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Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less
Wall Street Journal Bestseller
"The pick of 2014's management books." –Andrew Hill, Financial Times
"One of the top business books of the year." –Harvey Schacter, The Globe and Mail
Bestselling author, Robert Sutton and Stanford colleague, Huggy Rao tackle a challenge that determines every organization’s how to scale up farther, faster, and more effectively as an organization grows.
Sutton and Rao have devoted much of the last decade to uncovering what it takes to build and uncover pockets of exemplary performance, to help spread them, and to keep recharging organizations with ever better work practices. Drawing on inside accounts and case studies and academic research from a wealth of industries-- including start-ups, pharmaceuticals, airlines, retail, financial services, high-tech, education, non-profits, government, and healthcare-- Sutton and Rao identify the key scaling challenges that confront every organization. They tackle the difficult trade-offs that organizations must make between whether to encourage individualized approaches tailored to local needs or to replicate the same practices and customs as an organization or program expands. They reveal how the best leaders and teams develop, spread, and instill the right mindsets in their people-- rather than ruining or watering down the very things that have fueled successful growth in the past. They unpack the principles that help to cascade excellence throughout an organization, as well as show how to eliminate destructive beliefs and behaviors that will hold them back.
Scaling Up Excellence is the first major business book devoted to this universal and vexing challenge and it is destined to become the standard bearer in the field.
"The pick of 2014's management books." –Andrew Hill, Financial Times
"One of the top business books of the year." –Harvey Schacter, The Globe and Mail
Bestselling author, Robert Sutton and Stanford colleague, Huggy Rao tackle a challenge that determines every organization’s how to scale up farther, faster, and more effectively as an organization grows.
Sutton and Rao have devoted much of the last decade to uncovering what it takes to build and uncover pockets of exemplary performance, to help spread them, and to keep recharging organizations with ever better work practices. Drawing on inside accounts and case studies and academic research from a wealth of industries-- including start-ups, pharmaceuticals, airlines, retail, financial services, high-tech, education, non-profits, government, and healthcare-- Sutton and Rao identify the key scaling challenges that confront every organization. They tackle the difficult trade-offs that organizations must make between whether to encourage individualized approaches tailored to local needs or to replicate the same practices and customs as an organization or program expands. They reveal how the best leaders and teams develop, spread, and instill the right mindsets in their people-- rather than ruining or watering down the very things that have fueled successful growth in the past. They unpack the principles that help to cascade excellence throughout an organization, as well as show how to eliminate destructive beliefs and behaviors that will hold them back.
Scaling Up Excellence is the first major business book devoted to this universal and vexing challenge and it is destined to become the standard bearer in the field.
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
455 people are currently reading
5934 people want to read
About the author
Robert I. Sutton
30 books269 followersRobert Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford and a Professor of Organizational Behavior, by courtesy, at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Sutton studies innovation, leaders and bosses, evidence-based management, the links between knowledge and organizational action, and workplace civility. Sutton’s books include Weird Ideas That Work: 11 ½ Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation, The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Firms Turn Knowledge into Action (with Jeffrey Pfeffer), and Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management (also with Jeffrey Pfeffer). His most recent book is the New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. His next book, Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best … and Survive the Worst, which will be published in September 2010 by Business Plus.
Professor Sutton’s honors include the award for the best paper published in the Academy of Management Journal in 1989, the Eugene L. Grant Award for Excellence in Teaching, selection by Business 2.0 as a leading “management guru” in 2002, and the award for the best article published in the Academy of Management Review in 2005. Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense was selected as the best business book of 2006 by the Toronto Globe and Mail. His latest book, The No Asshole Rule, won the Quill Award for the best business book of 2007. Sutton was named as one of 10 “B-School All-Stars” by BusinessWeek in 2007, which they described as “professors who are influencing contemporary business thinking far beyond academia.” Sutton is a Fellow at IDEO and a member of the Institute for the Future’s board of directors. Especially dear to his heart is the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, which everyone calls “the Stanford d.school.” He is a co-founder of this multi-disciplinary program, which teaches, practices, and spreads “design thinking.” His personal blog is Work Matters, at www.bobsutton.net.
Professor Sutton’s honors include the award for the best paper published in the Academy of Management Journal in 1989, the Eugene L. Grant Award for Excellence in Teaching, selection by Business 2.0 as a leading “management guru” in 2002, and the award for the best article published in the Academy of Management Review in 2005. Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense was selected as the best business book of 2006 by the Toronto Globe and Mail. His latest book, The No Asshole Rule, won the Quill Award for the best business book of 2007. Sutton was named as one of 10 “B-School All-Stars” by BusinessWeek in 2007, which they described as “professors who are influencing contemporary business thinking far beyond academia.” Sutton is a Fellow at IDEO and a member of the Institute for the Future’s board of directors. Especially dear to his heart is the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, which everyone calls “the Stanford d.school.” He is a co-founder of this multi-disciplinary program, which teaches, practices, and spreads “design thinking.” His personal blog is Work Matters, at www.bobsutton.net.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews
February 24, 2014
Not much new here. Executives need to walk the talk. Bad attitudes are toxic and should be exorcised quickly. Scaling well requires deliberate management of increased specialization, core values, and the flow of information. Can't recommend this one.
January 12, 2015
The book was a bit long, but I really liked certain examples. In spite of it being long, it read pretty quickly.
Scaling is something I have never gotten right, I think if you are like me, with a "I'll fix it" personality, reading this book really helps me to step back and say...what if I couldn't just fix it, and I had to build a long term sustainable way to "fix it" how would I tackle it then?
Examples of systems that wear down managers and organizations I found very helpful, as the "people stuff" scales the worst. The examples of Adobe getting rid of annual reviews was nice, especially the fact that quarterly reviews forced tough conversations to happen more frequently.
The way Salesforce allows people to move to new teams, was interesting, so often people are at the mercy of their manager, this approach gives some power back to the employee to choose to work with different managers, it also lets them learn the most, as they might work under one manager for 2 years and learn one style, then move on to another and learn theirs. I liked that idea.
Lastly the Zynga example of the people most likely to get promoted are those who can demonstrate to the organization that they have helped others get promoted. Its like if you want to move up, you better take someone up with you to fill your role. This is another great scalable solution - instead of getting a promotion for yourself and leaving a hole in the organization for others to fill, what are you doing to help people fill that hole the minute you leave?
Scaling is something I have never gotten right, I think if you are like me, with a "I'll fix it" personality, reading this book really helps me to step back and say...what if I couldn't just fix it, and I had to build a long term sustainable way to "fix it" how would I tackle it then?
Examples of systems that wear down managers and organizations I found very helpful, as the "people stuff" scales the worst. The examples of Adobe getting rid of annual reviews was nice, especially the fact that quarterly reviews forced tough conversations to happen more frequently.
