A Spinning Head

It's 10AM EST on November 10 as I write. Last night my trusty Subaru Outback and I chugged into West Tinmouth VT at 10PM—34 hours after having left my Johannesburg hotel.

I was still high from an amazing day. It was the first all-day event I'd had in a while. The event creator-producer in Johannesburg, Ingrid Masters of the Business Results Group, whom I've worked with in various guises for 15 years, says she doesn't see much value in the 90-minute "keynote." "You really can't get serious about the 'take aways,'" I think was the way she put it.

I think she has more of a point than I'd normally admit. I feel that I can "bond" with even a big audience in 90 minutes. But this, the full-day affair, is truly different—it is the love of my professional life. A full day is a micro-lifetime; relationships are painstakingly developed, one literally connects like an old friend by the end of 9 hyper-intense hours, etc. And, of course, with a few key ideas you can dig down 2 or 3 or 4 levels into cases and details and overcoming objections and implementation tactics and priorities. In any event, I had an unmitigated, unadulterated great time; and I hope that a few folks went "back home" with a renewed determination to try a couple of new things—which of course are not truly new, but, rather, old things we all know that are typically overlooked in the heat of pressing events.

As I said to the group, I deeply respect cultural differences (I think I do); but when it comes to the basics of human behavior—e.g., respect, appreciation, decency, or the lack thereof—there are literally ZERO differences among us regardless of our location on the globe. That's my unshakeable belief.

South Africa is not without problems. I hear the same can be said of my beloved USA. I do not shy away from controversy, but I also am not in town—Johannesburg or Chicago or Riyadh—to talk about national politics or policies. My message: You and I in our small way—in our immediate group of 7 or 17 or 77 or 777—can create (or die trying) what, in 1985 in A Passion for Excellence, Nancy Austin and I called a "Pocket of Excellence." There is absolutely ZERO excuse for our wee bit of turf being anything less than a shining star and stellar example of what can be—especially on the people issues, that all
important "first 99%."

(To the last point, here are three of the most profound quotes in my massive collection:
"We do no great things, only small things with great love."—Mother Teresa. "I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble."—Helen Keller. "Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones."—Churchill.)

I went back to the J'burg PowerPoint and added a touch or two to make it slightly more consistent with what actually went down. You'll find attached a new "Final" version.

To my colleagues in Johannesburg ... thanks for a memorable day. It wasn't fair: I had far too much fun for an old guy 7- or 8-thousand miles from home!

5 Days to Compose
45 Years to Prepare

In Natal (Brazil) I decided for the first time in a long time not to use slides for my 90-minute presentation—the client was apparently happy, said my direct contact with the audience was even more intense than usual.

Upon getting home, I decided to transfer my notes to a 1-page word doc. Fact is, it has taken the better part of 5 days (and nights!) to get this 1-pager, which became a 2-pager, but no more, into a form that I can call (for now) final.

Somewhere along the agonizing way I discovered that, in a way, I was attempting to summarize the last 45 years' effort observing good and bad organizations into, yes ... 2 pages.

Have I succeeded? Of course not, but it ain't bad. You will find it here as a blog post; far more important (to me) is the 2-page "EXCELLENCE. Now. EXCELLENCE. Always." pdf that you'll also find.

45 years to prepare.
5 days and nights to write.
2-page product.

All yours ...

EXCELLENCE. Now.
EXCELLENCE. Always.

1. People first, second, third, fourth ... /The "business" of leaders is people: to inspire/engage/provide a trajectory of opportunity—enterprise of every size and type as "cathedral" for human development. "When I hire someone, that's when I go to work for them."—John DiJulius
1A. Customer comes 2nd/If you want to best "Wow!" customers then you must first Wow! those who serve the customers/"If you want staff to give great service, give great service to staff."—Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman's/"You have to treat your employees like customers."—Herb Kelleher, on his #1 "secret to success"
1B. Manager's sole raison d'etre: Make each of my team members successful!
1C. Effective organizations: No bit players!
1D. Appreciation. Acknowledgement. "The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated."—Believe it! A few kind words are often remembered for years!
1E. 1st line supervisors. Every organization's ... most important ... leadership cadre. Productivity is largely determined by the caliber of the 1st line boss. Selection and development of your "sergeants" must become an "obsession"—almost all do a half-assed job.
1F. Weird/There are no "normals" in the history books!/Ensure a healthy supply of oddballs/
Diversity of every flavor = Fresh perspectives! Better decisions!
1G. Memories That Matter. And Don't./"People stuff" sticks with you: You'll look back on the handful of people you developed who proceeded to change the world—and the multitude (if you've earned it) who say, "I grew most when I worked with you." Ever seen a tombstone engraved with the deceased's net worth?

2. You/me: Businesses no longer coddle. You're in charge!/"Brand you"—stand out for something valuable, or else; learn something new every day, or else!/"Distinct or Extinct!"

3. Organizations Exist to Serve. PERIOD.

4. EXECUTION/"Don't forget to tuck the shower curtain into the bath tub."—Conrad Hilton on his "sweat the details" obsession and #1 "success secret"/"Execution is strategy."—Fred Malek/
"Execution is the leader's job #1."—Larry Bossidy
4A. "They do ... ONE big thing at a time."—Drucker on successful managers' #1 trait
4B. Resilience circa 2011: Understand it. Hire for it. Promote for it. Obsess on it.

5. MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around/
Starbucks' Schultz visits 25 stores a week/"In touch" is "not optional"/You = Your calendar/Calendars never lie!
5A. Listening per se = Candidate for Core Value #1/
Listening per se is a profession./"If you don't listen, you don't sell anything."/Docs interrupt patients after ... 18 seconds. And you?
5B. "What do you think?" "How can I help?"—MBWA 8/Eight words, repeated like a mantra while "wandering around," that unlock engagement/success for multitudes.
5C. Innovate by "Hanging out"/"You are what you eat."/"You will become like the five people you associate with the most—a blessing or a curse."/Want "cool"? Expose yourself to cool!/Manage "hanging out" zealously-formally—with customers, interesting outsiders, etc.
5D. K = R = P (Kindness = Repeat business = Profit.) "Hard is soft. Soft is hard."—#1 finding In Search of Excellence. Kindness is "hard"—and pays off in $$$$.
5E. Apology Power—Awesome power: 3-minute "I'm sorry" call heals anything—do it religiously!/"Over-the-top" response to even small booboo strengthens customer relationships!

6. "Little BIG Things"/Focus on "multipliers": Walmart goes to big shopping cart = +50% "big stuff" sales boost!/"Wash your Hands"—save thousands of lives P.A. in hospitals!
6A. "Little BIG Things": SMEs bedrock of all economies. Nurture them. SME's battle cry per George Whalin: "Be the best. It's the only market that's not crowded."

7. Apple > Exxon in market cap courtesy ... DESIGN!/The big "Duh": "Cool beats un- cool!"/Design candidate for "best way to differentiate goods-services in competitive markets."
7A. TGRs/Things Gone Right. Wagon Wheel restaurant, Gill MA—clean restroom with fresh flowers—we remember such touches more or less forever/Manage-measure TGRs.
7B. Scintillating Experiences. Howard Schultz on Starbucks: "At our core, we're a coffee company, but the opportunity we have to extend the brand is beyond coffee; it's entertainment."

8. WOMEN Buy! WOMEN Rule! WOMEN's World! Women buy 80% of everything—$28T world market/"Why Warren Buffett Invests Like a Girl"—e.g., studies harder-holds longer-less frenzied buying and selling/Women's leadership style fits 21st century less-hierarchical enterprise./Evidence clear—Women well on the way to 21st century economic domination! Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff at UN: "the century of women."

9. Web-Social Media/"Everyone becomes our valued partner, a member of our community—and watchdog"/The Power of Co-creation—my "Top Biz Book 2010"/SM lynchpin of transformative strategy—for organizations of every shape and size!

10. Value added via transformation from "Customer satisfaction" to "Customer success"—huge difference-opportunity!/E.g., IBM Global Services, from afterthought to $60B/UPS Logistics/MasterCard Advisors/IDEO, help clients create "culture of innovation"/"The Geek Squad"—BestBuy's #1 strategic point of differentiation.

11. Innovation "secret" #1: "Most tries wins."/"A Bias for Action"—excellence trait #1, In Search of Excellence/"Ready. Fire! Aim."—Ross Perot/"Instead of trying to figure out the best way to do something and sticking to it, just try out an approach and keep fixing it."—Bert Rutan/"You miss 100% of the shots you never take."—Wayne Gretzky
11A. Try a lot = Fail a lot/"Fail. Forward. Fast."/"Fail faster, succeed sooner"—David Kelley/"Reward excellent failures, punish mediocre successes."/
Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins—Richard Farson

12. Live WOW!/Zappos creed ... "WOW Customers"/eBay 14,000 employees, Amazon 20,000 employees, Craig's List 30 employees: regardless of issue, Where's your "Wild and Wooly Craig's List Option"?/Final point in superstar adman Kevin Roberts' Credo: "Avoid moderation!"

13. EXCELLENCE is a personal choice ... not an institutional choice!
EXCELLENCE is not an "aspiration"—it's the next five minutes!
13A. EXCELLENCE. Always. If not EXCELLENCE, What?
If not EXCELLENCE Now, When?

Green Is Green!
Not!

For 10 years, I wrote a syndicated column—"On Excellence"—for the Tribune Media Services. It was carried by over a hundred papers—the flagship carrier was the Chicago Tribune. After Steve Jobs' death, one of my old columns surfaced—on Jobs. It appeared on 8 November 1993, when Steve was still "in the wilderness"—before his subsequently triumphant return to Apple.

Herewith, in full ...

On Excellence

Marathoners call it "hitting the wall." You get to a point where you can't go on. But you do. And, miraculously, you come out the other side and finish the race.

Truth is, damn little of merit, in a profession or a hobby, is accomplished without running through a wall or two.

