This represents a policy of low tolerance and tight
control. You force the plant to make the maximum use of its available resources, by
Pruning hard is a
dangerous policy in an unpredictable environment. Thus, if
you are in a spot where you know nature may play tricks
on you, you may opt for a policy of high tolerance. You will
never have the biggest roses, but you have a muchenhanced chance of having roses every year. You will
achieve a gradual renewal of the plant. In short, tolerant
pruning achieves two ends: (1) It makes it easier to cope
with unexpected environmental changes. (2) It leads to a
continuous restructuring of the plant. The policy of
tolerance admittedly wastes resources—the extra buds
drain away nutrients from the main stem. But in an
unpredictable environment, this policy of tolerance makes
the rose healthier in the long run.” —Arie De Geus, The Living Company
putting them into the the rose’s ‘core business.’
What Matters.
What Doesn’t.
“At a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut
informs his pal, Joseph Heller,
that their host, a hedge fund
manager, had made more money
in a single day than Heller had
earned from his wildly popular
novel Catch-22 over its whole
history. Heller responds …
“At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut
informs his pal, Joseph Heller … that their host, a hedge fund
manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had
earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole
‘Yes, but I
have something
he will never
have …
history. Heller responds …
Source: John Bogle, Enough. The Measures of Money, Business, and
Life (Bogle is founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group)
At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt
Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller … that their
host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a
single day than Heller had earned from his wildly
popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller
responds … Yes, but I have something he will never have
…
enough.
Source: John Bogle, Enough. The Measures of Money, Business, and
Life (Bogle is founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group)
Joe J. Jones
1942 – 2010
Net Worth
$21,543,672.48
“Managers have lost dignity over the
past decade in the face of wide spread
institutional breakdown of trust and
self-policing in business. To regain
society’s trust, we believe that business
leaders must embrace a way of looking
at their role that goes beyond their
responsibility to the shareholders to
include a civic and personal
commitment to their duty as
institutional custodians. In other
words, it is time that management
became a profession.” —Rakesh Khurana & Nitin Nohria,
“It’s Time To Make Management a True Profession,” HBR/10.08
“It is not enough for an agency to
be respected for its professional
competence. Indeed, there isn’t
much to choose between the
competence of big agencies.
“What so often makes the difference is
the character of the men and women who
represent the agency at the top level,
with clients and the business community.
“If they are respected as admirable
people, the agency gets business—
whether from present clients or
prospective ones.” —David Ogilvy
Organizations
exist to serve.
Period.
Leaders live to
serve. Period.
Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A Bias for Action
Close to the Customer
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
Productivity Through People
Hands On, Value-Driven
Stick to the Knitting
Simple Form, Lean Staff
Simultaneous Loose-Tight
Properties”
“Breakthrough” 82*
People!
Customers!
Action!
Values!
*In Search of Excellence
Hard Is Soft
Soft Is Hard
“On the face of it,
shareholder value is the
dumbest idea in the world.
Shareholder value is a
result, not a strategy. …
Your main constituencies
are your employees, your
customers and your
products.” —Jack Welch, FT, 0313.09, page 1
Hard Is Soft (Plans, #s)
Soft Is Hard (people,
customers, values,
relationships)
“[This year’s] graduates are told [by commencement
speakers] to pursue happiness and joy. But, of course,
when you read a biography of someone you admire,
it’s rarely the things that made them happy that
compel our admiration. It’s the things they did to
court unhappiness—the things they did that were
arduous and miserable, which sometimes cost them
It’s
excellence, not
happiness, that we
admire most.”
friends and aroused hatred.
—David Brooks,
“It’s Not About You,” oped, New York Times, 30 May 2011
“In a way, the world is a great liar.
It shows you it worships and admires
money, but at the end of the day it doesn’t.
It says it adores fame and celebrity, but it
doesn’t, not really. The world admires, and
wants to hold on to, and not lose,
goodness. It admires virtue. At the end it
gives its greatest tributes to generosity,
honesty, courage, mercy, talents well used,
talents that, brought into the world, make
it better. That’s what it really admires.
That’s what we talk about in eulogies,
because that’s what’s important. We don’t
say, ‘The thing about Joe was he was rich!’
We say, if we can …
“ … We say, if we can …
‘The thing about
Joe was he took
good care of
people.’”
—Peggy Noonan, “A Life’s Lesson,” on the astounding response to the passing of Tim Russert ,
The Wall Street Journal, June 21-22, 2008
The Memories That Matter
The people you developed who went on to
stellar accomplishments inside or outside
the company.
The (no more than) two or three people you developed who went on to
create stellar institutions of their own.
The longshots (people with “a certain something”) you bet on who
surprised themselves—and your peers.
The people of all stripes who 2/5/10/20 years
later say “You made a difference in my life,”
“Your belief in me changed everything.”
The sort of/character of people you hired in general. (And the bad
apples you chucked out despite some stellar traits.)
A handful of projects (a half dozen at most) you doggedly pursued that
still make you smile and which fundamentally changed the way
things are done inside or outside the company/industry.
The supercharged camaraderie of a handful of Great Teams aiming to
“change the world.”
#1: “Design Is
Everything.”
“Design is everything.
