A review of the book Scaling Up Excellence: Getting To More Without Settling For Less written by Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao
Many organizations are realizing the importance of a good analytics group within their own organization. The problem is how to does an organization that doesn’t specialize in analytics scale up their analytic functions? Many managers and leaders will turn to experts and dig into research and books on the subject. One such book is “Scaling Up Excellence : Getting To More Without Settling For Less”.
Before we get too excited about having a road map to scaling up, Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao do not provide a “detailed how to”, rather the authors provide seven mantras that encompass help provide a wide ranging set of guide rails that can be applied to any organization. The authors focused on modern tech companies like Facebook as well as healthcare organizations like Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and even the Girl Scouts of America and Fiat Chrysler.
As I mentioned, instead of a detailed check list to instruct the reader, the authors documented the seven “mantras” that organizations should use if they want to be successful in scaling up. All the research and evidence go into supporting these seven mantras.
The Seven Mantras are;
Spread the Mindset not just the footprint
You do not lead by hitting people over the head, that’s assault not leadership
Dwight Eisenhower
Scaling up is not “more wood for fire”. You can hire 50% more people but if they are not on the same page…if they don’t have the same mission. Then nothing will move. I was once hired to help modernize the pharmacy analytics of a large educational hospital, but my support team were not on board with that mission. Every step I took to modernize analytics (whether developing an SSIS package or using a data warehouse) was stopped or pushed to the point that executives needed to be involved.
This is not a call to remove people, rather it is a call to you as a leader to shift focus from an individual task focus to mission focus.
Engage all the senses
“The highest level of performance comes from people who are emotionally engaged, and the highest level of engagement comes from knowing the score — that is, knowing whether one is winning or losing. If your team members don’t know whether they are winning the game, they are probably on their way to losing.”
Chris McChesney
People need to know they are in the game and they need to get excited about the game. Emails and posts in a chat room are ok..but they are a very, very small piece of the puzzle. The authors go into detail “mindsets are spread and sustained by subtle cues that activate all the senses”. There is research to support the use of smells, tastes and colors to keep things going. In the covid era of remote working…this is made a lot more complicated.
I am big fan of visual stimuli. Scoreboards that can be seen by the team and others are a strong cue to keep going. Scoreboards can help people see the progress that is being made and help people understand the work they are doing is helping that.
An NFL field goal kicker has one primary job…kick the football between the two yellow posts. For the majority of the game that kicker has no idea what kind of impact he has on the team or the game…that is…until he sees the scoreboard….when his three points are on the board he can see it..the team can see..the audience can see it. That is a powerful, positive driver.
Link Short Term realities to long term dreams
Character may be manifest in great moments, but it is made in the small ones
Winston Churchill
When I joined the US Navy in the 1990’s, I was surprised to learn how many people got sea sick…I mean come on…you joined the Navy? Anyway…of the best ways to counter the motion sickness is to keep your eye on the horizon…look ahead on a fixed spot…the ship can be tossing and turning but if you can focus on one spot you can get some relief.
The sea sick sailor, however, can not spend the entire voyage looking at one spot…there is work to be done. This is the same in your organization. There is work to be done…bills to be paid and someone has to do it…but we have to be able to keep looking towards the goal and keep working towards that goal. Leaders of the organization must be able to constantly and honestly communicate with their teams to ensure that the projects and the work stays on target.
Accelerate accountability
It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one’s acts.
Mahatma Gandhi
I am not sure what happens in organizations, but people are afraid to do anything that might be a problem. People will hide and avoid any hard work and hide behind “best practices” or “new standards” in order to avoid any responsibility and accountability. This behavior will scuttle any forward movement of your scaling project.
The authors discuss how companies like Facebook promote their engineers to “break things”….There is an anecdote about how a father complained to his son (who happened to be a new employee at Facebook) about some seemingly small functional issue and then within a short period, the son was able to resolve the issue. It might not seem like a big deal but Facebook allows their people to take calculated risks…to try things out and not to be afraid to fail.