I got to thinking about that while reading Fortune's recent cover story, "America's Toughest Bosses." Some turn "beet red." Others "scream." Some engage in "sadistic" behavior and use tactics that amount to "psychological oppression." While I hardly countenance "Jack Attacks," the tirades by Jack Connors, head of the ad agency Hill Holliday, I also don't believe the best bosses are sweethearts.

The best leaders take their firms and followers to places they've never been before-and, more important, places they never imagined they would reach. The chief's voice may be subdued or, more likely, strident at times. The reason, Fortune acknowledges, is the incredible demands these honchos place, first and foremost, on themselves.

Take Steve Jobs, one of Fortune's seven nasties. I've seen him, in his days at Apple, lose his cool on occasion. Not a particularly pretty sight.

Yet I was thoroughly taken aback by one of Jobs' "excesses," as chronicled by Fortune. A subordinate at Next Computer was showing Jobs shades of green for the company's logo. More precisely, she produced some 37 shades of green before coming upon one that pleased the master. "Oh, come on," the minion recalled thinking, "green is green."

Oh, no, it isn't!

Almost every step Jobs took at Apple (and Next) broke the mold; moreover, it defied industry tradition as set by the all-powerful, undisputed master of the universe (IBM). To say Jobs was fighting an uphill battle is to suggest that Charles Lindbergh's historic flight across the Atlantic was "challenging." Jobs was reviled and ridiculed. Yet he reinvented the computer world, in a way that makes Bill Gates' more recent contributions at Microsoft seem meager by comparison.

How did Jobs do it? By worrying about which shade of green was "right." He triumphed with the Apple II. Then the Macintosh. It was precisely his stratospheric standards ("insanely great" was a common Jobsism in days past) that allowed him and his enormously spirited teams to push past the existing frontier time and time again.

No, sir. Green is not green. Not if you're reinventing the planet. Which is not to applaud his tirades. But it is to suggest that for every disaffected Apple or Next employee burned by Jobs, there are probably 10 who by age 28 achieved Neil Armstrong-like lifetime highs at his side. Perhaps the bitterness of some stems from the subliminal realization they'll never soar so high again. It's a nightmare for a 28-year-old software designer, just as it is for 30-year-old Michael Jordan.

My two best bosses were my two toughest bosses. Neither was a screamer, although one came reasonably close. Both practiced psychological terrorism-though neither knew he was doing so.

Both set mercilessly high standards for themselves. And neither believed in barriers to achievement, including acts of God (which were seen simply as opportunities to demonstrate one's mettle as never before).

Both sent me home screaming. I recall literally a year of just about non-stop headaches in one case.

It doesn't jibe with the perfectly balanced life. But I'll tell you, I learned more, faster, from these two than ever before or since.

The perfect boss is, of course, aware of individual differences and knows exactly how far to push each individual to "attain maximum performance," or some such ideal.

Except I very much doubt bosses like that exist. Those with shockingly high standards undoubtedly cause casualties among their followers. Yet without these outrageous pioneers, we wouldn't get anywhere.

Am I callous? Yes and no. To countenance, under any circumstances, the infliction of pain is callous. But to fail to understand that no epic bridge or dam has ever been built, or fighter aircraft tested, without casualties is to fail to comprehend the real world of high-performance anything.

Fortune quotes experts who say these executive thugs suffer from low self-awareness. I'm sure that's true, and perhaps the toughies would benefit from counseling by a trusted peer (unlikely) or elder (slightly more likely) who would clue them in on the havoc they've left in their wake.

But, let's face it. If these chiefs were thoroughly self-aware they would probably not realize how insane (literally) their towering quests are. And the world would be a poorer place for it.

Skill/Goal #1:
"Adaptive" Organizations

There is a lot of talk about "adaptive organizations," as there should be. In these perilous and fast-changing times, adaptivity is arguably Skill/Goal #1—and the bones of those, old and young, who failed to adapt litter the landscape.

Books can be and have been and will be written about the topic. Dozens of 'em. But I want to pound a stake into the ground. I doubtless wildly over-simplify, but I insist that there is a one-variable answer to the adaptivity issue—moreover, treatment of that variable is "the" answer to this conundrum and it has been with us, unchanged, for eons. It has been the determining success-fail, life-death factor for companies and armies alike.

In short: Adaptivity is more or less a 100% function of the workforce and how it is recruited and developed and encouraged and appreciated—or not.

Adaptive organizations will have workforces which ...

*Are hired for attitude and character and proven teamwork as much or more than for skill
*Are respected and trusted and visibly appreciated and celebrated
*Are in on pretty much everything in an environment of information sharing and transparency
*Are trained and re-trained ad infinitum—you can, in effect, never spend too much time or money on training and re-training
*Treat "learning new stuff"—each and every day—as a near holy responsibility
*Believe that every one of us and every outsider has something worthy to teach us
*Are routinely exposed to an "insane" variety of outsiders who offer constant stimulation and direct challenges to conventional organizational/marketplace wisdom
*Are given the autonomy (with concomitant accountability) to and encouragement to "try it," almost any "it," at the drop of a hat—and then try it and try it again and again
*Are guaranteed that "useful failures" are cheered rather than jeered
*Are bound by a coda that shouts "good enough is never good enough"
*Are all "dreamers with deadlines," committed to pursuit of the novel and disruptive—and equally committed to flawless and timely execution
*Laugh a lot at themselves and their foibles and pratfalls
*Are, while civil to a fault, irreverent about damn near anything other than integrity and decency
*Are responsible for each other's mentoring and growth
*Believe that their role—each and everyone—is to serve, to serve each other and to serve each member of our family of organizations (vendors, customers, communities, etc.)
*Are diverse to a fault—not legalistically diverse, but from every background imaginable
*Are insistent that each and every one is treated as an utterly indispensable member
of the team—there are no bit players
*Relentlessly pursue no less than EXCELLENCE in all we do, in tough times even more than in times of economic good health

And that's it!
(Or some list more or less like this.)

Of course the above requires inspired leadership which truly puts people first.
Blah.
Blah.
Blah.

Bottom line: If the workforce encapsulates the above ideas—adaptivity will be virtually automatic and a walk in the park.* (*Of course it won't be any such thing—but presumably you get the drift.)

FYI/I repeat: This is an incredibly un-new idea. (It's achievement is, alas, exceedingly unusual—but it has unmistakably been "the secret" for ages.)

Translation (if I was unclear):

A soaring vision is desirable.
An effective strategy is important.
Super-processes are a necessity.

But in the end, it's all about ... THE PEOPLE!*

*It's ALWAYS all about ... THE PEOPLE!

[Ed. This blog is also available as a PDF: "Adaptive" Organizations.]

(Above and below, taking trip #1 in my new 12-foot Vermont Packboat amidst fall foliage on Lake St. Catherine. Photo courtesy Susan Sargent; boat designed and built by Adirondack Guideboat, North Ferrisburgh VT.)

TLBT Video #68
Excellence: It Can Happen Anywhere

Now at YouTube, the latest video of The Little BIG Things Video Series. Tom tells how he found an answer to the question, "But how can what you describe work in my little shop?"

You can find the video in the right-hand column of our front page, or watch it here (Time: 2 minutes 19 seconds). Also available, a PDF transcript of the video's content: Excellence: It Can Happen Anywhere.

Excellence Now eBooks

It's no secret that Tom's passion is Excellence. What better subject matter for a series of ebooks, then? We're excited to announce that we're working with New Word City to publish just that: a series of ebooks about Excellence. The series is titled Excellence Now and will cover Excellence throughout a wide range of topics, from innovation to talent to, well, all things Excellent.

We're having a great time experimenting with ways to present Tom's oeuvre in digital format. For now, the ebook series is available for consumption on your iPhone, iPad, and through iTunes on any computer.

Much more digital content is in the works (ebooks, apps, etc.), so check back from time to time. For now, we'll start you off with the eponymous flagship ebook, Excellence Now. It's thoroughly inspirational and beautifully designed. If this doesn't light a fire under you to strive harder for Excellence in your work, we can't imagine what would. Enjoy!

Size Matters

[Our guest blogger is Cool Friend Steve Yastrow. He's an author, speaker, consultant, and we've enjoyed his work for many years. Find out more about him at Yastrow.com.]

In a recent post, Tom quoted David Lascelles to show how corporate mergers are contrary to nature. Lascelles uses bees as an example, relating that bee colonies split into separate colonies as they grow, before becoming too big. Lascelles says that nature is more about "growth, fragmentation, and dispersal" than it is about merging. "What the bees are telling us is that the corporate world has got it all wrong."

Beyond Lascelles's bees, there is another example, even closer to home, to demonstrate this point: humans.

For about 90% of the 200,000 years we have been anatomically modern humans we lived in bands that maxed out at about 150 people. When our groups started to grow beyond 150 people, we split into smaller groups that then continued to grow on their own, until they once again split. Anthropologist Robin Dunbar says that this number of 150 was meaningful: It represents the maximum number of relationships each of us can have with other people. The "Dunbar Number," as it is called, is a natural limit based on our cognitive capacity. (Dunbar shows that other primates, such as chimps, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas, have proportionally smaller group sizes based on their smaller brains.)

Then, about 12,000 years ago we started to settle down into a sedentary "civilized" lifestyle, and shortly thereafter developed agriculture. This led us to live in larger groups, well past Dunbar's limit of 150 people, eventually leading to the urban centers we see today.

Although we usually think of the transition to agriculture and civilization as wonderful progress, it isn't so simple. In his book, Pandora's Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization, Spencer Wells paints a very vivid picture of the ills that civilized life has brought us. Wells describes archaeological evidence that shows how human size, health, and life expectancy actually decreased after the transition to settled living and agriculture. (Wells says that life expectancy for humans who made it past childhood didn't catch up with hunter-gatherer levels until the 19th century.) He claims that warfare, mental illness, and social strife, in addition to many diseases, are all byproducts of the unnatural situations we have lived in for the past 10,000 years. We evolved to live one way, and now are trying to live another way. What we see every day as our natural setting is, in fact, a very unnatural way for us to live.

