Transcript Tom Peters’ X25* EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Talent. Utrecht/23 March 2007 *In Search of Excellence 1982-2007 Slides at … tompeters.com.

Tom Peters’ X25*
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Talent.
Utrecht/23 March 2007
*In Search of Excellence 1982-2007
Slides at …
tompeters.com
People Power:
The
Talent50
1. People
First!
‘do’
“Leaders
people.
Period.”
—Anon.
“Omnicom very simply is
about talent. It’s about the
acquisition of talent, providing
the atmosphere so talent is
attracted to it.” —John Wren
Whoops: Jack
didn’t have a
vision!*
*GE = “Talent Machine” (Ed Michaels)
< CAPEX
> People!
“Leaders
‘SERVE’
people.
Period.”
—Anon.
Servant Leadership/Robert Greenleaf
1. Do those served grow as
persons?
2. Do they, while being served,
become healthier wiser, freer,
more autonomous, more likely
themselves to become servants?
Cause
Space
(worthy of commitment)
(room for/encouragement
for initiative)
Decency
(respect,
humane)
2. “Soft” Is
“Hard.”
Hard is soft.
Soft is hard.
Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A Bias for Action
Close to the Customer
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
Productivity Through People
Hands On, Value-Driven
Stick to the Knitting
Simple Form, Lean Staff
Simultaneous Loose-Tight
Properties”
“Why in the
world did
you go to
Siberia?”
The Peters
Principles: Enthusiasm.
Emotion. Excellence. Energy.
Excitement. Service. Growth.
Creativity. Imagination. Vitality.
Joy. Surprise. Independence.
Spirit. Community. Limitless
human potential. Diversity. Profit.
Innovation. Design. Quality.
Entrepreneurialism. Wow.
An emotional,
vital, innovative, joyful,
creative, entrepreneurial
endeavor that elicits
maximum concerted
human potential in
the wholehearted
service of others.***
Enterprise* ** (*at its best):
**Excellence. Always.
***Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
3. FUNDAMENTAL
PREMISE: We Are in an
Age of Talent/
Creativity/
Intellectual-capital
Added.
Agriculture Age (farmers)
Industrial Age (factory workers)
Information Age (knowledge workers)
Conceptual Age
(creators and empathizers)
Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind
“Human
creativity is the
ultimate
economic
resource.”
—Richard Florida,
The Rise of the Creative Class
“The
Creative
Age is a wide
open game.”
—Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class
“THE FUTURE BELONGS TO …
SMALL POPULATIONS …
WHO BUILD EMPIRES OF THE MIND …
AND WHO IGNORE THE TEMPTATION OF—OR DO NOT
HAVE THE OPTION OF—EXPLOITING NATURAL
RESOURCES.”
Source: Juan Enriquez/As the Future Catches You
4. Talent
“Excellence” in
Every Part of
Every
Organization.
Wegmans:
#1/100
“Best Companies to
Work for”/2005
5. Talent
“Excellence”
Stretches Far
Beyond Our
Borders.
We become
who we hang
out with 1
Measure “Strangeness”/Portfolio Quality
Staff
Consultants
Vendors
Out-sourcing Partners (#, Quality)
Innovation Alliance Partners
Customers
Competitors (who we “benchmark” against)
Strategic Initiatives
Product Portfolio (LineEx v. Leap)
IS/IT Projects
HQ Location
Lunch Mates
Language
Board
Whacky
WikiWo
rldWow
“The Billion-man
Research Team:
Companies offering
work to online
communities are
reaping the benefits of
‘crowdsourcing.’”
—Headline, FT, 0110.07
Rob McEwen/CEO/
Goldcorp Inc./
Red Lake
gold
Source: Wikinomics: How Mass
Collaboration Changes Everything,
Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams
6. P.O.T./
Pursuit Of
Talent =
OBSESSION.
“The leaders of Great
Groups love talent and
know where to find it. They
revel in the talent of
others.”