Everything is design.”
“We are all designers.”
The Power of Design: A Force for Transforming
Everything, Richard Farson
Charles Handy: “One bank is currently claiming to …
‘leverage its global footprint
to provide effective financial
solutions for its customers by
providing a gateway to
diverse markets.’”
“I assume that it is just
saying that it is there to …
“I assume that it is just saying that it
‘help its
customers
wherever they
are’.”
is there to …
—Charles Handy
“I make all the launch teams tell me what the
five
words or less.
magazine’s about in
You can’t run alongside
millions of consumers and
explain what you mean. It
forces some discipline on you.”
—Ann Moore, CEO, Time Inc., on new magazines
"I've never seen a job done
by a team of five hundred
that couldn't be done better
by a team of fifty.” —Gordon Bell,
VAX operating system architect at DEC/
Industry guru par excellence
Computer Associates (quote approximate)
90K in U.S.A. ICUs on any given day;
178 discrete steps/day/patient in ICU.
50%
ICU stays result
in “serious complication”
Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
**Dr. Peter Pronovost, Johns Hopkins
**
Checklist
/dealing with
line infections
**1/3rd lines, at least one procedural error
when he started checklist program
**Nurses/permission-requirement to stop
procedure if doc, other not following checklist
(BIG DEAL)
**In 1 year, ICU’s 10-day line-infection rate:
11% to …
0%
Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
**Docs, nurses empowered/
encouraged to make own
checklists on whatever
process-procedure they choose
**Within weeks, average stay in
ICU down
50%
Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
Appropriate systems’ standards:
Beauty.
Grace.
Clarity.
Simplicity.
“You know a
design is good
when you want
to lick it.”
—Steve Jobs
Source: Design: Intelligence Made Visible,
Stephen Bayley & Terence Conran
Architect Rem Koolhaas on his drive for
“Often
my job is to
undo things.”
clarity-simplicity:
Source: New Yorker
“The art of war does not
require complicated
maneuvers; the simplest are
the best and common sense is
fundamental. From which one
might wonder how it is
it
is because they try to
be clever.”
generals make blunders;
—Napoleon
#2: What’s
ALWAYS #1.
XFX = #1*
*Cross-Functional eXcellence
Never
waste a
lunch!
The sacred
220 “ABs”.*
*“At bats”
“Personal relationships
are the fertile soil from
which all advancement,
all success, all
achievement in real
life grow.” —Ben Stein
“They brainstormed about how
to turn this [catastrophic] misunderstanding around, and came
up with a simple plan—every day
for the next three months she
would have lunch or coffee with
one of the partners. Today she is
executive vice president for
[Fortune 50 company].”
—Betsy
Myers, on and extraordinarily talented professional who had been
blocked from leadership positions in her firm, from Take the Lead: Motivate,
Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You
George Crile (Charlie Wilson’s War ) on Charlie
Wilson: “The way things normally work, if you’re not Jewish
you don’t get into the Jewish caucus, but Charlie did. And if
you’re not black you don’t get into the black caucus. But Charlie
plays poker with the black caucus; they had a game, and he’s the
The House [of Representatives],
like any human institution, is
moved by friendships, and no
matter what people might think
about Wilson’s antics, they tend
to like him and enjoy his
company.”
only white guy in it.
R.O.I.R. >
R.O.I.
Return On
Investment In
Relationships
What …
PRECISELY … is
this week’s
Relationship
Investment
Plan?
“Keep a short
enemies list. One
enemy can do more
damage than the
good done by a
hundred friends.”
—Bill Walsh, The Score Takes Care of Itself (Walsh was the “hall
of fame” coach of the San Francisco 49ers football team)
“XFX
Social
Accelerators.”
1. EVERYONE’s [more or less] JOB #1: Make friends in other functions!
(Purposefully. Consistently. Measurably.)
2. “Do lunch” with people in other functions!! Frequently!! (Minimum
10% to 25% for everyone? Measured.)
3. Ask peers in other functions for references so you can become
conversant in their world. (It’s one helluva sign of ... GIVE-A-DAMNism.)
4. Invite counterparts in other functions to your team meetings.
Religiously. Ask them to present “cool stuff” from “their world” to your
group. (B-I-G deal; useful and respectful.)
5. PROACTIVELY SEEK EXAMPLES OF “TINY” ACTS OF “XFX” TO
ACKNOWLEDGE—PRIVATELY AND PUBLICALLY. (Bosses: ONCE A DAY
… make a short call or visit or send an email of “Thanks” for some sort
of XFX gesture by your folks and some other function’s folks.)
6. Present counterparts in other functions awards for service to your
group. Tiny awards at least weekly; and an “Annual All-Star Supporters
[from other groups] Banquet” modeled after superstar salesperson
banquets.
7. Discuss—A SEPARATE AGENDA ITEM—good and problematic acts of
cross-functional co-operation at every Team Meeting.
Present counterparts in other
functions recognition/awards for
service to your group: Tiny
awards at least weekly. An
“Annual All-Star Supporters
[from other groups] Banquet”
modeled after [and equivalent
to!] superstar salesperson
banquets.
“XFX
Social
Accelerators.”
