Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All

Great by Choice

by Jim Collins with Morten T. Hansen

Part One – Book review by Hazel Jackson, CEO of biz-group

This was a long awaited book for me as a huge fan of Collins and his strategy classic Good to Great and more recently a book I loved How the Mighty Fall.  It took me a few days to get over my initial disappointment though.  He had set the research time frame around from 1972 – 2002.  Why exclude the incredible changes and chaos from the last 5 years?  The research project was 9 years in duration and was true to Collins nature rigorous and detailed.  Once I got past the first chapter I was instantly engrossed by what they found and how applicable it was despite the time frame studied.

The authors do refer from time to time to the cases in 2011 – but their empirical data is dated but highly relevant.

Like in Good to Great they compared companies with the same potential, market, industry and who went through similar challenges and uncertain environments.  The Great organisations are labeled 10X not because they simply survived in difficult times but they beat the industry index by at least 10 times.

The book provides all the background to the research number phases that they went through and the specific details on 10Xer and comparison companies.

The research focuses on large organsiations, but the steps are totally applicable to SME’s.

Before sharing what they found perhaps it is more interesting to share some findings that ran counter to their intuition and proved surprising.

Entrenched Myth 1: Successful leaders in turbulent world are bold, risk seeking visionaries

Contrary Finding: The best leaders they studied did not have a visionary ability to predict the future.  They observed what worked, figured out why it worked, and built upon proven foundations.  They were not more risk taking, bold or visionary or even more creative.  They were more disciplined, more empirical and more paranoid.

Entrenched Myth 2: Innovation distinguishes 10X companies in a fast moving, uncertain and chaotic world

Contrary Finding: To the researchers surprise, no.  Yes the 10X cases innovated a lot but not more than the comparison cases and in some instances less.  Innovation by itself turns out not to be the trump card expected, what is more important is the ability to scale innovation, to blend creativity with discipline

Entrenched Myth 3: A threat-filled world favors the speedy; you’re either the quick or the dead.

Contrary Finding: The idea a ‘fast world’ means fast decisions and fast action was found to be false.  10X leaders figure out when to go fast and when not to.

Entrenched Myth 4: Radical change on the outside requires radical change on the inside

Contrary Finding: The 10X cases changed less in reaction to the changing world than the comparison cases.

Entrenched Myth 5: Great enterprises with 10X success have a lot more good luck.

Contrary Finding: Not true, both sets had luck, lots of luck both good and bad in comparable amounts.  It is not whether you’ll have luck, but what you do with the luck that you get.

The book once has set out the structure of the research takes us back to 1911 when Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott set out as competitors to reach the South Pole.  The story provides unquestionable evidence about how the two explorers managed the preparation and execution of their challenges.  Both equal opportunities to succeed – Amundsen did and Scott perished.  It sets up the book brilliantly and provides a vivid example as you work through their findings on what makes a 10Xer leader and great organization.

The Findings:

10Xer Leaders display three core behaviours that in combination, distinguish them from the leaders of the less successful comparison companies:
 Fanatic Discipline: extreme consistency of action – consistency of values, goals, performance standards and methods.  They are utterly relentless, monomaniacal, unbending in their focus on their quests
 Empirical Creativity: When faced with uncertainty, 10Xers do not look primarily to other people, conventional wisdom, authority figures, or peers for direction; they look to empirical evidence.  They rely upon direct observation, practical experiments and direct engagement with tangible evidence.  They make their bold, creative moves from a sound empirical base
 Productive Paranoia: 10Xers maintain hyper vigilance, staying highly attuned to threats and changes in their environment, especially when all is going well.  They assume events might turn against them and plan for the worst possible moment, with contingency plans, building buffers and maintaining large margins of safety

Underlying these three behaviours are passion and ambition for the company not themselves. They have ego’s but they are channeled to their companies not personal gain.

Collins and Hansen then break down each of these behaviours and provide some practical examples of how we can implement them in our businesses:

 The 20 Mile March – this is about hitting specific performance markets with great consistency over a long period of time – it has two distinct types of discomfort – delivering high performance in difficult times and holding back in good times
 There are many types of 20 Mile March – it is not all about financials.  You can have a creative march, a learning march, a service-improvement march – as long as it meets the characteristics described in the book (page 48)
 Fire Bullets, then Cannonballs – a bullet is a low cost, low risk and low distraction test or experiment.  10Xers use bullets to empirically validate what will actually work.  Once this is established they fire a cannonball, enabling large returns from concentrated bets
 Productive Paranoia 1– Build cash reserves and buffers to prepare for unexpected events and bad luck before it happens
 Productive Paranoia 2 – Bound risk – with a framework described on how to do this
 Productive Paranoia 3 – Zoom Out, then Zoom In.  Remaining hyper vigilant to sense changing conditions and respond effectively

There are two other major findings in Great by Choice along with some links to Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall research findings.  All of which we will share in the next review…..tune in to January’s show or buy the book for yourself or your boss for Christmas!!  Happy Reading!

biz-strategy; business performance works with SMEs and is often challenged with helping founders and entrepreneurs with shaping the growth of their business.  Ted Leonsis a hugely Entrepreneur in his own right and now venture capitalist, lists the traits needed to be a good founder / entrepreneur and provides insightful live examples from companies he works with.