—Warren Bennis &
Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius
PARC’s Bob Taylor:
“Connoisseur
of Talent”
Les Wexner: From
sweaters to …
people!
7. Talent Masters
Understand
Talent’s
Intangibles.
“A man
without a
smiling face
must not open
a shop.”
—Chinese Proverb
A Few Lessons from the Arts
Each hired and developed and evaluated in unique ways
(23 contributors = 23 unique contributions = 23 pathways =
23 personalities = 23 sets of motivators)
Attitude/Enthusiasm/Energy paramount
Re-lent-less!
“Practice is cool” (G Leonard/Mastery)
Team and individual
Aspire to EXCELLENCE = Obvious
Ex-e-cu-tion
Talent = Brand = Duh
“The Project” rules
Emotional language
Bit players. No.
B.I.W. (everything)
Delta events = Delta rosters (incl leader/s)
Visibly energetic /Passionate/Enthusiastic … about everything.
Engaging/Inspires others. (Inspires the interviewer!)
Loves messes & pressure.
Impatient/ Action fanatic.
A finisher.
Exhibits: Fat “WOW Project” Portfolio. (Loves to talk about her work.)
Smart.
Curious/ Eclectic interests/A little (or more) weird.
Well-developed sense of humor/ Fun to be around.
******
No. 1 re bosses: Exceptional talent selection & development
record. (Former co-workers: “Did you visibly grow while
working with X?” /“How has the department/team grown
on a ‘world-class’ scale during X’s tenure?”)
8. HR Is
“Cool.”
Chicago:
HRMAC
“support function” /
“cost center” /
“bureaucratic drag”
or …
Are you …
“Rock Stars
of the
Age of
Talent”?
9. HR Sits at
The Head
Table.
A review of Jack and Suzy Welch’s Winning claims there are but
two key differentiators that set GE “culture” apart from the herd:
First: Separating financial forecasting and performance
measurement. Performance measurement based, as it usually is, on budgeting
leads to an epidemic of gaming the system. GE’s performance measurement is
divorced from budgeting—and instead reflects how you do relative to your past
performance and relative to competitors’ performance; i.e., it’s about how you
actually do in the context of what happened in the real world, not as compared to a
gamed-abstract plan developed last year.
Putting HR on
a par with finance
and marketing.
Second:
“HR doesn’t tend to hire
a lot of independent
thinkers or people who
stand up as moral
compasses.” —Garold Markle,
Shell Offshore HR Exec (FC/08.05)
10. Re-name
“HR.”
Talent
Department
“H.R.” to “H.E.D.” ???
Human
Enablement
Department
People Department
Center for Talent Excellence
Seriously Cool People
Who Recruit & Develop
Seriously Cool People
Etc.
11. There Is an
“HR Strategy”/
“HR Vision”
Our Mission
To develop and manage talent;
to apply that talent,
throughout the world,
for the benefit of clients;
to do so in partnership;
to do so with profit.
WPP
EVP/
IBP?*
What’s your company’s …
*Employee Value Proposition, per Ed Michaels et al.,
The War for Talent; IBP/Internal Brand Promise per TP
EVP/IBP = Remarkable
challenge, rapid professional
growth, respect, satisfaction,
fun, stunning opportunity,
exceptional reward, amazing
peer group, full membership in
Club Adventure, maximized
future employability
Source: Ed Michaels, The War for Talent; TP
12. Acquire
for Talent!
Omnicom's acquisitions: “not for
“buying
talent;” “deepen a
size per se”;
relationship with a client.”
Source: Advertising Age
13. There Is a
FORMAL
Recruitment
Strategy.
C
O*
*Chief talent acquisition Officer
“Busy Executives
Fail To Give
Recruiting
Attention It
Deserves”
—Headline, WSJ, 1121.05
14. There Is a
FORMAL
Leadership
Development
Strategy.
DD: 0 to 60mph
in a flash (months)
Crotonville!
15. There Is a
FORMAL STRATEGIC
HR Review
Process.
