The

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The Top 27 Twenty-seven Practical Ideas That
Will Transform Every OrganizationTom
Peters/1204.08
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1. Learn to thrive in unstable times our lot
(and our opportunity) for the foreseeable
future. 2. Only putting people first wins in the
long haul, good times and especially tough times.
(No cultural differences on that one! Colombia
Germany the USA.) 3. MBWA/Managing By
Wandering Around. Stay in touch! 4. Call a
customer today! 5. Train! Train! Train! (Growing
people outperform stagnant people in terms of
attitude and outputby a wide margin.) 6.
Putting people first means making everyone
successful at work (and at home).
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7. Make we care a/the company mottoa
moneymaker as well as a source of pride. 8. All
around the world, women are an undervalued
asset. 9. Diversity is a winning strategy, and
not for reasons of social justice The more
different perspectives around the table, the
better the thinking.) 10. Take a person in
another function to lunch friendships, lots of,
are the best antidote to bad cross-functional
task accomplishments. (Lousy cross-functional
communication stops companies and armies alike.)
11. Transparency in all we do. (A must-must-must
to reacting fast in unsettled times.) 12. Create
an Innovation Machineeven in tough times.
(Hint Trying more stuff than the other guy is
Tactic 1. Hiring enough malcontents is a close
2.)
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13. We always underestimate the Innovation
Advantage when 100 of people see themselves as
innovators. (Hint They are if only youd
bother to ask What can we do better?) 14. Get
the damned Basics rightalways Competitive
Advantage 1. (Be relentless!) 15. Great
Execution beats great strategy99 of the time.
(Make that 100 of the time.) 16. A bias for
action is a bias for success. (Great hockey
player Wayne Gretzky You miss 100 of the shots
you dont take.) 17. No mistakes, no progress! A
lot of fast mistakes, a lot of fast progress!
(Australian businessman Phil Daniels Reward
excellent failures. Punish mediocre
successes.) 18. Sometimes-often little stuff
is more powerful than big stuff when it comes
to change.
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19. Keep it simple! (Making it simple is hard
work! And pays off!) 20. Remember the eternal
truths of leadershipconstants over the
centuries. (E.g., Its often said that Nelson
Mandelas greatest asset was a magnificent
smileyou couldnt say no to him, not even his
jailors could.) 21. Walk the talk. (You must be
the change you wish to see in the
world.Gandhi) 22. When it comes to leadership,
character and people skills beat technical
skills. (Emotional Intelligence beats, or at
least ties, school intelligence.) 23. Its always
the little things when it comes to people
stuff. (Learn to say thank you with great
regularity. Learn to apologize when youre wrong.
Learn the Big Four words What do you think?
Learn to listenit can be learned with lots and
lots of practice.)
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24. The obvious may be obvious, but getting
the obvious done is harder said than done the
obvious is invariably what gets pushed off the
agenda by the urgent. 25. Time micro-management
is the only real control variable we have. (You
Your calendar. Calendars never lie.) 26. All
managers have a professional obligation to their
communities and their country as well as to the
company and profit and themselves. (Forgetting
this got the Americans into deep trouble.) 27.
EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. (What else?)