Creating a high performance culture

There is significant evidence that an effective organizational culture provides a major competitive edge—higher levels of employee and customer engagement and loyalty translate into higher growth and profits. Many business leaders know this, yet few are doing much to improve their organizations’ cultures. They are discouraged by misguided beliefs that an executive’s tenure and an organization’s attention span are too short for meaningful transformation. James Heskett provides a roadmap for achievable and fast-paced culture change. He demonstrates that an effective culture supplies the trust that makes managing change of all kinds easier. It provides a foundation on which changes in strategy can be based, and it’s a competitive edge that can’t easily be hacked or copied. Examining leading companies around the world, Heskett details how organizational culture makes employees more loyal, more productive, and more creative. He discusses how to quantify its effects in order to sell the notion of culture change to the organization and considers how to preserve an organization’s culture in the face of the trend toward remote work hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Showing how leadership can bring about significant changes in a surprisingly short time span, Win from Within offers a playbook for developing and deploying culture that enables outsized results. It is a groundbreaking demonstration of organizational culture’s role as a foundation for strategic success—and its measurable impact on the bottom line.

How national culture impacts organizational culture—and business success Using extensive case studies of successful global corporations, this book explores the impact of national culture on the corporate strategy and its execution, and through this ultimately business success—or failure. It does not argue that different cultures lead to different business results, but that all cultures impact organizations in ways both positive and negative, depending on the business cycle, the particular business, and the particular strategies being pursued. Depending on all of these factors, cultural dynamics can either enable or derail performance. But recognizing those cultural factors is difficult for business leaders; like everyone else, they too can be blind to the culture of which they are a part. The book offers managers and leaders eight recommendations for recognizing those cultural factors that negatively impact performance, as well as those that can be harnessed to encourage superior performance. With real case studies from companies in Asia, Europe, and the United States, this book offers a truly global approach to organizational culture. Offers a fresh approach to the effects of national culture on organizational culture that is applicable to any country in any region Based on case studies of such companies as Toyota, Samsung, General Motors, Nokia, Walmart, Kone and British Leyland It describes the origins and nature of the most common corporate crisis and how culture impacts the response to such a crisis Ideal for managers, business leaders, and board members, as well as business school students A welcome response to the flat-Earth fad that argues we're all alike, this book offers a nuanced and practical view of cultural differentiators and how they can enable or derail business performance.

To increase revenue, improve customer experience, and develop higher-performing teams, it's time for leaders to stop looking for quick fixes to complex business problems and start building a culture of love. Yes, love. Anchored by Softway's own transformational journey, Love as a Business Strategy offers a new, people-first framework for achieving any business outcome-written by folks that aren't fans of run-of-the-mill business books. As a matter of fact, Love as a Business Strategy is so chock-full of real-world examples of mistakes, heartbreak, and redemption that it reads more like a juicy exposé than a business book. Love as a Business Strategy steers clear from piety and theoretical concepts and instead shares grounded stories of resilient people running a real business. A business, as you'll come to find out, that was on the brink of disaster before 'love' took hold. Love As A Business Strategy doesn't preach or mislead, rather it lays out the blueprints for better business outcomes-like better employee engagement, enhanced patient experiences, and increased efficiency-then walks you through it step-by-step. A better way of doing business is possible. The workplace revolution has arrived. Love as a Business Strategy will help you ditch the status quo, embrace humanity, and achieve lasting success.

Why an organization's response to digital disruption should focus on people and processes and not necessarily on technology. Digital technologies are disrupting organizations of every size and shape, leaving managers scrambling to find a technology fix that will help their organizations compete. This book offers managers and business leaders a guide for surviving digital disruptions—but it is not a book about technology. It is about the organizational changes required to harness the power of technology. The authors argue that digital disruption is primarily about people and that effective digital transformation involves changes to organizational dynamics and how work gets done. A focus only on selecting and implementing the right digital technologies is not likely to lead to success. The best way to respond to digital disruption is by changing the company culture to be more agile, risk tolerant, and experimental. The authors draw on four years of research, conducted in partnership with MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, surveying more than 16,000 people and conducting interviews with managers at such companies as Walmart, Google, and Salesforce. They introduce the concept of digital maturity—the ability to take advantage of opportunities offered by the new technology—and address the specifics of digital transformation, including cultivating a digital environment, enabling intentional collaboration, and fostering an experimental mindset. Every organization needs to understand its “digital DNA” in order to stop “doing digital” and start “being digital.” Digital disruption won't end anytime soon; the average worker will probably experience numerous waves of disruption during the course of a career. The insights offered by The Technology Fallacy will hold true through them all. A book in the Management on the Cutting Edge series, published in cooperation with MIT Sloan Management Review.