8. When someone in another function asks for assistance, respond
with … more … alacrity than you would if it were the person in the
cubicle next to yours—or even more than you would for a key external
customer. (Remember, XFX is the key to Customer Retention which is
in turn the key to “all good things.”)
9. Do not bad mouth ... “the damned accountants,” “the bloody HR
guy.” Ever. (Bosses: Severe penalties for this—including public tonguelashings.)
10. Get physical!! “Co-location” may well be the most powerful “culture
change lever.” Physical X-functional proximity is almost a …
guarantee … of remarkably improved co-operation—to aid this one
needs flexible workspaces that can be mobilized for a team in a flash.
11. Formal evaluations. Everyone, starting with the receptionist,
should have a significant XF rating component in their evaluation. (The
“XFX Performance” should be among the Top 3 items in all managers’
evaluations.)
12. Demand XF experience for, especially, senior jobs. For example,
the U.S. military requires all would-be generals and admirals to have
served a full tour in a job whose only goals were cross-functional
achievements.
13. XFX is … PERSONAL … as well as about organizational
effectiveness. PXFX [Personal XFX] is arguably the #1 Accelerant to
personal success—in terms of organizational career, freelancer/Brand
You, or as entrepreneur.
Everyone,
starting with the
receptionist, should have a
significant XFX rating
component in their
evaluation. (The “XFX
Performance” should be
among the Top 3 items in all
managers’ evaluations.)
Formal evaluations.
“His habit was to let the
locals get primary credit—
unheard of! Sometimes he
disappeared into the
woodwork entirely. He had
the whole __PD working
their butts off for him,
including the [temperamental]
Chief.” —close colleague of senior federal law
enforcement officer
fYI
Women’s Negotiating Strengths
*Ability to put themselves in their
counterparties’ shoes
*Comprehensive, attentive and detailed
communication style
*Empathy that facilitates trust-building
*Curious and attentive listening
*Less competitive attitude
*Strong sense of fairness and ability to persuade
*Proactive risk manager
*Collaborative decision-making
Source: Horacio Falcao, cover story, World Business, “Say It Like a Woman:
Why the 21st-century negotiator will need the female touch”
Loser:
“He’s such a
suck-up!”
Winner:
“He’s such a
suck-down.”
George Crile (Charlie Wilson’s War) on Gust
“He had
become something of a
legend with these
people who manned the
underbelly of the
Agency [CIA].”
Avarkotos’ strategy:
“I got to
know his
secretaries.”
“I got to know his [Icahn’s]
secretaries. They are always
the keepers of everything.”
—Dick Parsons, then CEO Time Warner,
on dealing with an Icahn threat to his company
“Parsons is not a visionary.
He is, instead, a master in
the art of relationship.”
—Bloomberg Businessweek (03.11)
“Suck down
for
success!”
S = ƒ(#&DR; -2L, -3L, -4L, I&E)
Success is a function of: Number and depth of relationships
2, 3, and 4 levels down inside and outside the organization
S = ƒ(SD>SU)
Sucking down is more important than sucking up—the idea is
to have the [your] entire organization working for you.
S = ƒ(#non-FF, #non-FL)
Number of friends not in my function
S = ƒ(#XFL/m)
Number of lunches with colleagues in other
functions per month
S = ƒ(#FF)
Number of friends in the finance organization
75%* of
effective project
management is
political mastery!
Believe it!
SIP: A ll success is a
Matter of
implementation.
All implementation is
a matter of politics.
“I believe that it is more
important for a leader to be
trained in psychiatry than
cybernetics. The head of a big
company recently said to me, ‘I
am no longer a Chairman. I have
had to become a psychiatric
nurse.’ Today’s executive is
under pressure unknown to the
last generation.” —David Ogilvy
Promote into
functional leadership
positions based
primarily on …
temperament.
“Allied commands depend on
mutual confidence
and this confidence is
gained, above all
development
of friendships.”
through the
—General D.D. Eisenhower, Armchair General*
*“Perhaps his most outstanding ability [at West Point]
he made friends and earned
the trust of fellow cadets who came from
widely varied backgrounds; it was a quality that would pay
was the ease with which
great dividends during his future coalition command.”
“In the election in 1994, his smile was
the campaign. That smiling iconic
campaign poster—on billboards, on
highways, on street lamps, at tea
shops and fruit stalls. It told black
voters that he would be their
champion and white voters that he
would be their protector. It was the
smile of the proverb ‘tout comprendre,
c’est tout pardoner’—to understand is
to forgive all. It was political Prozac
for a nervous electorate.”
From “See the Good in Others,” Mandela’s Way:
Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage, by Richard Stengel
#3: What’s
ALWAYS #1.
Conrad Hilton …
Conrad Hilton, at a gala celebrating his
career, was called to the podium and
“What were the
most important
lessons you learned
in your long and
distinguished
career?” His answer …
asked,
“remember
to tuck the
shower curtain
inside the
bathtub.”
You get ’em in the door
with “location, location,
location.” You keep
’em coming back
with the tucked-in
shower curtain.*
*Profit rarely comes from transaction #1;
it is a byproduct of transaction #2, #3, #4 …
is
“Execution
strategy.”
