Tom Peters on … Transformational Change v06 December 2005

Tom Peters on … Transformational Change v06 December 2005

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” —General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff. U. S. Army

Brand Inside Action Brand You Talent Leadership I Leadership II

Brand Inside Action Brand You Talent Leadership I Leadership II

“Brand Inside”: A “Culture” Issue!

• “If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM culture head-on, I probably wouldn’t have. My bias coming in was toward strategy, analysis and measurement. In comparison, changing the attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands of people is very, very hard. [Yet] I came to see in my time at IBM that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game—it is the game.” —Lou Gerstner, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance

“I lecture on [organizational learning] a dozen times a year now. I sometimes think it’s a waste of time. Most everyone ‘gets’ the easy part [our technology], which really isn’t that sophisticated—and they altogether glide by all the real, ‘culture’ issues.” —Robert Buckman, Buckman Labs, organization learning guru

“The business of selling is not just about matching viable solutions to the customers that require them. It’ equally about managing the change process the customer will need to go through to implement the solution and achieve the value promised by the solution. One of the key differentiators of our position in the market is our attention to managing change and making change stick in our customers’ organization.” —Jeff Thull, The Prime Solution: Close the Value Gap, Increase Margins, and Win the Complex Sale

The “PSF35”: Thirty-Five Professional Service Firm Marks of Excellence

“ ‘Disintermediation’ is overrated. Those who fear disintermediation should in fact be afraid of irrelevance—disintermediation is just another way of saying that you’ve become irrelevant to your customers.” —John Battelle/Point/Advertising Age/07.05

Answer: PSF! [Professional Service Firm] Department Head to … Managing Partner, HR [IS, R&D;, etc.] Inc.

• The PSF35: The Work & The Legacy 1. CRYSTAL CLEAR POINT OF VIEW (Every Practice
• Group: “If you can’t explain your position in eight words or less, you don’t
• have a position”—Seth Godin) 2. DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE (“We are the only ones who do what
• we do”—Jerry Garcia) 3. Stretch Is Routine (“Never bite off less than you can chew”—anon.) 4. Eye-Appetite for Game-changer Projects (Excellence at Assembling
• “Best Team”—Fast) 5. “Playful” Clients (Adventurous folks who unfailingly Aim to Change
• the World) 6. Small “Uneconomic” Clients with Big Aims
• 7. Life Is Too Short to Work with Jerks (Fire lousy clients) 8. OBSESSED WITH LEGACY (Practice Group and Individual: “Dent the
• Universe”—Steve Jobs) 9. Fire-on-the-spot Anyone Who Says, “Law/Architecture/Consulting/
• I-banking/ Accounting/PR/Etc. has become a ‘commodity’ ”
• 10. Consistent with #9 above … DO NOT SHY AWAY FROM THE
• WORD (IDEA) “RADICAL”

“Gasp-worthy!”

The PSF35: The Client Experience 11. Always team with client: “full partners in achieving memorable results” (Wanted: “Chimeras of Moonstruck Minds”!) 12. We will seek assistance Anywhere to assemble the Best-in- Planet Team for the Project 13. Client Team Members routinely declare that working with us was “the Peak Experience of my Career” 14. The job’s not done until implementation is “100.00% complete” (Those who don’t “get it” must go) 15. IMPLEMENTATION IS NOT COMPLETE UNTIL THE CLIENT HAS EXPERIENCED “CULTURE CHANGE” 16. IMPLEMENTATION IS NOT COMPLETE UNTIL SIGNIFICANT “TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER” HAS TAKEN PLACE-ROOT (“Teach a man to fish …”) 17. The Final Exam: DID WE MAKE A DRAMATIC, LASTING, GAME-CHANGING DIFFERENCE?

• The PSF35: The People & The Leadership 18. TALENT FANATICS (“Best-Coolest place to work”) (PERIOD) 19. EYE FOR THE PECULIAR (Hiring: Go beyond “same old,
• same old”) 20. Early Opportunities (vs. “Wait your turn”) 21. Up or Out (Based on “Legacy”/Mentoring as much as
• “Billings”/“Rainmaking”) 22. Slide the Old Aside/Make Room for Youth (Find oldsters
• new roles?) 23. TALENT IS OBSESSED WITH RENEWAL FROM DAY #1 TO
• DAY #“R” [R = Retirement] 24. Office/Practice Leaders Evaluated Primarily on
• Mentoring-Team Building Skills
• 25. A “PROPRIETARY” TALENT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS (GE)
• 26. Team Leadership Skills Valued Early 27. Partner with B.I.W. [Best In World] Outsiders as Needed
• and to Infuse Different Views

• The PSF35: The Firm & The Brand 28. EAT-SLEEP-BREATHE-OOZE INTEGRITY (“My life is
• my message”—Gandhi)
• 29. Excellence+ in EXECUTION … 100.00% of the Time
• (No such thing as a “small sins”/World Series Ring to
• the Batboy!) 30. “Drop everything”/“Swarm” to Support a Harried-On
• The Verge Team 31. SPEND AS AGGRESSIVELY ON R&D; AS A TECH FIRM OR
• CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
• 32. A PROPRIETARY METHODOLOGY (FBR, McKinsey, Chiat Day, IDEO, old EDS) 33. Web (Technology) Obsession
• 34. BRAND/“LOVEMARK” MANIACS (Organize Around a Point
• of View Worth BROADCASTING: “You must be the
• change you wish to see in the world”—Gandhi)
• 35. PASSION! ENTHUSIASM! (Passion & Enthusiasm have as
• much a place at the Head Table in a “PSF” as in a
• widgets factory: “You can’t behave in a calm, rational
• manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic
• fringe”—Jack Welch)