“I love Founders: I love what they create for our economy, and how they build value and create jobs . One thing I enjoy about working with them is that it gives me a seat at the table of ” the future.”” – Ted Leonsis

The most common traits that Ted Leonsis see in the best entrepreneurs that build value are as follows:

Take three minutes to read this fascinating post “Common Traits I love in Founders as Entrepreneurs” – do you have these traits?

biz-group; passionate about performance

What is Black Box?

Black box is a simulated leadership experience that brings all the challenges faced by leaders into one highly intensive period.  Teams go through a series of facilitated steps to plan and prepare the physical challenge of rescuing the ‘black box’, deciphering the code and recovering the casualty.

The concept

Two teams of 8-10 participants in each will be challenged in an intense operation against the clock and each other to complete this fascinating mission.  (see more)

Information is bombarded in a variety of different mediums. Through the first 3 hour planning stages, additional skills have to be learnt, team members must solve problems, calculate the use of equipment, assign resources and above all communicate to ensure everyone is on plan and clear about their roles, responsibilities and accountabilities.

What are the Business Benefits?

Learn more benefits of this leadership challenge here

Resolving team conflict leads to great team effeciency and effectiveness. Managing team conflict also allows teams to stay focused on their goals.

Listen to Hazel Jackson’s Book Review of  ”Our Iceberg Is Melting – Changing and Succeeding under any Conditions” aired on Dubai Eye 103.8

Our Iceberg Is Melting – Changing and Succeeding under any Conditions by John Kotter with Holger Rathgeber

Read the full book review of Our Iceberg Is Melting by John Kotter with Holger Rathbeger on our biz-buzz blog

Listen to Hazel Jackson’s Book Review of  ”WHO -Solve Your #1 Problem” aired on Dubai Eye 103.8

WHO – Solve Your #1 Problem by Geoff Smart and Randy Street – Part -1 – 26-09-11

WHO – Solve Your #1 Problem by Geoff Smart and Randy Street – Part – 2 – 26-09-11

Read the full book review of WHO – Solve Your #1 Problem by Geoff Smart and Randy Street on our biz-buzz blog

Liz Wiseman is the author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, a Wall Street Journal bestseller. She has conducted significant research in the field of leadership and collective intelligence, is a frequent keynote speaker, and writes for Harvard Business Review and a variety of other business and leadership journals.

Liz Wiseman teaches leadership to executives around the world. She is the President of the Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, where some of her recent clients include: Apple, Nike, Salesforce.com, GAP, Symantec, SAP and Microsoft.

Diminishers on average, get less than half of people’s intelligence and capability whereas Multipliers get twice the capability essentially they double the brain power of the organisation at no additional cost. Here in Dubai, Liz Wiseman recap the basic points of Multiplier.

How do you unleash human potential?

Listen to Liz Wiseman’s interview aired on Dubai Eye 103.8 – 21-11-2011

Multipliers is the latest business leadership theory that has been adapted into an executive development programme that teaches business leaders to look beyond their own capability to amplify the intelligence of the people that they manage. biz-ability has partnered with The Wiseman Group, to bring the “Multiplier Effect” to the region earlier in March this year.

biz-ability has four senior consultants accredited to deliver the Multipliers Workshops, Keynote speeches and Coaching programmes in UAE and rest of the Middle East. As part of its strategic partnership, Hazel Jackson, CEO of biz-group is also accredited to deliver keynote addresses on behalf of Multipliers.

Changing and Succeeding under any Conditions

Our Iceberg Is Melting

by John Kotter with Holger Rathgeber

Book review by Hazel Jackson, CEO of biz-group

It took less than two hours to read, so that might be a benefit for some organisations trying to create a common approach to managing change.  I found it less engaging than “Who Moved my Cheese” another story based book about change from Spencer Johnson, so if you’ve read either I’d certainly go for Johnson’s book.

Kotter does provide a simple step process to change.  Many of the steps are very simple, but experience in companies has shown they often fail to follow each step.

Rather than critic the book anymore, I thought the most useful review would be highlight the Eight Steps of Successful Change, share my experiences of common mistakes made by companies in the Middle East, and then add recommendations from the “Our Iceberg is Melting” story on how to manage each step well.

This was a quick but not that inspiring a read.  If you want a change book to build a theme I recommend you stick with Who Moved My Cheese

Listen to Hazel Jackson’s Book Review of “ Our Iceberg Is Melting by John Kotter” aired on Dubai Eye 103.8

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