Here are some more selected quotes from this powerful book on what it takes to scale an organization for effective growth.
Chapter 2 - Buddhism Versus Catholicism
"The best leaders and teams often strike the right balance between replication and customization, between Catholicism and Buddhism, by acting much as if they are working with Lego "bricks." There are some elements - not just individual bricks, but "sub assemblies" of multiple bricks - that they replicate overand over for every person and place, even if other factors vary widely." p. 39
"We've identified three diagnostic questions that can help you detect when a move is wise, which direction to head, and how to make it happen." p. 40
1. Do You Suffer from Delusions of Uniqueness?
"...delusions of uniqueness...foster misguided Buddhism. Too often we humans convince ourselves that proven rules or technologies don't apply to us or the apparently unique place or situation we are in, when, in fact, we are fooling ourselves." p. 42
2. Do You Have a Successful Template to Use as a Prototype?
"If you aren't sure, a good general rule is to start with a complete model or template that works elsewhere and watch for signs that certain aspects of the model aren't working and need to be rebuilt, replaced, or removed." p. 44
"basic rules of replication: It is essential to identify a template that can be 'seen' and 'touched' in a single, specific location." p. 45
3. Will Bolstering Buddhism Generate Crucial Understanding, Commitment, and Innovation?
"Delusions that each of us is a special person in a special place can gum up the works. Yet injecting a bit of Buddhism has advantages (beyond just enabling customization) that should be factored into scaling decisions." p. 48
"Tilting toward Buddhism is especially useful when you have the right mindset in your organization or project but don't yet have a complete template that has worked elsewhere. If there isn't a proven model to start with, you need to experiment with different solutions to figure out what works." p. 49
Alone Versus Together
""our analysis always seemed to end up on the same place: the trad-offs and tensions between encouraging versus forbidding departures from template, practice, or behavior took center stage. In other words, we eventually circled back the the Buddhism-Catholicism continuum no matter were our journey had begun." p. 52
"...risk goes down and efficiency goes up when - early on - leaders and teams have a complete template in a single specific location that they can see and touch (even if some elements are later changed to fit local needs and sensibilities)." p. 59
"The key to using the guardrail strategy is specifying as few constraints as you possibly can - picking those precious few that matter most and pack the biggest wallop, and then leaving people to steer between and around them as they see fit. Keeping the list of constraints short also reduces the burden on leaders and teams that are charged with scaling and on front-line employees who are asked to live the new behaviors and beliefs." p. 63
"The challenge is to strip away as many unnecessary constraints as possible - to select a few crucial guardrails, tell and (especially) show everyone that crashing through such barriers produces unpleasant consequences - but otherwise allow people to take the paths that they believe are best." p. 63
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