—Fred Malek
“In real life, strategy
is actually very
straightforward. Pick
a general direction
… and implement
like hell.” —Jack Welch
“almost inhuman
disinterestedness in
… strategy” —Josiah Bunting
on
U.S. Grant (from Ulysses S. Grant)
“Costco figured out
the big, simple things
and executed with
total fanaticism.”
—Charles Munger, Berkshire Hathaway
“Execution is
the job of the
business
leader.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“When assessing candidates, the
first thing I looked for was energy
and enthusiasm for execution.
Does she talk about the thrill
of getting things done, the
obstacles overcome, the role
her people played —or does she
keep wandering back to strategy
or philosophy?” —Larry Bossidy, Execution
“I saw that leaders placed too much
emphasis on what some call highlevel strategy, on intellectualizing
and philosophizing, and not enough
on implementation. People would
agree on a project or initiative, and
then nothing would come of it.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“Execution is a
systematic
process
of rigorously
discussing hows and whats,
tenaciously following through, and
ensuring accountability.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/ Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“Realism is
the heart of
execution.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Does/will the next
presentation you
give/review allot more
time to the
process/details of
“implementing” than to
the “analysis of
problem/opportunity”
You beat
yourself!
Sports:
#4: What’s
ALWAYS #1.
“The doctor
interrupts
after …*
*Source: Jerome Groopman, How Doctors Think
18 …
seconds!
[An obsession with] Listening is ... the ultimate mark
of
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
is
is
is
is
...
...
...
...
the heart and soul of Engagement.
the heart and soul of Kindness.
the heart and soul of Thoughtfulness.
the basis for true Collaboration.
the basis for true Partnership.
a Team Sport.
a Developable Individual Skill.* (*Though women
are far better at it than men.)
the basis for Community.
the bedrock of Joint Ventures that work.
the bedrock of Joint Ventures that grow.
the core of effective Cross-functional
Communication* (*Which is in turn Attribute #1 of
organizational effectiveness.)
[cont.]
Respect
.
“I wasn’t bowled over by [David Boies]
intelligence … What impressed me was
that when he asked a question, he waited
He not only
listened … he made me feel
like I was the only person
in the room.”
for an answer.
—Lawyer Kevin _____, on his first,
inadvertent meeting with renowned attorney David Boies, from Marshall
Goldsmith, “The One Skill That Separates,” Fast Company
Could It Be This Simple?
In-effective leaders …
TALK.
Effective leaders …
LISTEN.
Inspiration: Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter,
Liz Wiseman [Some “hard” evidence that effective leaders, in terms of % of
elapsed meeting time, talk less than half as much as less effective leaders.]
Is there a full-bore
training course in
100%
"Listening" for
of employees, CEO
to temps? If not, There
[damn well] ought to be.
"When I was in medical school, I
spent hundreds of hours looking
into a microscope—a skill I never
needed to know or ever use. Yet
I didn't have a single class that
taught me communication or
teamwork skills—something I
need every day I walk into the
hospital.” —Peter Pronovost, Safe Patients,
Smart Hospitals
#5: MBWA.
MBWA
Managing By Wandering Around/HP
General David Petraeus’ “White lines along the road”:
“Secure and serve the population.
Live among the people.
Promote reconciliation.
Move mounted, work dismounted;
situational awareness can only be
achieved by operating face-to-face,
not separated by ballistic glass.
Walk.*”
—David Petraeus, Men’s Journal (06.08)
* “I love that last one for its simplicity.” —David Petraeus
“The first and greatest
imperative of command
is to be present in
person. Those who
impose risk must be
seen to share it.”
—John Keegan, The Mask of Command
“Tom, let me tell you the
definition of a good lending
officer. After church on Sunday,
on the way home with his
family, he takes a little detour
to drive by the factory he just
lent money to. Doesn’t go in or
any such thing, just drives by
and takes a look.”
“I call 60 CEOs
to
wish them happy
New Year. …”
[in
the first week of the year]
—Hank Paulson, former CEO, Goldman Sachs
(and U.S. Treasury Secretary)
Dov Frohman:
Dov Frohman:
The “50% Rule”
“Daydream!”
You = Your
calendar*
*The calendar
never
lies.
Your calendar
knows Precisely
what you
really care about.
Do you????
“Dennis, you need a …
‘To-don’t ’
List !”
Don’t >
Do*
* “Don’ting” must be systematic >
WILLPOWER
“If there is any one
‘secret’ to effectiveness,
it is concentration.
Effective executives do
first things first … and
they do one thing at a
time.” —Peter Drucker
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
“It is necessary
for the President
to be the
nation’s No. 1
actor.”
FDR
“It had been a scene that those in the room
would long remember. Washington had
performed his role to perfection. It was not
enough that a leader look the part; by
Washington’s rules he must know how to act it
John
Adams would later describe
Washington approvingly as one
of the ‘great actors of the
age’.” —David McCullough, 1776, on Washington, when
with self-command and precision.
the situation was most dire, convincing the British that
the Americans were a force to be reckoned with
“You must
be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
Gandhi
“I am a
dispenser of
enthusiasm.”
—Ben Zander
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Make it fun to work
at your agency. …
Encourage
exuberance. Get rid
of sad dogs who
spread doom.”