I have subscribed to the theory that we have to “fail fast”…that is we have to be able to quickly try things….see what happens…learn from that action and reaction and move on. Leaders, managers and team members should be free and able to learn and to make mistakes without the threat of punitive actions.
Fear the Cluster Foxtrot
1) a bad situation that involves many different smaller situations to create one massive insanely intense ordeal. 2)when to many things happen at once, making it extremely hard to comprehend.
Any US Military veteran and Urban Dictionary
To an outsider, a Cluster Foxtrot can look like one big event, but they are almost always a result of an accumulation of small to medium events. For example, legend has it…that during the American automobile Industry’s lowest quality era, automobiles would go through the assembly line with known defects because “someone else would take care of the problem”. Perhaps…a missing nut here…a bad weld there…a chip in the paint on the back…a seal not set right on the windshield…individually, small and barely significant…but by the end of the build process, each missed mistake accumulated into one big ugly lemon of a car that required more time and money to repair. All of this was happening while Japanese brands like Honda were consistently building high quality cars…in Ohio!
The Japanese manufactures embraced the concept of the “Andon cord”. These are cords that run along the entire manufacturing line which, once pulled, can stop the entire line. While safety is one reason to pull the cord, the primary reason is to stop a mistake or problem from going any further…to spot the problem…fix the problem and move on. Of course, this would slow down production a bit, but each problem would be solved as soon as it is spotted. After all, it is easier to cross the river at its head than at its mouth (not my saying—but I can’t find the ancient person who first said that).
Scaling requires both addition and subtraction
Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.
Mark Twain
The authors wrote “it is a hallmark of successful scaling that leaders remain vigilant about ‘what got us here won’t get us there’…remove your current beliefs, behaviors, and rituals that once bolstered your excellence but now undermine it”.
This is not to say we have to remove people but as mentioned in a previous mantra, we all have to be on the same page. The authors want you to consider all the procedures, technology, policies, etc…that are currently in place…do they limit your growth? Do you they stifle innovation? What about the tech you are using? Is it old and cumbersome? We must be willing to review these things and make some hard choices.
If you want to grow…you gotta let go.
Slow down to scale faster and better down the road
Slow is smooth and smooth is fast—U.S. Special Operations
The authors discuss the work of Daniel Kahneman who suggested that people have two “thought systems”. System 1 is automatic, mindless and fast whereas System 2 is slow, taxing, thoughtful and deliberative. The authors (and I agree) want us to be deliberate in choosing when to use which system.
The book discusses how race car drivers must know when to accelerate, when to break, and when to shift gears. As leaders of any scaling project, you must be the driver…always vigilant and ready to do something…or do nothing…whatever is needed.
Parting key points
The Long Hard Slog
Embrace the suck
The authors state that only 20 per cent of the bombs dropped by the British during the night raids in World War 2, fell within 1,000 feet of their targets….20%!! Air campaigns are important and serve a very significant role…but wars are still fought and won on the ground and ground wars are costly, hard and slow.
Scaling up projects are similar…long, hard, slow and sometimes things get stuck in the mud. Things are going to “suck” and there is no avoiding it…but we have to accept it, embrace it and move on. This is why getting the right people involved, staying involved, maintaining the mission focus is the only way an organization will be able to successfully scale up their analytic operations.
Connect People
We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural.
Marcus Aurelius
In today’s COVD era, it is important to recognize that many organizations are remote, but that is still not an excuse to use web cameras and tools like Zoom or Teams to stay connected with one another. I have been successfully working remote with my clients and customers for years.
People must be able to work with each other…communication has to be honest and transparent…goals and ideas have to be communicated.
Listen…gang…even with the smartest people on staff..its going to be a hard and difficult process to scale up your operations. Like honey bees in a hive, each of us has our own role but we must work together to keep the hive going. What is not good for the bee is not good for the hive.