So, if we are looking for evidence from nature that our belief in corporate mergers and unchecked growth is misplaced, Lascelles's bees are only the starting point. We can also look into the not-so-distant mirror of our own history and recognize that our real success on this planet has been based on small, nimble groups who "spin off" new groups before growing too big.

Gospel!

I have about 3K slides in my "Master Presentation." These are either "the most important," or, surely, in the Top 1%:

Arie De Geus, The Living Company (father of "scenario planning" at Royal Dutch Shell): "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 putting them into the rose's 'core business.' 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 much-enhanced 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."

David Lascelles, Co-director of The Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation [UK]: "Since merger mania is now the rage, what lessons can the bees teach us? A simple one: Merging is not in nature. [Nature's] process is the exact opposite: one of growth, fragmentation and dispersal. There is no megalomania, no merging for merging's sake. The point is that unlike corporations, which just get bigger, bee colonies know when the time has come to split up into smaller colonies which can grow value faster. What the bees are telling us is that the corporate world has got it all wrong."

ISOE In <140 Characters

In response to a Tweet, I summarized In Search of Excellence—and thence the last 30 years of my professional life—in less than 140 characters.

In Search of Excellence basics in 127 characters including quotation marks and spaces:

"Cherish your people, cuddle your customers, wander around, 'try it' beats 'talk about it,' pursue excellence, tell the truth."

Q.E.D.

Twitter Takes

Success in 140 characters: Attack EVERY project you do with Reckless ENTHUSIASM and a Passionate Commitment to EXCELLENCE!

Leadership in 140 characters: Energy. Enthusiasm. Passion. "People first" in her bone marrow. Curiosity. Integrity. "Ready. Fire. Aim." Sense of humor. A good accountant.

The EXCELLENCE 25: Master the Basics

[This photo and the one at the end of this post were both taken by Tom at his farm in VT. Signs of spring are literally cherished after a long winter in northern climes.--SD]

Tripped over this list—and, frankly, liked it. (After a few edits.) Here it is—FYI. (Download the PowerPoint version here.)

1. Read.


2. Write.


3. Talk.


4. LISTEN.


5. Appreciate.


6. Kind.


7. Walk.


8. Work.


9. EXECUTE.


10. EXECUTE.


11. Relentless.


12. Enthuse.


13. WOW!


14. PEOPLE.


15. Frontline.


16. ACT.


17. Anger.


18. Band.


19. Apologize.


20. Weird-out.


21. Why?


22. Network I.


23. Network II.


24. Wired.


25. EXCELLENCE.

The EXCELLENCE 25/Expanded

1. Read. (Out study 'em. Read wide. Read deep.)


2. Write. (Clear. Concise. Compelling. Powerful.)


3. Talk. (Presentation MASTERY. Study. Practice-PRACTICE-Practice. Storytelling, mastery of.)


4. LISTEN. (Study. Practice-PRACTICE-Practice. Understand enormous-MATCHLESS power thereof.)


5. Appreciate. (Engaged. Compassionate. Appreciative always. "Thank you" rules.)


6. Kind. (Pays off big-time. K =R =P/Kindness = Repeat business = Profit.)


7. Walk. (MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. "In touch" as fetish. Practice!)


8. Work. (Work harder than the next person.)


9. EXECUTE. (SWEAT THE DETAILS WITH MANIACAL PASSION.)


10. EXECUTE. (SWEAT THE DETAILS WITH MANIACAL PASSION.)


11. Relentless. (Keep on keepin' on. "Know when to fold 'em": NO!! Master of "Plan B.")


12. Enthuse. (Enthusiasm begets Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm moves mountains.)


13. WOW! (Knock-your-socks-off standard for positively everything.)


14. PEOPLE. (People 1st. People 2nd. People 3rd ... Great-engaged people>>Great strategy. Best bosses = Best people developers. Your people are your #1 customers.)


15. Frontline. (First-line supervisors, quality of, determine just about everything.)


16. ACT. (Most tries wins! READY. FIRE! AIM. "Blame no one. Expect nothing. Do something." "You miss 100% of the shots you never take.")


17. Anger. (Impatience. Constantly question the status quo.)


18. Band. (Small, passionate, relentless bands of people change the world!)


19. Apologize. ("I'm sorry," enormous-STAGGERING power thereof.)


20. Weird-out. (Multiple, unusual sources of information and feedback. You are who you hang out with. PERIOD.)


21. Why? (Curiosity power! Always/repeatedly ask and ask and ask: "Why?")


22. Network I. (Work like a demon on wider-deeper relationships. Think R.O.I.R./Return On Investment in Relationships. NEVER WASTE A LUNCH.)


23. Network II. ("Suck down" for success. "Real work" happens 2-3 levels "down"—master the "working underbelly" of your own/customer/etc. organizations.)


24. Wired. (Use every trick in the Internet/Co-create/Social Media book.)


25. EXCELLENCE. (The only standard. Always capitalize all letters.)

EXCELLENCE. Always.
If not EXCELLENCE, what?
If not EXCELLENCE now, when?

FYI...

Great quotes I found while looking for a quote I never found:

"To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!'" —Lao-Tsu

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, 'We did this ourselves.'" —Lao-Tsu

(These first two quotes are quite similar. But the subtle difference in wording was such I decided to post both. Incidentally, the duo also suggest that the basics of leadership are invariant from millennium to millennium—I could teach an entire leadership course, circa 2011, around this/these quotes alone.)

"The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." —Alvin Toffler

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." —Henry David Thoreau

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." —Leo Tolstoy

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." —Mark Twain

"Never lose a chance of saying a kind word." —William Makepeace Thackeray

Little BIG Video #60
Excellence:
Bias for Action

Presenting number 60 from The Little BIG Things Video Series. In this video at YouTube, Tom goes back to his roots, revisiting the first of the basics from In Search of Excellence, A Bias for Action.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Excellence: Bias for Action.

The Little BIG Things
Synopsis Series
#47 Success
#48 Big

It's time for the last two sections in The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series. The next two sections in The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence are titled "Success" and "Big." Success is full of lessons in navigating Excellence and in Big, the final section of the book & synopsis series, Tom urges us to think about our legacy and to change the world or die trying.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#47 Success
#48 Big

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

If you've collected all the sections, we'd like to take a moment to say thank you. We hope you've enjoyed receiving these installments.

The Little BIG Things
Synopsis Series
#44 Now
#45 Impact

It's time for two new sections in The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series. The next two sections in The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence are titled "Now" and "Impact." These sections are all about living in the moment, and asking yourself how you're going to make the next 15 minutes matter.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#44 Now
#45 Impact

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

A Brief History of the 7-S ("McKinsey 7-S") Model

I was asked to write a roughly 1K-word précis of the 7-S/McKinsey 7-S Model, of which I was a co-inventor. As far as I can tell, this is the first such history of the well-known organization effectiveness diagnostic.

Herewith (and my apologies for the wordiness):

In 2008 in a participant document accompanying a seminar in Dubai, event speaker and former McKinsey & Co. Managing Director Rajat Gupta said in response to an interviewer's question: "The science of management continues to develop as scholars and global business leaders refine their approaches to organizing their enterprises to ensure both profitability and sustainability. There is surely no 'one size fits all' solution that can guarantee success in business. However, among the array of techniques and theories that can help strengthen business, I have always found that the 7-S framework offers a sound approach to combining all of the essential factors that sustain strong organizations: strategy, systems, structure, skills, style, and staff—all united by shared values. The 7-S framework remains one of the enduring elements of diligent, focused business management."

Gupta's rather strong comment came 28 years after Business Horizons, in its June 1980 issue, formally birthed the 7-Ss in an article by Bob Waterman, myself, and Julien Phillips titled: "Structure Is Not Organization."

And the Business Horizons article, in turn, came three years after I, fresh from receiving my Ph.D. in Organization Behavior at the Stanford business school (completed while on leave from McKinsey), was summoned to the firm's New York office and handed a fascinating assignment.

Relatively new McKinsey Managing Director Ron Daniel was launching a priority effort to renew McKinsey's intellectual capital—though that term did not exist at the time. (It was more or less called "R&D.") McKinsey's fabled advisors to top management were under an assault of ideas from Bruce Henderson's upstart Boston Consulting Group. And Daniel was determined to respond with vigor.

A major project on business strategy (the hottest of topics in 1977) had its home port in New York. But Daniel, from his own client work, was bedeviled by the frequency with which clever strategies failed to be implemented effectively. Though not a partner, I was asked to look at "organization effectiveness" and "implementation issues" in an inconsequential offshoot project nested in McKinsey's rather offbeat San Francisco office.(There was a third project, on "operations," run out of the Cleveland office.)

I should note that McKinsey's arsenal mostly consisted of "strategy" and, secondarily, "structure." All that was not to be cured with a scintillating strategic plan was to be dealt with by re-arranging the boxes on the formal organization chart. I exaggerate, of course—but not by much.

I finished a tour in the U.S. Navy in 1970 and went off to Stanford to pursue an MBA and eventually Ph.D. In neither of those pursuits was a page of Peter Drucker assigned. Instead I fell under the sway of the likes of Jim March (at Stanford), Herb Simon (March's partner and subsequent Nobel laureate in economics), and Karl Weick (then at the University of Michigan). Simon's Nobel stemmed from work on "bounded rationality" and its close kin, "satisficing"—the characteristic organizational pursuit of "satisfactory" rather than "optimal" decisions. March went much further, giving us such formulations as the "technology of foolishness" and "garbage can" models of organization, featuring, for example, solutions (pre-dispositions) wandering about organizations in random pursuit of problems to solve.

All of which is to say that I was attuned to an examination of organization effectiveness and implementation that went far beyond the mechanical manipulation of "charts and boxes."

I began my work with a grand tour of McKinsey offices world wide and business schools from inside and outside the USA. At home I visited with the likes of Professor Simon at Carnegie Mellon and, in Norway and Sweden, various researchers examining work group effectiveness—e.g., the Volvo crowd in Sweden and Einar Thorsrud in Oslo, running work group/self-management experiments on supertankers!

