Comments

The secret to performance and productivity improvement at any level in any type organization is in this list. The 4 for 40 would make great values on which to build a corporate culture conducive to trust teamwork and continuous performance improvement. The remaining are the personal and company "action items" that will enable one to integrate the 4 for 40 core values credibly in to the day to day way business gets done.

Saw a great article in the 12/2008 Harvard Business Review on the turn-around at Fiat. CEO Sergio Marchionne was said "My job as CEO is not to make business decisions- it is to push managers to be leaders. That attitude and this list in the hands of any "leader" at any level is a performance, productivity, and profitability multiplier.

I would much rather be "Old School" than "New Fool" when it comes to leadership in today's workplace. Thanks Tom for the terrific "back to the basics" tenets for excellence!

Posted by Dave Wheeler at February 23, 2009 6:27 PM

Tom - like Dave I'm a very proud, founder member of "Old School" when it comes to leadership in today's workplace.

I believe you do your best work when you return to the ageless and timeless basics you have been saying and writing since Adam was a boy. Your list of 57 reminds me of ISOE and everything you’ve written or spoken since. The words may be slightly different but the meaning and the message are the same. My guess is you were saying this stuff at college – you have lived a life of searching for excellence. Using a football (soccer) analogy “form is temporary class is permanent.” That’s not to say of course that change and re-invention are not good. But not losing your core message over the years Tom is far more attractive as far as I am concerned – longevity and depth will always beat fashionable fads. Please keep rocking!

Posted by Trevor Gay at February 23, 2009 6:58 PM

Madness57: From Insanity to Lunacy

Posted by C Love at February 23, 2009 7:33 PM

Thank you, TP. I love reminders; they catch us at different times and add further relevant meaning to a particular time.

"Know yourself-far easier said than done."

Here is Georgia O’Keeffe:

"I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality. I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say…in paint."

There seems to be a difference between being "closely concerned" with yourself and knowing your "own individuality." The former is perhaps motivated by excessive ego and the latter by making a difference. Perhaps with the latter, we are better able to be innovative and creative, affecting others and our companies through our talent.

"Pick 'people people.' Select-for-intangibles."

This is great. I also wonder if there is a tangible understanding of what this looks like. How do we best determine these intangibles? Great leaders seem to do this rather intuitively. Others seem to simply judge solely on experience and education. There also seems to be a difference between personality alone and a people's person. The former seems often "concerned" with itself and the latter with others and the advancement of the project, the whole.

Posted by Judith Ellis at February 23, 2009 7:47 PM

Back to basics is great. Now, can we refine, or better yet, simplify the list to a few good takeaways?

Good point Judith. My retirement accounts are very tangible and some items in the list don't translate well to today's market.

Trevor----you are old school my friend and, in my opinion, there's nothing quite like climbing into a '57 convertible Mustang remembering how simple life was a few decades ago. How we could work on the engines of cars being produced, how we could change brake pads on both sides of an axel in 45 minutes. How we could pull radiators and teach our kids (guys and gals) how to fix things and develop solutions to problems. In business, much like a metaphoric automobile, we've overcomplicated the product. I lift the hood on a Mustang today and I don't know what I'm looking at or how it works. Many times when I take the perverbial new car to the dealer, they don't know how it works either.

TP-----Some of the 57 are almost Hollywood. I mean, the whole womenomics and women are the best leaders blah, blah, PC bullshit is a turnoff; much like the over-the-top let's be gay at the Oscars evening last night. Gee, and I wonder why the ratings of the Oscars continue to tank? Can't we just watch something, read something, or live something that doesn't have to be politically correct in today's world, or must we always have an agenda that serves a different purpose or platform.

Ok, I'm done with my platform and thanks for the post.

Posted by Bach Anon at February 23, 2009 10:19 PM

Bach Anon - It seems like all the complication with parts for cars was to prevent us from repairing them ourselves, forcing us back to the dealer. Are parts as durable today? My brother had a convertible mustang when I grew up and I loved it!

Regarding the Oscars, most times I do not catch them, but last night I did. (I love movies. But I typically watch them some two or three years later.) I too did not find the Oscars enjoyable for various reasons. I didn't get through the whole show.

By the way, I like Bach Anon for the first name alone. :-)

Posted by Judith Ellis at February 23, 2009 11:12 PM

Bach, as a first stab at refinement I propose

1. You miss 100% of the tea you don't give
2. Hang out with weird women rulers
3. Smile apologetically
4. Insanely great calendars...

It's not quite there yet I know, but the technique is sound. It's the new fridge poetry.

