In this succinct book the authors of the acclaimed Leading at the Speed of Growth show what it takes to build a high-performance company. Separate chapters describe the six components of growth: -- Culture -- Recruitment and retention -- A clear plan -- A well-functioning executive team -- Clear and simple processes and procedures -- A leader who knows how to change roles and responsibilities as the company grows

This is the first book to focus on the people side of knowledge management--what it takes to get employees to contribute to a knowledge system. Robert Buckman explains how to orchestrate this culture change, drawing from the lessons learned by Buckman Laboratories--the leader and pioneer in knowledge management--in implementing award-winning knowledge systems. His book is a practical primer on how organizations can move from "hoarding" knowledge to "sharing" it, building a global strategy that allows them to respond faster than the competition to any customer's need on a global basis. Buckman reveals how to: Combat the biggest problem with implementing knowledge management--creating the culture that supports it Increase the speed of innovation globally across an organization Resolve technical problems quickly Make immediate, informed decisions to help solve customer issues Create new products based on customer input and demand

To achieve sustained competitive advantage, you must create and deliver something that’s valuable, rare, and hard to imitate–and you can’t do that with a run-of-the-mill workforce. Your workforce needs to be strikingly different, obsessively focused on delivering on your unique value proposition. Compared with everyone else’s workforce, your people need to be downright strange! This book is about everything it takes to build a workforce that’s strange and extraordinary enough to execute your most powerful strategies and your unique value proposition. It’s about understanding exactly how your workforce needs to be different...creating an end-to-end Strange Workforce Value Chain...implementing workforce systems that support your unique goals...establishing detailed metrics based on what makes you unique...using those metrics to drive clarity throughout your entire organization, and steer it toward success. If you’re tasked with executing strategy through people, and “balanced scorecards” and “strategy maps” just haven’t been enough, take your next and greatest leap forward: make the Change to Strange. · Why “normal” workforces just won’t cut it anymore Everyone says their people make the difference. Most everyone’s wrong. · Create your strange workforce in four steps Imagine, pinpoint your gaps, prioritize, and act. · What your customers must notice for you to win Link your real performance drivers to specific workforce deliverables. · Rearchitect your workforce to break from the pack Organize to get strategic results from the right people. · Leverage the magic of measurement Implement metrics that work–and keep them working.

At the tail end of your company's startup phase, the same opportunities that generate revenue and fuel growth also bring new challenges. You need to hire-and train-rock-star team members, scale operations, prioritize opportunities, "wow" customers, and clearly communicate strategy throughout your organization-all while bringing on new clients and driving profitability. You don't have time for theory when you're growing at breakneck speed. You need a blueprint for profitable scalability, a toolbox of plug-and-play tools, and direction on how to maximize execution. That's where ​Building an Elite Organization ​comes in. Don Wenner is a master of scaling high-growth, high-profit entrepreneurial companies. In ​Building an Elite Organization​, he walks you through the Elite Execution System his company and other highly successful organizations use to drive growth and improve profitability. Don's system will give your team clarity on where you're going, the insight to know if you're on the right track, and the disciplined system needed to consistently leverage every opportunity. Learn how you can leave a legacy and make an enduring impact for decades to come.

What Does it Take to Build a High-Performance Organization? In looking for help and understanding on how to build an organization and to select and manage your people, a good place to start would be to look for an organization that did that exceptionally well. Cintas is a great American success story, and Bob Kohlhepp was an important part of that success for 50 years. He began his career as Controller, but quickly moved up to ultimately become CEO and then Chairman. He was a key part of building Cintas from $1.6 million in sales in 1967 to over $7 billion today. Drawing on his experience and wisdom you will learn: The importance of defining and communicating your culture. How to select the right people for your organization. How to stretch your people without breaking them. The characteristics of great leaders. And much more.