The way Salesforce allows people to move to new teams, was interesting, so often people are at the mercy of their manager, this approach gives some power back to the employee to choose to work with different managers, it also lets them learn the most, as they might work under one manager for 2 years and learn one style, then move on to another and learn theirs. I liked that idea.
Lastly the Zynga example of the people most likely to get promoted are those who can demonstrate to the organization that they have helped others get promoted. Its like if you want to move up, you better take someone up with you to fill your role. This is another great scalable solution - instead of getting a promotion for yourself and leaving a hole in the organization for others to fill, what are you doing to help people fill that hole the minute you leave?
July 7, 2015
Книга про масштабирование бизнеса. Технических советов про то, как создать "Мак Дональдс №2" вы в ней не найдёте :). Но довольно неплохо рассматриваются такие принципиальные моменты как трансляция ценностей, подбор нужных людей, обучение рутинам и коммуникациям, которые составляют "генетической код" бизнеса и т.п. Читается интересно, много живых примеров, хотя и несколько рыхловато написано.
Подробная рецензия и интеллект-карта по книге в моём блоге: http://s-kalinin.blogspot.ru/2015/07/...
Подробная рецензия и интеллект-карта по книге в моём блоге: http://s-kalinin.blogspot.ru/2015/07/...
February 25, 2019
Clusterfug, it's a real thing (wait, what?). Did not understand why there is so much hype about this book as it does not really stand out by itself (references from many other books which I have already completed). 4 points because of a few interesting examples, it doesn't seem that helpful as a applicable guide in tackling those challenges (the author actually did state that it's not easy but he kind of claimed that the book will make it easier).
“When big organizations scale well, they focus on “moving a thousand people forward a foot at a time, rather than moving one person forward by a thousand feet.”
“When someone at the Directors’ College asked Campbell about the most crucial skill for a senior executive, he said it was the rare ability (which Jobs had in spades) to make sure that the short-term stuff gets done and done well, while simultaneously never losing sight of the big picture.”
Scaling up brings along with it: more layers, more complexity, more people and more resources in order to keep growing. One pitfall here is: adding too much complexity before it’s necessary. If you add too many new people, rules and standards too fast, you get something called a “big dumb company”.
Research shows that even if just 1 person with a destructive, negative mindset joins a group, it brings down performance by 30 to 40 percent. So you have to eliminate bad, disruptive behavior. Negative emotions have a tendency to infect the whole group, and take time to figure out how to deal with the perpetrator.
This ties in to the “Broken Window Theory”. If a window is broken in a building, criminals are more likely to break more windows, and might start breaking into houses. This is because destructive behavior proliferates and escalates quickly. The same applies to your organization, which can suffer even from small destructive acts.
“SCALING MANTRAS
1. Spread a mindset, not just a footprint.
Running up the numbers and putting your logo on as many people and places as possible isn’t enough.
2. Engage all the senses.
Bolster the mindset you want to spread with supportive sights, sounds, smells, and other subtle cues that people may barely notice, if at all.
3. Link short-term realities to long-term dreams.
Hound yourself and others with questions about what it takes to link the never-ending now to the sweet dreams you hope to realize later.
4. Accelerate accountability.
Build in the feeling that “I own the place and the place owns me.”
5. Fear the clusterfugs.
The terrible trio of illusion, impatience, and incompetence are ever-present risks. Healthy doses of worry and self-doubt are antidotes to these three hallmarks of scaling clusterfugs.
6. Scaling requires both addition and subtraction.
The problem of more is also a problem of less.
7. Slow down to scale faster—and better—down the road.
Learn when and how to shift gears from automatic, mindless, and fast modes of thinking (“System 1”) to slow, taxing, logical, deliberative, and conscious modes (“System 2”); sometimes the best advice is, “Don’t just do something, stand there.”
There is a balance you have to reach between standardization and local variation. Standardization is the idea of spreading a pre-determined “ideal model”. For example: Catholicism in the Catholic Church. For example the In-N-Out burger company spreads the exact food menus, uniforms, rules and training routines, to make sure every burger joint is the same.
Local Variation, on the other hand, is referred to as “Buddhism” in the book, and means that an overall mindset guides people’s behavior, but the individual actions can vary a lot. As an example of this, IKEA sells items in pieces for customers to put together, but in China, that is not as popular, so they offer home delivery and assembly services there.
It’s not about choosing local variation or standardization, but about finding the right balance between the two.
“A scaling premortem works something like this: when your team is on the verge of making and implementing a big decision, call a meeting and ask each member to imagine that it is, say, a year later. Split them into two groups. Have one group imagine that the effort was an unmitigated disaster. Have the other pretend it was a roaring success. Ask each member to work independently and generate reasons, or better yet, write a story, about why the success or failure occurred. Instruct them to be as detailed as possible and, as Klein emphasizes, to identify causes that they wouldn’t usually mention “for fear of being impolitic.” Next, have each person in the “failure” group read his or her list or story aloud, and record and collate the reasons. Repeat this process with the “success” group. Finally, use the reasons from both groups to strengthen your scaling plan. If you uncover overwhelming and impassable roadblocks, then go back to the drawing board.”
“When big organizations scale well, they focus on “moving a thousand people forward a foot at a time, rather than moving one person forward by a thousand feet.”
“When someone at the Directors’ College asked Campbell about the most crucial skill for a senior executive, he said it was the rare ability (which Jobs had in spades) to make sure that the short-term stuff gets done and done well, while simultaneously never losing sight of the big picture.”
Scaling up brings along with it: more layers, more complexity, more people and more resources in order to keep growing. One pitfall here is: adding too much complexity before it’s necessary. If you add too many new people, rules and standards too fast, you get something called a “big dumb company”.
Research shows that even if just 1 person with a destructive, negative mindset joins a group, it brings down performance by 30 to 40 percent. So you have to eliminate bad, disruptive behavior. Negative emotions have a tendency to infect the whole group, and take time to figure out how to deal with the perpetrator.
This ties in to the “Broken Window Theory”. If a window is broken in a building, criminals are more likely to break more windows, and might start breaking into houses. This is because destructive behavior proliferates and escalates quickly. The same applies to your organization, which can suffer even from small destructive acts.
“SCALING MANTRAS
1. Spread a mindset, not just a footprint.
Running up the numbers and putting your logo on as many people and places as possible isn’t enough.
2. Engage all the senses.
Bolster the mindset you want to spread with supportive sights, sounds, smells, and other subtle cues that people may barely notice, if at all.
3. Link short-term realities to long-term dreams.
Hound yourself and others with questions about what it takes to link the never-ending now to the sweet dreams you hope to realize later.
4. Accelerate accountability.
Build in the feeling that “I own the place and the place owns me.”
5. Fear the clusterfugs.
The terrible trio of illusion, impatience, and incompetence are ever-present risks. Healthy doses of worry and self-doubt are antidotes to these three hallmarks of scaling clusterfugs.
6. Scaling requires both addition and subtraction.
The problem of more is also a problem of less.