—David Ogilvy
“The leader must have
infectious optimism. …
The final test of a leader
is the feeling you have
when you leave his
presence after a
conference. Have you a
feeling of uplift and
confidence?”
—Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery
Sadly, passion is not a
word often heard in
the elephant
organizations, nor in
schools, where it can
seem disruptive.”
—Charles Handy, Alchemists
“radiated
an almost
transcendent
happiness.”
Ronald Reagan:
—Lou Cannon, Reagan biographer
“People want to be part of
something larger than
themselves. They want to be
part of something they’re
really proud of, that they’ll
fight for, sacrifice for ,
trust.”
—Howard Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09.05)
“I never, ever thought of myself
I was
interested in
creating things
I would be
proud of.”
as a businessman.
—Richard Branson
“You’ve got to
be able to see
the beauty in a
hamburger
bun.”
—Ray Kroc
“Storytelling
is the core
of culture.”
—Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch,
College Inc., and Museumworld, James Twitchell
Although good business
cases are developed through
the use of numbers, they are
typically approved on the
basis of a story. Storytelling can
translate those dry and abstract numbers
into compelling pictures of a leader’s
goals. I saw it at the World Bank [where
Denning was a senior executive] and have seen it in
scores of other large organizations.”
—Stephen Denning, The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling:
Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative
“Being aware of
yourself and how you
affect everyone around
you is what
distinguishes a superior
leader.” —Edie Seashore (Strategy +
Business #45)
“Leadership is self-knowledge. Successful
leaders are those who are conscious about
their behavior and the impact it has on the
people around them. They are willing to
examine what behaviors of their own may
be getting in the way. … The toughest
We
can’t effectively lead
others unless we can lead
ourselves.” —Betsy Myers, Take the Lead:
person you will ever lead is yourself.
Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself
and Everyone Around You
“How can a high-level leader like _____ be so out
of touch with the truth about himself? It’s more
common than you would imagine. In fact, the
higher up the ladder a leader climbs,
the less accurate his self-assessment is
likely to be. The problem is an acute lack of
feedback [especially on people issues].”
—Daniel Goleman (et al.), The New Leaders
"Everyone thinks
of changing the
world, but no one
thinks of changing
himself"
- Leo Tolstoy
"You will never change
your life until you change
something you do daily.
The secret of your
success is found in your
daily routine." -- John C. Maxwell
#6: I’m NOT
Kidding.
Bitch all you
want, but
meetings
are what you
[boss] do!
Meetings = #1
leadership
opportunity
#1 thing bosses
do. Therefore, 100% of those
Meetings are
EXCELLENCE.
ENTHUSIASM. TEMPO.
WORK-OF-ART. DAMN IT.
meetings:
Every meeting that
does not stir the imagination
and curiosity of attendees and
increase bonding and cooperation and engagement
and sense of worth and
motivate rapid action and
enhance enthusiasm is a
permanently lost opportunity.
Meeting:
“Theater of
inquiry and
persuasion and
motivation and
engagement and
enhanced
teamwork”
Meeting:
FYI: This is … not
… a rant about
“conducting
better meetings.”
#7: K = R = P
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike
deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay,
American Statesman (1777-1852)
"Let's not forget that small
emotions are the great
captains of our lives."—Van Gogh
“When dealing with people,
remember you are not dealing
with creatures of logic, but
with creatures of emotion,
creatures bristling with
prejudice and motivated by
pride and vanity.” —Dale Carnegie
“I denied myself the pleasure of contradicting him
abruptly and of showing immediately some
absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I
began by observing that in certain cases or
circumstances his opinion would be right, but that
in the present case there ‘appeared’ or ‘seemed to
me’ some difference, etc. The conversation
I engaged in went more pleasantly; the
modest way in which I proposed my
opinions procured them a readier reception
and less contradiction; I had less
mortification when I was found to be in
the wrong, and I more easily prevailed
with others to give up their mistakes
and join with me when I happened to be
in the right.” —Benjamin Franklin
139,380 former
patients from 225 hospitals:
Press Ganey Assoc:
none
of THE top 15 factors
determining Patient Satisfaction
referred to patient’s health outcome.
Instead: directly related to Staff
Interaction; directly correlated with
Employee Satisfaction
Source: Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton, Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
“There is a misconception that supportive interactions require
more staff or more time and are therefore more costly.
Although labor costs are a substantial part of any hospital
budget, the interactions themselves add nothing to the
Kindness is
free.
budget.
Listening to patients or answering
their questions costs nothing. It can be argued that negative
interactions—alienating patients, being non-responsive to
their needs or limiting their sense of control—can be very
costly. … Angry, frustrated or frightened patients may be
combative, withdrawn and less cooperative—requiring far
more time than it would have taken to interact with them
initially in a positive way.”
Source: Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton,
Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
(Griffin Hospital/Derby CT; Planetree Alliance)
K=R=P
Kindness =
Repeat Business =
Profit.
"Appreciative words are
the most powerful force
for good on earth.”
—George W. Crane, physician, columnist
“The two most powerful
things in existence:
a kind word and a
thoughtful gesture.”
—Ken Langone, co-founder, Home Depot
“I regard apologizing as the
most magical, healing,
restorative gesture human
beings can make. It is the
centerpiece of my work with
executives who want to get
better.” —Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You
Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become
Even More Successful.