This essential best-practices toolkit with lessons from world-class leaders—FedEx, Nokia, Alcoa, Whirlpool, Microsoft, and others—tells how to successfully transform an organization into one that not only continually learns from its experiences but quickly translates that knowledge into improved performance. Rich with hands-on tools and dozens of new examples and case studies, this highly anticipated updated edition of the award-winning Building the Learning Organization puts the power of the author’s Systems Learning Organization model into the hands of any manager who wants to participate in building, maintaining, and sustaining the next generation of learning organizations.

Winner of The Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award! After two decades in the trenches of helping companies design and build better, more efficient operations, Karen Martin has pinpointed why performance improvement programs usually fail: Chaos, the sneaky but powerful force that frustrates customers, keeps business leaders awake at night, and saps company morale. In The Outstanding Organization, Karen offers a toolbox for combating chaos by creating the organizational conditions that will allow your improvement efforts to return greater gains. Proven, practical, and surprisingly simple, Karen's system focuses on four key behaviors for organizational excellence-Clarity, Focus, Discipline, Engagement-that, once instilled into a company's DNA, open the door to sustainable growth and profit. This well-organized, inviting-to-read guide reveals everything you need to know about: How the lack of clarity and focus adds millions of dollars of unnecessary labor expense and slows progression on all fronts How you can gain a competitive edge by adopting the type of disciplined behaviors typically found in the military, science, law enforcement, sports, and the arts Why you should stop worrying about employee satisfaction-and start concerning yourself with employee engagement Why adopting various improvement approaches without building a foundation for success won't solve your problems--and will likely create more chaos Although you don't like the chaos you're currently coping with, you've probably come to accept it. You don't have to if you follow the path Karen lays out. This no-nonsense book helps you get to the crux of the problem, so you can inject the sensible, disciplined calm that enables the levels of performance and innovation mandated by today's business environment-and help your organization become truly outstanding.

Institute a culture of learning to boost organizational performance and agility What makes organizations successful? Today, most successful companies are learning organizations. Building an Innovative Learning Organization shows you how to join their ranks and bring your organization up to the head of the class. This book is a practical, actionable guide on how to boost performance, successfully manage change, and innovate more quickly. Learning organizations are composed of engaged, motivated employees who continually seek improvement, which leads to organizational agility and the ability to innovate ahead of the curve. When you encourage learning at every level, from the intern to the C suite, you gain a more highly skilled workforce with a greater ability to act in any situation. Building an Innovative Learning Organization shows you how to create this culture in your organization, with detailed explanations, practical examples, and step-by-step instructions so you can get started right away. Written by a recognized thought leader in the training industry, this informative and insightful guide is your roadmap to a more effective organization. You will discover how to: Attract, retain, and motivate the best employees Become a more innovative and agile organization Create a culture of continuous self-improvement Encourage learning at all levels and translate it into action Learning and education doesn't end at graduation—it's a lifelong process that keeps you relevant, informed, and better able to achieve your goals. These same benefits apply at the organizational level, making the culture self-sustaining: learning organizations attract top workers, who drive the organization forward, which attracts more top workers. If you want the best people, you have to be their best option. Building an Innovative Learning Organization gives you a blueprint for building a culture of learning, for a stronger, more robust organization.

Building the Awesome Organization discusses the eight components of an awesome organization. This book will help you to realize the core competencies for growth. It describes the processes, policies and systems that support growth. Find out how to attract and retain awesome peoplea and develop an environment that motivates and empowers people to achieve extraordinary results. Explore the responsibilities of the leader and the expectations others have of the role that the leader of an entrepreneurial company will play.

"Building the Awesome Organization discusses the eight components of an awesome organization. This book will help you to realize the core competencies for growth. It describes the processes, policies and systems that support growth. Find out how to attract and retain awesome peoplea and develop an environment that motivates and empowers people to achieve extraordinary results. Explore the responsibilities of the leader and the expectations others have of the role that the leader of an entrepreneurial company will play.