More seriously, TP people, have you thought of these (maybe plus some) as Oblique Strategies thinking cards? http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/

Posted by RobCH at February 24, 2009 1:38 AM

Trevor Judith 57 points of Brevity! :-)

Posted by patrick at February 24, 2009 3:14 AM

Do you wanna give it another go, patrick? Say 57 words this time? Do you think you can make? I don't know! :-)

Posted by Judith Ellis at February 24, 2009 8:30 AM

I'm still fascinated by "put the customer second" (which Southwest Airlines practices - putting the employee first). I was skeptical about this until I witnessed firsthand the damage done by one company which did take care of external customers but in the process beat up their own associates and especially their frontline & midlevel managers. In so doing they lost some excellent talent.

Posted by John O'Leary at February 24, 2009 11:41 AM

Judith: 57 words start now...

Love
Care
Friends
Passion
Challenge
Understand
Listen
Learn
Believe
Brevity
Plethora
Ideas
Try
Fail
Win
Positive
Active
Always
Persist
Enthuse

Relentless
Pursue
Live
Give
Own
Deliver
Innovate
Design
Freedom
Fail
Measure
Trend
Health
Enough
No
Lead
Think
Different
Stuff
Nonsense

Laugh
Cry
Share
Self
Others
Communicate
Exercise
Smile
Consistent
Manage
Walk
Talk
Options
Recomendation
Read
Customer
Partner

Challenge accepted and some....that was not easy!

P ;-)

Posted by patrick at February 24, 2009 12:07 PM

RobCH---I like the fridge poetry. I like simplicity too.

Judith-----I couldn't agree more. Another example, similar to the Mustang, is my surround sound/TV combo. I dropped a little coin on the system and the tv never worked right. Because the electronics store installed the system, they came out 3 times to try and fix the problem. First they tried to check the wiring scheme to see if something was crossed, next they replaced a receiver in the tv, third they replaced the mother board of the tv. After 3 attempts, they went away saying that's as good as it gets. Not accepting that as a solution, I ended up converting the signal to HDMI and ran the wires on the outside of the system. Guess what, the tv worked like it did in the store. Problem: the wiring, from the install group, was wrong from day one. Now the wall is closed up and it is what it is.

For two years the tv never worked right, the company walked away and said that's as good as it's going to get, and I was left to fix the issue.

The problem I've got now, very similar to the Mustang analogy, is that I have to use multiple remotes for this and that. Very complicated and annoying...

I wonder how many consumers have to accept bad service for what it is because they don't know any better; I also wonder how many companies are capitalizing on consumers because they don't possess the knowledge to protect themselves?

Posted by Bach Anon at February 24, 2009 1:51 PM

The "simple" way is the best way to operate for sure. But the simple way isn't the easy way for the leader trying to change a work environment or culture. You could try to distill the list down to a few... but why bother? That's the beauty of the list...it gives you multiple strategies and action items to get things done. The lower you get in the organization, the more important that becomes.

Dwight Eisenhower was quoted as saying "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Hard work and sacrifice for the leader to get the infrastructure for excellence in place? Yes! Worth the effort when you succeed? Absolutely!

Posted by Dave Wheeler at February 24, 2009 2:26 PM

TP- #44 (Appetite for tough times)...I'm speaking at a conf in Boston in March...as a food and wine nut what two restaurants do I need to hit?
-S

Posted by Scott Swift at February 24, 2009 3:37 PM

patrick - Absolutely awesome! You win!!!! Thank you.

Posted by Judith Ellis at February 24, 2009 3:58 PM

Bach Anon - You might have just had a lemon. It happens. I wonder how many others have had your exact same problem. I also wonder if the companies that used to mostly produce products have affected the manufacturing end of these highly leveraged mammoth companies.

Regarding customer service, there is no excuse for bad service. There is also warranties to consider if you had one. I had such a horror story in dealing with a warranty on a laptop. I completely refused to take no for an answer and this company gave in. I would not.

Posted by Judith Ellis at February 24, 2009 4:08 PM

I read this blog every day, and I can't remember what is meant by #6, 6:15 am. Help?

Posted by John Woodall at February 24, 2009 4:43 PM

Wildness57: From Heinz57_Big_Mac to -$57_Life_Savings

Fear57: From Anger to -$1M_MasterCard_Nirvana_Final_Blowout

Posted by C Love at February 24, 2009 7:03 PM

Excellent list as always.

The idea of the Mittelstands has always appealed to me - I think smaller firms can be driven by the ideals of the people who created them rather than dancing to the shareholder's tune.

There is a lot of concern for them at the moment as they are perhaps more vulnerable to the lack of credit etc from local banking that they have traditionally used.

Posted by PaulH at February 25, 2009 3:26 AM

Very interesting and useful! Senks!

Posted by Alex at February 25, 2009 6:59 AM

john,
we're working on tracking down the '6:15' slide. my recollection offhand is that 6:15 refers to the time in the a.m. when you might have to schedule a meeting. so be it. do it. (more explan. later.)