Upon returning, I pondered my findings and began tentative presentations around McKinsey. In a 1978 article in Organization Dynamics, "Symbols, Patterns and Settings," the first public expression of these ideas, I discussed unconventional change levers, influenced mightily by Jim March, such as the leader's allocation of time per se as a principal "power tool."

Progress of sorts followed, but it was a slow crawl until Bob Waterman was assigned as my putative boss. Bob, whose principal avocation was and is painting, had broad tastes and an inquiring mind—e.g., he became mesmerized by Karl Weick's work in a flash. More important, he was a damn good consultant—and wanted our work to be constructed in a way that would help the average McKinsey-ite take a shine to issues of organization effectiveness. (Which was, after all, the point of the exercise.)

Bob was great friends with Tony Athos, a professor at the Harvard Business School—and known worldwide as a master teacher. He enlisted Tony to help us turn our ramblings into something "crisp" (a favored McKinsey term) and memorable and "user friendly," as we say these days.

At a two-day séance in San Francisco, Bob and Tony and I, and Tony's cohort Richard Pascale, arrived, more or less full-blown, at the "7-S framework." (See immediately below.) The only, though significant, alteration became Tony's beloved "superordinate goals" morphing into "shared values." Tony was insistent that, corny as it appeared to be, we develop an alliterative model—find stuff that began with "Ss" in this case. In retrospect, it was a move of near genius. In my opinion, without the alliteration, which I initially found juvenile, the concept would not have been the sort being touted by Mr. Gupta almost 30 years later.

The shape of the "model" was also of monumental importance. It suggested that all seven forces needed to somehow be aligned if the organization was going to move forward vigorously—this was the "breakthrough" (a word I normally despise) that directly addressed Ron Daniel's initial concerns that had motivated the project. As we put it in the 1980 Business Horizons article, "At its most powerful and complex, the framework forces us to concentrate on interactions and fit. The real energy required to re-direct an institution comes when all the variables in the model are aligned."

Whether or not it was at the aforementioned séance, the other seminal idea—that there were "Soft Ss" as well as "Hard Ss"—emerged as well and lasts to this day. I continue to say, over 30 years later, that the power of the 7-Ss and In Search of Excellence (1982) and my subsequent work can best be captured in six words: "Hard is soft. Soft is hard." That is, it's the plans and the numbers that are often "soft" (e.g., the sky-high soundness scores that the ratings agencies gave packages of dubious mortgages). And the people ("staff") and shared values ("corporate culture") and skills ("core competencies" these days) which are truly "hard"—that is, the bedrock upon which the adaptive and enduring enterprise is built. To state the obvious, we very much included the "Hard Ss" (Strategy, Structure, Systems) in our framework, then added the "Soft Ss" (Style, Staff, Skills, Shared values—or Superordinate goal); and insisted that there was no precedence among them. Deal with all seven or accept the consequences—likely less than effective implementation of any project or program or increase in overall organization performance.

As mentioned at the outset, the coming out party was the June 1980 Business Horizons article. Then Athos and Pascale subsequently used the model in their popular The Art of Japanese Management (1981), and Bob and I included it in In Search of Excellence (1982).

At one point there was a movement to oust me from my humble office when an Op ed I wrote appeared in the Wall Street Journal in June 1980, emphasizing the primacy (yes, I dared use "primacy") of the "Soft Ss." (Bob W saved me, as he seemed so often to have to do.) On the other hand, my favorite certification of our approach came almost 20 years later from the ultimate "Hard S guy," McKinsey alum Lou Gerstner, in Who Says Elephants Can't Dance, summarizing his IBM turnaround effort: "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 thousands of people is very, very hard. [Yet] I came to see in my time at IBM that culture isn't just one aspect of the game—it is the game [my emphasis]."

While the "Soft S" emphasis has been my life's work, I admit to astonishment when coming across a quote like the one from Rajat Gupta that opened this paper—suggesting three decades of staying power for our little model. I guess Tony Athos was right about the power of alliteration!

Tom Peters
Golden Bay
New Zealand
09 January 2011

Note to readers: For the best explication of the 7-Ss, the 1980 Business Horizons article remains a peerless source.

The Little BIG Things
Synopsis Series
#42 Re-imagining
#43 Wow

It's time for two new sections in The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series. The next two sections in The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence are titled "Re-imagining" and "Wow." The Re-imagining section invites you to take a moment to be truly aspirational. In Wow, Tom argues that all efforts must be toward a "gaspworthy" result.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#42 Re-imagining
#43 Wow

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

The Little BIG Things
Synopsis Series
#41 The Top 50 "Have Yous"

It's time for a new section in The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series. The next section in The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence is titled "Special Section: The Top 50 'Have Yous.'" According to Tom, your "competitive position" will improve far more if you're proactively doing the 50 practical things in this list rather than abstract strategy work.

You can download a free pdf of this section from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#41 Special Section: The Top 50 "Have Yous"

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

Little BIG Video #56
Excellence:
Cross-Functional Communication

Here's video number 56 from The Little BIG Things Video Series. Lousy cross-functional communication is often listed as issue number one within organizations. Tom says cross-functional excellence boils down to one main variable. And it's extraordinarily simple. Watch the video to find out what it is.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes, 56 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Excellence: Cross-Functional Communication.

The Little BIG Things
Synopsis Series
#38 Details

It's time for a new section in The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series. The next section in The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence is titled "Details" and it's really the heart of the book. Tom tells four stories to underline how essential little details can be to your brand—like a shiny red truck in Vermont mud season.

You can download a free pdf of this section from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#38 Details

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

The Seven-step Path to Sustaining Success

You take care of the people.
The people take care of the service.
The service takes care of the customer.
The customer takes care of the profit.
The profit takes care of the re-investment.
The re-investment takes care of the re-invention.
The re-invention takes care of the future.
(And at every step the only measure is EXCELLENCE.)

Q.E.D.

The Little BIG Things
Synopsis Series
#32 Listening
#33 Quotations

It's time for two new sections in The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series. The next two sections in The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence are titled "Listening" and "Special Section: Quotations 34." Need a bit of wisdom to spark your fire? Here it is.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#32 Listening
#33 Special Section: Quotations 34

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

Little BIG Video #49
Excellence:
Courtesy Matters

Here's video number 49 from The Little BIG Things Video Series. Tom reminds us that grand gestures aren't always necessary, it's the little things that matter.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 1 minute, 16 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Excellence: Courtesy Matters.

Surprise!

Tom's all about giving things away for free. So we have a treat for you today. Our friends at Vook have given us a limited number of free iPhone and iPad versions of Tom's The Little BIG Things apps that we can give away. To get one, we're asking you to share a story with us. What kind of story? A two-center.

If you haven't already, read Tom's story of the Two-Cent Candy. What's your or your organization's Two-Cent Candy? Experienced a particularly Excellent one? Please share the story with us, including how it changed your or your customers' perception/reality.

Details: By 9pm GMT (5pm EDT) today, email the story to tom@tompeters.com with the subject line: Little BIG Thing. If you're succinct in nature, tweet the story (or link to your blog post that tells the story) using the hashtag #littleBIGthing. The stories will be judged by our completely non-objective panel, and we'll share some of the winners' stories here at tompeters.com.

Thanks and Good Luck!

The Little BIG Things
Synopsis Series
#13 Work
#14 Initiative

It's time for two new sections in The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series. The next two sections in The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence are titled "Work" and "Initiative." Tom talks about what being a professional really means, suggests some counter-intuitive personal strategies for success, and advocates for making an Insane Public Effort.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#13 Work
#14 Initiative

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

The Little BIG Things
Synopsis Series
#11 Attitude
#12 Performance

It's time for two new sections in The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series. The next two sections in The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence are titled "Attitude" and "Performance." They're a reminder to turn on your eye sparkle. After all, it's Showtime! All the time!

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:

#11 Attitude
#12 Performance

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

What Matters?

What follows was drafted as I prepared for my seminar in Zurich on 03 October. (You'll also find it in both PDF and PowerPoint formats.)

The Memories That Matter

In a month, as I write, I'll be 68. No matter how hard one tries to be forward focused, at that age there is a frequent urge to "sum things up." As one does look back, there is a certain class of memories that stand out. I know my own story—and I've talked to many others. When you look back at "what really matters"—it's rarely "the numbers." Make no mistake, as you soldier on, your tiny or huge enterprise must be profitable to survive. Wanna do great things? Well, check out the "cash flow" statement first. True, but still "the summing up statement" is far more about the basics of human behavior and character than about the angle of incline of a market share graph. What follows is then, in a fashion, "the memories that matter"—or will matter. Why point this out? Because to get the tally right on this one at age 68, the sorts of things enumerated here must have been "top of mind" throughout your career—i.e., yesterday and this morning.

The "memories that matter":

The people you developed who went on to stellar accomplishments inside or outside the company. (A reputation as "a peerless people developer.")

The (no more than) two or three people you developed who went on to create stellar institutions of their own.

The long shots (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."

Belly laughs at some of the stupid-insane things you and your mates tried.

Less than a closet full of "I should have ..."

A frighteningly consistent record of having invariably said, "Go for it!"

Not intervening in the face of considerable loss—recognizing that to develop top talent means tolerating failures and allowing the person who screwed up to work their own way through and out of their self-created mess.

Dealing with one or more crises with particular/ memorable aplomb.

Demanding ... CIVILITY ... regardless of circumstances.

Turning around one or two or so truly dreadful situations—and watching almost everyone involved rise to the occasion (often to their own surprise) and acquire a renewed sense of purpose in the process.

Leaving something behind of demonstrable-lasting worth. (On short as well as long assignments.)

Having almost always (99 percent of the time) put "Quality" and "Excellence" ahead of "Quantity." (At times an unpopular approach.)

A few "critical" instances where you stopped short and could have "done more"—but to have done so would have compromised your and your team's character and integrity.

A sense of time well and honorably spent.

The expression of "simple" human kindness and consideration—no matter how harried you may be/may have been.

