The Power of LEO: A book review by Bob Morris

The Power of LEO: The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results
Subir Chowdbury
McGraw-Hill (2012)

Still another “revolutionary process” to achieve “extraordinary results

Subir Chowdhury and other authors of recently published business books are to be commended for having the courage to contribute additions to the thousands of volumes already in print about how a “revolutionary process” can achieve “extraordinary results.” Of course, people achieve such results – processes don’t – and if your workforce is dominated by hamster-brained, knuckle-dragging, passively engaged people, even a process on which Deming, Juran, Crosby, Drucker, Womack, and Collins have collaborated could not possibly succeed.

I do not damn Chowdhury with faint praise when suggesting that his latest book has much to commend it. He has highly developed reasoning and writing skills, he organizes his material with meticulous care, and all of his recommendations are eminently sensible. He seasons his narrative with somewhat obscure but nonetheless interesting historical tidbits such as solving a “jelly bean production problem” in the 1930s, why the number of coffeehouses in England increased from the first (in Oxford in 1650) to more than 3,000 in 1675, and the Kids F.A.C.E. (Kids for a Clean Environment) that nine-year-old Melissa Pope founded in 1989. I really mean that. However, and yes there is a “however,” it is important to keep in mind that however simple and applicable the basic ideas behind LEO may be, they serve only as a template, a set of guidelines by which to make better decisions about what to do and how to do it.

These are among passages that caught my eye:

o LEO: Listen (observe and understand) Enrich (explore and discover), and Optimize (improve and perfect), Pages 3-6
o The Four Cornerstones: Quality Is My Responsibility, All the People, All the Time, An I-Can-Do-It Mindset, and No One Size Fits All (Pages 8-14)
o Three basic conditions that help to explain why processes tend to run amok (55-56)
o Reviews: Listen (114), Enrich (138-139), and Optimize (163)

According to Chowdhury, “”The test of a LEO deployment’s lasting power, its sustainability, takes place over years…For a LEO project to succeed, it must have the support of the company’s leaders and of the managers and of the frontline people who are directly involved in the effort.” Also, and of equal importance, “It requires that the individual people within the company, leaders and frontline people alike, acquire a high-quality mindset.” The details of that mindset as well as how to develop it are best revealed within the narrative. However, the fact remains that the efforts of one individual can ensure the success of a LEO project, nor can the collaborative efforts of a project team’s members.

What is needed is nothing less than a culture within which everyone at all levels and in all areas are committed to observing and listening, exploring and discovering, and improving and perfecting. These individual and collective initiatives must be based on a foundation whose cornerstones are – or are comparable with – those that Subir Chowdhury proposes. I really like the quotation with which he concludes, provided by Dr. Seuss:

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Dorie Clark on “Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012″

Dorie Clark

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Dorie Clark for the Harvard Business Review blog. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, and sign up for a subscription to HBR email alerts, please click here.

*     *      *

I recently got back from a month’s vacation — the longest I’ve ever taken, and a shocking indulgence for an American. (Earlier this summer, I was still fretting about how to pull off two weeks unplugged.) The distance, though, helped me hone in on what’s actually important to my professional career — and which make-work activities merely provide the illusion of progress. Inspired by HBR blogger Peter Bregman’s idea of creating a “to ignore” list, here are [three of five] activities I’m going to stop cold turkey in 2012 — and perhaps you should, too.
1. Responding Like a Trained Monkey. Every productivity expert in the world will tell you to check email at periodic intervals — say, every 90 minutes — rather than clicking “refresh” like a Pavlovian mutt. Of course, almost no one listens, because studies have shown email’s “variable interval reinforcement schedule” is basically a slot machine for your brain. But spending a month away — and only checking email weekly — showed me how little really requires immediate response. In fact, nothing. A 90 minute wait won’t kill anyone, and will allow you to accomplish something substantive during your workday.