“In most companies, the Talent Review Process is a
farce. At GE, Jack Welch and his two top HR people visit
each division for a day. They review the top 20 to 50
people by name. They talk about Talent Pool
The Talent Review
Process is a contact sport at
GE; it has the intensity and the
importance of the budget
process at most companies.”
strengthening issues.
—Ed Michaels
16. “People”/
Talent” Reviews
Are the FIRST
Reviews.
17. HR Strategy
= BUSINESS
Strategy.
Cirque
du Soleil!
18. Make it a
“Cause Worth
Signing Up For.”
“People want to be part of
something larger than
themselves. They want to be
part of something they’re
really proud of, that they’ll
fight for, sacrifice for , trust.”
—Howard Schultz, Starbucks
19. Unleash
“Their” Full
Potential!
“We are a
‘Life Success’
Company.”
Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX
“No matter what the situation,
[the great manager’s] first response is
always to think about the
individual concerned and how
things can be arranged to help
that individual experience
success.” —Marcus Buckingham,
The One Thing You Need to Know
“Firms will not ‘manage the careers’
of their employees. They will
provide opportunities to
enable the employee to
develop identity and
adaptability and thus be in
charge of his or her own
career.”
—Tim Hall et al., “The New Protean Career Contract”
20. Set Sky
High
Standards.
“The role of the Director is to create a
space where the actors and
become more
than they’ve ever been
before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.”
actresses can
—Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech
21. Enlist
Everyone in
Challenge
Century21.
“One of the defining
characteristics [of the
change] is that it will be less
driven by countries or
corporations and more driven
by real people. It will unleash
unprecedented creativity, advancement of
knowledge, and economic development. But
at the same time, it will tend to undermine
safety net systems and penalize the
unskilled.” —Clyde Prestowitz, Three Billion New Capitalists
“If there is nothing
very special about
your work, no matter
how hard you apply yourself
you won’t get noticed, and
that increasingly means you
won’t get paid much either.”
—Michael Goldhaber, Wired
Distinct
…
… or
Extinct
22. Pursue
the Best!
From “1, 2 or you’re out” [JW]
to …
“Best Talent
in
each industry segment to
build best proprietary
intangibles” [EM]
Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent
23. Up or Out.
“We believe companies can increase their market cap
50 percent in 3 years. Steve Macadam at Georgia-
changed 20 of his
40 box plant managers
to put more talented,
higher paid managers in
charge. He increased profitability from
Pacific …
$25
million to
$80
million in
—Ed Michaels, War for Talent
2
years.”
24. Ensure that
the Review
Process Has
INTEGRITY.
25 =
100*
* “But what do I do that’s more important than developing
people? I don’t do the damn work. They do.”—GK
25. Pay Up!
“Top performing companies
are two to four times more
likely than the rest to pay
what it takes
prevent losing top
performers.”
to
—Ed Michaels,
War for Talent
Costco
*$17/hour (42% above
Sam’s); very good health
plan; low t/o, low shrinkage
*Low margins (“When I started, Sears, Roebuck
was the Costco of the country, but they allowed
someone to come in under them”—Jim Sinegal)
Source: “How Costco Became the Anti-Wal*Mart/NYT/07.17.05
26. Training I:
Train! Train!
Train!
Divas do it. Violinists do it.
Sprinters do it. Golfers do it.
Pilots do it. Soldiers do it.
Surgeons do it. Cops do it.
Why don’t
businesspeople
do it?
Astronauts do it.
“Knowledge becomes
obsolete incredibly fast. The
continuing professional
education of adults is the
No. 1 industry in the next 30
years … mostly on line.”
Peter Drucker, Business 2.0
27. Training II:
100% “Business
People.”
New Work SurvivalKit.2007
1. MASTERY! (Best/Absurdly Good at Something!)
2. “Manage” to Legacy (All Work = “Memorable”/“Braggable” WOW Projects!)