Toro,
the lawn mower folks, reduced the
average cost of settling a claim from
$115,000 in 1991 to $35,000 in 2008—
and the company hasn’t been to trial in
the last 15 years!
With a new and forthcoming policy on apologies …
The VA hospital in Lexington, Massachusetts, developed an
approach, totally uncharacteristic in healthcare, to apologizing
for errors—even when no patient request or claim was made.
In 2000, the systemic mean VA hospital
malpractice settlement throughout the
United States was $413,000; the
Lexington VA hospital settlement
number was $36,000 —and there were far fewer
per patient claims to begin with.)
Source: John Kador, Effective Apology
Relationships
(of all varieties):
THERE
ONCE WAS A TIME WHEN A
THREE-MINUTE
PHONE CALL WOULD
HAVE AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE
DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT RESULTED
IN A COMPLETE RUPTURE.*
*divorce, loss of a BILLION $$$ aircraft sale, etc., etc.
THE PROBLEM IS
RARELY/NEVER THE
PROBLEM. THE
RESPONSE TO THE
PROBLEM INVARIABLY
ENDS UP BEING THE
REAL PROBLEM.*
*PERCEPTION IS ALL THERE IS!
Comeback
[big, quick response]
>>
Perfection
Edward VII
B. Franklin
gen Clintongen CornwallisYorktown
Or Not:
“Berezovsky … came under attack from the newly
powerful Primakov, and was shunned by most of the
Putin made a point of
attending Berezovsky’s wife’s
birthday party. Berezovsky repaid
Putin by championing his
candidacy to run the F.S.B.,
Russia’s secret police, formerly the
K.G.B., and ultimately by
suggesting that the Family make
him president. To sum up, the man’s qualifications
political elite.
were: he did not take a bribe from a car dealership and had
been unafraid to go to a party for an acquaintance who had
fallen into disfavor.” —”Dead Soul,” Vanity Fair, October 2008
“If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM culture head-
on, I probably wouldn’t have. My bias coming in was toward
strategy, analysis and measurement. In comparison,
changing the attitude and behaviors of hundreds of
[Yet] I
came to see in my time at IBM
that culture isn’t just one
thousands of people is very, very hard.
aspect of the game —it is
the game.”
—Lou Gerstner,
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance
Read this …
Influence:
Science and
Practice
—Robert Cialdini
#8: We Are
What We Eat
“You will become
like the five people
you associate with
the most—this can
be either a blessing
or a curse.”
—Billy Cox
We
are What We
Eat/We Are the
company
we keep
The “Hang Out Axiom I”:
Measure/Manage: Portfolio “Strangeness”/Quality
Staff
Consultants
Vendors
Out-sourcing Partners (#, Quality, Diversity)
Innovation Alliance Partners
Customers
Competitors (who we “benchmark” against)
Strategic Initiatives
Product Portfolio (Line extension v. Leap)
IS/IT Projects
HQ Location
Lunch Mates
Language
Board
Etc.
The “We are what we eat”/
“We are who we hang out with”
Axiom: At its core, every (!!!)
relationship-partnership decision
(employee, vendor, customer, etc,
etc) is a strategic decision about:
“Innovate,
‘Yes’ or ‘No’ ”
“Futuredefining customers may
account for only 2% to
3% of your total, but
CUSTOMERS:
they represent a
crucial window on the
future.”
—Adrian Slywotzky, Mercer Consultants
“There is an
ominous downside to
strategic supplier
relationships. An SSR supplier is
SUPPLIERS:
not likely to function as any more
than a mirror to your organization.
Fringe suppliers that offer
innovative business practices need
not apply.” —Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat
the Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost
Customers, and Rogue Employees
“Don’t
benchmark,
futuremark!”
Impetus: “The future is already here; it’s just
not evenly distributed” —William Gibson
“Companies have
defined so much ‘best
practice’ that they are
now more or less
identical.”
—Jesper Kunde, Unique Now ... or Never
“While everything may
it is
also increasingly
the same.”
be better,
—Paul Goldberger, “The Sameness of Things,” New York Times
“The short road
to ruin is to
emulate the
methods of your
adversary.”
— Winston Churchill
“The best swordsman
in the world doesn’t need to
fear the second best swordsman
in the world; no, the person for him to be
COMPETITORS:
afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has
never had a sword in his hand before; he
doesn’t do the thing he ought to do, and so the
expert isn’t prepared for him; he does the thing
he ought not to do and often it catches the
expert out and ends him on the spot.”
—Mark Twain
“Diverse groups of problem solvers—groups
of people with diverse tools—consistently
outperformed groups of the best and the
brightest. If I formed two groups, one
random (and therefore diverse) and one
consisting of the best individual performers,
the first group almost always did better. …
Diversity trumped
ability.”
—Scott Page, The Difference:
How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups,
Firms, Schools, and Societies
Diversity … per se
… is a key … maybe
the key … to
effective and
innovative
decision making.
“Where do good new ideas
come from? That’s simple!
From differences. Creativity
comes from unlikely
juxtapositions. The best
way to maximize differences
is to mix ages, cultures and
disciplines.” —Nicholas Negroponte, MIT Media Lab
“Who’s the most
interesting person
you’ve met in the
last 90 days? How
do I get in touch
with them?”
