EXCELLENCE
Even their communities and vendors are rooting for them. If
>> each
of these small companies is able to add one or two employees
to the payroll due to their reputation for excellence, millions of
jobs could be added to the economy, Peters notes.
One of the keys to creating the type of excellence Hill achieved
is continual training, which can take the form of online or in-
person courses, professional training classes, or even just relevant
business reading, Peters says. Unfortunately, business owners
still treat training as an expense rather than an investment in their
employees—an investment that can lead to greater job satisfaction,
enhanced productivity, better pay, and increased loyalty.
“There is a national imperative, whether you have six employees
or 666, to ensure that an employee who leaves your organization is
not only better at doing his or her job but also is better prepared to
be a citizen of this topsy-turvy world than they were before walking
in the door,” says Peters. “You have a moral obligation to help them
become well-equipped for tomorrow.”
Peters describes a recent scenario in which, in the midst of a “100-
year storm” in his home state of Massachusetts, he was forced to
summon a refrigerator repairman to fix a broken compressor. Not
only did the repairman come out during severe weather, but he
revealed that he had just completed a three-week training course
on artificial intelligence to stay on top of fast-changing compressor
technology. “That’s my ideal,” says Peters. “Regardless of what
comes, that gentleman has a future.”
Peters harkens back to his days as a parent of young children
when, he says, “there were third-grade teachers you would walk
through gunfire for—that’s how spectacularly they treated your
children—while others would enter their classroom as if punching a
clock.” A great teacher probably has a great principal who gives him
or her the tools they need and makes them feel like they are doing
a worthwhile job, he points out. These are teachers who don’t just
teach to a test but also understand that if there are 17 kids in the
class, each one is different than the other 16 and needs to be treated
differently. Leaders who recognize this type of individuality can
nurture employees with real staying power, he says.
The call for customized treatment of employees comes hand-
in-hand with the recent shift in thinking that favors liberal arts
majors—with their creative thinking, writing, and analytical skills—
over pure technology students, Peters notes. Publications from the
Harvard Business Review to Fast Company to Forbes have touted
the emerging status of these graduates, with Forbes asserting in a
2015 article by George Anders that the “useless” liberal arts degree
“has become tech’s hottest ticket.”
Peters is well-known for his bias toward action in the workplace—a
favorite philosophy he attributes to Fred Malek, his boss from 1973
to 1974 while working in the White House Office of Management and
Budget. In his new book, Peters reasserts the importance of the
“Eight Basics,” which he originally cited in his first book, In Search of
Excellence, as the bedrock of success:
1. A Bias for Action
2. Close to the Customer
3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
4. Productivity through People
5. Hands-On, Value-Driven
6. Stick to the Knitting
7. Simple Form, Lean Staff
8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties
Of these, A Bias for Action deserves its top billing, even more
emphatically than before, says Peters. He devotes a good chunk of
The Excellence Dividend to addressing the merits of what he calls
WTTMSW, Peters-speak for Whoever Tries the Most Stuff Wins.
This, he says, is “the only thing I’ve learned for sure in the last 50
years.”
The best example in the business world was the early Silicon
Valley competition between software rivals Apple and Microsoft.
While Microsoft was quick to launch new products at “blazing speed,”
Apple was on a quest for perfection, slowing the company down
considerably in introducing new technologies. Although Microsoft’s
products—arguably launched prematurely at times—could contain
flaws, the company would simply correct these problems in its next
release.
The challenge, says Peters, is that the pursuit of WTTMSW
requires a WTTMSW culture, one in which “you are ready, willing, and
able to seriously play.”
“‘Serious play’ is not an oxymoron,” he adds. “It is the essence of
innovation.” Unfortunately, research shows that even young children
are conditioned to shy away from trying new things after hearing the
word “no” many times more often than the word “yes.” Peters laments
the loss of the “playfulness” aspect of work, which he describes as
“teammates taking immense pleasure in the messy process of many
approximations and wrong turns and dead ends on the way to market.”
Tom Peters is a leading business management guru and founder of the Tom Peters Company. He continues to be in constant demand for lectures
and seminars. Peters is the author of 16 books, including In Search of Excellence (with Robert H. Waterman, Jr.), which is often cited as among the
best business books ever written. He lives in Massachusetts.
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