Arms you with powerful tools for overcoming resistance to change and creating a culture of collaboration, engagement, and employee empowerment Your people are your most valuable asset, and if you want them to excel (and your profits to soar), you'll need to abandon your traditional command-and-control management style and adopt a collaborative, open leadership approach – one that engages and empowers your people. While this isn't a particularly new idea, many leaders, while they may pay lip service to it, don't really understand what it means. And most of those who do get it lack the skills for putting it into practice. In Flat Army you'll find powerful leadership models and tools that help you challenge yourself and overcome your personal obstacles to change, while pushing the boundaries of organizational change to create a culture of collaboration. Develops an integrated framework incorporating collaboration, open leadership, technologies, and connected learning Shows you how to flatten the organizational pyramid and engage with your peoples in more collaborative and productive ways without undermining your authority Explains how to deploy a Connected Leader mindset, a Participative Leader Framework, and a Collaborative Leader Action Model Arms you with powerful tools for becoming a more visible leader who demonstrates the qualities and capabilities needed to become an agent of positive change

What is leadership? What is organizational culture, and why does it matter? How can you ensure your organization excels even while others fail? As the CEO and CLO of a large distributed multi-site and multi-state organization, Dr. Fardad Fateri and James E. York are certainly qualified to answer these questions and more-between them, they have decades of experience leading businesses and organizations at every level. Now for the first time they've put their collected wisdom into an essential book explaining how to take your organization to top levels of performance. The magic word is one you've heard but perhaps not fully considered: culture. At a time of economic uncertainty, it's more vital than ever that your organization's culture encourages passion, responsibility, and success. But how? Read on to discover: -How to transform your organization from one of failure, cynicism, and weakness to one of success, peak performance, and responsibility. -How to display breakthrough leadership traits that will help foster a positive organizational culture. -Real-life examples of great organizational cultures, as well as hands-on lessons. With an ever-increasing gap between organizations that fail and those that skyrocket, the question isn't whether you should read A Culture of Excellence-it's whether you can afford not to!

This book distills lessons gained from the author’s 20 years of experience, building out and staffing two enormously successful Internet startups and helping firms land the talent they need to reach their greatest potential. Don't rely on instincts alone. Hiring is king and while the lesson seems so basic, so many good companies stumble and lose their stride just when they were poised for rapid growth. Why? Their leaders treated hiring as a tedious chore. They posted an ad hoc ad. Took the first person with the right skills. Hired for immediate needs, rather than future flourishing. Whether you're a high-tech entrepreneur taking a startup public, or a food truck vendor with a concept that's taking off, Hire Smart from the Start offers a proven formula to help you: Find candidates whose values and working style fit your business Spot the 5 types of applicants you should never, ever hire Motivate "reach" candidates to leave their jobs and take a chance on your vision Develop meaningful incentives that make people stay Accelerate success: hire smart from the start. This book shows you how.

It cannot be overemphasized how important it is for leaders to ensure the company’s mission is manifested in the roles, expectations, and goals of every member of the organization. Companies live or die based on their ability to communicate and deliver on the promise their brand makes to its customers. But if that message is varied, or added to, or even unknown by a single member of the team, the resulting inefficiency, conflict, and disengagement will cripple a company’s ability to provide value to its customers. True Alignment reveals the blueprint for businesses of all types and sizes for creating a company culture where everyone is aligned to the vision and strategy behind the brand intention and responsible for living out the brand promise. You will learn how to: Decipher customer expectations Define the brand as a solution to the customer's needs Turn the unique selling proposition into the mission And much more You can replace the tires on a car, but if you don’t fix the alignment, you still won’t drive straight. The same goes for your company. Nothing else matters until the entire organization is aligned.

In the stormy seas of today's world economy, organizations need all hands on deck In the stormy seas of today's world economy, organizations need people to own their work, not just rent a spot on the organization chart. All Hands on Deck is a fun-to-read story that is both a business strategy book about creating competitive advantage through corporate culture, and a personal development book that will inspire readers to be more committed and engaged with their work and their organizations. Drawing upon the wisdom of some of the greatest and most beloved business leaders of the 20th century, this essential guide: Creates a virtual roadmap for building a culture of ownership where so workers are inspired to think and act like partners in the enterprise, and not just hired hands Shares practical and proven strategies for earning employee buy-in and commitment to the values, vision, and purpose of the organization Features the real-world wisdom of some of the most successful and beloved business leaders of the 20th century, including Walt Disney, Ray Kroc, Mary Kay Ash, Bill Hewlett, and Dave Packard A stirring resource for today's business environment, All Hands on Deck shares the tools you need to create an organization that competes and succeeds in today's turbulent world, and the inspiration that your people need to put those tools to work.