3. A “USP”/UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION
4. Rolodex Obsession (From vertical/hierarchy/“suck up” loyalty to
horizontal/“colleague”/“mate” loyalty)
5. ENTREPRENEURIAL INSTINCT (A sleepless … Eye for Opportunity!
6.CEO/LEADER/BUSINESSPERSON/CLOSER (CEO, Me Inc. 24/7!)
7. Master of Improv (Play a dozen parts simultaneously, from
Chief Strategist to Chief Toilet Scrubber)
8. Sense of Humor (A willingness to Screw Up & Move On)
9. Comfortable with Your Skin (Bring “interesting you” to work!)
10. Intense Appetite for Technology (E.g.: How Cool-Active is your
Web site? Do you Blog?)
11. EMBRACE “MARKETING” (Your own CSO/Chief Storytelling Officer)
12. PASSION FOR RENEWAL (Your own CLO/Chief Learning Officer)
13. EXECUTION EXCELLENCE! (Show up on time! Leave last!)
28. Training III:
100% LEADERS.
“I start with the premise
that the function of
leadership is to produce
more leaders, not more
followers.”
—Ralph Nader
29. Training IV:
Boss as Trainerin-Chief.
“Workout” = 24
DPY in the
Classroom
30. Training V:
The REAL
Bedrock of the
“Talent Thing.”
“My wife and I went to a [kindergarten] parent-teacher
conference and were informed that our budding refrigerator
artist, Christopher, would be receiving a grade of
Unsatisfactory in art. We were shocked. How could any
child—let alone our child—receive a poor grade in art at such
His teacher informed
us that he had refused to color
within the lines, which was a
state requirement for
demonstrating ‘grade-level
motor skills.’ ” —Jordan Ayan, AHA!
a young age?
15 “Leading” Biz Schools
0
Design/Core:
Design/Elective: 1
0
Creativity/Core:
Creativity/Elective: 4
0
Innovation/Core:
Innovation/Elective: 6
Source: DMI/Summer 2002/Research by Thomas Lockwood
31. Wide-open
Communication:
NO BARRIERS.
“The organizations we created have
become tyrants. They have taken
control, holding us fettered, creating
barriers that hinder rather than help our
businesses. The lines that we
drew on our neat organizational
diagrams have turned into walls
that no one can scale or penetrate
or even peer over.” —Frank Lekanne Deprez &
René Tissen, Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits
32. RESPECT!
“It was much later that I realized
Dad’s secret. He gained respect by
giving it. He talked and listened to
the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley
who shined shoes the same way he
talked and listened to a bishop or a
He was
seriously interested in
who you were and what
you had to say.”
college president.
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
“What creates trust,
in the end, is the
leader’s manifest
respect for the
followers.”
— Jim O’Toole, Leading
Change
“Don’t
belittle!”
—OD Consultant
33. Embrace
the Whole
Individual.
34. Build
Places of
“Grace.”
Rodale’s on “Grace” …
elegance … charm …
loveliness … poetry in
motion … kindliness ...
benevolence …
benefaction …
compassion … beauty
The Manager’s Book of Decencies:
How Small gestures Build Great
Companies —Steve Harrison, Adecco
Servant Leadership
—Robert Greenleaf
One: The Art and Practice of
Conscious Leadership —Lance Secretan,
founder of Manpower, Inc.
“Be kind, for
everyone you meet
is fighting a great
battle.”
—Philo of Alexandria
35. MBWA*:
Visible
Leadership!
*Managing By Wandering Around
MBWA*
*5,000 miles for a 5-minute face-to
-face meeting (courtesy superagent Mark McCormick)
36. Thank
You!
“The deepest
human need is
the need to be
appreciated.”
William James
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike
deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay
37. Promote for
“people skills.”
(THE REST IS
DETAILS.)
“When assessing candidates, the first
thing I looked for was energy and
enthusiasm for execution. Does she
talk about the thrill of getting
things done, the obstacles
overcome, the role her people
played —or does she keep wandering
back to strategy or philosophy?”
Bossidy, Honeywell/AlliedSignal, in Execution
—Larry
38. Honor
Youth.
