I have broken up my Golden Bay New Zealand
beach walks with more additions and edits to
“Some (Very) (Important) Stuff”—all in all about a 25% expansion. WHICH I HOPE YOU FIND OF USE! I have also added a second/alternative title page: “50 Ways (Inspired By Twitter) to Accelerate Your Journey Towards EXCELLENCE.” Not sure which one we’ll end up with.

Have at it!

Or, rather:

DO.
SOMETHING.
WOW.
NOW.

Hmmm. Maybe that oughta be the title?

By the time you read this I’ll be winging my way to Kiwi-land. But, before I left, I made a last gasp to really (for now) revise like hell and tie down my “Some Stuff” piece. Ended up with 35 parts, 104 pages,12,629 words.

For the moment, I’m happy. To steal from my own title, I think it is ultra-wide-ranging (really) (important) “stuff.” I think odds are pretty high you’ll find … SOMETHING … to put to use.

At any rate, enjoy!

I am off this weekend to New Zealand for several weeks. (Tough life—there, I said it first.) I have been madly updating my “Some Stuff” piece before departing. Here’s the latest—with, among other changes, two new parts: a 100+ book reading list; 47 questions for newly anointed CEOs.

Enjoy.
(I do hope you can find SOMETHING of immediate use.)

I continue to revise and update “Some (Very) (Important) Stuff.” I have done so again, adding Sections XIX and XX. The latter is on the topic of corporate culture. You will also see it below.

In a revision a few days ago, I included a paper titled “Acknowledgement.” This time I am appending a paper titled “Systems Have Their Place: SECOND Place.” The argument is that systems are indeed important—but their impact is largely negated, or worse, if the supporting culture is not in place. There are 10 case studies, from the U.S. Air Force to Mayo Clinic to Toyota. I’ve made this paper available before, but I have also just significantly revised it.

Culture Comes … FIRST

WSJ/0910.13: “What matters most to a company over time? Strategy or culture?” Dominic Barton,* MD, McKinsey & Co. “Culture.”

Bill Walsh,* NFL Hall of Fame Coach: “Culture precedes positive results. It doesn’t get tacked on as an afterthought on the way to the victory stand.”

Lou Gerstner,* former CEO, IBM: “If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM culture head-on, I probably wouldn’t have. My bias coming in was toward strategy, analysis and measurement. In comparison, changing the attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands of people is very, very hard. Yet I came to see in my time at IBM that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game—IT IS THE GAME.”

(*Note that all three of these CEOs are/were Charter Members of the Hardass School of Management. This was a realization that emerged for each one over time, but is stated here—UNEQUIVOCALLY.)

Culture With a … 100X BANG

“I am hundreds of times [repeat: 100s of times] better here [than in my prior hospital assignment] because of the support system. It’s like you are working in an organism; you are not a single cell when you are out there practicing.”—Dr. Nina Schwenk, Mayo Clinic*

(*One of the two core values instilled by Dr. William Mayo in 1910 was, effectively, practicing team medicine. Designing the practice around the patient, or “patient-centered care” as some call its rare manifestation today, was the other core value. At Mayo, upon occasion prominent M.D.s have been asked to leave because of their inability to fully grasp the team-practice concept.)

Culture … UNVARNISHED

There is a ton of high falutin’ stuff written about “corporate culture”—hey, I’ve written some of it. But the unvarnished stuff appeals most to me. Former Burger King CEO Barry Gibbons is a pal. He orchestrated a magical turnaround at a troubled firm. And the heart of the matter, which he largely achieved, is described—UNVARNISHED—here:

“I didn’t have a ‘mission statement’ at Burger King. I had a dream. Very simple. It was something like, ‘Burger King is 250,000 people, every one of whom gives a shit.’ Every one. Accounting. Systems. Not just the drive through. Everyone is ‘in the brand.’ That’s what we’re talking about, nothing less.”

Bottom line 1: “Best practices” are to be learned from, NOT mimicked/treated as dogma. “Best practices” must ALWAYS be adapted to local conditions!

Bottom line 2: When pursuing “best practices,” DON’T “benchmark.” FUTUREMARK. Tomorrow’s stars are already out there. Find ’em!

Bottom line 3: DON’T benchmark. OTHERMARK. E.g., a tech company likely can adopt a WOW service practice from a local restaurant or car dealer.

Bottom line 4: Make benchmarking EVERYONE’s biz. Ask all to collect best practices from “everyday life.” Share WEEKLY.

Corporate governance: Healthcare’s service standard shouldn’t be other HC providers. It should be Zappos.

One of VA’s biggest breakthroughs apparently started with a nurse’s observation from local Burger King. (Use of barcoding.)

Adam Jacoby: “Examples of excellence are everywhere. The art is in customization & execution. Don’t settle for other’s best.”

But need not be grand! Can also learn a powerful tidbit from the corner store! (If eyes are always open.)

Lots of small biz owners are refugees from big business—trying to right “worst practices” they were muzzled by.

Corporate governance: Yes, and I discovered my corner shop owner was a PhD in economics and an MBA. Talked for full hour on service!

Sandy Maxey: “As currently used, benchmarking is a tool of self-reinforcing smug complacency—not about innovation.”

[Ed.: The above entry is another collection of tweets on one topic from Tom’s tweetstream. It’s included in the latest (01.07.14) Some (Really) (Important) Stuff PDF he’s been updating regularly. Our thanks to all his fellow Twitter denizens who’ve contributed to the conversation and, thus, the document.]

As you know, I’ve been translating subject matter tweetstreams into organized and slightly edited text. We have now accumulated over 6K words on 20 topics. I have somewhat cheekily titled it: Some (Really) (Important) Stuff. My defense-of-title? I think it is really important.

‘Tis the time to launch the New Year—with, one hopes, a bang. In addition to Some (Really) (Important) Stuff, I’ve included a reissuance of what I think is a (really) (important) paper. Titled, simply: Acknowledgement! “Simple” acknowledgement may be the most powerful force in the universe—at least in the leader’s universe. Please read this. Please apply it. Now. As I say in the new introduction: It ain’t exactly rocket science.

Happy New Year 2014!