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-Robert I. Sutton / Huggy Rao
290 pages
Rating out of 10: 6.5
Who should read: Any owner of a business or a manager who is working on making their team better and growing their business. Also, anyone who is working on changing the culture of their work environment.

Main Points: This book is about growing a company or business as well as how to create cultures of excellence. It talks about how you may need to add certain tasks and levels to your business to grow, but you may also need to subtract some too. It talks about having the right people in place and when. In scaling it is more of a marathon than a sprint and the one thing that remains constant is change. Creating the right mind set is not enough, it must be lived by every employee in the business. One bad employee does a lot more damage than the good one great employee can do so it is important to get rid of the people that do not fit. From my own experience I know how important it is to get the right people in place and that the person makes a lot of difference. This book has helped me to shape my mind into being one of the great employees instead of a mediocre one who just gets by.

What I am going to implement from the book.
I am going to be working on finding things to do before I am told to do them as well as strive to be excellent. To measure this, I will tally up how many times I get told to do something that I already knew ahead of time that should’ve been done. My success metric is how close to 0 can I be for the next week.

Highlighted Lessons
Pg. XV “Organizations that scale are filled with people who talk and act as if they are in the middle of a manageable mess”
Pg.7 “Grit” entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress.””
Pg. 8. Scaling mantras
1. Spread a mindset, not just a footprint
2. Engage all the senses
3. Link short-term realities to long term dreams
4. Accelerate accountability
5. Fear the clusterfug
6. Scaling requires both addition and subtraction
7. Slow down to scale faster -and Better- down the road
Pg. 10. Don’t wait to be told to do something, ask for help when you need it
Pg. 13. “when people get smug, operate on autopilot, take shortcuts, and choose a path of least resistance too often, they lose sight of the essence of their excellence.”
This one sticks with me a lot right now because I feel like I have been resting on my laurels and have been going on autopilot.
Pg. 54. It takes time to be great at something and time for someone else to learn. Sometimes it is okay to have short term excellence drop and then adjust.
Pg. 71. Hot causes, cool solutions watermelon offensive. To get soccer players to wear helmets while riding bikes, researchers showed them watermelons crushing without helmets and being safe with them. They then signed a pledge to wear helmets and to throw watermelons at any player who wasn’t wearing a helmet. Proclaim commitments publicly!
Pg. 78 “What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do I understand”
Pg. 83. Name an enemy and that will help drive your team forward
Pg. 85 make public commitments and stances on subjects and encourage others so they will need to stay consistent.
Pg. 93. “The employee asked, “can you tell me one thing? When is the change going to end?” The CEO gave her a warm but wary smile and said, “I am sorry, but the changes are never going to end”
It is necessary to keep trying new things.
Pg. 95 “glaring gaps between beliefs and behaviors make us feel like hypocrites” It is also necessary to make the workplace enjoyable
Pg. 114 It is important to have regular check-ins and performance discussions with your employees instead of yearly reviews. Compliment sandwiches work well in these scenarios.
Pg. 136. Make sure everyone’s duty in the company is to do the right thing and to take ownership
Pg. 141.Pay your people well, give autonomy, pride in work, and lack of friction for people to work their best and produce results. Always act in the company’s best interest.
Pg. 155. Do not allow free riders and have your team put clients first. This one hits home for me because I feel like I have been selfish and put my personal needs before work. There is a balance because you do not want to burn out. Make sure you do the right thing and if you are productive at work, work won’t need to affect your personal life.
Pg. 172 “Their job is to look out for the customer first, last, and always.” You need to read this section for the story on commitment to service!
Pg. 192 Scouts become successful. Have your child be a scout. Make sure to follow up with as many people as you can after a big event.

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