—Fred Smith
Once a month on, say, a Friday, invite
somebody intriguing, in any field,
to have lunch with your gang.
“Freak
Fridays”
Call it:
Vanity Fair:
“What is your most marked
characteristic?”
Mike Bloomberg:
“Curiosity.”
Forget>“Learn”
“The problem is never
how to get new,
innovative thoughts
into your mind, but
how to get the old
ones out.”
—Dee Hock
#9: WTTMSW
READY.
FIRE!
AIM.
H. Ross Perot (vs “Aim! Aim! Aim!” /EDS vs GM/1985)
“Burt Rutan wasn’t a fighter jock; he was an engineer who
had been asked to figure out why the F-4 Phantom was flying
pilots into the ground in Vietnam. While his fellow engineers
attacked such tasks with calculators, Rutan insisted on
considering the problem in the air. A near-fatal flight not
only led to a critical F-4 modification, it also confirmed for
Rutan a notion he had held ever since he had built model
The way to make a
better aircraft wasn’t to sit
around perfecting a design, it was
to get something up in the air and
see what happens, then try to fix
whatever goes wrong.”
airplanes as a child.
—Eric Abrahamson & David Freedman, Chapter 8, “Messy Leadership,”
from A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder
/45
Lesson45:
WTTMSW
Whoever
Tries
The
Most
Stuff
Wins
“We made mistakes, of course. Most of them were
omissions we didn’t think of when we initially wrote the
software. We fixed them by doing it over and over, again
and again. We do the same today. While our competitors
are still sucking their thumbs trying to make the design
perfect, we’re already on prototype version
#5.
By
the time our rivals are ready with wires and screws, we
are on version
#10. It gets back to
planning versus acting: We act
from day one; others plan how
to plan—for months.”
—Bloomberg by Bloomberg
Culture of Prototyping
“Effective prototyping may
the most
valuable core
competence an
be
innovative organization can
hope to have.” —Michael Schrage
Think about It!?
Innovation =
Reaction to the
Prototype
Source: Michael Schrage
“Experiment
fearlessly”
Source: BusinessWeek, “Type A Organization Strategies:
How to Hit a Moving Target”—Tactic
#1
“relentless
trial and
error”*
*Cornerstone of effective approach to “rebalancing” company
portfolios in the face of changing and uncertain global
economic conditions (Wall Street Journal, 11.08.10)
“Demo
or die!”
Source: This was the approach championed by Nicholas Negroponte
which vaulted his MIT Media Lab to the forefront of IT-multimedia
innovation. It was his successful alternative to the traditional
MIT-academic “publish or perish.” Negroponte’s rapid-prototyping
version was emblematic of the times and the pace and the enormity
of the opportunity. (NYTimes/0426.11)
Demos!
Heroes!
Stories!
“the
solution”*
*“Innovation grants,” etc.
Source: Scott Bedbury
“Venture”
fund: Gerstner/Amex,
Dow/Marriott, Grove/Intel,
DuPont/AI, Bedbury/
Starbucks, etc.
Read It
Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes:
Whoever Makes
the Most Mistakes
Wins: The Paradox
of Innovation
“Fail.
Forward.
Fast.”
High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania
“Fail faster.
Succeed
Sooner.”
David Kelley/IDEO
“Reward
excellent failures.
Punish mediocre
successes.”
—Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
"Barn's burnt
down … now I
can see the
moon."
—Masahide, Japanese poet
The Ultimate “Try
it” Strategy:
The case for
decentralization
“Rose gardeners face a choice every spring. The long-term fate of a rose garden
depends on this decision. If you want to have the largest and most glorious roses of the
neighborhood, you will prune hard. This represents a policy of low tolerance and tight
control. You force the plant to make the maximum use of its available resources, by
Pruning hard is a
dangerous policy in an unpredictable environment. Thus, if
you are in a spot where you know nature may play tricks
on you, you may opt for a policy of high tolerance. You will
never have the biggest roses, but you have a muchenhanced chance of having roses every year. You will
achieve a gradual renewal of the plant. In short, tolerant
pruning achieves two ends: (1) It makes it easier to cope
with unexpected environmental changes. (2) It leads to a
continuous restructuring of the plant. The policy of
tolerance admittedly wastes resources—the extra buds
drain away nutrients from the main stem. But in an
unpredictable environment, this policy of tolerance makes
the rose healthier in the long run.” —Arie De Geus, The Living Company
putting them into the the rose’s ‘core business.’
The True Logic* of Decentralization:
6 divisions = 6 “tries”
6 divisions = 6 DIFFERENT leaders =
6 INDEPENDENT “tries” = Max
probability of “win”
6 divisions = 6 very DIFFERENT
leaders = 6 very INDEPENDENT
“tries” = Max probability of “far
out”/”3-sigma” “win”
*“Driver”: Law of Large #s
Decentralization
vs Centralization
= “That’s All
There Is” (from childrearing
101 to the Federalist Papers to Org.2011)
Innovation Enemy
#1
I.C.D.
Inherent/Inevitable/
Immutable Centralist Drift
Note 1:
Note 2: Jim Burke’s 1-word vocabulary: “No.”
