Excellence is building an organisation where people do the right thing even when nobody is looking.

Spread from few to many. Soul of a start-up.

Requires patience and grit. It is about tools, not incentives.

Use the brake, not just the gas pedal.

Spread a mindset. Create a picture. People have to know what to do without checking with the boss.

Be careful of: illusion – mistaken assumptions, impatience – too quick and fast, incompetence – wrong people.

Scaling Principles

Name the problem, name the enemy, create a story.

Focus on the urgent and make it Sesame Street simple to defeat cognitive load. Excessive cognitive load undermines the ability of people to do what they know and believe they should.

Build felt accountability. Tug of obligation and commitment. Help employees see their impact on the organisation’s purpose. The Taj Hotel – Guest as God – https://hbr.org/2011/12/the-ordinary-heroes-of-the-taj

Hire employees who are pre-wired for felt accountability.

Connect and cascade excellence. Repeated exposure to different people is the key.

To spread excellence, you have to have excellence to spread. Patience, create excellence first. Spread slowly. Where are you really getting things humming?

Be transparent with bad behaviour and reward good behaviour.

Conduct pre-mortems. This plan failed. Why?