Freedom, Inc. book

Deming, Total Quality, and the Fundamental Respect for People

Isaac — Sat, 26 May 2012 07:53:20 +0000

Edward Deming is known as the father of the quality movement. TQM became a fixeture of many industrial and non-industrial companies. Yet, according to studies two thirds of companies consider that TQM hasn’t met their expectations.

Is it TQM’s or Dr. Deming’s fault? Or did most of the companies miss something in Deming’s message?

Watch this video (3 parts, ~28 minutes) and see what this message really is.

Our article in Forbes on Bob Davids’ leadership philosophy

Isaac — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:25:08 +0000

Bob Davids’ 30 Top Tips To Stop Being A “Smart Boss”

By Isaac Getz

May 6, 2012

We need smart people. Our universities are focused on producing just that. Those who come out on top are the smartest and hence succeed in business, law and politics.

It would be easier to agree with the above view if psychologists hadn’t already been challenging it for several decades. They found that analytical intelligence – the one taught in schools allowing you to find the right answer for a well-defined problem – doesn’t predict success in professional life. Success – measured, say, by your career or salary, while adjusting for age – correlates with intelligence at a mere 0.2.

Needless to say, smart people are not idiots, but they can be fools. “School smarts” regularly do silly things, like the très smart French politician and former IMF president or a bright former U.S. president, who was fond of saxophones, but not exclusively… But what about business leaders?

Sure, most are very intelligent. Yet, when we looked through our 5-year, 30- company study on what made businesses stay at the top of their industries for decades, it wasn’t their leaders’ superior intelligence. Paradoxically, it actually appeared to be a handicap. This wasn’t exactly news either. Tom Peters had already talked of “analysis-paralysis.” So how did these leaders stop being smart bosses and, in the process, make their companies sustainable wealth creators?

You can read the full article here

Liberate your company! – Isaac Getz @TEDxESCP

Isaac — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 09:24:42 +0000

Here is a talk Isaac gave at a recent TEDx event Paris.

We hope you’ll enoy it.

Bob Davids speaks at TEDx in Paris

Isaac — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 07:24:10 +0000

Bob Davids, a great liberating leader who built freedom-based cultures in a number of companies including Radica Games in China and Sea Smoke Cellars in California (see www.bobdavids.com) shares his leadership lessons.

Enjoy.

Orson Welles’ rare talk on leadership

Isaac — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 13:36:49 +0000

Orson Welles is known as one of the greatest ever film directors. As such, he is viewed as an embodiment of director’s key role in cinema.
Welles is less known for his complete disagreement with this position. The greatness of cinema derives not from directors, but…

Japan Airlines CEO has no ego, says CBS (2min 20sec)

Isaac — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:58:50 +0000

With many CEOs running their businesses into bankruptcy by making questionable business decisions and indulging in ego-driven excesses, the CEO of Japan Airlines proves that Americans can learn something from others. Just as Japanese business models helped it become a challenger to American financial superiority in the 80s and early 90s, this fellow has proven that successful companies are driven by working with employees, not lording over them.

Gallup’s finding on the difference in engagement between tradional and world-class companies

Isaac — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 17:21:10 +0000

In traditional companies for 2 engaged employees there is one disengaged — in world-class ones for every 10

Gallup’s employee engagement work is based on more than 30 years of in-depth behavioral economic research involving more than 17 million employees. Among other findings here is the most striking one:

In world-class organizations, the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is 9.57:1.
In average organizations, the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is 1.83:1.

Actively disengaged employees erode an organization’s bottom line while breaking the spirits of colleagues in the process. Within the U.S. workforce, Gallup estimates this cost to be more than $300 billion in lost productivity alone. In stark contrast, world-class organizations with an engagement ratio near 8:1 have built a sustainable model using our approach.

“Freedom, Inc.” is bestselling with its publisher in Czech Republic

Isaac — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:51:04 +0000

As we wrote before, our book’s publisher in Czech Republic, PeopleComm edited in 2011 three books on the subject of freedom at work: Ricardo Semler’s Maverick, Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness, and our Freedom, Inc.

According to the publisher’s recent report here are the sales of these books so far:

1. Freedom Inc. 946 books

2. Maverick 893 books

3. Delivering Happiness 787 books

There is also a visible change in opinion about leadership in Czech Republic. As Tomas Hajzler, founder of PeopleComm says, “We also get a lot of orders for more than 10 pieces of books so companies are ordering for whole teams.”

Good leaders are tribal leaders

Bastien — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:07:57 +0000

The power of tribal leadership

27 février 2012

In their Tribal Leadership, Logan, King and Fischer-Wright defend the idea that companies’ success breaks down to groups of twenty to 150 people within the company that all know each other. They call them tribes and further explore the tribal culture and its leadership. Their findings vividly recall our own in our research on cultures in the traditional as opposed to freedom-based companies.

We loved the authors’ definition of five tribal stages and their thoughts on how to evolve organizations’ tribal cultures from lower to higher stages.

Those five tribal stages are:
1. Life stinks—The tribes are hostile to the company and actively disengaged.
2. My life stinks—The tribes passively resist to management initiatives and are passively disengaged (25% of cases).
3. I’m great—Most people retain information in order to outperform their counterparts, to be the best (49%).
4. We’re great—People want to be the best… together!
5. XX—Substantial innovators within tribes try to use their potential to have a larger impact (2%).

You can read more on their website or even listen to the audiobook

Isaac’s video clip for ESCP Europe

Isaac — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:14:33 +0000

Isaac’s school have done recently this clip on the topic of Freedom, Inc.