“Best practice” =
ZERO Standard
Deviation
#10: What’s
ALWAYS #1.
“You have to
treat your
employees like
customers.”
—Herb Kelleher,
upon being asked his “secret to success”
Source: Joe Nocera, NYT, “Parting Words of an Airline Pioneer,”
on the occasion of Herb Kelleher’s retirement after 37 years at Southwest
Airlines (SWA’s pilots union took out a full-page ad in USA Today
thanking HK for all he had done) ; across the way in Dallas, American
Airlines’ pilots were picketing AA’s Annual Meeting)
"If you want staff to
give great service,
give great service to
staff."
—Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman's
“I put this
first …”
“A Nice Place to Work
“Some of our people spend their
entire working lives in our
agency. We do our damnedest to
make it a happy experience. I
put this first, believing that
superior service to our clients,
and profits for our stockholders,
depend on it. …”
—David Ogilvy, on Ogilvy & Mather’s corporate culture
EMPLOYEES FIRST, CUSTOMERS SECOND:
Turning Conventional Management Upside Down
Vineet Nayar/CEO/HCL Technologies
“Business has to give people enriching,
or it's
simply not
worth
doing.”
rewarding lives …
—Richard Branson
Brand =
Talent.
Our Mission
To develop and manage talent;
to apply that talent,
throughout the world,
for the benefit of clients;
to do so in partnership;
to do so with profit.
WPP
… no less than
Cathedrals
in which the full and
awesome power of the
Imagination and Spirit and
native Entrepreneurial flair
of diverse individuals is
unleashed in passionate
pursuit of … Excellence.
Oath of Office: Managers/Servant Leaders
Our goal is to serve our customers brilliantly and profitably over
the long haul.
Serving our customers brilliantly and profitably over the long
haul is a product of brilliantly serving, over the long haul, the
people who serve the customer.
Hence, our job as leaders—the alpha and the omega and
everything in between—is abetting the sustained growth and
success and engagement and enthusiasm and commitment to
Excellence of those, one at a time, who directly or indirectly
serve the ultimate customer.
We—leaders of every stripe—are in the “Human Growth and
Development and Success and Aspiration to Excellence
business.”
“We” [leaders] only grow when “they” [each and every one of our colleagues] are
growing.
“We” [leaders] only succeed when “they” [each and every one of our colleagues]
are succeeding.
“We” [leaders] only energetically march toward Excellence when
“they” [each and every one of our colleagues] are energetically marching
toward Excellence.
Period.
“The leaders of Great
Groups … love talent
… and know where to find
revel in …
the talent of
others.”
it. They …
—Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman,
Organizing Genius
PARC’s Bob Taylor:
“Connoisseur
of Talent”
2/year =
legacy.
Promotion Decisions
“life and
death
decisions”
Source: Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management
From
sweaters to
people!
Les Wexner:
“In most companies, the Talent Review
Process is a farce. At GE, Jack Welch and
his two top HR people visit each division for
a day. They review the top 20 to 50 people
by name. They talk about Talent Pool
The Talent
Review Process is a contact
sport at GE; it has the
intensity and the importance
of the budget process at
most companies.” —Ed Michaels,
strengthening issues.
War for Talent
Evaluating people =
#1 differentiator
Source: Jack Welch/Jeff Immelt on GE’s
strategic skill (
!!!!)
#1
“Development can help great
but if
I had a dollar to
spend, I’d spend 70
cents getting the
right person in the
door.”
people be even better—
—Paul Russell, Director, Leadership and Development, Google
What do managers do for a living?
Help!
Right?
How many of us could call ourselves “professional helpers,” meaning that we have
studied—like a professional mastering her musical craft—“helping”? (Not many, I’d
judge.)
Ed Schein:
Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help
Last chapter: 7 “principles.” E.g.:
PRINCIPLE 2: “Effective Help Occurs When the Helping Relationship Is
Perceived to Be Equitable.
PRINCIPLE 4: “Everything You Say or Do Is an Intervention that
Determines the Future of the Relationship..
PRINCIPLE 5: “Effective Helping Begins with Pure Inquiry.
PRINCIPLE 6: “It Is the Client Who Owns the Problem.”*
(Words matter!! Read a quote from NFL player-turned lawyer-turned professional football coach,
calling his players “my clients.”
(*Love the idea that the employee is a “Client” ! )
Employee as Client!
“Helping” is what we [leaders] “do” for a living!
STUDY/PRACTICE “helping” as you would neurosurgery!
(“Helping”
is your neurosurgery!)
[MUST] Start with these two:
*Crucial Conversations
—Kerry Patterson, Joseph
Grenny, Ron McMillan,
Al Switzler
*Crucial Confrontations
—Kerry Patterson, Joseph
Grenny, Ron McMillan,
Al Switzler
Why Not?
There is more
than one way to
skin a cat!*
REQUIRES
*Every project
(if you’re smart) an
outside look by one/some Seriously Weird Cat/s
—in pursuit of whacked-out options.
14,000
20,000
14,000/eBay
20,000/Amazon
30/Craigslist
In Any Event ..
Excellence.
Always.
If not Excellence,
what?
If not Excellence
now, when?