The Little Big Things
Page 1
The Little BIG Things
The Little
BIG
Things
163 Ways to Pursue
EXCELLENCE
TOM PETERS
For Warren Bennis
MENTOR, COLLEAGUE, FRIEND
Courtesies of a small and trivial
character are the ones
which strike deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.
—Henry Clay, American statesman (1777–1852)
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Introduction
Little
1. It’s All About the Restrooms!
2. “Small Stuff” Matters. A Lot!
3. Flower Power!
4. Master the Fine Art of … Nudgery!
Excellence
5. If Not Excellence, What? If Not Excellence Now, When?
6. Whither Excellence? Or: Asleep at the Wheel.
7. “Quality”: You’ll Know It When You See It.
8. Excellence Is …
SPECIAL SECTION: Guru Gaffes
Crisis
9. That Which Goeth Up and Up and Up Doth Not Goeth More Up and More Up and More Up Forever and Ever and Ever.
10. Good Things (Especially in Bad Times?) Come in Threes.
11. Get China on Your Mind! Get India on Your Mind!
Opportunity
12. Tough Times? Matchless Opportunity!
13. Boring Is Beautiful! (Or at Least It Can Be.)
14. “Old” Rules. (Yes, Even in the “Age of the Internet.”)
15. Build Green Now. (No Excuses!)
16. Bottom Line in Bad Times: Obsess Over the Top Line.
Resilience
17. Swan Dive: A Guide to Getting On with Getting On.
18. Lifetime Employment Is Dead. Your Career Is Not.
19. “Failure”—Celebrate It!
20. The World’s Worst Advice (Please Ignore It).
SPECIAL SECTION: The Recession 46
Forty-Six “Secrets” and “Strategies” for Dealing with the Gut-Wrenching Downturn of 2007++
Self
21. You Are Your Product—Develop It.
22. Job One: Amuse Yourself!
23. Fitness Power = Staying Power.
24. Mental Gymnastics, Urgency Of.
25. You Are Your Story! So Work on It!
26. Develop Your R.POV8—ASAP!
Others
27. Kindness Is Free!
28. Civil! Civil! Civil!
29. Listen to Ann—and “Act Accordingly.”
30. “Being There.” (Or: How I Learned First Principles from My Grandfather’s Last Rites.)
31. Appreciating the Great Battle: A Case for Consideration.
32. Thoughtfulness Is Free (or Close Thereto).
Connection
33. Only Connect …
34. They Liked Ike (Because Ike Liked Them).
35. Always Make It Personal.
36. Commit “Acts of Deliberate Relationship Enhancement.”
Attitude
37. Put the “Eye-Sparkle Factor” on Your Menu.
38. Pleasant, Caring, Engaged—at 6 A.M.!
39. Hire “Cheerful”—Or: That Damned AV Guy!
40. Which “Flag” Are You Waving?
Performance
41. It’s Showtime! All the Time!
42. Work (Like a Demon) on Your First Impressions.
43. Work (Like a Demon) on Your Last Impressions.
44. Work on Your Presentation Skills. (Or: 17 Minutes Can Change the World!)
Work
45. On Being a “Professional.”
46. “Everything Passes Through Finance” (And So Should You).
47. What’s on the Agenda? Why Don’t You Decide?
48. We Are All in Sales. Period.
Initiative
49. Make That “Three-Minute Call”! Today! Now!
50. Show Up! (It’s a Start.)
51. Get Up Earlier Than the Next (in This Case) Gal.
52. Make an Insane Public Effort.
Leadership
53. To Lead Is to Measurably Help Others Succeed.
54. At Their Service.
55. Have You “Hosted” Any Good Employees Lately?
56. A Sacred Trust.
57. Rat Psych Rules!—Or: Deploying Positive Reinforcement’s Incredible Potency.
Words
58. “What Do You Think?”
59. “Thank You.”
60. “I’m Sorry.”
61. Words of Truth—from a Fiction Writer.
Networking
62. One Line of Code: The Shortest Distance Between “Critic” and “Champion.”
63. “Suck Down” for Success.