7. Slow down to scale faster—and better—down the road.
Learn when and how to shift gears from automatic, mindless, and fast modes of thinking (“System 1”) to slow, taxing, logical, deliberative, and conscious modes (“System 2”); sometimes the best advice is, “Don’t just do something, stand there.”
There is a balance you have to reach between standardization and local variation. Standardization is the idea of spreading a pre-determined “ideal model”. For example: Catholicism in the Catholic Church. For example the In-N-Out burger company spreads the exact food menus, uniforms, rules and training routines, to make sure every burger joint is the same.
Local Variation, on the other hand, is referred to as “Buddhism” in the book, and means that an overall mindset guides people’s behavior, but the individual actions can vary a lot. As an example of this, IKEA sells items in pieces for customers to put together, but in China, that is not as popular, so they offer home delivery and assembly services there.
It’s not about choosing local variation or standardization, but about finding the right balance between the two.
“A scaling premortem works something like this: when your team is on the verge of making and implementing a big decision, call a meeting and ask each member to imagine that it is, say, a year later. Split them into two groups. Have one group imagine that the effort was an unmitigated disaster. Have the other pretend it was a roaring success. Ask each member to work independently and generate reasons, or better yet, write a story, about why the success or failure occurred. Instruct them to be as detailed as possible and, as Klein emphasizes, to identify causes that they wouldn’t usually mention “for fear of being impolitic.” Next, have each person in the “failure” group read his or her list or story aloud, and record and collate the reasons. Repeat this process with the “success” group. Finally, use the reasons from both groups to strengthen your scaling plan. If you uncover overwhelming and impassable roadblocks, then go back to the drawing board.”
April 29, 2020
Check out my video review here :) https://youtu.be/QKIuiNL7aEA
Who should read: Any owner of a business or a manager who is working on making their team better and growing their business. Also, anyone who is working on changing the culture of their work environment.
Main Points: This book is about growing a company or business as well as how to create cultures of excellence. It talks about how you may need to add certain tasks and levels to your business to grow, but you may also need to subtract some too. It talks about having the right people in place and when. In scaling it is more of a marathon than a sprint and the one thing that remains constant is change. Creating the right mind set is not enough, it must be lived by every employee in the business. One bad employee does a lot more damage than the good one great employee can do so it is important to get rid of the people that do not fit. From my own experience I know how important it is to get the right people in place and that the person makes a lot of difference. This book has helped me to shape my mind into being one of the great employees instead of a mediocre one who just gets by.
What I am going to implement from the book.
I am going to be working on finding things to do before I am told to do them as well as strive to be excellent. To measure this, I will tally up how many times I get told to do something that I already knew ahead of time that should’ve been done. My success metric is how close to 0 can I be for the next week.
Highlighted Lessons
Pg. XV “Organizations that scale are filled with people who talk and act as if they are in the middle of a manageable mess”
Pg.7 “Grit” entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress.””
Pg. 8. Scaling mantras
1. Spread a mindset, not just a footprint
2. Engage all the senses
3. Link short-term realities to long term dreams
4. Accelerate accountability
5. Fear the clusterfug
6. Scaling requires both addition and subtraction
7. Slow down to scale faster -and Better- down the road
Pg. 10. Don’t wait to be told to do something, ask for help when you need it
Pg. 13. “when people get smug, operate on autopilot, take shortcuts, and choose a path of least resistance too often, they lose sight of the essence of their excellence.”
This one sticks with me a lot right now because I feel like I have been resting on my laurels and have been going on autopilot.
Pg. 54. It takes time to be great at something and time for someone else to learn. Sometimes it is okay to have short term excellence drop and then adjust.
Pg. 71. Hot causes, cool solutions watermelon offensive. To get soccer players to wear helmets while riding bikes, researchers showed them watermelons crushing without helmets and being safe with them. They then signed a pledge to wear helmets and to throw watermelons at any player who wasn’t wearing a helmet. Proclaim commitments publicly!
Pg. 78 “What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do I understand”
Pg. 83. Name an enemy and that will help drive your team forward
Pg. 85 make public commitments and stances on subjects and encourage others so they will need to stay consistent.
Pg. 93. “The employee asked, “can you tell me one thing? When is the change going to end?” The CEO gave her a warm but wary smile and said, “I am sorry, but the changes are never going to end”
It is necessary to keep trying new things.
Pg. 95 “glaring gaps between beliefs and behaviors make us feel like hypocrites” It is also necessary to make the workplace enjoyable
Pg. 114 It is important to have regular check-ins and performance discussions with your employees instead of yearly reviews. Compliment sandwiches work well in these scenarios.
Pg. 136. Make sure everyone’s duty in the company is to do the right thing and to take ownership
Pg. 141.Pay your people well, give autonomy, pride in work, and lack of friction for people to work their best and produce results. Always act in the company’s best interest.
Pg. 155. Do not allow free riders and have your team put clients first. This one hits home for me because I feel like I have been selfish and put my personal needs before work. There is a balance because you do not want to burn out. Make sure you do the right thing and if you are productive at work, work won’t need to affect your personal life.
Pg. 172 “Their job is to look out for the customer first, last, and always.” You need to read this section for the story on commitment to service!
Pg. 192 Scouts become successful. Have your child be a scout. Make sure to follow up with as many people as you can after a big event.
Pg. 225. Do not let employees sit idly by. Encourage them to always take action. The bystander effect does damage. It is all your job and do not assume someone else will do it.
Pg. 240. Most people are not looking for over the top service. Bad service is A LOT worse than satisfactory service. Keeping plain vanilla services is more important than dazzling.
Pg. 248. When you expose people to a motivational picture of a finish line, they do a lot better. I am going to try this with my swimmers this year! A simple cue helps them focus on the long term and connects it to the small things they do today Goals need to be vivid and emotionally compelling.
Having people do role shifts helps build empathy and increase their ability to work effectively together. I have two takeaways from this page so it must be a good one!
Pg. 263. Imagine you have already succeeded and talk about what you did to get there.
Pg. 265. It is important to think of yourself in future terms when setting goals and working backwards on how to get there. It needs to be specific and vivid and talk as if it as already happened. It may be wise to talk about if it failed and find what points may trip the team up.
Pg. 277. Sometimes to get to somewhere new, you must drop the things that got you to where you are currently.
Who should read: Any owner of a business or a manager who is working on making their team better and growing their business. Also, anyone who is working on changing the culture of their work environment.
Main Points: This book is about growing a company or business as well as how to create cultures of excellence. It talks about how you may need to add certain tasks and levels to your business to grow, but you may also need to subtract some too. It talks about having the right people in place and when. In scaling it is more of a marathon than a sprint and the one thing that remains constant is change. Creating the right mind set is not enough, it must be lived by every employee in the business. One bad employee does a lot more damage than the good one great employee can do so it is important to get rid of the people that do not fit. From my own experience I know how important it is to get the right people in place and that the person makes a lot of difference. This book has helped me to shape my mind into being one of the great employees instead of a mediocre one who just gets by.
