Superperformance: New Profound Knowledge for Corporate Leaders
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SUPER PERFORMANCE New Profound Knowledge for Corporate Leaders 1 Simple Formula 8 Simple Rules 1 Billion Great Results Dave Guerra Copyright © 2005 Dave Guerra All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America This book may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Dave Guerra. Cover Design by Axiom Design Group, Houston, Texas. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2005906413 Guerra, Dave Superperformance: New Profound Knowledge for Corporate Leaders ISBN 1-58961-396-1 This book is Dedicated to my mother Virginia Sanchez Guerra Whose Indomitable Spirit and Fiery Passion Lives on in these Pages Contents Preface . vii Acknowledgements . .x The Formula, The Evidence, and the Science of Superperformance 1 How Superperformance Happens . .3 What is Organizational Superperformance? . 3 The Superperformance Formula . 5 Polar-Complementarity . 12 Summary . 17 The Business End of Superperformance. .19 The Superperformers . 19 Economic Superforce . 21 Any Organization Can Become a Superperformer . 22 Berkshire Hathaway: Capital Investing . 23 Harley-Davidson: Motorcycles . 27 Johnson & Johnson: Healthcare Products. 30 Microsoft: Software . 33 Southwest Airlines: Airlines. 36 Sterling Bancshares: Regional Banking . 39 v Superperformance Contents SYSCO: Food Distribution . 41 Tiffany & Company: Jewelry . 43 Toyota: Automobiles . 46 Wal-Mart: Retailing . 48 Summary . 51 From Machine to Organism . .54 Adopting a New Worldview. 54 Machine View . 55 Organism View . 58 Summary . 62 The Properties of Superperformance 63 Leading and Managing Superperformance. .65 Meet the Invisibles . 65 Leaders and Managers are the Same People . 67 Formal Structures and Superperformance . 71 Summary . 76 Transforming Flow . .77 Reframing Deming . 77 Transforming Flow . 80 Common Limitations . 83 How do Superperformers Transform Flow? . 84 Future Simple . 90 Summary . 90 Unleashing Passion . .93 A Felt Cause . 93 A New Science for Culture. 98 Growing Evidence that Culture Matters in the Literature . 98 How do Superperformers Unleash Passion? . 99 Process and Culture Together: A Lasting Marriage . 104 Summary . 105 vi Superperformance Contents The Transformation to Superperformance 106 Upshifting to Superperformance. .108 Transformation to a New Steady State . 108 Environmental Forces in Superperformance . 111 The Kryptonite of Superperformance. 113 Undertaking Transformation . 122 Upshifting to Superperformance . 122 Summary . 132 Sustaining Superperformance . .135 Living in Balance (Holding the Tension) . 135 A Final Note: Redefining Corporate Learning . 137 The Ramifications of Superperformance . 139 Summary . 140 Appendices The Superperformance Transformation Blueprint . 143 Systemic Approach to Superperformance . 143 Overarching Elements . 145 The Transformation Campaign . 146 Short-Term Results . 153 The Superperformance Consultant . .154 Superperformance Consultant Description. 154 The Superperformance Consultant Charter . 155 Capabilities of the Superperformance Consultant . 155 Superperformance Assessment . 161 Notes. .164 Index . 172 vii Preface aving worked in the Quality field for several decades, one thing has become obvious. Performance eludes most organizations. HEven after Deming, even after Six Sigma, Self-Directed Work Teams, Reengineering, and Human Performance Technology, sustainable performance excellence remains out of reach. Some companies seem to have the answer. We’ve tried to copy them, through the use of best practices, to replicate their techniques, but to no avail. Most of us remain disappointed and dissatisfied. Could it be there is something Simplicity is removing else, something simpler driving their success? the unnecessary so the In 1990 Michael Rothschild necessary can speak. published an important book entitled WILLIAM JAMES Bionomics: Economy as Ecosystem.1 The book postulated that the economy is in reality an ecosystem inhabited by organizations that are in reality biological organisms. A few years later Margaret Wheatley published another groundbreaking book entitled Leadership and the New Science, proposing instead that organizations are viii Superperformance Preface ������������ ������������� �� ���������������� ������� ������� ������������������������ �������������������� �������������� ��������������������� �������������������������� ���������������������� complex adaptive systems (CAS).2 I assert that both of these statements are true. Organizations are both biological and complex adaptive organisms. This may seem a trivial statement to make, but in reality it is revolutionary. It leads to a new management science, a new set of guiding principles, and a new theory of optimization, Nothing is informed by a deep appreciation for the biology too wonderful and physics at work in all organizations. to be true. Seeing organizations in this new way (as biological, complex adaptive organisms) changes MICHAEL FARADAY how we define management and leadership. It makes Superperformance attainable and easy to understand—revealing a direct path to transformation. Taking this path leads to a new understanding for how organizations work, an exciting new view of corporate culture, and a deeper inquiry into the nature of organizations. Based on this knowledge, my aim is to equip you with a new paradigm and toolset for catalyzing Superperformance in your own organization, regardless of its size. The following pages include an operational definition ix Superperformance Preface of Superperformance, the Superperformance Formula, and the qualitative and quantitative data to prove that it works. This includes the evidence of ten organizational Superperformers and the outline of eight simple rules for transformation to this remarkable, new steady state. Dave Guerra August 1, 2005 Houston x Acknowledgements In the original Superman series, the Bizarro Superman World was a place where everything worked backwards. In this world nothing made sense—coming was going, wrong was right, sense was nonsense. Everything was topsy-turvy on this planet. Increasingly, the business world has seemed so to me. Wall Street’s insatiable appetite for short-term profits, environments of win- lose competition, strictly numbers-based management, fear-based environments, rampant, applauded layoffs, forced ranking, ‘toxic’ employees, and on and on. The resulting attitude of “every man for himself” has seemed so hopelessly destructive. But like in Bizarro Superman World, when everyone around you is behaving as if this is normal, as if this is what makes sense, it is easy to feel that it is you who are crazy, it is you who has it wrong. Occasionally I would stumble across the rare leader whose manner and actions cut against the grain of corporate convention. These people fit a surprising pattern: they were always humble, bona fide servant leaders who cared about people, they were always ferocious quality champions, and they always seemed to be exemplars of wisdom, grace…and simplicity. xi Superperformance Acknowledgements It began to dawn on me that the performance of their organizations fit a pattern too. An amazing, consistent pattern. It was these anomalies that pointed the way for me out of Bizarro Superman World and into the world of Superperformance. For this, I am eternally grateful to my own father Robert Guerra, cofounder and Chairman of San Antonio’s City Employees Federal Credit Union, Ed Roberson, Chairman and founder of Houston Northwest Medical Center, John Adams, CEO of Denton Cooley’s Cardiovascular Care Providers, the late Ted Bauer, cofounder and former CEO and Chairman of AIM Investments, Jeff Holland, CEO of West Houston Medical Center, and George Martinez, cofounder and former CEO and Chairman of Sterling Bank. I salute you, along with the other top leaders of.