64. Formula for Success: C(I) > C(E).
65. How Does Your “Inside Game” Measure Up?
Lunch
66. Across the Board: Cross-Functional Collaboration Is Issue #1.
67. Getting Along and Going to Lunch: Solving the Cross-Functional Cooperation Problem.
SPECIAL SECTION: The “Equations”
An Engineer’s View of the … Secrets of Effective Implementation
Yes
68. Just Say Yes!—Or: A Lesson from My Mother-in-Law.
69. For the Sheer Glorious 24/7 Fun of It!
No
70. “To-Don’ts” Are More Important Than “To-Dos.”
71. Some Things Worth Doing Are Worth Doing Not Particularly Well.
Customers
72. It’s 11 A.M.—Have You Called a Customer Today?
73. There’s Nothing But Nothing Better Than an Angry Customer!
74. What We Have Here Is a Failure to Overcommunicate.
Action
75. “Trying My Damnedest!” Wrong Answer!
76. It Is Not Enough to Care!
77. Captain “Day” and Captain “Night”: A Tale of Two Deployments. And Two Suggestions.
78. If You Want to Find Oil, You Must Drill Wells.
Change
79. Zen and the Art of Achieving Change Where It Already Exists.
80. The Way of the Demo.
81. Big Change—All at Once!
82. Big Change—in a Short Time.
83. Clever? Never!
SPECIAL SECTION: You, Me, And Charlie Wilson’s War
Passion
84. I Second That Emotion!
85. One Rule! Much Gold!!
86. Seize the Moments.
Presence
87. Managing By Wandering Around—It’s All Around You!
88. All Senses! Or Nonsense!
89. Leave Your Wallet (or Pocketbook) at Home.
90. Get Down from Your Pedestal—and Beware the Sound of Laughter!
91. Big Plan? No, Small Steps (Steps on the Ground).
Talent
92. Hiring: Do You Approach It with Unabashed Fanaticism?
93. Promotion: Are You Building a “Two Per Year” Legacy?
94. Development: Are You Finding and Cultivating First-Rate (“Godlike”) First-Line Supervisors?
95. People Who Lead People: You = Your Development Track Record.
People
96. It’s All (ALL!) About … the Quality of the Workforce.
97. Up with People! Up Your People Budget!
98. Cherish the Last Two-Percenters.
99. The Excitement Axiom—and the People Corollary.
Gender
100. Pronoun Power!—Or: The Customer Is “She.”
101. Women Lead! (Can Men Learn to Be Good Sports About It?)
102. Men, “Get the Facts”: Women Are Different.
103. Dressed for Success? Or: What the History of the Women’s Suffrage Movemen
t Taught Me About Hanging In and Hanging In.
Innovation
104. The Audacity of … Research!
105. Adhocracy—Love It or Leave It.
106. Beyond Excellence: The “Berserk Standard.”
107. Out of the Shadows: Skunkworks, Revisited.
108. S.A.V. (No, It’s Not a Kind of Truck.)
109. What Have You Prototyped Lately?
110. Hell Hath No Fury: Celebrate “Disturbers of the Peace.”
111. The Innovation 15: What We Know So Far …
Listening
112. Now Hear This! Listening Is the Ultimate “Core Competence.”
113. Are You an “18-Second Manager”?
114. Get the Story. Give the Respect.
SPECIAL SECTION: Quotations 34
Curiosity
115. If You Have to Ask … Then Ask (and Ask and Ask).
116. Reward DNK (Do Not Know).
117. Work the Watercooler—Or: Are You Gossiping Enough?
Learning
118. Making the Grade: Lifelong Learning Is a Mission-Statement Must.
119. Out-Study ‘Em!
120. Out-Read ‘Em!
121. Out-Write ‘Em!
122. Now Enrolling: “The People’s MBA.”
Time
123. It Might Be Later Than You Think.
124. Time Off for Smart Behavior.
125. Time Out for … Daydreaming!
126. Master the Art of Milestoning.
Design
127. Design Is … Everywhere!
128. Is It “Lickable”?
129. Design Sign: Can You Get There from Here?
130. Love + Hate = Design Power.
Details
131. The Case of the Two-Cent Candy.
132. If the Envelope Doesn’t Fit, Forget It!
133. It’s All About the Mud.
134. Think Billboard Sign. “We Care.” “We Don’t Care.”
Grunge
135. The Enemy Within—Or: There Is No Cost Higher Than the Cost of Rigidity.
136. Become a Decentralization Dervish!
137. Play the … Great Grunge Removal Game!
138. The 1 Percent Drill: Clearing Away a World of “Slop” in Just 45 Minutes.
139. Goal: To Make “Common Sense” More Common.
Enterprise
140. An Organization Is “People Serving People.” (Period!)
141. The PSF Mandate: “Work Worth Paying For.”
142. Don’t Let the “Enemy” Rule Your Life.
143. Love Your Competitors.
SPECIAL SECTION: The Top 50 “Have-Yous”
Re-Imagining
144. Create a “Cathedral”! (If Not, What?)
145. Enable Dreams. (If Not, What?)
146. Launch “Project Ray.”
147. Realism? Not on My Watch!
Wow
148. If No WOW, Then … No Go.
149. What Makes You So Special?—Or: “Only” Beats “Best.”
150. Is It “Gaspworthy”?
151. Extremism in the Defense of WOW Is No Vice.
Now
152. Welcome to the Age of Metabolic Management.
153. Walls of “Yesterdays.” Walls of “Tomorrows.”
154. Pissing Away Your Life: Like It or Not, Work Is Life!
Impact
155. Forget Longevity—Think “Dramatic Frenzy.”
156. How About Replacing Your “Wish It Were” List with a “Do It Now” List?
SPECIAL SECTION: The Heart of Business Strategy
Success
157. The “3H Model” of Success.
158. A 5-Word, 5-Point “Complete” “Excellence Manifesto.”
159. The Full Nelson—Or: 13 Lessons on “Navigating” Excellence.
160. A Cheat Sheet for Tough Times (and Other Times, Too).
Big
161. Retirement Sucks.
162. Think Legacy!
163. Don’t Forget Why You’re Here!
Index
Dedication
Acknowledgments
About the Author
ALSO BY TOM PETERS
Copyright
About the Publisher
Introduction
On July 28, 2004, I made my first blog post at tompeters.com. The topic was then Illinois state senator Barack Obama’s speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston. In an apolitical post, I said that it had been one helluva speech—take it from someone who knows a good speech when he hears one. (Me.) Since then I’ve made over 1,700 posts, and with the help of many friends the blog has prospered—even bagging a “Top 500” designation in 2007!
On September 18, six weeks after beginning my blogging adventure, I happened by a particularly messy chain-store branch in the Natick Mall outside of Boston. I followed the visit with a spur-of-the-moment, throwaway post that I called “100 Ways to Succeed/Make Money #1”: “THE CLEAN & NEAT TEAM! (TEAM TIDY?)”; I suggested that the store’s blatant disarray screamed …
“We don’t care.”
I said that stores, and even accounting offices, were judged as much or more on appearance as on “substance.” The appearance is a nontrivial part of the overall assessment of the “substance”—in fact, a part of the substance.
I promised that I’d proceed to supply 100 such “success tips”—God alone knows why!
I enjoyed the process, and by July 2009 we’d posted precisely 176 of the promised 100! Somewhere along the way, Bob Miller, first boss of the publisher Hyperion, and currently launching HarperStudio, ran (surfed) across the tips, got in touch with us, and said, in effect, “You’ve inadvertently written a book.” He sent along a contract—and we signed, despite my prior vow, recorded in blood, that I’d never write another book. But, hey, why not, a few books sold, a little publicity—and no work!
Ha!
I have a very low “dissatisfaction threshold,” and don’t think a book is a book until it’s been through about a dozen major redrafts—and this one has been no exception. I more or less sacrificed the full summer of 2009 on my glorious farm in Vermont to editing and editing and editing—and you’ll see the product here. (For better or for worse.)
All of which is to say that in some respects this is not a “normal” book—or I guess it probably is, circa 2010. That is, it is derived from a blog—even if now the original is barely recognizable. Among other things, that means that the structure does not follow a tidy plotline. We have organized “stuff” in appropriate “pots,” but what you see is what you get. It’s a book of tips or notions or suggestions or actionable ideas, more or less as they arrived at tompeters.com. They were based on observations that flowed from my travels (mainly international these days), the news of the day, exchanges with some of the tens of thousands of people who’ve attended my seminars, from Bucharest to Shanghai to Tallinn, and things large and mostly “small” that have pissed me off along the way. (I argue here and elsewhere that the only effective source of innovation is pissed-off people! Hence, bite your tongue and cherish such misfits! I, in fact, have been tolerated—or not—along the way. Cf. “McKinsey and Me, 1974–1981”; “McKinsey and Me Part Company,” circa 1981.)
Not many of these more or less “tips” are oceanic. That is, they are mostly, as the book’s title suggests … “little BIG things.” “Little BIG things” such as my reaction to the messy store—or, alternatively, a spectacularly clean bathroom, complete with several decades of family photos, at the Wagon Wheel Country Drive-in restaurant in Gill, Massachusetts. They are “little”—a “mere” restroom at a smallish restaurant in a wee town you’ve doubtless never heard of. (Applicability in Tallinn?) But they are also, indeed, BIG—including in Tallinn. That is, the restaurant’s “We care so much we can taste it” or the chain store’s “We don’t care,” “We can’t be bothered” is at the heart of the BIG idea of so-called experience marketing—which in turn is the heart of “value-added” in a crowded marketplace for damn near eve
rything damn near everywhere that insists on such value-added for survival.
In general, I am a sucker for a little, comprehensible, compelling nugget of a life experience that is representative of a BIG and Potent Idea; I prefer such an illustration to some elaborate example in a pithy tome from the Harvard Business School Press—complete with charts and graphs! (I suppose this predilection means I’ve traveled a long way from my engineering training, my MBA, and that McKinsey stint—in all of which complex analysis rules; something that you can understand is considered a less-than-powerful “strategic insight.” Whoops—I think I just inadvertently explained the super-super-senior-derivates-that-defied-comprehension problem that brought you and me and the global economy to our collective knees.) But I am, in my passion for little stories with real people as the principal players, being consistent with my approach and fervent and guiding belief about effective enterprises first exhibited in public in 1982 in a book I cowrote with Bob Waterman called In Search of Excellence.
The main “takeaway” from that book, as I still see it almost three decades later, was a “simple” (“little BIG thing”) assertion that was our de facto six-word motto:
“Hard is soft. Soft is hard.”
Search was to a significant extent a response to the Japanese challenging American economic hegemony and beating the hell out of us in the auto market in the 1970s, based not on “a sophisticated analysis of the U.S. market” concocted by a brigade of MBAs, but … on offering up cars that worked. (Better quality.) So Bob and I slapped the regnant “strategy-first” mavens in the face and said that “the ‘hard’ numbers” were the true “soft stuff”—encompassing a ridiculously limited slice of reality. And such purportedly “soft” things as “quality,” “people and relationships,” “core values,” “closeness to the customer,” and, thank you Hewlett-Packard, Managing By Wandering Around, or “MBWA,” were the true “hard stuff”—these aspects of business were not “fluff”-“soft,” as disdainfully portrayed by the likes of McKinsey and the B-schools, including mighty Stanford, from which both Bob and I had graduated with an MBA. (We were also both engineers and both McKinsey partners.)
We tried our best—to, alas, I must ruefully admit, little avail.
The Enron fiasco, crafted by Harvard B-School- and McKinseytrained Jeff Skilling, was a classic case, circa 2001, of the lingering “reality” of “numbers” over “good sense.” And, God knows, the mega-crash of 2007++ was led by phony-“soft” numbers and delusional advanced math and a total lack of good sense.