What I am going to implement from the book.
I am going to be working on finding things to do before I am told to do them as well as strive to be excellent. To measure this, I will tally up how many times I get told to do something that I already knew ahead of time that should’ve been done. My success metric is how close to 0 can I be for the next week.
Highlighted Lessons
Pg. XV “Organizations that scale are filled with people who talk and act as if they are in the middle of a manageable mess”
Pg.7 “Grit” entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress.””
Pg. 8. Scaling mantras
1. Spread a mindset, not just a footprint
2. Engage all the senses
3. Link short-term realities to long term dreams
4. Accelerate accountability
5. Fear the clusterfug
6. Scaling requires both addition and subtraction
7. Slow down to scale faster -and Better- down the road
Pg. 10. Don’t wait to be told to do something, ask for help when you need it
Pg. 13. “when people get smug, operate on autopilot, take shortcuts, and choose a path of least resistance too often, they lose sight of the essence of their excellence.”
This one sticks with me a lot right now because I feel like I have been resting on my laurels and have been going on autopilot.
Pg. 54. It takes time to be great at something and time for someone else to learn. Sometimes it is okay to have short term excellence drop and then adjust.
Pg. 71. Hot causes, cool solutions watermelon offensive. To get soccer players to wear helmets while riding bikes, researchers showed them watermelons crushing without helmets and being safe with them. They then signed a pledge to wear helmets and to throw watermelons at any player who wasn’t wearing a helmet. Proclaim commitments publicly!
Pg. 78 “What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do I understand”
Pg. 83. Name an enemy and that will help drive your team forward
Pg. 85 make public commitments and stances on subjects and encourage others so they will need to stay consistent.
Pg. 93. “The employee asked, “can you tell me one thing? When is the change going to end?” The CEO gave her a warm but wary smile and said, “I am sorry, but the changes are never going to end”
It is necessary to keep trying new things.
Pg. 95 “glaring gaps between beliefs and behaviors make us feel like hypocrites” It is also necessary to make the workplace enjoyable
Pg. 114 It is important to have regular check-ins and performance discussions with your employees instead of yearly reviews. Compliment sandwiches work well in these scenarios.
Pg. 136. Make sure everyone’s duty in the company is to do the right thing and to take ownership
Pg. 141.Pay your people well, give autonomy, pride in work, and lack of friction for people to work their best and produce results. Always act in the company’s best interest.
Pg. 155. Do not allow free riders and have your team put clients first. This one hits home for me because I feel like I have been selfish and put my personal needs before work. There is a balance because you do not want to burn out. Make sure you do the right thing and if you are productive at work, work won’t need to affect your personal life.
Pg. 172 “Their job is to look out for the customer first, last, and always.” You need to read this section for the story on commitment to service!
Pg. 192 Scouts become successful. Have your child be a scout. Make sure to follow up with as many people as you can after a big event.
Pg. 225. Do not let employees sit idly by. Encourage them to always take action. The bystander effect does damage. It is all your job and do not assume someone else will do it.
Pg. 240. Most people are not looking for over the top service. Bad service is A LOT worse than satisfactory service. Keeping plain vanilla services is more important than dazzling.
Pg. 248. When you expose people to a motivational picture of a finish line, they do a lot better. I am going to try this with my swimmers this year! A simple cue helps them focus on the long term and connects it to the small things they do today Goals need to be vivid and emotionally compelling.
Having people do role shifts helps build empathy and increase their ability to work effectively together. I have two takeaways from this page so it must be a good one!
Pg. 263. Imagine you have already succeeded and talk about what you did to get there.
Pg. 265. It is important to think of yourself in future terms when setting goals and working backwards on how to get there. It needs to be specific and vivid and talk as if it as already happened. It may be wise to talk about if it failed and find what points may trip the team up.
Pg. 277. Sometimes to get to somewhere new, you must drop the things that got you to where you are currently.
February 4, 2014
Another fine offering from Bob Sutton ("The No A**hole Rule," "Good Boss, Bad Boss") and his co-author Huggy Rao, two Stanford profs and business-book writers. I received a review copy thanks to Goodreads and recently posted my review on my blog. Here's the link:
http://andrewcareaga.wordpress.com/20...
http://andrewcareaga.wordpress.com/20...
January 9, 2017
Really great material for looking at ways to scale up organizational excellence! Good read for anyone in a leadership position especially a high leadership role in which they set the tone. He gives lots of data and thoughts about organizational structures, management techniques, and solid psychological practices.
Want to read
July 29, 2014for more about the genesis of the book - see also Bob Sutton's blog: http://bobsutton.typepad.com/
referred in Adam Grant's list "The 12 Business Books to Read in 2014": http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-gr...
referred in Adam Grant's list "The 12 Business Books to Read in 2014": http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-gr...
September 9, 2018
This book had a lot of good advice. Some of it was common sense, but a lot of it was legitimately useful and perspective changing. Why two stars then? The organization was horrible. Instead of being organized in such a way as to emphasize the key ideas, the book consisted of lists of loosely connected ideas that were too long to be remembered (and yet, at the same time, were annoyingly repetitive). A couple other factors that led to the low rating were that many of the examples felt more like name dropping than deeply integrated with the core lessons (look at all the interesting people we've talked to and worked with!). There were also a couple key points whose phrasing annoyed me despite the underlying good concept they represented[1].
That said, the key lessons that Sutton and Rao share are useful.
Scaling excellence takes time and investment. If a change initiative is treated as something that can take hold with one training or one inspirational talk, then it will fail. It needs to be spread using many techniques over a long time. This includes training. It also includes convincing the right people in the organization who can help efforts spread, building support systems that allow change to happen even when those in charge of the change effort are not available, and figuring out the right processes to support change. Utilizing social bonds is an important part of this; getting people involved who are widely connected and who are connected to densely connected cliques can help spread change more widely in an organization.
Scaling excellence requires a mixture of flexibility and fidelity. First, we need pockets of excellence to spread. These should be concrete, end-to-end solutions that have been achieved in practice, not a list of good ideas hobbled together and then expected to just work. However, once this initial mix has been found, it is important to figure out which parts of it are essential for everyone to follow -- the guardrails -- and which parts can be changed flexibly to fit local needs. Since often it is unclear why certain parts are necessary until they are put into practice, it can often be necessary to ask people to initially follow a process more strictly than they would like and then allow flexibility to increase over time.
Increase feelings of accountability. When people feel accountable for outcomes -- both like they are responsible for outcomes and have the ability to achieve those outcomes -- then they are more likely to successfully push for change. The flip side of accountability is disengagement, and it is one of the most dangerous problems for an organization, especially one trying to change. Disengagement is not merely failing to push for your own preferred end -- sometimes accepting that your choice was not the chosen one is necessary. Rather, disengagement occurs when a person retains responsibility for some outcome but fails to do their best to make that outcome successful. This is closely related to the mantra "disagree and commit" (or if you can't commit, give the responsibility to someone else). Accountability also requires that each person be willing to combat bad behavior wherever they see it; bad behavior spreads more quickly than good.