2. Mindless Traditions. I recently invited a friend to a prime networking event. “Can I play it by ear?” she asked. “This is my last weekend to get holiday cards out and I haven’t mailed a single one. It is causing stress!” In the moment, not fulfilling an “obligation” (like sending holiday cards) can make you feel guilty. But if you’re in search of professional advancement, is a holiday card (buried among the deluge) going to make a difference? If you want to connect, do something unusual — get in touch at a different time of year, or give your contacts a personal call, or even better, meet up face-to-face. You have to ask if your business traditions are generating the results you want.

3. Reading Annoying Things. I have nearly a dozen newspaper and magazine subscriptions, the result of alluring specials ($10 for an entire year!) and the compulsion not to miss out on crucial information. But after detoxing for a month, I was able to reflect on which publications actually refreshed me — and which felt like a duty. The New Yorker, even though it’s not a business publication, broadens my perspective and is a genuine pleasure to read. The pretentious tech publication with crazy layouts and too-small print? Not so much. I’m weeding out and paring down to literary essentials. What subscriptions can you get rid of?

*     *      *

Eliminating these five activities is likely to save me hundreds of hours next year — time I can spend expanding my business and doing things that matter. What are you going to stop doing? And how are you going to leverage all that extra time?

*     *     *

To read the complete article, please click here.

Dorie Clark is a strategy consultant who has worked with clients including Google, Yale University, and the National Park Service. She is the author of the forthcoming What’s Next?: The Art of Reinventing Your Personal Brand (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012). You can follow her on Twitter at @dorieclark.

 

Good Company: A book review by Bob Morris

Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era
Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim, Dan McMurrer, with Larry Costello
Berrett-Koehler Publishers (2011)

How and why companies must prove worthy of consumers’ business, employees’ best efforts, and investors’ dollars

What’s in a word? That depends on which of its connotations is selected. For Jim Collins, the word “good” refers primarily to organizational performance over whereas, for the authors of Good Company, the word refers to worthy behavior. And Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim, and Dan McMurrer (with Larry Costello) assert in the Preface to their brilliant book that there is a new chapter in our economic history, “the Worthiness Era.” Of course, as Collins explains in Good to Great, each of the eleven companies was deemed “great” based on its organizational performance (i.e. three times the market over fifteen years) at that time. They were (if some no longer are) also renowned for their worthy behavior insofar as having (as the co-authors explain it) “a purpose that goes beyond making money” is concerned and reframed “their fundamental aims to be a wide circle of stakeholders rather than merely enriching shareholders.”

Bassi, Frauenheim, and McMurrer provide an abundance of information, insights, and counsel that can help business leaders to understand what their companies must do to achieve their strategic objectives. For example, in Parts I and II:

o  A convergence of forces that is giving rise to a new era: The Worthiness Era
o  Four economic forces that are increasing the premium on being a “good company”
o  Four fundamental social forces that are increasing the premium on being a good company
o  Three fundamental, broadly defined political forces that are increasing the premium on being a good company
o  How and why “doing well by doing good”
o  The Good Company Index: What it is, how it’s determined, and what it reveals
o  How to assess the companies you do business with

In Part III, the focus shifts to an explanation of the essentials of becoming and then continuing to be a good company. More specifically, a value-creating organization committed to employees, one with sound data analysis, and unified and energized by an inspiring purpose. I was especially interested in what the co-authors have to say about corporate stewardship. It consists of effective leadership driven by fiduciary responsibilities with fundamental aims within “a wide circle of stakeholders rather than merely enriching shareholders.” Then in Part IV, Bassi, Frauenheim, and McMurrer provide a glimpse into the future of worthiness, “including how the concept dovetails with the rise of Asia as an economic power.”

FYI, in Chapter 6, the rankings of publicly traded companies in the Fortune 100 on the Good Company Index are provided. The co-authors describe how to assess qualitatively other companies outside the Fortune 100 with which they do business as a consumer, investor, and employee. There are separate ratings for Good Employer, Good Seller, Good Steward, and Overall Good Company. I agree with Bassi, Frauenheim, and McMurrer: “Bad companies won’t be invited into the new world taking shape. They will wither. Good companies, though, will find themselves welcome. And they will flourish.” It is no coincidence that, each year for several years, the annual list of the most highly admired companies, those rated the best to work for, are also among those listed as most profitable. Heraclitus was correct: Everything changes…nothing changes.