Understood that your demeanor/expression of character always sets the tone—especially in difficult situations.

Never (rarely) letting your external expression of enthusiasm/determination flag—the rougher the times, the more your expressed energy and bedrock optimism and sense of humor showed.

The respect of your peers.

A stoic unwillingness to badmouth others—even in private.

An invariant creed: When something goes amiss, "The buck stops with me"; when something goes right, it was their doing, not yours.

A Mandela-like "naïve" belief that others will rise to the occasion if given the opportunity.

A reputation for eschewing the "trappings of power." (Strong self-management of tendencies toward arrogance or dismissiveness.)

Intense, even "driven" ... but not to the point of being careless of others in the process of forging ahead.

Willing time and again to be surprised by ways of doing things that are inconsistent with your "certain hypotheses."

Humility in the face of others, at every level, who know more than you about "the way things really are."

Having bitten your tongue on a thousand occasions—and listened, really really listened. (And been constantly delighted when, as a result, you invariably learned something new and invariably increased your connection with the speaker.)

Unalloyed pleasure in being informed of the fallaciousness of your beliefs by someone 15 years your junior and several rungs below you on the hierarchical ladder.

Selflessness. (A sterling reputation as "a guy always willing to help out with alacrity despite personal cost.")

As thoughtful and respectful, or more so, toward thine "enemies" as toward friends and supporters.

Always and relentlessly put at the top of your list/any list being first and foremost "of service" to your internal and external constituents. (Employees/Peers/ Customers/Vendors/Community.)

Having treated the term "servant leadership" as holy writ. (And "preached" "servant leadership" to others—new "non-managerial" hire or old pro, age 18 or 48.)

Having created the sort of workplaces you'd like your kids to inhabit. (Explicitly conscious of this "Would I want my kids to work here?" litmus test.)

A "certifiable" "nut" about quality and safety and integrity. (More or less regardless of any costs.)

A notable few circumstances where you resigned rather than compromise your bedrock beliefs.

Perfectionism just short of the paralyzing variety.

A self- and relentlessly enforced group standard of "EXCELLENCE-in-all-we-do"/"EXCELLENCE in our behavior toward one another."

Little BIG Video #42
Excellence:
Thoughts on Tom Watson

In video number 42 from The Little BIG Things Video Series, Tom shares the secret of Excellence according to Tom Watson, founder of IBM.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 1 minute, 49 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Excellence: Thoughts on Tom Watson.

A Collection of Summary Presentations

Herewith for your amusement* ...

First Things First
The "3H Theory of Everything"
The "9H Theory of Everything"
Words to the Wise
Cause. Space. Decency.
PXX. Period.

(*Okay, "amusement," but I'm rather happy with this set.)

The Little BIG Things
Synopsis Series
#3 Guru Gaffes
#4 Crisis

It's time for two new sections in The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series. The next two sections in The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence are titled "Special Section: Guru Gaffes" and "Crisis." "Guru Gaffes" is a reality check and assault on business jargon. "Crisis" offers some new ground rules for business.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:
Special Section: Guru Gaffes
Crisis

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

The Little BIG Things
Synopsis Series
#1 Little
#2 Excellence

The first two sections in The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence are titled "Little" and "Excellence." "Little" explains how "small stuff" can make a huge difference. "Excellence" is a series of powerful reminders to aspire to Excellence.

You can download free pdfs of those sections from The Little BIG Things Synopsis Series* by clicking below:
Little
Excellence

*The Synopsis Series is an adaptation that gives you a taste of the BIG idea in each of the 163 Little BIG Things. More information on the book can be found on this page. The Synopsis Series as released thus far can be found here.

Little BIG Video #37
Excellence:
MBWA

In video number 37 from The Little BIG Things Video Series, Tom recounts how he discovered the term MBWA, Managing By Wandering Around, in the late seventies, and argues for you to practice it.

You can find the video in the right column of the front page of tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes, 23 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Excellence: MBWA.

90 Years Ago Today!

In the end it was, to be precise, Harry Burn's mother who made all the difference. A suffragette, she wrote to her son, age 24 and Tennessee's youngest legislator, saying, "Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt ..." He did as his mother bid, tipped the scales on a 49-47 vote, and brought, effectively, to an end a struggle that in its most open form had lasted 72 years, 1 month, and 7 days, and compassed 909 distinct political campaigns.* With Mrs. Burn's urging and Harry's courageous vote on 18 August 1920, 90 years ago today, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, and some 26 million American women were franchised in one fell swoop.

(*The generally agreed upon starting point was a luncheon, hosted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, on July 13, 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York.)

While I wish here to do no more than note and cheer this monumental anniversary, I will nonetheless add a nod to one of my Great American Heroes—the aforesaid Elizabeth Cady Stanton, clearly, to my mind, the most important suffragette. Some words about Ms. Stanton should inspire us all. From Elisabeth Griffith, In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton:

"She was defeated again and again and again, but she continued the struggle with passionate impatience."

"She had survived her husband, outlived most of her enemies, and exhausted her allies. Her mind remained alert, her mood optimistic, and her manner combative." [Observation on the occasion of ECS 80TH birthday celebration, attended by 6,000 people.]

Would that "they" would say the same of you or me in pursuit of some mighty and honorable dream.

Below: Yours truly at a 2007 costume party, dressed as the heroic Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Five Or Less Words To The Wise

This started as a couple of Tweets. And then ...

4 most important words: "What do you think?" (Dave Wheeler @ tompeters.com: "Most important 4 words in organization")

4 most important words: "How can I help?" (Boss as CHRO/Chief Hurdle Removal Officer)

2 most important words: "Thank you!" (Appreciation/Recognition)

2 most important words: "All yours." (Hands-off delegation/Respect)

3 most important words: "I'm going out." (MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around/In touch!)

2 most important words: "I'm sorry." (Power of unconditional apology = Stunning! Marshall Goldsmith: #1 exec issue.)

5 most important words: "Did you tell the customer?" (Over-communicate.)

2 most important words: "She says ..." ("She" is the customer!)

2 most important words: "Yes ma'am." (Women are more often than not the best managers.)

2 most important words: "Try it!" (My only "for sure" in 44 years: /Herb Kelleher: "We have a strategic plan, it's called doing things."/Bill Parcells: "Blame no one. Expect nothing. Do something.")

3 most important words: "Try it again!" (My only "for sure" 44 years.)

3 most important words: "Try it again!" (My only "for sure" 44 years: Most tries wins.)

3 most important words: "At your service." (Organizations exist to serve. Period. Leaders exist to serve. Period.)

4 most important words: "How are we doing?" (To customers, regularly.)

4 most important words: "How was Mary's recital?" (Know your employees' kids.)

2 most important words: "Let's party!" (Celebrate "small wins" at the drop of a hat.)

1 most important word: "No." ("To don'ts" > "To dos.")

1 most important word: "Yes." (Hey, give it a shot/Anon. quote: "The best answer is always, 'What the hell.'"/Wayne Gretzky: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.")

2 most important words: "Lunch today?" ("Social stuff" = Secret to problem/opportunity #1: XFX/cross-functional Excellence)

4 most important words: "Thank Dick in accounting." (Readily acknowledge help from other functions.)

2 most important words: "After you." (Courtesy rules.)

3 most important words: "Thanks for coming."
(Civility. E.g., boss acknowledges employee coming to her/his office.)

2 most important words: "Great smile!" (Note & acknowledge good attitude.)

1 most important word: "Wow!" (The gold standard ... for everything.)

1 most important word: "EXCELLENT!" (The ... ONLY ... acceptable standard/aspiration.)

Excellence Always: Oman

Tom is speaking in Muscat, the capital of Oman, today. The theme and title of the speech is "Excellence. Always." You can download his PowerPoint slides here.

The Practice of Excellence.
Limits Thereto.
Or not?

As you doubtless know, one of my signature phrases is...

EXCELLENCE. Always.

I mean it! But what does it mean? Someone joked, "Excellence in leadership! Excellence in innovation! Excellence in management! Excellence in excellence!" That is, the phrase can readily be reduced to meaninglessness or even absurdity.

Fact is, some tasks are not worth pursuing to the point of excellence. (Maybe, more in a minute.) That is, life for all of us contains lots of B.S. that one must simply "get through." Or, as a work-at-home mom of two said to me, "surviving the next hour seems more than enough challenge." Amen!

Hence, on the one hand, I acknowledge reality—for you and me, let alone the beleaguered mom. But I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel.

Hall of Fame San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh sat for interviews shortly before he died. The result was a fine book, from Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison and Craig Walsh, called, magnificently, The Score Takes Care of Itself; that is, the organization culture and preparation, finished before the opening kickoff, are the determining factors in success or failure.

In 1979, Walsh took over an ailing franchise as head coach. His first year's record was 2-14. Two years later it was 14-2, and he went on to beat Cincinnati for the Super Bowl. What happened? Some fine talent was added—Walsh was a master of player selection. But mostly the team's approach to the "business of football" was altered dramatically. By "business of football," I don't mean profit and loss. I mean the demeanor on the practice field, the ethos of helping one another, even the travel dress code.

Which brings us back to "Excellence. Always."—and exceptions thereto. Again, I graciously and with hat-in-hand bow before the work-at-home mom praying for survival in the next 60 minutes. On the other hand, I am with Mr Walsh, whose goal was to establish the "24/7" habits of "professionalism" in his ragtag army in 1979. (George Patton did the same thing with the ragtag elements of his inherited army in North Africa in World War II; he began with the demand for better hygiene and snappy uniforms in the midst of crippling desert conditions. The score took care of itself: Soon, he was winning battles of strategic importance. Likewise, it is said that Admiral Horatio Nelson could alter the "small" habits of seagoing professionalism in a fleet within weeks of taking command; this was the imperative precursor to victory.)

Excellence—I've long argued that the only measure is "I'll know it when I see it." That is, it's as much, in fact far more, about the character of the team and the team's practice habits as the goals for and against. (Think of the recent French World Cup fiasco.)