“Why focus on these late teens and twentysomethings? Because they are the
first young who are both in a
position to change the world, and
are actually doing so. … For the first
time in history, children are more comfortable,
knowledgeable and literate than their parents
about an innovation central to society. … The
Internet has triggered the first industrial
revolution in history to be led by the young.”
The Economist
39. Provide
Early
Leadership
Assignments.
The
WOW!
Project
40. Create a
FORMAL System
of Mentoring.
W. L. Gore
Quad/Graphics
41. Diversity!
“To be a leader in
consumer products,
it’s critical to have
leaders who represent
the population we
serve.”
—Steve Reinemund/PepsiCo
“We want our associate
population to mirror our
customer population at
every level, from the
executive suite all the way to
the retail floor.”
—Larry Johnston, CEO,
Albertsons
CM Prof Richard Florida on “Creative
“You cannot get a
technologically
innovative place … unless
it’s open to weirdness,
eccentricity and
difference.”
Capital”:
Source: New York Times/06.01.2002
“Diverse groups of problem solvers—
groups of people with diverse tools—
consistently outperformed groups of the
best and the brightest. If I formed two
groups, one random (and therefore
diverse) and one consisting of the best
individual performers, the first group
almost always did better. …
Diversity trumped
ability.”
—Scott Page, The Difference: How
the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups,
Firms, Schools, and Societies Diversity
“The
Bottleneck Is at
the Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of
experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest
reverence for industry dogma:
At the top!”
— Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review
42. WOMEN
RULE.
“AS LEADERS,
WOMEN
RULE:
New Studies find that
female managers outshine their male
counterparts in almost every measure”
TITLE/ Special Report/ BusinessWeek
Women’s Strengths Match New Economy
Imperatives: Link [rather than rank] workers;
favor interactive-collaborative leadership style
[empowerment beats top-down decision
making]; sustain fruitful collaborations;
comfortable with sharing information; see
redistribution of power as victory, not
surrender; favor multi-dimensional feedback;
value technical & interpersonal skills,
individual & group contributions equally;
readily accept ambiguity; honor intuition as
well as pure “rationality”; inherently flexible;
appreciate cultural diversity. —Judy B. Rosener,
America’s Competitive Secret
10 UNASSAILABLE REASONS WOMEN RULE
Women make [all] the financial decisions.
Women control [all] the wealth.
Women [substantially] outlive men.
Women start most of the new businesses.
Women’s work force participation rates have
soared worldwide.
Women are closing in on “same pay for same
job.”
Women are penetrating senior ranks rapidly
[even if the pace is slow for the corner
office per se].
Women’s leadership strengths are exceptionally well
aligned with new organizational effectiveness
imperatives.
Women are better salespersons than men.
Women buy [almost] everything—commercial
as well as consumer goods.
So what exactly is the point of men?
43. Hire (& Protect!)
Weird!
“Are there
enough weird
people in the lab
these days?”
—V. Chmn., pharmaceutical
house, to a lab director
Why Do I love Freaks?
(1) Because when Anything Interesting happens … it was
a freak who did it. (Period.)
(2) Freaks are fun. (Freaks are also a pain.) (Freaks are
never boring.)
(3) We need freaks. Especially in freaky times. (Hint:
These are freaky times, for you & me & the CIA & the
Army & Avon.)
(4) A critical mass of freaks-in-our-midst
automatically make us-who-are-not-so-freaky at least
somewhat more freaky. (Which is a Good Thing in freaky
times—see immediately above.)
(5) Freaks are the only (ONLY) ones who succeed—as in,
make it into the history books.
(6) Freaks keep us from falling into ruts. (If we listen to
them.) (We seldom listen to them.) (Which is why most
organizations are in ruts. Make that chasms.)
“Normal” =
“o for 800”
44. We Are All
Unique.
One
size NEVER fits
all. One size fits
Beware Standardized Evals:
one.
Period.
53 Players =
53 Projects =
53 different
success measures.
45. Capitalize
on Strengths.
“The key difference between
checkers and chess is that in
checkers the pieces all move
the same way, whereas in chess
all the pieces move differently.
… Discover what is unique
about each person and
capitalize on it.” —Marcus Buckingham,
The One Thing You Need to Know
“The mediocre manager believes that most
things are learnable and therefore that the
essence of management is to identify ach
person’s weaker areas and eradicate them.
The great manager believes the opposite.
He believes that the most influential
qualities of a person are innate and
therefore that the essence of management
is to deploy these innate qualities as
effectively as possible and so drive
performance.” —Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing
You Need to Know
46. Bosses “Win
People Over.”
“Coaching
is winning
players over.”
PJ:
47. GOAL: Voyages
of Mutual
Discovery.
Quests!
Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis
and Patricia Ward Biederman
“Groups become great only when
everyone in them, leaders and
members alike, is free to do his or
her absolute best.”
“The best thing a leader can do for a
Great Group is to allow its
members to discover their
greatness.”
Leadership’s Mt Everest!
“free to do his or her
absolute best” …
“allow its members to
discover their
greatness.”
“The organization would
ultimately win not
because it gave agents
more money, but
because it gave them a
chance for better lives.”
—Everybody Wins, Phil Harkins & Keith Hollihan
C
O*
*Chief quest-meister
48. Foster
Independence.
“You must realize that how you invest your human
capital matters as much as how you invest your
financial capital. Its rate of return determines your
future options. Take
a job for what it
teaches you, not for what it pays.
Instead of a potential employer asking,
‘Where do you see yourself in 5 years?’
you’ll ask, ‘If I invest my mental assets
with you for 5 years, how much will they
appreciate? How much will my portfolio
of career options grow?’ ”
Source: Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH
49. En-
thus-iasm!
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
50. Talent
= Brand.
The Top 5 “Revelations”
Better talent wins.
Talent management is my job as leader.
Talented leaders are looking for the
moon and stars.
Over-deliver on people’s dreams – they
are volunteers.
Pump talent in at all levels, from all
conceivable sources, all the time.
Source: Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent
BRAND =
TALENT.
“I have always believed
that the purpose of the
corporation is to be a
blessing to the
employees.”
—Boyd Clarke
Cause
Space
(worthy of commitment)
(room for/encouragement
for initiative)
Decency
(respect,
humane)
EXCELLENCE.
BEDROCK.
LEADERSHIP.
9Ps.
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
“Management has a lot to do with
answers. Leadership is a function of
questions. And the first question for a
‘Who do
we intend to
be?’
leader always is:
Not ‘What are we going to
do?’ but ‘Who do we intend to be?’”
—Max De Pree, Herman Miller
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“In the end, management
doesn’t change culture.
Management
invites
the workforce itself to
change the culture.”
—Lou Gerstner
‘do’
“Leaders
people.
Period.”
—Anon.
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
“The First step in a
‘dramatic’
‘organizational change
program’ is obvious—
dramatic personal
change!” —RG
“You must
be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
Gandhi
“We make our
own traps.”
“We construct our
own cage.”
“We build our own
roadblocks.”
Source: Douglas Kennedy, State of the Union
“Do one thing
every day
that scares
you.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
The greatest danger
for most of us
is not that our aim is
too high
and we miss it,
but that it is
too low
and we reach it.
Michelangelo
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
“Excellence can be obtained if you:
... care more than others think is wise;
... risk more than others think is safe;
... dream more than others think
is practical;
... expect more than others think
is possible.”
Source: Anon. (Posted @ tompeters.com by
K.Sriram, November 27, 2006 1:17 AM)
"Life is not a journey to the
grave with the intention of
arriving safely in one pretty
and well preserved piece, but
to skid across the line
broadside, thoroughly used
up, worn out, leaking oil,
shouting ‘GERONIMO!’ ”
—Bill McKenna, professional motorcycle racer
(Cycle magazine 02.1982)
Geron-imo!