Scaling Up Excellence

Getting to More Without Settling for Less

Executives everywhere, say the authors, struggle with what they call "the problem of More" - how to spread excellence to more people in more places. This is hard because scaling requires pressing each person, team, group and division to change what they believe, feel, or do.

It's also difficult, research shows, because negative interactions with bosses and coworkers have 5 times more impact on employees’ moods than positive interactions.

The seven mantras for successful scaling

Whatever the negative behaviours that show up, they always undermine scaling efforts through introducing confusion, destructive conflict, distrust, and dead ends.

To remove such behaviour, the authors identify 7 ways of "breaking bad" to clear the way for creating greater levels of sustainable excellence.

1. Nip it in the bud - allowing even a bit of bad to persist suggests that no one is watching, no one cares, and no one will stop others from doing far worse things - so take action early and quickly and with compassion.
2. Plumbing before poetry - getting people to focus on small, mundane, and gritty details is effective for eliminating negativity - so fix the plumbing before you spout on about vision and values!
3. Adequacy before excellence - what drives customers away, and hurts business results, is bad service. So instead of aiming to 'exceed customers' expectations', aim first to meet their needs.
4. Use the 'cool guys' to squash bad behaviours - enrol your most admired and connected people, teach them what “bad” looks like, and encourage them to stop being perpetrators - others will follow.
5. Kill the thrill - As Mark Twain said, “There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable” - the authors offer the example of a factory where people routinely stole equipment; by saying that people were free to check out equipment for personal use any time they wanted, theft was reduced to nearly zero overnight.
6. Try time shifting - from current to future selves. When people focus on the link between who they are now and who they want to be in the future, they behave more ethically and link short-term actions with longer-term consequences.
7. Focus on the best times, the worst times and the end - Research by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman uncovered the “peak–end rule”: no matter how good or bad an experience is or how long it lasts, judgments about it are shaped most strongly by the best and worst moments and by how it ended - so mitigate the bad, emphasise the good and keep the best till last.

"I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion
than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep"