The Center for Radical Improvement » Resources

The Silver Bullet: 43 Ways to Drive Organizational Excellence

admin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:26:23 +0000

Here’s the silver bullet you’ve all been waiting for. In the next two newsletter columns, I’m going to give you the “secret sauce” for achieving and sustaining organizational excellence – the answers to all the questions that leaders might have for improving their results. Seriously, I’m going to give you 43 best practices that have beenvalidated to drive high performance in today’s organizations – a list that can help you reflect on your own organization’s performance.

On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:29:19 +0000

Whether dealing with monkeys, rats or human beings, it is hardly controversial to state that most organisms seek information concerning what activities are rewarded, and then seek to do (or at least pretend to do) those things, often to the virtual exclusion of activities not rewarded. The extent to which this occurs of course will depend on the perceived attractiveness of the rewards offered, but neither operant nor expectancy theorists would quarrel with the essence of this notion.

Get Rid of the Performance Review!

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 04:01:18 +0000

“I see nothing constructive about an annual pay and performance review. It’s a mainstream practice that has baffled me for years.”

So wrote Samuel Culbert, a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, in a provocative essay called “Get Rid of the Performance Review!” that appeared in 2008 in Business Insight (now renamed Executive Advisor), a section of The Wall Street Journal that is produced in collaboration with MIT Sloan Management Review.

Where Change Really Happens in Government: Who Will Save Us?

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:50:41 +0000

Government is under incredible pressure right now. The economic crisis has hit us with a double whammy: exponential increases in demand and dramatically reduced resources. In other words, more people out of work need our services and we’re cutting 25% of our core budgets. Government simply doesn’t have the capacity to do all the good we want to do in this world. Who will save us from this crisis and what can you do about it? In short: you, and everything.

The Profound Puzzles of Effective Management

1mcreative — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:25:03 +0000

I have never tried Sudoku. I don’t even know how to pronounce it. Yet every time I get on a plane, there’s someone next to me scribbling away. On one flight I got curious and asked my seatmate, who had a giant book of puzzles, why she was so enthralled with it. “What do you get when you win?” I asked.

She seemed confused. “Nothing. You get a sense of satisfaction and then you get to do another one.”

Seems odd, right? Why would we work so hard on something when the only real reward is a sense of satisfaction and more work?