Add structure when necessary and remove structure that has become unnecessary. As organizations grow, the overhead of maintaining relationship can take up more and more time until the organization is no longer able to be productive. Adding structure, such as organizational divisions, can help, but all structure comes at a cost. The way to balance this tension is to add a minimal amount of structure only when it seems absolutely necessary -- which will be a little bit after the lack of structure becomes uncomfortable. Another way to combat the cost of adding structure is to also subtract structure that has become harmful, neutral, or where the value no longer outweighs the cost. This means sometimes making people uncomfortable because it requires removing processes and rules that are still sometimes useful.
Plumbing is more important than poetry, but both are necessary. Plumbing -- the practical work needed to achieve success -- is more important than poetry -- the inspirational vision about how great it will be when we have achieved success. The poetry is important and necessary, but if it is not backed by visible, practical implementation with some short term wins, then it will become empty platitudes that inspire cynicism.
Think about what success and failure will have looked like. It can be hard to think about all of the ways the future might look. A scaling premortem is a useful tool for understanding risks and opportunities in a scaling exercise. Write out two scenarios: one where the scaling effort was wildly successful and one where it failed miserably. What, concretely, happened in these hypothetical scenarios? It is even better if these are group exercises and the two scenarios are handled by different parts of the group.
[1] In particular, Catholicism vs Buddhism to discuss fidelity to a model vs flexibility in implementation bugged me because it depended on stereotyped visions of the two religions and, even within those stereotypes, the contrasts between the two are broad enough that it is hard to remember what particular contrast was being drawn. "I own the place and the place owns me" bugs me because ownership of a person is generally coercive and involuntary and this negative connotation falls over into the metaphor and tinges it with hints of slavery rather than voluntary alignment with an organizations goals and living up to high standards.
That said, the key lessons that Sutton and Rao share are useful.
Scaling excellence takes time and investment. If a change initiative is treated as something that can take hold with one training or one inspirational talk, then it will fail. It needs to be spread using many techniques over a long time. This includes training. It also includes convincing the right people in the organization who can help efforts spread, building support systems that allow change to happen even when those in charge of the change effort are not available, and figuring out the right processes to support change. Utilizing social bonds is an important part of this; getting people involved who are widely connected and who are connected to densely connected cliques can help spread change more widely in an organization.
Scaling excellence requires a mixture of flexibility and fidelity. First, we need pockets of excellence to spread. These should be concrete, end-to-end solutions that have been achieved in practice, not a list of good ideas hobbled together and then expected to just work. However, once this initial mix has been found, it is important to figure out which parts of it are essential for everyone to follow -- the guardrails -- and which parts can be changed flexibly to fit local needs. Since often it is unclear why certain parts are necessary until they are put into practice, it can often be necessary to ask people to initially follow a process more strictly than they would like and then allow flexibility to increase over time.
Increase feelings of accountability. When people feel accountable for outcomes -- both like they are responsible for outcomes and have the ability to achieve those outcomes -- then they are more likely to successfully push for change. The flip side of accountability is disengagement, and it is one of the most dangerous problems for an organization, especially one trying to change. Disengagement is not merely failing to push for your own preferred end -- sometimes accepting that your choice was not the chosen one is necessary. Rather, disengagement occurs when a person retains responsibility for some outcome but fails to do their best to make that outcome successful. This is closely related to the mantra "disagree and commit" (or if you can't commit, give the responsibility to someone else). Accountability also requires that each person be willing to combat bad behavior wherever they see it; bad behavior spreads more quickly than good.
Add structure when necessary and remove structure that has become unnecessary. As organizations grow, the overhead of maintaining relationship can take up more and more time until the organization is no longer able to be productive. Adding structure, such as organizational divisions, can help, but all structure comes at a cost. The way to balance this tension is to add a minimal amount of structure only when it seems absolutely necessary -- which will be a little bit after the lack of structure becomes uncomfortable. Another way to combat the cost of adding structure is to also subtract structure that has become harmful, neutral, or where the value no longer outweighs the cost. This means sometimes making people uncomfortable because it requires removing processes and rules that are still sometimes useful.
Plumbing is more important than poetry, but both are necessary. Plumbing -- the practical work needed to achieve success -- is more important than poetry -- the inspirational vision about how great it will be when we have achieved success. The poetry is important and necessary, but if it is not backed by visible, practical implementation with some short term wins, then it will become empty platitudes that inspire cynicism.
Think about what success and failure will have looked like. It can be hard to think about all of the ways the future might look. A scaling premortem is a useful tool for understanding risks and opportunities in a scaling exercise. Write out two scenarios: one where the scaling effort was wildly successful and one where it failed miserably. What, concretely, happened in these hypothetical scenarios? It is even better if these are group exercises and the two scenarios are handled by different parts of the group.
[1] In particular, Catholicism vs Buddhism to discuss fidelity to a model vs flexibility in implementation bugged me because it depended on stereotyped visions of the two religions and, even within those stereotypes, the contrasts between the two are broad enough that it is hard to remember what particular contrast was being drawn. "I own the place and the place owns me" bugs me because ownership of a person is generally coercive and involuntary and this negative connotation falls over into the metaphor and tinges it with hints of slavery rather than voluntary alignment with an organizations goals and living up to high standards.
September 25, 2018
Sutton & Rao tackle the notorious challenge of companies facing the privilege of growth - scaling up the good parts - the effective parts that matter to a company’s survival & flourishing - and reducing the bad parts - the needless bureaucratic parts that can drag a company under. Scaling Up Excellence at times seems more like an anthology of cases that illustrate the authors’ points, such as the balancing of freedom to experiment against the importance of standardization represented by Buddhism and Catholicism to the authors. The case studies follow improvements across companies like JetBlue, Kaiser Permanente, Intuit, Home Depot, IKEA, Pixar, Mozilla which goes to show how well-connected and well-read the authors are in the Silicon Valley area, but leaves much to be wanting in terms of evidence and persuasion because little more than anecdotes and larger company trends are provided. Indeed, many of the principles and advice I don’t believe people were on the other end of the debate such as “get the right people on the bus” or “cut cognitive load.”
At times the book falls on the crutches of the usual business cliches: co-opting of military lingo (“its a ground war, not just an air war”), excessive Steve Jobs & Apple worship, praise of transparency & personal responsibility to counter the bystander effect, and passing mention of the authors’ wives. The writing also seems self-indulgent at times because the authors are both member of the Stanford school of design or d.school and mention it in nearly every chapter. Personal anecdotes like the Stanford soccer team breaking watermelons to illustrate bike safety are somehow used as evidence of finding key ringleaders to exemplify behavior for large companies.
All in all, the book packs a lot into the principles and points, that are no doubt important and useful, but the writing nevertheless dilutes their potency because the principles by themselves would each make for a good book and would not convince a reader who didn’t already believe them. The authors missed the opportunity to synthesize the key principles into a larger world view and demonstrate their interdependence instead of mentioning them as disparate observations because it would have resonated with deeper insight if the authors had. The book therefore comes across as shallower than it is deep and seems to counteract its own larger advice to simplify company focuses.
Scaling Up Excellence worth a read and is will be emblematic of the principles that will help propel companies & start-ups to success, at least for a time.
At times the book falls on the crutches of the usual business cliches: co-opting of military lingo (“its a ground war, not just an air war”), excessive Steve Jobs & Apple worship, praise of transparency & personal responsibility to counter the bystander effect, and passing mention of the authors’ wives. The writing also seems self-indulgent at times because the authors are both member of the Stanford school of design or d.school and mention it in nearly every chapter. Personal anecdotes like the Stanford soccer team breaking watermelons to illustrate bike safety are somehow used as evidence of finding key ringleaders to exemplify behavior for large companies.
All in all, the book packs a lot into the principles and points, that are no doubt important and useful, but the writing nevertheless dilutes their potency because the principles by themselves would each make for a good book and would not convince a reader who didn’t already believe them. The authors missed the opportunity to synthesize the key principles into a larger world view and demonstrate their interdependence instead of mentioning them as disparate observations because it would have resonated with deeper insight if the authors had. The book therefore comes across as shallower than it is deep and seems to counteract its own larger advice to simplify company focuses.
Scaling Up Excellence worth a read and is will be emblematic of the principles that will help propel companies & start-ups to success, at least for a time.
January 21, 2024
This book is one of the best I've ever read, leaving me feeling energized. While I initially thought it was aimed at C-Suite executives and not relevant to my role, the content quickly captured my attention. The author challenges top-down thinking with compelling bottom-up examples, offering practical tips for fostering accountability and ownership throughout an organization. Whoaa!! Notably, the book features enlightening stories from Taj Hotel employees demonstrating remarkable accountability and ownership.
Adding some spoilers. Things which he mentioned as scaling mantras (which actually are) are,
1. Spread a mindset, not just a footprint.
Running up the numbers and putting your logo on as many people and places as possible isn’t enough.
2. Engage all the senses.
Bolster the mindset you want to spread with supportive sights, sounds, smells, and other subtle cues that people may barely notice, if at all.
3. Link short-term realities to long-term dreams.
Hound yourself and others with questions about what it takes to link the never-ending now to the sweet dreams you hope to realize later.
4. Accelerate accountability.
Build in the feeling that “I own the place and the place owns me.”
5. Fear the clusterfug.The terrible trio of illusion, impatience, and incompetence are ever-present risks.
Healthy doses of worry and self-doubt are antidotes to these three hallmarks of scaling clusterfugs.
6. Scaling requires both addition and subtraction.
The problem of more is also a problem of less.
7. Slow down to scale faster—and better—down the road.
Learn when and how to shift gears from automatic, mindless, and fast modes of thinking (“System 1”) to slow, taxing, logical, deliberative, and conscious modes (“System 2”); sometimes the best advice is, “Don’t just do something, stand there.”
Last but not the least, one of the fav quotes from the book
“Argue like you’re right and listen like you’re wrong.”
- Adam M. Grant
If you are reading this review, I would highly recommend reading the original book. I'm afraid I might not have done justice in summarizing it :-D.
Adding some spoilers. Things which he mentioned as scaling mantras (which actually are) are,
1. Spread a mindset, not just a footprint.
Running up the numbers and putting your logo on as many people and places as possible isn’t enough.
2. Engage all the senses.
Bolster the mindset you want to spread with supportive sights, sounds, smells, and other subtle cues that people may barely notice, if at all.
3. Link short-term realities to long-term dreams.
Hound yourself and others with questions about what it takes to link the never-ending now to the sweet dreams you hope to realize later.
4. Accelerate accountability.
Build in the feeling that “I own the place and the place owns me.”
5. Fear the clusterfug.The terrible trio of illusion, impatience, and incompetence are ever-present risks.
Healthy doses of worry and self-doubt are antidotes to these three hallmarks of scaling clusterfugs.
6. Scaling requires both addition and subtraction.
The problem of more is also a problem of less.
7. Slow down to scale faster—and better—down the road.
Learn when and how to shift gears from automatic, mindless, and fast modes of thinking (“System 1”) to slow, taxing, logical, deliberative, and conscious modes (“System 2”); sometimes the best advice is, “Don’t just do something, stand there.”
Last but not the least, one of the fav quotes from the book
“Argue like you’re right and listen like you’re wrong.”
- Adam M. Grant
If you are reading this review, I would highly recommend reading the original book. I'm afraid I might not have done justice in summarizing it :-D.
January 27, 2021
Think of books from authors like the Heath Brothers, Jim Collins, and Malcolm Gladwell. Think of those kinds of books because clearly that's what these authors were doing as they wrote this one. Not only are some parts of this book copies of studies found in those books, but the writing style clearly is an attempt at mimicking that of those guys, with the attempts to make catchy names for every concept and so on. In that way it almost feels like the little sibling trying to copy their older brother/sister.
Along those lines, prepare for an absolute deluge of name-dropping (also, it's VERY obvious that they work at Stanford as you read multiple names from there along with multiple plugs for the university in examples). And the names of companies and other details could certainly have been weeded down to make it more easily digestible. As it stands, the book reads like a convoluted business magazine article.
All that said, I did find a few things worthwhile to jot down, take note of, and hopefully apply in my context. For that reason I read it fully through and gave it more than just 1 star. It deserved at least that much! I appreciate some of the insights I gained by reading their learned insights from experiences and research they'd done.
However, it really was not edited well enough in its rough draft form to make it ready for print. There were large sweeping statements that only had one anecdotal example supporting them, and then later on you'd feel like another example even contradicted it. There was a lack of clarity of thoughtful process of one idea to the next. And there was just a writing style that was jilted and hard to engage.
Where I would've loved a very put-together, cohesive, step-by-step process for scaling up excellence in nearly any organization, I instead felt like I got to 1. Find out all of the cool companies these guys have worked with over the years and then 2. Read a collection of business magazine articles by them giving potential pointers for good scaling practices.
Along those lines, prepare for an absolute deluge of name-dropping (also, it's VERY obvious that they work at Stanford as you read multiple names from there along with multiple plugs for the university in examples). And the names of companies and other details could certainly have been weeded down to make it more easily digestible. As it stands, the book reads like a convoluted business magazine article.
All that said, I did find a few things worthwhile to jot down, take note of, and hopefully apply in my context. For that reason I read it fully through and gave it more than just 1 star. It deserved at least that much! I appreciate some of the insights I gained by reading their learned insights from experiences and research they'd done.
However, it really was not edited well enough in its rough draft form to make it ready for print. There were large sweeping statements that only had one anecdotal example supporting them, and then later on you'd feel like another example even contradicted it. There was a lack of clarity of thoughtful process of one idea to the next. And there was just a writing style that was jilted and hard to engage.
Where I would've loved a very put-together, cohesive, step-by-step process for scaling up excellence in nearly any organization, I instead felt like I got to 1. Find out all of the cool companies these guys have worked with over the years and then 2. Read a collection of business magazine articles by them giving potential pointers for good scaling practices.
July 17, 2019
Here's how useful I found this: I listened to the audio book, am re-reading an electronic copy of it, and have ordered physical copies for me and others.
The book is a practical guide for taking some pocket of awesome and spreading it to a wider audience. It really is that broadly applicable. Tons of stories based on Sutton's research of companies, many of which are very practical and instructive. You will have heard some of the anecdotes, but many were new to me.
The advice comes at all levels - philosophy, prescriptive/getting started, avoid this, etc. The advice in many cases jives with my personal experiences trying to scale things up and fills in many holes/traps I'm currently experiencing. Highly recommended.
Audiobook note: narration is excellent, though the narrator's voice is almost too soothing. There are many lists in the book, and I felt an unreasonable panic while driving "Crap, I need to write that down!" many times. Ultimately, I think it would be hard to get the real value of the book in strictly audio form, but it's good as a supplement to a physical/electronic copy
The book is a practical guide for taking some pocket of awesome and spreading it to a wider audience. It really is that broadly applicable. Tons of stories based on Sutton's research of companies, many of which are very practical and instructive. You will have heard some of the anecdotes, but many were new to me.
The advice comes at all levels - philosophy, prescriptive/getting started, avoid this, etc. The advice in many cases jives with my personal experiences trying to scale things up and fills in many holes/traps I'm currently experiencing. Highly recommended.
Audiobook note: narration is excellent, though the narrator's voice is almost too soothing. There are many lists in the book, and I felt an unreasonable panic while driving "Crap, I need to write that down!" many times. Ultimately, I think it would be hard to get the real value of the book in strictly audio form, but it's good as a supplement to a physical/electronic copy
May 3, 2020
My favorite take away from this book was the idea of a premortem strategy where after making a decision, a team can break up into two groups where one imagines that the decision was a great success, and the other imagines it was a collossal failure. Then, each groups ponders what led to those outcomes, which can then be used to help strategize how to pursue the decision.
Otherwise, the book was a bit too wordy, with some really great examples to help drive their points, but at times, it felt quite redundant. It was definitely interesting to read about some suggestions and ideas and relate them to what I have experienced or seen. I can also see my company falling into the "big dumb company" disease right now (or at least before the Covid-19), so it will be interesting to see if we follow any strategies laid out in this book. I am not part of the top execs, so I will just get to watch and see if things trickle down.
Otherwise, the book was a bit too wordy, with some really great examples to help drive their points, but at times, it felt quite redundant. It was definitely interesting to read about some suggestions and ideas and relate them to what I have experienced or seen. I can also see my company falling into the "big dumb company" disease right now (or at least before the Covid-19), so it will be interesting to see if we follow any strategies laid out in this book. I am not part of the top execs, so I will just get to watch and see if things trickle down.
October 26, 2019
The book got me thinking about incentive mechanisms and how to communicate values across the organization.
One idea I liked was about processes being spread like Catholicism or Buddhism. Catholicism is rigid and cloned everywhere while Buddhism is fluid with a set of principles that can be implemented various ways. Some organizations will benefit from enforcing sameness everywhere. Within my current software management role I think a company should enforce overall best practices in a principle-centered Buddhist manner; for example, all projects should set up continuous integration and maintain 80% code coverage. Then individual language silos would benefit from a catholic approach where all (for example) Python projects have the same setup and tools. As with all things there are trade offs; it is nice to have a framework to make the decision.
One idea I liked was about processes being spread like Catholicism or Buddhism. Catholicism is rigid and cloned everywhere while Buddhism is fluid with a set of principles that can be implemented various ways. Some organizations will benefit from enforcing sameness everywhere. Within my current software management role I think a company should enforce overall best practices in a principle-centered Buddhist manner; for example, all projects should set up continuous integration and maintain 80% code coverage. Then individual language silos would benefit from a catholic approach where all (for example) Python projects have the same setup and tools. As with all things there are trade offs; it is nice to have a framework to make the decision.
December 10, 2020
OK, I only made it 11% of the way through this book. For multiple reasons.
Firstly, it is a laborious read. To say it drags would be to do a disservice to dragging. The first half of the first chapter is the authors ranting about how wonderful they are, and how great their reasearc is. But providing nothing of value.
Secondly, by the end of that chapter, while a ream of examples had been stated, none of them provided even a smidgeon of practical advice. I can only assume that the rest of the book, any case studies that follow, would provide equally anacdotal "evidence."
Thirdly… The authors provide an example of bullying as a posiive example of scaling excellence. Yes, the Extroversion Imperative has been a staple of business psychology since Carnegie introduced it 84 years ago. That doesn't make it good, either morally or for business.
Firstly, it is a laborious read. To say it drags would be to do a disservice to dragging. The first half of the first chapter is the authors ranting about how wonderful they are, and how great their reasearc is. But providing nothing of value.
Secondly, by the end of that chapter, while a ream of examples had been stated, none of them provided even a smidgeon of practical advice. I can only assume that the rest of the book, any case studies that follow, would provide equally anacdotal "evidence."
Thirdly… The authors provide an example of bullying as a posiive example of scaling excellence. Yes, the Extroversion Imperative has been a staple of business psychology since Carnegie introduced it 84 years ago. That doesn't make it good, either morally or for business.
May 28, 2020
You have a great idea, and your business is off to a great start. Now what?
This book provides terrific, pragmatic tactics to ensure that you realize success. I especially like the concept of "Catholic" vs. "Buddhist" when creating company culture. Do you want a strict adherence to policy/practices (Catholic), or allow employees to do things their own way, as long as they follow the core belief (Buddhist)?
I think most businesses would benefit from designating which parts of their business need structure and rules, and where improvisation is welcome. I find many new companies underestimate the need to put structure in place to protect the underlying business model and culture with growth. This book can be a very helpful guidebook to scale with success.
This book provides terrific, pragmatic tactics to ensure that you realize success. I especially like the concept of "Catholic" vs. "Buddhist" when creating company culture. Do you want a strict adherence to policy/practices (Catholic), or allow employees to do things their own way, as long as they follow the core belief (Buddhist)?
I think most businesses would benefit from designating which parts of their business need structure and rules, and where improvisation is welcome. I find many new companies underestimate the need to put structure in place to protect the underlying business model and culture with growth. This book can be a very helpful guidebook to scale with success.
