The 2,000 Percent Solution: Free Your Organization from "Stalled" Thinking to Achieve Exponential Success

by Donald Mitchell, Carol Coles, Robert Metz

Organizations, like people, are creatures of habit. They tend to approach problems and practices in predictable ways. This revolutionary book argues that such ingrained habits, which often masquerade as efficient procedures, actually obstruct growth. And while it's no small task to unblock "stalled thinking" (we resist at every turn), the payoff is immense. Forget 100 percent improvement; the achievable goal is expanded to breakthrough 2,000 percent progress. THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION introduces "stallbusting" a process that shows you how to recognize typical stalls and overcome them. The book also helps you understand why companies habitually 'think small' in order to feel comfortable and in control. And it explains that only by learning to break certain patterns can we stride rapidly forward, solve seemingly impossible problems, and arrive sooner and more easily at the future. Through unorthodox examples ranging from the Titanic to Leonardo da Vinci's bicycle, The 2,000 Percent Solution redirects our knee-jerk reactions, or stalls, and gets readers on the road to sustainable change. The book examines such ubiquitous dodges as the Psychology-of-Disbelief Stall, the Tradition Stall, and the Bureaucratic Stall -- each from the stallbusters' point of attack. You'll find concise directions for overcoming these causes of organizational inertia and inefficiency. In addition, you'll learn about a new set of thought processes for designing and implementing solutions that will reap benefits 20 times greater or faster than the same tired "normal" solutions. Packed with specific advice on process improvement for going beyond today's best practices through better measurement and performance management, THE 2,000 PERCEMT SOLUTION is an outside-the-box guide to removing the blinders at every level of business in order to focus on different areas, set higher standards, and pursue them in new, more effective ways.

Genres: Business

258 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
For the British author on music, see https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are two forms of courage in business. That which enables you to mentally put aside the old ways of doing things and think of new ways and the greater courage that you put to use when you execute the new strategies. Both are hard, and it all starts with learning ways to think differently. That is the primary point of this book, and the advice is solid and of great value.
The primary learning strategy is to identify what the authors refer to as “stalls”. They are business strategies that somehow limit what can be accomplished. Most of the stalls are very simple. One of the simplest was a hotel where the room service delivery time for breakfasts was unacceptable. More people were added to cook and deliver the breakfasts without a significant reduction in the delivery time. Upon further investigation, they learned that housekeeping was changing the sheets at this time and the housekeepers were stopping the elevators to load and unload the carts. By changing the times when the sheets were changed, the breakfast delivery time was reduced to an acceptable one with a smaller staff. The tale is very illustrative, in that the “obvious” solution to a problem did not correct it. A more detailed analysis of the problem was necessary to solve it.
The advice offered in this book will not help unless it is implanted in a mind that is willing to think broadly and occasionally with some imagination. However, diligence is often more important than imagination. Most of the problems are ones where the solutions are obvious in retrospect. Nevertheless, even simple solutions can require the leaping of the reluctance to try new things hurdle, and that is where the courage of the second type is necessary.
While the book occasionally reads as a motivational pep talk, it does not happen often enough to overshadow the fundamental message. It is always possible to improve your business practices, and there are few businesses that will fail to find something of value in this book.

This review also appears on Amazon

[Aaron Bolin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "2,000 Percent Solution" is an interesting and useful read, but I am a little surprised by the overwhelmingly positive reviews it has received on Amazon. At its core, the book is a simple collection of management parables that illustrate the central theme - change is hard to accomplish in the real world. The advice offered to help readers overcome resistance to change consists of a surface-level hodge-podge of one-line prescriptions that is loosely held together by a process improvement framework.

It was a good and useful read, though it was a little boring in parts. As an overall assessment, I would give it three and a half stars, but I don't have the option of giving half stars.