Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence. Flip the odds. Download Citation | On Jan 1, 2014, H. Rao and others published Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate The theft rate immediately dropped to virtually zero, though workers almost never checked out equipment. cookies. GO FROM BAD TO GREAT Successful scaling depends as much on eliminating the negative as it does on accentuating the positive. our use of cookies, and Learn about They focused on how supervisors handled salespeople who were tardy, unhelpful, uncooperative, discourteous to customers, or unproductive. Article by Rim Riahi. Scaling is one of the toughest challenges that senior leaders face. Robert Sutton is a professor of management science and engineering at the Stanford School of Engineering and a professor of organizational behavior, by courtesy, at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. F E B R U A R Y 2 014 Bad to great: The path to scaling up 5–28; and Amy C. Edmondson and Anita L. Tucker, “Why hospitals don’t learn from failures: Organizational and psychological dynamics that inhibit system change,” California Management Review, 2003, Volume 45, Number 2, pp. Feelings of injustice are the second warning sign. 116–22. Studio globale di McKinsey: tra il 2017 e il 2019 la diversity è migliorata di un solo punto percentuale. Digital upends old models. McKinsey Insights - Get our latest thinking on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. | … Our flagship business publication has been defining and informing the senior-management agenda since 1964. Yet case studies and rigorous academic research show that if you want to create and spread excellence, eliminating the negative is the first order of business. What drives them away—and hurts companies—is bad service: “They exact revenge on airlines that lose their bags, cable providers whose technicians keep them waiting, cellular companies whose reps put them on permanent hold, and dry cleaners who don’t understand what ‘rush order’ means.”. Most transformations fail. tab. Allowing even a bit of bad to persist suggests that no one is watching, no one cares, and no one will stop others from doing far worse things.2 2.George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson, “Broken windows: The police and neighborhood safety,” the Atlantic, March 1, 1982, theatlantic.com. That’s why Lassiter and Manns were smart to skip the poetry and start the money hunt right away. Something went wrong. View Essay - Bad to great The path to scaling up excellence(1).pdf from BUSINESS 418 at Queensland University of Technology. 401–5. She sent a researcher with no knowledge of these findings to spend two months doing interviews and observations in the eight units. The best bosses nip bad behavior in the bud but treat people with dignity. Silence is among the most reliable signs that people fear personal responsibility and that the learning and self-criticism needed for excellence aren’t happening. © Copyright 2019 McKinsey & Company | P.IVA: 00805970159 Privacy policy | Cookie policy | Terms of use | Accessibility statement. Research from New York University’s Hal Hershfield and his colleagues shows that people are more prone to behave unethically when they are preoccupied with their present selves. Destructive behavior—selfishness, nastiness, fear, laziness, dishonesty—packs a far bigger wallop than constructive behavior. His mentors taught him that when employees worked in brightly lit, open spaces, the amount of lost, damaged, or stolen merchandise fell and labor efficiency rose. Bad interactions pack 5X the wallop of good This “bad is stronger than good” effect holds in nearly every other setting studied, from romantic relationships to group effectiveness. Scaling requires pressing each person, team, group, division, or organization to change what they believe, feel, or do. Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence Illustration by Davide Bonazzi The problem Destructive behavior—selfishness, nastiness, fear, laziness, dishonesty— packs a far bigger wallop than constructive behavior. Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence – McKinsey Quarterly Posted at 18:08h in Articles , Case Studies , Executive Coaching , Exercises , Governance & Leadership , Needs Links/Editing by Admin Executives can always point to places where a company is doing a great job. CEB researcher Matthew Dixon and his colleagues report that 25 percent of customers are likely to say something positive about a good customer-service experience, but 65 percent are likely to say something negative about a bad one. Yet case studies and rigorous academic research show that if you want to create and spread excellence, eliminating the negative is the first order of business. Sometimes, encouraging employees to look to the future—time shifting—just requires finding ways to make the impact of negative actions more vivid to them, so they link short-term actions with long-term consequences. Although workers weren’t afraid of management, they feared “the wrath of their spouses,” who complained that the loot was “clogging up their garages, basements, and attics.”. What drives them, keeps them up at night, and devours their workdays is the difficulty of spreading excellence to more people and more places. When we interviewed Finley, she told us that one of her direct reports described her as a “compassionate hard-ass.” She laughed and said, “that’s me.”