There are good days and bad days. There are a dozen times a week when I join our mom-under-fire and offer prayers to survive the next hour. Such is life. Yet the devil is in the details—and so, too, Excellence. Another of my constant drumbeats is: "EXCELLENCE is not an 'aspiration.' EXCELLENCE is the next five minutes." That is, to join our Zen-practicing brothers and sisters, all we have is the moment.

Not surprisingly, Helen Keller and Mother Teresa put it in far more sublime words:

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble." —Helen Keller

"We do no great things, only small things with great love." —Mother Teresa

Your call, but for me these two profound and exhilarating quotes serve as decent analogues to "EXCELLENCE. Always."

I've had bad days and weeks and months and, indeed, years. Yet the measure of worth remains the attitude toward the next minute to come:

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble." —Helen Keller

"We do no great things, only small things with great love." —Mother Teresa

EXCELLENCE. Always.
If not EXCELLENCE, what?
If not EXCELLENCE now, when?

EXCELLENCE is not an aspiration.
EXCELLENCE is the next five minutes.

All yours ...

(Above, Salpiglossis, or "tapestry flower," from Susan's garden)

Excellence: Language Matters

In a new video for the The Little BIG Things Video Series called Excellence: Language Matters, Tom asks that you pay attention to the language you use. "If you want an energetic place, use energetic language." Are you measuring whether things are "Insanely Great"?

You can find the video in the right column here at tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes, 45 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Excellence: Language Matters.

Excellence Oath and Credo

Tom has been developing the "Excellence Oath and Credo" for a time. He blogged about it, included a version in The Little BIG Things, and has now added the Oath of Office for Managers/Servant Leaders. According to Tom "It is a set of ideas ("Principles for doing business well and profitably"? "Elements of Excellence"?) worthy of attention and emulation."

With a focus on the development of your team's talent and considering leadership a sacred trust, Tom encourages you to be "explorer-adventurers proceeding toward individual and collective growth.". He puts it this way, "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."

Joy Stauber worked her magic on the design of this piece. We hope you enjoy it. You can download the PDF; it will reside on the Free Stuff page, which is chock full of other Excellent PDFs.

Tweets+

Here are a few things I believe are central to success, personal and organizational. In this (selfish) instance, the author is me (some emerged from the gorgeous brevity of Tweets):

EXCELLENCE. Always.
If not EXCELLENCE, what?
If not EXCELLENCE now, when?

EXCELLENCE is not an "aspiration."
EXCELLENCE is not a "journey."
EXCELLENCE is the next five minutes.

Organizations exist to serve. Period.
Leaders exist to serve. Period.

Service is a beautiful word.
Service is a beautiful word. Service is character, community, commitment. (And profit.)
Service is a beautiful word. Service is not "Wow." Service is not "raving fans." Service is not "an experience." Service is "just" that—SERVICE.

K = R = P
Kindness = Repeat business = Profit.

The Tough Task of ...
Epigraph Selection

Few things are more difficult than choosing a book's epigraph—a very few words that capture the spirit of a rather complex enterprise. The task, re The Little BIG Things, was indeed painful. I eventually settled on ... FOUR. But was "encouraged" (beaten about the head and shoulders) to pick ... ONE. For those who've read the book you'll know the choice, with which I am delighted, was #1, from Mr. Clay. Nonetheless, I'm offering up all four here, FYI.

"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)

"We don't take people to the elevator—we take them down to the street." —David Ogilvy

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 generals make blunders; it is because they try to be clever." —Napoleon

From NPR: "A man approached J.P. Morgan, held up an envelope, and said, 'Sir, in my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which I will gladly sell you for $25,000.'

"'Sir,' J.P. Morgan replied, 'I do not know what is in the envelope; however, if you show it to me, and I like it, I give you my word as a gentleman that I will pay you what you ask.'

"The man agreed to the terms, and handed over the envelope. J.P. Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper. He gave it one look, a mere glance, then handed the piece of paper back to the gent. And paid him the agreed-upon $25,000.

"The contents of the note:

"1. Every morning, write a list of the things that need to be done that day.

"2. Do them."

Did I make the correct choice?

Jim Warren's Message!
And You?

I'm a lucky guy. Over the years, lots of people have said lots of nice things to me.

But few can top Jim Warren.

Who's he?

No idea.

Jim Warren left a phone message.

I guess I mentioned that I live in Tinmouth, VT somewhere in The Little BIG Things.

Jim W was in O'Hare.

Guess he used directory assistance or some app or another.

I'm listed in the phone book.

He called and left a message on our home phone answering machine.

He gushed and gushed about TLBT.

Wow!

There's a message or three or seven in Jim W's message:

1. One never gets tired of positive feedback/appreciation/recognition. (More precisely, "Thank yous.")


2. Spontaneous Acts of Thoughtfulness are Mighty Love Bombs.


3. SATs are MLBs that can lead to stratospheric profitability.


4. SATs are at the Heart of repeat business.


5. I'll [literally] remember Jim Warren, "the O'Hare guy," until my last breath.


6. I'll talk about Jim Warren until my last speech.


7. The fact that JW went to the effort (a) to call, (b) to call from the airport, (c) to go to the trouble of finding me adds multiplicative power to the act.

So:

1. When was the last time you "did a Jim Warren"?


2. Will you promise me to "Do a Jim Warren" at least once today, at least three times this week?


3. Will you use/urge "Jim Warren-ism" at your next ops meeting?


4. Will you measure your "Jim Warren-isms"?


5. Will you remember to tell your folks that the likes of me will remember Jim Warren approximately forever?


6. Will you tell your folks that this is TMALBTs? (The Mother of All Little BIG Things.)

NB1: Jim ... THANK YOU.

NB2: JW was not at all sure he'd gotten the "real me." Well, Bubba, you did!!!

Our Credo/A Work in Progress

I drafted this "Credo" months ago, and used a version of it in The Little BIG Things. I recently revisited it and added a few things. It is obviously too long to fit on a wallet-sized plastic card. On the other hand, it is a set of ideas ("Principles for doing business well and profitably"? "Elements of Excellence"?) worthy of attention and emulation. Use it as you will—and my apologies for the length. (We are also making it available as a PDF.) (My apologies for the length of the Post.)

Herewith, "Our Credo":