November 16, 2019
This book is one of the most honest looks at what makes a company great and shows that there is more than one way to build scale. What was most interesting to me wasn't just examples of major brands like Netflix but stories of how scale works in places like healthcare or transportation logistics. So much of scaling up success requires a certain amount of ruthlessness in eliminating what doesn't work and figuring out whether to amplify the good through direct replication or through taking the spirit of what works and adapting it to the location/situation. There is no one right answer but plenty of food for thought in this book.
August 6, 2020
Review #31 of my 52 week book challenge: Scaling Up Excellence.
I'm so happy business books are getting better. Remember the days when you were forced to read some boring tome by the Harvard Business Review of outdated case studies? Wake up! We've entered a new era.
Scaling Up Excellence is a great read, full of bite-sized snippets of critical information from some of the best business minds. The points are easily understood, cases super relevant, and there's even a bit of China knowledge stuck in there too.
To find out why I started my 52 week book challenge, what I've been reading, and how you can get involved, check out my original LinkedIn Publisher article or follow me.
I'm so happy business books are getting better. Remember the days when you were forced to read some boring tome by the Harvard Business Review of outdated case studies? Wake up! We've entered a new era.
Scaling Up Excellence is a great read, full of bite-sized snippets of critical information from some of the best business minds. The points are easily understood, cases super relevant, and there's even a bit of China knowledge stuck in there too.
To find out why I started my 52 week book challenge, what I've been reading, and how you can get involved, check out my original LinkedIn Publisher article or follow me.
January 3, 2022
The main takeaway from me is: scaling comes in different ways and shapes:
Catholicism (it’s reminiscent of the highly centralized approach of the Catholic Church) and Buddhism (a commonly shared mindset that guides people’s overall behavior, but specific actions can vary tremendously) can work equally fine; whilst targeting people's behaviors vs. beliefs can both work well depending on the situation.
The focus should be: 1. focusing on reducing unnecessarily complexity (red tapes) especially when the company is small; 2. hiring for the best people and empowering them for the local decisions.
Catholicism (it’s reminiscent of the highly centralized approach of the Catholic Church) and Buddhism (a commonly shared mindset that guides people’s overall behavior, but specific actions can vary tremendously) can work equally fine; whilst targeting people's behaviors vs. beliefs can both work well depending on the situation.
The focus should be: 1. focusing on reducing unnecessarily complexity (red tapes) especially when the company is small; 2. hiring for the best people and empowering them for the local decisions.
January 27, 2018
One of the five best books I read in 2014
I think Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less is one of the best business books I’ve ever read. Period. I read it originally a couple of years ago, but I keep going back to it to dip into the research and the insights and mine the stories for more knowledge. My bottom line is simple: if you read business books, read this one.
Read my complete review at http://www.threestarleadership.com/ev...
I think Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less is one of the best business books I’ve ever read. Period. I read it originally a couple of years ago, but I keep going back to it to dip into the research and the insights and mine the stories for more knowledge. My bottom line is simple: if you read business books, read this one.
Read my complete review at http://www.threestarleadership.com/ev...
October 30, 2018
This review comes in contrast to a number of self-help management books that audaciously oversell ideas from the academic literature or personal experience to the nth degree. As such, Sutton and Rao read as balanced and careful purveyors of their deep knowledge of the academic literature on how to scale up one's organization. For a popular press book, I'd highly suggest this to any business owner/entrepreneur moving towards taking their business to the next level to gain insight into problems their facing or challenges yet to be considered.
January 17, 2020
It is worth a read. The case studies or examples from real industry are worth reading. Ideo, Intuit, GE And Kaiser Permanante, to name some, are well illustrated and bring the message home. I have attended a few classes by the 2 professors and they always gave case studies to illustrate their teaching. Helps to ingrain principles like Buddhism vs Catholicism, Pre-mortem, Subtraction for growth. Overall a good read for people who work on scaling businesses, designing new products, innovations etc. the principles are pervasive.
October 28, 2020
Sometimes books arrive at just the right time.
Perhaps that is why I feel so strongly about this book before I even finish.
You see this book is about growth and scaling your enterprise, project or team. Currently I’m doing all of these, so the message of this book is on point for me.
Aware of that fact, I wanted to write this in a way that isn’t overly biased because of my perspective.
Read more...
Perhaps that is why I feel so strongly about this book before I even finish.
You see this book is about growth and scaling your enterprise, project or team. Currently I’m doing all of these, so the message of this book is on point for me.
Aware of that fact, I wanted to write this in a way that isn’t overly biased because of my perspective.
Read more...
June 23, 2025
Another great book by Rao and Sutton. Not a “how to” book, but even better. They do provide some examples and things to try, but if you’re looking for “5 simple tricks” you’re out of luck. They put together the underlying principles and back them up with detailed stories, thorough research, and keen analysis. There isn’t much earth shattering n this book. It may reinforce things you’ve already tried. But, the authors provide an organizing framework that may help focus efforts and clarify discussions with a common language..
July 19, 2017
I tried multiple times reading Sutton's books - good boss, bad boss and including this one. But I haven't been able to learn much from it. His books are full of t-shirt slogans: "the problem of more" - "spread a mindset, not just a footprint" - "name the problem." Such slogans can be inspirational with little practical usage. The ample examples in the books are more of anecdotes to me, with no data or scientific proof/backup.
I wouldn't recommend his books for now.
I wouldn't recommend his books for now.
August 12, 2017
For anyone looking to expand their business or looking to increase productivity and civility among employees, this book is for you. It has a lot of insightful yet practical advice on how best to grow or improve a business without firing everyone but by taking practical steps of holding employees at all levels acceptable. I highly recommend this book and am looking forward to reading more from Robert Sutton.
December 12, 2019
Interesting insight on trade-offs one has to make when scaling out an organisation.
What I remember the most is the catholic vs. the buddhist way of scaling, where catholic takes a predefined process and product and just tries to scale it as is, while buddhist allows for more adjustments to the target market or segment. It's not one or the other, but allways a mix with a lot of trade-offs in either one direction.
What I remember the most is the catholic vs. the buddhist way of scaling, where catholic takes a predefined process and product and just tries to scale it as is, while buddhist allows for more adjustments to the target market or segment. It's not one or the other, but allways a mix with a lot of trade-offs in either one direction.
January 14, 2024
It's not totally fair to give a 4 star review, 7 years of work in the making, so much information to filter and work with, and in a 140 character minded world. The only observation I have about the book is that in some examples extend too much. All that jazz aside, it is a nice reading, so many examples that are alike in my career, to get to know how other teams went through it and learn from it. I would recommend the book to many people I've worked with!
March 5, 2018
Ya había leído un libro de R. Sutton y me pasó lo mismo: mucha investigación, muchas ideas, muchos casos, pero ningún argumento nuevo. Hay que crecer todo lo que podamos crecer pero no tan rápido, hay que crecer en orden pero con suficiente libertad, hay que atender lo que hacemos bien y lo que hacemos mal, hay que resolver sin estresarnos demasiado.
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