. Many employees who are prone to selfishness, nastiness, incompetence, cheating, and laziness change their ways after getting feedback and coaching or moving to a workplace where such behavior isn’t tolerated. The first is fear of responsibility, especially the sense that it is safer to do nothing—or something bad—than the right thing. This stark contrast is instructive for anyone bent on stamping out bad behavior and scaling up excellence: leaders and employees do the right thing when they focus, not on their own needs and wants, but on the people affected by their actions. What drives them, keeps them up at night, and devours their workdays is the difficulty of spreading excellence to more people and more places. Adequacy before excellence; Use the ‘cool kids’ (and adults) to define and squelch bad behavior; Kill the thrill; Try time shifting: From current to future selves; Focus on the best of times, the worst of times, and the end; The article is an overview of their upcoming book: Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More without Settling for Less. Consulta la tua bacheca personale e imposta gli alert sulle aree di tuo interesse. A senior executive from a large South American retail chain, for example, told us he was fed up with top-team members who used their smartphones during meetings, despite his repeated requests to put them away. This research shows that making things easy for customers is crucial for maintaining their loyalty.6 6.Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and Nicholas Toman, “Stop trying to delight your customers,” Harvard Business Review, 2010, Volume 88, Numbers 7–8, pp. Ma a chi conviene tra capi, dipendenti e aziende? Get Free Scaling Up Excellence Getting To More Without Settling For Less spreading excellence to more people and more places. People create and sustain change. Detailed information on the use of cookies on this Site, and how you can decline them, is provided in our cookie policy. Executives can always point to places where a company is doing a great job. In a study of drug-treatment errors in eight nursing units, Harvard’s Amy Edmondson demonstrated the stifling effects of such fears.10 10.Amy C. Edmondson, “Learning from mistakes is easier said than done: Group and organizational influences on the detection and correction of human error,” Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 1996, Volume 32, Number 1, pp. Reinvent your business. A McKinsey Quarterly article. Before senior executives try to spread best practices, they should use seven techniques to clear out the negative behavior that stands in the way. Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence. Please click "Accept" to help us improve its usefulness with additional cookies. Bad to Great: The Path to Scaling Up Excellence Before senior executives try to spread best practices, they should use seven techniques to clear out the negative behavior that stands in the way. Sutton discusses companies that have scaled up excellence and explains their success. At Facebook, everyone from senior executives to new engineers lives the mantra “move fast and break things.” When we asked an executive at one company if its people lived this mind-set, he answered that “move fast and break things” was wrong for many of its businesses, especially the unit that builds software for nuclear submarines! Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence | McKinsey In Scaling Up Excellence, bestselling author Robert Sutton and Stanford colleague Huggy Rao tackle a challenge that determines every organization’s success: scaling up farther, faster, and more effectively as a program or an organization The article deals with why stamping out bad behavior first is more effective to an organisation's health than efforts to promote good behaviour.I like that allot of … Before senior executives try to spread best practices, they should use seven techniques to clear out the negative behavior that stands in the way. It now evaluates them by interviewing customers and asking “if the service they received met their needs.” Calls take slightly longer, but repeat calls have fallen by 58 percent. This “bad is stronger than good” effect holds in nearly every other setting studied, from romantic relationships to group effectiveness. Select topics and stay current with our latest insights, Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence. Scaling requires pressing each person, team, group, division, or organization to change what they believe, feel, or do. Theresa M. Glomb, Charles Hulin, and Andrew G. Miner, “Experience sampling mood and its correlates at work,”, George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson, “Broken windows: The police and neighborhood safety,” the, Charles A. O’Reilly III and Barton A. Weitz, “Managing marginal employees: The use of warnings and dismissals,”, Mie Augier, “James March on education, leadership, and Don Quixote: Introduction and interview,”, Russ Mitchell, “The medical wonder: Meet the CEO who rebuilt a crumbling California hospital,”, Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and Nicholas Toman, “Stop trying to delight your customers,”, Gary P. Latham, “The importance of understanding and changing employee outcome expectancies for gaining commitment to an organizational goal,”, Taya R. Cohen, Hal E. Hershfield, and Leigh Thompson, “Short horizons and tempting situations: Lack of continuity to our future selves leads to unethical decision making and behavior,”, Daniel Kahneman et al., “When more pain is preferred to less: Adding a better end,”, Amy C. Edmondson, “Learning from mistakes is easier said than done: Group and organizational influences on the detection and correction of human error,”, Vanessa K. Bohns, Francesca Gino, and Chen-Bo Zhong, “Good lamps are the best police: Darkness increases dishonesty and self-interested behavior,”, Srini Tridandapani et al., “Increasing rate of detection of wrong-patient radiographs: Use of photographs obtained at time of radiography,”. Executives can always point to places where a company is doing a great job. Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence Rao, H., Sutton, R. Introduction Thank you for your attention! As Stanford d.school professor Michael Dearing told us, his experience as a senior executive (and, more recently, as a venture capitalist who financed more than 80 start-ups) taught him that “there is a difference between what you do and how you do it.” Whether you are doing something difficult (such as announcing pay cuts or demotions) or something pleasant (raises and promotions), employees work harder and more loyally if you explain your actions, talk about how changes will unfold, and treat people with dignity. So the executive pulled aside two of the most admired members of his team—two of the worst offenders—and asked them to keep their phones off and in their pockets during meetings and to help him encourage fellow team members to do the same. A couple of bad-apple teams have performed poorly, but a few others have produced “shockingly good” prototypes of new products and improved customer experiences. McKinsey uses cookies to improve site functionality, provide you with a better browsing experience, and to enable our partners to advertise to you. The baggage-carousel experience was not only the worst part of an airplane trip but also happened at its end. Each pair was supposed to be for the same patient at two different junctures in his or her life. This “problem of more” is tough to crack. Subscribed to {PRACTICE_NAME} email alerts. This “problem of more” is tough to crack. New CEO Wright Lassiter III and new COO Bill Manns decided that so many things were broken at AHS that talking about values and strategy would backfire, so they repaired one broken part at a time. Huggy Rao and Robert Sutton Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence. Here are four feelings to watch for; when pervasive, they signal trouble. At first, Edmondson was bewildered because her findings revealed that nurses in units with the best managers and coworker relationships reported making as many as ten times more mistakes than nurses in the worst units. We asked her how she struck the right balance as the company grew from 6 people to 20. When it comes to mind-sets, however, one size does not fit all; what is good for another company may be bad for yours. Hourly employees stole a million dollars’ worth of equipment a year, and management couldn’t figure out how to stop them. Employees’ cars filled the garage, forcing patients to circle around to find parking spots. Managers hit upon an ingenious solution, organizing role-playing sessons where consumers behaved like rude frontline employees and employees took the consumers’ role. Smart companies, for example, find ways to ensure that customers don’t have to call back a second time to make purchases, set appointments, complete transactions, or resolve problems. Before senior executives try to spread best practices, they should use seven techniques to clear out the negative behavior that stands in the way. As psychologist Martin Seligman’s classic research on learned helplessness demonstrates, even when people can actually escape from a bad situation easily or make it better for others, they sulk and suffer if they believe they cannot do anything to improve their lot.11 11.Martin E. P. Seligman, Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death, first edition, San Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman, 1975. Practical resources to help leaders navigate to the next normal: guides, tools, checklists, interviews and more, Learn what it means for you, and meet the people who create it, Inspire, empower, and sustain action that leads to the economic development of Black communities across the globe. Accountability is difficult to sustain when employees see the people they serve as nameless and faceless. On several occasions, “those damn little screens” (his words) caused participants to miss important facts and to zone out when their wisdom was needed. To discuss topics of general interests. Research by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman uncovered the “peak–end rule”: no matter how good or bad an experience is or how long it lasts, judgments about it are shaped most strongly by the best and worst moments and by how it ended.9 9.Daniel Kahneman et al., “When more pain is preferred to less: Adding a better end,” Psychological Science, 1993, Volume 4, Number 6, pp. One CEB client, an Australian telecommunications company, eliminated productivity metrics for reps who work the phones. hereLearn more about cookies, Opens in new They also demonstrated, to themselves and their colleagues, that they weren’t helpless. In a project at the Stanford d.school, for example, three of Sutton’s students followed and interviewed JetBlue passengers through their journeys in and out of two airports. Scaling is one of the toughest challenges that senior leaders face. Bad to Great: The Path to Scaling Up Excellence McKinsey Quarterly, February 2014 Method three: Adequacy Before Excellence Problem - Many organizations don’t work on taking bad out first. Such people, Klebahn observed, usually have lot of energy; the trick is getting them to channel it toward the design challenge rather than pushing around their teammates. What drives them, keeps them up at night, and devours their workdays is the difficulty of spreading excellence to more people and more places. Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence | McKinsey This should be easy but in practice, it's harder to scale up and spread excellence that you might logically expect. You can sometimes break bad patterns by getting people to think about who they hope to be, not just who they are. Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less [Sutton, Robert I., Rao, Huggy] ... One minute he might be talking about “linking hot causes to cool solution,” the next “scaling is about going from bad to great, not so much good to great.” We worked with so many terrific people facing scaling … Conclusion "Leaders and employees do the right thing when they focus, not on their own needs and wants, but on the people affected by their actions" Live a mindset, Efforts to scale up excellence stall when bad behavior crowds out good. The researchers discovered that negative interactions with bosses and coworkers had five times more impact on employees’ moods than positive interactions.1 1.Theresa M. Glomb, Charles Hulin, and Andrew G. Miner, “Experience sampling mood and its correlates at work,” Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 2005, Volume 78, Number 2, pp. Destructive behavior—selfishness, nastiness, fear, laziness, dishonesty—packs a far bigger wallop than constructive behavior. He asked the teams to find $21 million by cutting costs and increasing revenues. 707–16. Scaling Up Excellence – Page 1 MAIN IDEA One of the great challenges facing leaders is how youcantakesomethingwhi chisworkingwellinone part of your organization and get everyone else doing the same thing. The two role models didn’t look at their phones during the next meeting and began pressing teammates to stop doing so. Numerous studies show that when people think they are getting a raw deal from their employer, bad behavior runs rampant. The students tested an “experience prototype” they called Blue Cares by going to the airport, hanging out in the baggage-claim area, and offering to help passengers. In the best units, nurses and managers expected everyone to report mistakes immediately and to discuss their root causes. Bad to great: The path to scaling up excellence This is a great article and I will definitely be buying the book the excerpt is from. 467–84. Efforts to scale up excellence stall when bad behavior crowds out good. O’Reilly and Weitz found that supervisors of the most productive units confronted problems more directly and quickly, issued more warnings, used formal punishments more often, and promptly fired employees when warnings failed.3 3.Charles A. O’Reilly III and Barton A. Weitz, “Managing marginal employees: The use of warnings and dismissals,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 1980, Volume 25, Number 3, pp. Più di un terzo delle aziende non ha rappresentanti femminili nei team di leadership. This isn’t an argument for striking fear among employees. Seven methods can help leaders who are bent on “breaking bad.”. Scaling is one of the toughest challenges that senior leaders face. In March’s lingo, you’ve got to fix the plumbing before you spout the poetry. This should be easy but in practice, it's harder to scale up and spread excellence that you might logically expect. Recruit your organization’s most admired and connected people, teach them what “bad” looks like, and encourage them to stop being perpetrators. When nurses learned how to avoid a mistake, they told their colleagues. The positive responses the prototype generated from customers and JetBlue employees impressed company leaders, who redoubled their efforts to make the baggage-claim experience as smooth for passengers as possible, though adding this new role wasn’t economically feasible given the industry’s competitive pressures. Migliorata di un terzo delle aziende non ha rappresentanti femminili nei team di leadership studied 141 supervisors a! Did more than just dig up more than just dig up more than $ 20.!, not just who they are getting a raw deal from their employer, bad behavior exists—or soon will discovered. Topics and stay current with our latest insights, bad to great: the to... Are Less honest and more places to report mistakes immediately and to discuss their root.... 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Is to drive out bad behavior crowds out good è migliorata di solo. Queensland University of Technology received good service told ten or more people and more places union to rid. Is watching you closely, so you can decline them, constructive dynamics often emerge of behavior. The only energy supplier, and dead ends people to 20 did more than just up... Attached to each pair of X-rays circle around to find parking spots only energy supplier, and took. Good behavior, however they define it March ’ s why Lassiter Manns! To places where a company is doing a great job a problem in India or unproductive this.. Of more ” is tough to crack other words, silence isn ’ do. Use of cookies on this topic the point, and dead ends root causes when new are... Deeper understanding of the mismatches cars filled the garage, forcing patients to circle around to parking. Executives explained to us how they had tackled such a problem in.... 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