• We are thoughtful in all we do.
• We are excellent listeners—to each other and to all members of our extended family, including vendors, customers, communities, etc. We will make the development of listening skills a primary component in our training portfolio. (It is not coincidental that listening per se is so near the beginning of this document.)
• We will make the four words "What do you think?" an automatic instinct in all of our internal and external dealings; moreover, "What do you think?" will precede the explication of our own view in 99 out of 100 instances.
• We are dedicated to and measure our success to a significant degree by our unwavering commitment to the extreme personal growth of every one of our employees.
• We will only be "delighted" with our managers if their employees are universally surprised by the level of their personal and professional growth. We will measure this.
• We will be clear that we view leadership at every level as a sacred trust—and that leaders are indeed the servants of their employees just as the effective classroom teacher is servant to the lives and growth of her or his students.
• We believe that "people development" is everyone's responsibility. Hence, everyone will have a peer mentor from the start; and within a relatively short period after joining the organization will become themselves mentors; effectiveness as mentors will be a significant element in everyone's evaluation.
• We see senior officers as primarily in the "people development business." Hence we will place the particulars of development success as the #1 item in evaluating senior officers.
• We will not rest until we are widely acknowledged as an "employer of choice."
• We believe that it is possible to make the evaluation process a positive rather than a negative. We will provide training in evaluation, devote significant time to evaluation, and will place significant weight on effectiveness as an evaluator. We will measure this.
• We will be fanatic practitioners of MBWA, or managing by wandering around. Staying in touch is a top priority.
• We are smitten with the word "mastery." We expect everyone to pursue mastery of some skill from the outset, just as a military specialty is pursued from day #1.
• We believe it is our role to foster independence that will serve each employee well in her or his career wherever he or she may alight.
• We believe that everyone should become a leader; hence, leadership assignments of some sort will be undertaken within 90 days of coming aboard.
• We believe in the "inverted organization chart"—with the "leaders" at the "bottom" of a reverse pyramid.
• We believe that 1st-line supervisors, like corporals and sergeants in the military, are the lynchpins of morale and productivity and employee development and maintenance of the "corporate culture." Hence, we will seek to create a matchless 1st-line supervisorial cadre. We will, in effect, manage this cadre as a separate strategic priority.
• We will be a leader in research and development in every aspect of our business—and we will work primarily with vendors who are also fanatical about research and development; and work to attract a set of core customers willing to play at the edge of things and become our co-developers.
• We will aim to make our customer engagements adventures beyond the comfort zone, or adventures in growth to use a less intimidating phrase—we will aim to add value in novel ways that surprise and stretch our customers and ourselves.
• We expect to be renowned for our "insane" devotion to customer service. We shall measure this constantly.
• We will bring to bear overwhelming and instant and collective force to redress any customer problem, real or imagined.
• We will use the three words "Try it! Now!" almost as often as "What do you think?" We revere the experimental method, and believe success is mostly correlated with the number of things one tries.
• We wholeheartedly acknowledge the value of analysis, but in the end swear by "Actions speak louder than words."
• We "encourage" failures (actually "celebrate" failures); that is, we acknowledge that a near-religious devotion to "Try it! Now!" necessarily invites the failures that are part and parcel of trying new things.
• We will in fact look askance at those whose records include few or no failures—such a spotless record suggests an unwillingness to brave the unknown.
• We will, to summarize the last few items, all view ourselves as explorers-adventurers, proceeding toward individual and collective growth by actively engaging at the edge of things; we unstintingly believe that our customers will reap enormous value from our commitment to constant, restless exploration.
• We will cut "overhead" to zero—every "department" shall aim to be best-in-class in its arena, and hence a full-scale participant in our concerted effort to add value in all we do.
• We will exude integrity, individually and collectively.
• We will encourage and insist upon constant and vociferous disagreement, but be absolutely intolerant of disagreement in the form of personal attacks.
• We will exemplify the word transparency in all of our internal and external dealings—and bend over backwards to give new meaning and breadth to the term "information sharing."
• We will individually and collectively accept blame for our mistakes, or even our rather minor contribution to others' mistakes—and apologize accordingly and with dispatch.
• We will under no circumstance badmouth a competitor.
• We will aim to turn every customer contact into a memorable experience, remembering that all of life is indeed a stage.
• We honor the word "design" in all we do, in every nook and every cranny of our organization; every system, every web page, every customer invoice, every employee restroom is part of our purposefully designed "signature," and stands out and exudes exceptionalism in one way or another.
• We understand that difficult decisions must be made, but we will bend over backwards to implement such decisions with kindness and grace—the dignity of the individual will always be foremost in our mind.
• We will not intrude into our employees' lives, but we are committed to aggressively helping employees achieve a healthy lifestyle.
• We will master the art of appreciation and be profuse in our use of the words "Thank you" to honor assistance or achievement of even the most minor sort.
• We will acknowledge through celebration even small successes—and always cast a wide net in our "Thank yous" to include bit players, especially from other functions.
• We aim for others to always be surprised by our "vibrancy" and "vitality"—we view enthusiasm as the key to success in anything, and take particular care in leader selection to ensure that every one of our leaders is a "remarkable" "carrier" of enthusiasm through thick and, especially, thin.
• We will drop whatever we are doing and rush to the aid of those involved in tight-deadline activities—even if those involved caused some of their own problems.
• We will be careful in our planning, but also understand that nothing ever unfolds as planned—hence we will be known for our ability to muster resources in an instant, without fuss and from everywhere, to deal with the unexpected; participating in these ad hoc response activities will not be seen as a distraction from our "real work," but as a significant part of our "real work" and an opportunity to contribute to others and build our own skills in ways we might not have imagined.
• We live in an uncertain world. And resilience is a matchless survival trait. We will design every system and develop every person with a constant eye on overall and individual resilience.
• We fully acknowledge that other units-departments-functions have other points of view than ours, but we will bend over backwards to develop social connections with those in other functions so that dealings over warring perspectives are dealings among friends.
• We unequivocally believe that cross-functional communication is the #1 key to both execution and producing "value-added" for our Clients. We will therefore move heaven and earth to insure that barriers are removed and that cross-functional communication becomes a profound competitive advantage. Each unit in the organization shall visibly celebrate acts of noteworthy support from outside their department. We will insure that incentives, positive and, alas, negative, support this top priority.
• We acknowledge that agreed upon deadlines are holy writ, and will attempt to balance requisite urgency and requisite realism in all of our commitments.
• We will fight tooth and nail to minimize the complexity that "necessarily" comes with growth and the mere passage of time.
• We will declare total war on our own systems to insure that they do not strangle us.
• We gladly acknowledge that anyone in the organization has the duty as well as the right to challenge anyone else when he or she believes they have a valid and useful perspective to offer—this is particularly true regarding any issue that has to do with safety, quality or meeting agreed upon deadlines; such challenges may be firm but not rude.
• We will be civil in all our dealings with one another.
• We will bend over backwards to bring truly (not superficially) diverse views of every stripe imaginable to bear on plans and decisions of every sort.
• We will pursue "diversity" in part so that the composition of our workforce and leadership from top to bottom is a "pretty good" reflection of the demographics of the markets we serve or aim to serve.
• We will use new technology tools to extend the definition of "our family" to every corner of the globe—we will welcome ideas and participation in our affairs from anyone and everyone.
• We will aim for gender balance in all we do and from tippy top to bottom—for reasons commercial more than reasons moral.
• We will be responsive in every way to the overwhelmingly large women's market—ignored by so many.
• We will be responsive in every way to the overwhelmingly large boomer/boomer+ market—ignored by so many.
• We will never, in any way, compromise on the quality of our products or services—regardless of difficulties in our marketplace and economy.
• We wholeheartedly acknowledge that in the short term (as well, obviously, as the long term) we must be profitable and exhibit stellar financial performance that is consistent with the audacious efforts to serve our people and our clients as described above.
• We aim to be seen by others as "conservative" in our financial practices.
• We shall talk about EXCELLENCE constantly.
• We shall unfailingly aim for EXCELLENCE in all we do.
• We shall use EXCELLENCE as the principal benchmark in the assessment of ourselves and our work and our impact on our Clients.
• We shall never forget that the bedrock of EXCELLENCE is the unwavering commitment to growth of 100% of our employees—and in fact all of those with whom we come in contact.*

*Perhaps some subset of these items will become a true "Credo." If so, I would suggest that something like the full list be enumerated as organizational "objectives."

The KRP Factor

This, KRP, began as a 140-character Tweet:

K = R = P
(Kindness = Repeat business = Profit)

Kindness:

Kind.
Thoughtful.
Decent.
Caring.
Attentive.
Engaged.
Listens well/obsessively.
Appreciative.
Open.
Visible.
Honest.
Responsive.
On time all the time.
Apologizes with dispatch for screw-ups.
"Over"-reacts to screw-ups of any magnitude.
"Professional" in all dealings.
Optimistic.
Understands that kindness to staff begets kindness to others.
Applies throughout the "supply chain."
Applies to 100% of customer's staff.
Explicit part of values statement.
Basis for evaluation for 100% of our staff.
Starts with the boss/bosses.

Q.E.D.

(Above, after a long Vermont winter, there's nothing boring about a Dandelion.)

Excellence: On Enterprise

In a new video from The Little Big Things Video Series, Tom defines the aspiration of organizations. After all, "organizations exist for one and only one reason, and that is to be of service."

Please watch the video. [Time: 2 minutes, 26 seconds]

[A PDF transcript of the video's content is also available: Excellence: On Enterprise.]

Antidote to iPad Frenzy

iPads. iPhones. iPods. Blackberrys. SM. "60/60/24/7."

And Spring:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

William Henry Davies
from The Nation's Favourite Poems*

(*The BBC had a contest to select Britain's favorite poems. The cynics assumed that the riffraff would choose mindless jingles. Instead the winners were thoughtful and powerful, Mr. Davies' verses among them.)

(The photo credit goes to me, he said immodestly. And Sony's dinky little camera!!)

BOLD

I really don't need to do this, but I will anyway.

I Tweeted this morning on over-testing in healthcare: Buy MRI/CAT scanner. Big bucks. Must amortize in piecework/pay-by-procedure medicine by ordering as many tests as possible. Leads to $1 trillion over-treatment price tag. Leads to at least 10,000 deaths.

You know what?
THAT REALLY PISSES ME OFF.
REALLY REALLY REALLY PISSES ME OFF.

I'm also pissed off that most companies don't cater to HUGE older folks market.
I'm also pissed off that most companies don't jerk their strategies around 178-degrees to serve the women's market.
(And put women in leadership roles accordingly.)
I'm pissed off that managers aren't assiduous in practicing MBWA.
I'm pissed off that managers are such shitty listeners.
I'm pissed off that managers say "thank you" so infrequently.

Bob Waterman, my In Search of Excellence coauthor once told, as I recall, BusinessWeek that, "Tom's not happy unless he's pissed off."

Probably true.

Yipee! The reviews of The Little BIG Things have been mostly very good. But those who don't like it invariably complain about too much stuff in BOLD print. I understand their point, and suppose it is sometimes distracting.

But I'm pissed off.
And pissed off requires ... BOLD.

Hey, it's not worth getting out of bed unless you are determined to alter some small corner of the world. That's a BOLD aspiration.

So, for better or for worse ... BOLD it will be.
Must be.

Priscilla!
(Priscilla-ism!)

Susan and I and four close friends just returned from a week-long tramp among rainforests, cloudforests, etc., in amazing Costa Rica. Birds! Plants! Animals! (Even I can out-race a three-toed sloth.) Our guide! The families who made lunches for us and invited us into their homes! Market day in San Jose! Rice and beans! Beans and rice! All fabulous!

And years from now I'll mostly remember ... Priscilla!

Priscilla was our driver.
Ha!
Priscilla was our Mom!
Priscilla was a brilliant driver on truly awful roads in CR's booniest of boondocks.
Priscilla ranks in the Top 10 in the "God's best smile" category.
Priscilla figured out after half a day that a Diet Coke and I should not ever be far apart.
(There was ALWAYS a Diet Coke waiting for me.)
(WHERE THE HELL DID SHE GET THE DIET COKES?)
I had trouble on several occasions.
(It was VERY hot and VERY VERY humid.)
(I hate heat.)
(I really hate humidity.)
Priscilla always had a folding chair placed in the shade exactly when I needed it when I got back from the trail.
(Such chairs appeared mystically at exactly the right moment.)
I sweat like a demon; when I changed T-shirts (often) she always hung the wet one up—and once she even somehow found a dryer while we were out on a couple hour walk, and the last shirt was dried and ready when I'd soaked through my backup.
(That's insane.)
(That's true.)
(That's Priscilla.)
Priscilla has the cutest Grandkids you could imagine.
(We saw the pics, not the kids. Alas.)
Priscilla did the same for all six of us.
Priscilla has the best attitude of the 6,000,000,000+ people on earth.
(And that's a guarantee.)
(And Priscilla has been doing this for 20 years without letup.)
(And some groups are good.)
(And some groups are bad.)
(And some groups are very bad.)
(I hope we were pretty good, though I have no way of knowing.)

Does your organization have a Priscilla?
Several Priscillas?
Do you look for "Priscilla-ism" in virtually all employees, especially those with customer contact?
Do you understand that the "bottom" of the organization is really the "top" of the organization when it comes to details of execution and perception of "We-care-ism"?

(Our guide, Jimmy, was only a hair's breadth behind Priscilla. Priscilla and Jimmy were more important to the "Costa Rica trip" than Costa Rica was!)

(Read an interview yesterday in the New York Times with Kip Tindell, the CEO of the Container Store. He gets this Big Time. That's why a boring retailer was the #1 "best company to work for," per Fortune, a couple of years ago.)

What is Excellence?

[Our guest blogger is Seth Godin, who needs no further introduction here. We'd like to thank him very much for this, his first post at tompeters.com.]

