007: License to Go Nuts!

Thought I’d heard every Welchism (as in JW/GE) known to humankind. But I tripped across the following yesterday, and though it happened 20 years ago, it’s as fresh and timely as ever. When Jack declared Total War on his own bureaucracy in the early eighties, he instructed his troops as follows regarding actions in their house (their org processes): “Fight it! Hate it! Kick it! Break it!”

Not only do I agree with the sentiment—I especially take a shine to the clarity-crudeness of the lingo. So many chiefs encase their words in so many conditionals that it’s hard to figure in the end what they/we are fighting for. There’s no mistaking the intent here—or the expected ferocity of action.

Go Jack!

Tom Peters posted this on October 17, 2004, in Strategies.
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