Posted by erik at February 25, 2009 7:57 AM

Thanks, Erik.

Posted by John Woodall at February 25, 2009 9:53 AM

Poor Customer Service will always beat Customer Apathy and Acceptance!

Posted by Patrick at February 25, 2009 11:23 AM

John,
6:15 a.m. is what Tom refers to as bloody-mindedness. Getting up earlier than the other guy, being at it first thing in the morning, and keeping at it the whole day.

Posted by Shelley Dolley at February 25, 2009 11:23 AM

Mitttlestands are not a goal to be striven toward. Ask most of their owners and they would rather a) sell the business for a huge pile of cash and retire to someplace warm and sunny, or b) be a BIG company with all the plusses that has to offer. Mid-sized companies are that way because there is either not enough business to carry them over the top into BIG companies. The lauded mittlestands often are targets for acquisition.

Posted by BigCoGuy at February 25, 2009 5:13 PM

Mittlestands,

And there are so many examples of middle sized companies that get consumed by these megacompanies that end up failing because of cultural differences. The acquisition craze of the 90's and early 00's filled with blue sky and promises never succeeded like many thought.

Bigger is not better, but more painful if you're into the Freudian connotations.

Posted by Bach Anon at February 25, 2009 7:51 PM

1. You miss 100% of the tea you don't give
2. Hang out with weird women rulers
3. Smile apologetically
4. Insanely great calendars...

Pure genius!

Posted by tom peters at February 26, 2009 12:15 AM

Aw shucks....

Tom, the more purposeful part of my post was to suggest that your team consider packaging these lists as a pack of "thought/action-provoker" cards. Something that a person could dip into at random when they feel themselves locked ino conventional thinking or frozen in the headlights. I'm not a great fan of long lists; there's just too much there for practical application. The list-form (listness, Listkeit?) itself overrides the ideas in it. But used as a thinking tool, to break a mental log-jam or prompt a sudden re-consideration, the ideas work excellently. And if they were available as cards for random selection, as you use your thoughts below the banner at the top of this page, I think they would represent a more appropriate model for Thriving on Chaos than the presumed "order" of a list.

[A small credit inside every pack sold would be quite enough...]

Posted by RobCH at February 26, 2009 1:39 AM

I really like Robch's idea.

It reminds of a book I picked up years ago in a junk shop called mind jogger which basically had you rolling a 20 sided die and using to randomly select texts to help re-frame a problem and think differently about it. If I remember correctly there were 3-4 different categories so you rolled 3-4 times for each problem.

I think a "pack of Tom" would go down very well!

Posted by PaulH at February 26, 2009 3:50 AM

scott swift, some boston food suggestions from a foodie i met last night at a Tweetup.
Torro, spanish tapas, good wine, South End/Washington St.
Radius, $$$ financial district, though there's a good, less pricey bar menu.
Gaslight, Harrison Ave. (i don't know anything more about it.)
Oiishi, sushi, South End/Washington St.

hope this helps a bit.

Posted by erik at February 26, 2009 8:49 AM

I appreciate RobCH's flashcard idea. It is a good one indeed. I also fully accept the fact that we all grasp things differently and flashcards may spark innovation and creativity and may not. The flashcard idea seems akin to the many small books of quotes and aphorisms produced by large bookstores. These small books are still long lists, as the collection of cards or quote of the day, either categorized or randomly chosen. Perhaps it's what we do with them beyond the jolt that matters most. But a mere jumpstart is sometimes needed.

Longer lists, such as Patrick's list of 57 (quite unusual for him) paints a whole picture, whereas RobCH's gives a Birdseye view of a few. (Both are relevant and needed.) Perhaps the importance of flashcards is to have many Birdseye views that are accumulated overtime. This is one ideal of how we learn and retain. Flashcards seem to re-establish the intended message but do not necessarily spark innovation. They can become a mere guessing game. What will it say?

Patrick's long list of 57 allows for a kind of foundation and ingenuity, the possibility of an array of creative pairings again and again. The list is imaginative. A refinement of that list, I could not give. Another one of equal value, even shorter—perhaps. But just any long list long or short one will NEVER do. Patrick's long list is creative, hard, soft, and relevant. His long list tells a story; it sparks other stories--short stories or longer ones. Stories are great for learning, leading and managing.

Posted by Judith Ellis at February 26, 2009 9:26 AM

I just wanted to bring a typo in the powerpoint to somebody's attention. The top of page three, the first item is misnumbered. It's labeled "3.", when it should be "1.". The first three items should be "1, 2, 3" instead of "3, 2, 3" (the way they read now).

Thanks to all (both TP and the regular comment writers) for the continuing education in business culture.

Posted by carikate at March 1, 2009 12:52 PM

Thanks carikate!

Posted by Shelley Dolley at March 1, 2009 5:25 PM