Luca Dellanna > Quotes

“Solving the root cause of problems is always more urgent than solving any problem which it produced. Addressing the root cause of problems never costs time; it always gives time.”
― Luca Dellanna, 100 Truths You Will Learn Too Late

“Solving a problem without solving its root cause is like taking a step forward and then one back. Many enjoy the dance, but then complain it doesn’t bring them anywhere.”
― Luca Dellanna, 100 Truths You Will Learn Too Late

“The more the manager takes “easy choices” by sacrificing clarity, fairness or consistency, the more his subordinates will take “easy choices” themselves by sacrificing performance, quality and teamwork.”
― Luca Dellanna, Best Practices for Operational Excellence

“Practice is the shortcut.”
― Luca Dellanna

“Change happens when you desire new habits, not the outcomes that new habits would bring.”
― Luca Dellanna

“If managers reward effort, eventually, their subordinates will spend their time showing effort rather than obtaining results.”
― Luca Dellanna, Best Practices for Operational Excellence

“Learning is about reducing stimuli’s entropy.”
― Luca Dellanna

“Denying the necessity of adaptation is akin to refusing to repay a debt – this is not the debtor’s call, but the creditor’s.
n the case of adaptation, the creditor is the environment, and the environment always collects its debts.”
― Luca Dellanna, The Power of Adaptation

“Happiness comes from being someone we respect.”
― Luca Dellanna

“Problems grow the size they need in order to be acknowledged. An organization that is slow in acknowledging problems will find itself with big problems.”
― Luca Dellanna, Best Practices for Operational Excellence

“We do not seek survival, but what feels like survival.”
― Luca Dellanna, The Control Heuristic: The Nature of Human Behavior, 2nd Edition

“When managers fail to set clear objectives, it is not because of a lack of skills. Rather, it is because of some mental patterns of theirs that makes them believe that setting unclear objectives is the optimal choice.”
― Luca Dellanna, Best Practices for Operational Excellence

“People want to be happy on their own terms, and therefore end up unhappy.”
― Luca Dellanna, The Power of Adaptation

“Zero sum morality is the root of evil.”
― Luca Dellanna

“Art is control of one’s craft in exchange for control over one’s reputation. Compliance is the opposite: it is control of one’s reputation obtained by giving up control over one’s craft.”
― Luca Dellanna, The Control Heuristic​: Explaining Irrational Behavior and Behavioral Change

“Much misery comes from our current self not wanting to betray our past self.”
― Luca Dellanna

“Attention is the new real estate. Demand is the new oil. The phone is the new pipeline.”
― Luca Dellanna

“People are extremely good at succeeding at their priorities, and extremely dishonest about them.”
― Luca Dellanna, 100 Truths You Will Learn Too Late

“Either you let go of those parts of you that are inadequate for the world you are living in, or the world will let go of you.”
― Luca Dellanna, The Power of Adaptation

“Communication doesn’t happen when a message is first said; it happens when it cannot be mistaken anymore.”
― Luca Dellanna, Best Practices for Operational Excellence

“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.” – Jerzy Gregorek”
― Luca Dellanna, 100 Truths You Will Learn Too Late

“Great managers demand conflict (by asking everyone to voice their concerns), then demand commitment (by asking everyone to promise what they will do) and finally demand results (by letting everyone know that they will be held accountable for doing whatever the team decided).”
― Luca Dellanna, Best Practices for Operational Excellence

“Bad managers are volatile in the application of the standards they set. They believe that workers respond to the average application of the standard. Instead, workers remember the extremes.”
― Luca Dellanna, Best Practices for Operational Excellence

“Centralization is inherently narcissistic. The belief that one’s values and knowledge is universal and complete. The belief that the future is fully contained in the past, that the other is contained in the self.”
― Luca Dellanna

“Decisions taken in the managers’ office remain in there. They do not have the power to affect the way of working of their subordinates unless the manager translates them into visible actions at their subordinates’ workplace.”
― Luca Dellanna, Best Practices for Operational Excellence

“Whenever we desire an outcome but not the actions that would make us achieve it, we end up with inaction, busywork, shortcuts, excuses, and, ultimately, frustration.”
― Luca Dellanna, The Control Heuristic: The Nature of Human Behavior, 2nd Edition

“It’s not that our emotional self doesn’t want to change. It’s that it needs emotional evidence to do so.”
― Luca Dellanna, The Control Heuristic: The Nature of Human Behavior, 2nd Edition

“The political divide is increasingly: “I know what’s good for me” vs “I know what’s good for others”.”
― Luca Dellanna

“People’s expectations of you aren’t your problem. They are their problem.”
― Luca Dellanna, 100 Truths You Will Learn Too Late

“Expecto ergo est”
― Luca Dellanna, The Control Heuristic​: Explaining Irrational Behavior and Behavioral Change