The Road Less Stupid: Advice from the Chairman of the Board

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IF YOU CAN COMMIT TO AND LIVE WITH THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES, THEN YOU ARE WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR AND WILL THRIVE IN OUR ENVIRONMENT. OUR EXPECTATIONS ARE THAT OF DOING WHAT WAS SAID WOULD BE DONE. IN OTHER WORDS MODEL THE EXAMPLE! HERE ARE OUR PRINCIPLES: I really like this concept, and feel that it deserves a deeper explanation. To give an example, let me ask you a couple of questions: First, use systems carefully. Systems are great at draining an organization with flexibility and passion. How can you deliver exceptional service if you’re not willing to bend a few rules? Second, feel and express gratitude to your people. Feeling gratitude and not expressing is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

For the past 25 years the author has devoted 30-45 minutes of uninterrupted concentration (his “Thinking Time”) to think through issues. Each session starts with a high-value question(s) that he creates prior to a session, and he’s found that the better the question the more “robust” the answers. For me, this is a great format to allow me to continue to use this book as a key reference in my business, and life, development. At the core of this book, he makes the case that it's important to schedule regular "thinking time" where you prepare questions on the areas you need to grow (he gives tons of great questions to start with--much of writing was capturing one of these). Leading an organization is like being a coach while the role of the manager is more like being a sheriff. Employees who don’t do what we want is often because we have poorly communicated our expectations. If you want a high performing culture be very specific about what you expect. If the employee doesn’t meet your expectation sometimes discipline is good and other times not. Avoid creating an organization run by fear.Chapter 44 “Cause and Effect” “If you want better mastery over your business you must identify and measure your critical drivers. “Measuring and monitoring your critical drivers gives you the ability to understand what is happening in your business before seeing the financial statements…” (pg 242) This book is a winner! It is well worth my time. It took over and secured the #1 spot as my favorite business book.

I have just finished reading this excellent book. It is a bit daunting - so much to absorb; at the same time so exciting. I keep thinking of the saying "Every great journey starts with the first step". I now have such a clearer idea of where my business journey needs to go, and also a lot thinking tools to guide me more efficiently towards that goal. Goals are ideas but not plans. “The vast majority of my goal-setting friends stumble at the beginning of the process because of a desire to dabble rather than burn the ships and commit.” (pg 95) Setting goals is important but your focus should be on what needs to get done to accomplish the goal rather than the goal itself. Everyone has a plan until I punch ‘em in the nose.” Mike Tyson. “The value is not in the plan. The value is in the planning.” (pg 125)Your success will have very little to do with what you do and everything to do with how you do it…Instead of falling in love with our products, we would all be more successful if we fell in love with our customers and their outcomes.” (pg200) Keep More Customers – it’s about retaining your customers -1) Find out what they want; 2) Go and Get It – find a means to provide what they want; 3) Give It to Them

More often than not, critically thinking about what could go wrong and doing the work to mitigate those risks before taking action is abandoned in favor of comfort zones, the path of least resistance, and speed (instant gratification).” WOW, I rarely find a book that is so full of wisdom that I do not manage to write it all down. So this would be one of my top recommendations and I’ll be listening to it again myself. Being intimate with how all the pieces are interconnected and which levers drive specific results is the key to knowing what to adjust when things get off course or delayed.” (pg 226)Clarifying the Gap is critical because residing in the Gap is the obstacle that is preventing forward progress from where you are to where you want to go. If you cannot identify the Gap, the obstacle isn't even on your radar. So what’s the moral of The Road Less Stupid? Don’t just focus on making lots of good decisions… Focus more on making as few dumb decisions as you can. That’s how you avoid paying the dumb tax. In case you doubt what the culture really is, take a look at navy seals. They have one of the greatest cultures all time not because they get to bring their dog to work, have jelly beans at the pantry because they get work done and work in unison for the common objective and they are proud of their results. The key to a great culture is creating and fostering never ending conversations about the rules of the game so everyone knows how to act how to communicate and how to treat each other. What isn’t happening that, if it did happen, would cause the perceived gap (symptoms) to either narrow or disappear? There are 4 primary roles that must be performed with successful businesses; 1) Artist (Creator), 2) Operator (Technician) – focused on getting it done – mistakenly believe harder work leads to more money; 3) Owner (Business) – add value by leveraging their team and measurements like KPIS and financials, and 4) Board (Investor) – focused strategically not involved in doing. Typically, the challenges of growing a small business, cash-flow and operations, cause the owner to lose focus on the latter two roles. As the business grows people are hired to leverage the performance of any of these 4, freeing the owner up to spend more time focusing on #s 3 and 4.