Scaling Excellence - What I learned

In several earlier posts I've included quotes from the chapters of Scaling Up Excellence by Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao.    Now I want to tell you some of the things that I'll take away from this book.

Let me say as I go through this list, everything you will see here can be found in various places in the Bible.  The principles of scaling have to do with justice, loyalty, mission, commitment, and faith.

Nip bad behavior in the bud.  This may sound like a Duh statement, but I've seen too many times, and been guilty of it myself, to know that sometimes bad behavior is ignored hoping it will just go away.  In almost every case it doesn't go away and eventually the leader who, for whatever reason, even if seemingly noble, will have to deal with a sticky issue that can even negatively impact his/her own career.  Nip bad behavior in the bud!

Communication cannot be overstated.  Silos are the bane of scaling and effective growth, and yet most of our structures promote silos where all the information for a particular department is kept within that department.  Usually there is no malicious intent, however, the effect of the siloing of information is just as bad whether the intent was malicious or not.  The bottom line is that information to be empowering must be shared.  Effective internal communication is an absolute necessity and at the forefront of that must be the continual casting of vision by the leader.

Cut cognitive load.  This is a challenging lesson for me because I tend to think I can do everything and that to add one more thing . .. and one more thing . . .and one more thing will work out.  It doesn't!!  The illustrations and research in chapter four have helped me to realize that if you want to grow you have to build infrastructure AND you have to give people time to adjust to the changes.  The message for me is that scaling for growth often means to SLOW down.  I know, this is counter intuitive but too many times I can see where I've failed is trying to add too much too fast thinking that everyone will eventually catch up only to watch a project fail.  

Building new and better rituals is something I have had success at in the past.  Implementing new incentive programs, or celebrations, etc., are a lot more important than most realize.  In fact, this might even be a hidden secret that undermines many projects causing long-term failure even when it looks like you are gaining short-term wins.  

Finally, scaling is not a hit and run endeavor.  As the authors say, "It's a Ground war, not just an Air war."  If you aren't serious about scaling and willing to personally invest time and energy over a broad time span, then don't be surprised if the scaling effort fails.  There are no quick fixes or silver bullets which can cause scaling to happen.  Those who are looking for the quick fix, may see initial success and believe the ship has righted itself and is heading toward success, only to find it turned broadside to a huge wave which capsizes the ship. 

Good book with some great lessons we can all benefit from.