Twenty-five years ago, my life (and yours, too, probably) was changed by Tom and Bob's book, In Search of Excellence. After that, on a regular basis, Tom has provided us with shots of brilliance and unsettling reminders that we've got a long way to go to reach our potential as organizations and individuals.

Along the way, there's a question that's been nibbled at but never really answered. I mean, I already know many of the 687 ways to create excellence and the imperatives of excellence, but what is it, really?

At first, organizations got excited about the formula: excellence = quality. If we can meet spec, regularly and on budget, we win.

But the quality mantra only takes you so far.

Take, for example, my water company. Are they excellent? Every time I turn on the tap, water comes out. The bills aren't outrageous. I never need to call them. Are they excellent? Or boring?

What about the local grocery or the other boring commodity providers in my life? By my definition, once you start providing a commodity that your customers treat as a commodity, you're no longer excellent.

Here's my take:

Excellence means that you're indispensable. At least right now, in this moment, there's no one else I would choose but you. You, the excellent one, are so surprising, so delightful, so over-the-top and, yes, so human that there really isn't anyone else I'd rather dance with.

The "in the moment" nature of excellence makes it a moving target. JetBlue was excellent, for a while, but then others started catching up and new management started slowing down. Suddenly, it wasn't a JetBlue flight any more, it was just a flight. Easy to switch to Virgin Atlantic or someone else.

Excellence isn't about meeting the spec, it's about setting the spec. It defines what the consumer sees as quality right this minute, and tomorrow, if you're good, you'll reset that expectation again.

The surefire way to achieve excellence, then, is not to create a written spec and match it. The surefire way is to be human. To be artistic: to make a connection with the customer and to somehow change them for the better. The reason Tom and I and others can continue to write about excellence twenty-five years later is that we're not writing about business at all. We're writing about people.

When the Ritz-Carlton hotel empowers every employee from chambermaid to manager to "make things right," they're not engaging in the sort of quality control most managers are comfortable with. In fact, if they were able to write down exactly what to do in every situation, the excellence factor would disappear. What the hotel accomplishes with its policy is this: they challenge their employees to become artists.

The art of connection, the art of being human, the art of making a difference. Artists do things that have never been done before. They dig deep to create passion. They connect by changing things for the better.

The economy has been better, and the economy has been worse. Through it all, the market seeks out, recognizes, and embraces artists, people we can't live without. That's our opportunity right now.

To be excellent means you must be an artist.

[See Seth Godin's new book, Linchpin. It's about art and gifts and connection and yes, excellence.]

New Year's 2010

To begin with, one needs two or three Posts rather than one. That is, a "spoiled brats" Post for the 90% of employed Americans and Europeans and Japanese and a few others. We live high off the hog. Period. And for all the Great Recession's pain, it's hard to feel sorry for us. Then there are those in rich countries who are on the short end of the stick, and there are millions upon more millions of these folks. The third Post should at least acknowledge the billions who are at or below subsistence—and add to this Group III the millions trapped in wars and civil wars and the like.

In my own "Group I World," a single word is on my mind, and it was there before the Christmas Day NWA/terrorist fiasco.

The word: Resilience.

I expect my computer to work—and the rest of my electronics as well.
I expect my car to start—and for gas to be plentiful.
I expect safe food.
I expect my two stepsons to make it home for holidays.
I expect ...
I expect ...

I've got a generator for the farm house that I bought in a super-cautious moment prior to Y2K. And a six month supply of meds that my doc suggested at the time of the bird flu scare.

And I spent two years in Vietnam.

But I'm soft. I expect everything I need to work, and small disruptions piss me off.

I have no plans to become a survivalist—though my VT farm is a pretty good place to be in that regard. But I do plan to think about "it" a little more than I have.

As I said, I planned to write about resilience prior to our terrorist scare. Namely because, as I parse the evidence as a non-expert, I think the odds are high that the next 10 years will bring a major terror event, maybe another financial crash, and so on.

Half-assed as it is, I'll leave it at that, leave it at a call for explicit attention resilience.

There are five other mini-segments to present in this New Year's 2010 Post. The first comes from writing my new book. It's really largely about the "basics," and in particular about thoughtfulness and civility. I think thoughtfulness-civility-grace-decency-kindness-appreciation pays off ... Big Time ... on the bottom line. And I think it pays off when you look in the mirror or raise your kids. And, incidentally, I think it's directly related to resilience—that is, going gently in the world serves the community and keeps the heat (emotional reaction to tough news) a little lower.

The third word is serve. In my new book I call leadership a "sacred trust,' and I think it is. To steal shamelessly from Robert Greenleaf, I am a keen fan–adherent of "servant leadership." Leaders work for those who "report to" them—not vice versa.

Word four: contribute. We Group I-ers (see above) simply have an obligation—a pressing obligation—to give back and lend a helping hand. I live in an other-than-high-wage community, and I deeply deeply appreciate the enormous amount of time and energy my wife is contributing as Board leader of our local daycare center. (This is hardly her first major act of community service-leadership; it's simply the one most on my mind at the moment.) Contradicting to some extent my Group III mention above, I am a strong adherent, assuming you're not Bill Gates, of supporting (time, $$) local efforts where you can have direct impact. (Perhaps from local "fanatic" service will grow the desire to expand the stage on which you work.)

Next up, and next to last is ... learn. The best way to stay fresh and vibrant, and thence useful, in my opinion, is to seek new experiences and learning opportunities. Like all of these "words," it takes thoughtfulness (planning) and work—though presumably this work, in every case, should largely be an act of joy.

The final word? My old friend ... EXCELLENCE. I never get tired of it, and I hope you don't either. It's a wonderful standard, a wonderful aspiration, a wonderful way of life (the aspiration to).

So my Aim2010 is to focus on these words:

Resilience.
Thoughtfulness-Civility.
Serve.
Contribute.
Learn.
EXCELLENCE.

Doing so hardly solves the problems of Africa, or the "gendercide" I wrote about yesterday (girls being killed-murdered by the million for no reason other than being girls). And for that I apologize.

In any event, may your year be one of peace and health and energetic engagement and exploration.

Tom

Business Book(s) of the Year

There were a ton of books on the financial crisis, many of which were quite good. My favorite came from the Financial Times' prize-winning reporter–editorialist Gillian Tett. Namely: Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe. (Hats off to the FT in general for reporting on the crisis—my FT "take" beats my Wall Street Journal take 4 days out of every 5.) (Ms. Tett notwithstanding, I believe the best way to get your reading head around the current mess is to read Michael Lewis's 1989 classic, Liar's Poker.)

As to best book by a "finance guy," it's no contest! The gold to Vanguard Mutual Fund Group founder John Bogle for Enough. The chapter titles tell the story. Here's a sample:

"Too Much Cost, Not Enough Value"
"Too Much Speculation, Not Enough Investment"
"Too Much Complexity, Not Enough Simplicity"
"Too Much Counting, Not Enough Trust"
"Too Much Business Conduct, Not Enough Professional Conduct"
"Too Much Salesmanship, Not Enough Stewardship"
"Too Much Focus on Things, Not Enough Focus on Commitment"
"Too Many Twenty-first Century Values, Not Enough Eighteenth-Century Values"
"Too Much 'Success,' Not Enough Character"

As to the overarching theme of the book, Mr. Bogle begins with this vignette: "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.'"

My "best management book" award goes to my old pal (pal = full disclosure) and Fast Company co-founder Alan Webber for Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Yourself. From the beginning ("Rule #1: When the going gets tough, the tough relax") to the middle ("Rule #26: The soft stuff is the hard stuff") to the end ("Rule #52: Stay alert! There are teachers everywhere"), Alan doesn't miss a single beat in 52 tries. My runner-up, by a heartbeat, in the management book category is The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It, by Christine Pearson and Christine Porath. Decent behavior pays off, big time, and never more than in tough times—this is not a "be good" book, it's a "make money" book.

Now, to the Grand Prize Winner, my "Best Business Book 2009." The Gold goes with delight to retail guru George Whalin for Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America. Mr. Whalin is our tour guide to Excellence, and his first stop is, naturally, Fairfield, Ohio, home to Jungle Jim's International Market. The adventure in "shoppertainment," as Jungle Jim's calls it, begins in the parking lot and goes on to 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 from around the world. Like virtually all the stores in this book, customers flock to the doors from every corner of the globe. Then there's Abt Electronics in Chicago, Zabar's in Manhattan, and Bronner's Christmas Wonderland in Frakenmuth, Michigan—a town of just 5,000. Bronner's 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 Christmas.

And: The Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
And: Junkman's Daughter in Atlanta.
And: Smoky Mountain Knife Works in Sevierville, Tennessee.
And: the grand finale, finishing where we started—in Ohio; This time the spotlight is on Hartville Hardware in Hartville OH.

George Whalin's winning stores demonstrate–prove so many (heartening) things:

You can create a worldwide attraction and thrive as an independent in the Age of the Big Box retailer!
You can do anything!
You can be from anywhere!
You can make any-damn-thing ... bizarrely-amazingly-stupendously-special!

I think Whalin's message is perfect for 2009. We will, over the long haul, rebound from our colossal economic and unemployment mess on the backs of our entrepreneurs. The big guys may re-stock their payrolls a bit, but the generals, GE and GM, ain't the answer. And among the entrepreneurs, only a few, statistically, will be from Silicon Valley. To be sure, the best of the sexy entrepreneurs spawn whole new industries, but the blocking and tackling when it comes to jobs and productivity will come from Sevierville TN and Fairfield and Hartville OH and Frankenmuth MI and a hundred hundred other towns and small cities whose names, mostly, you haven't heard of.

When I initially blogged about Retail Superstars, I said, "I guarantee that any reader—from anywhere, in any business—can learn something from this book." I believe that. And because of that, Mr. Whalin takes home the Gold. (FYI: A great companion to Retail Superstars is Bo Burlingham's 2005 Small Giants: Companies that Choose to be Great Instead of Big.)

And so it goes ...