The 2,000 Percent Solution: Free Your Organization from Stalled Thinking to Achieve Exponential Success - Hardcover

Mitchell, Donald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0595749879 ISBN 13: 9780595749874

Publisher: iUniverse, 2003

Synopsis

Organizations, like people, are creatures of habit. They tend to approach problems in predictable ways. This revolutionary book argues that such ingrained habits, which often masquerade as efficient procedures, actually obstruct growth.

The 2,000 Percent Solution introduces "stallbusting," a process that shows you how to recognize typical stalls (like poor communications, disbelief, misconceptions, procrastination, tradition and bureaucracy) and how to overcome them.

Through unorthodox examples ranging from the sinking of the Titanic to sketches attributed to Leonardo da Vinci for a bicycle, The 2,000 Percent Solution redirects knee-jerk reactions onto more productive paths.

In addition, you'll learn about a new set of thought processes for designing and implementing solutions that will reap benefits 20 times greater or faster than the same tired "normal" solutions.

Packed with specific examples, advice and questions to help you improve your organization's process weaknesses, you'll learn how to go beyond today's best practices into the uncharted realm of what needs to be imagined and accomplished.

About this title

Review

"Are you procrastinating? . . . The authors . . . have a handle on the issue of complacency . . . [The authors] provide a clear and concise look at the many road blocks that good ideas must overcome in most companies. By identifying and offering other directions, they show how companies can avoid these blocks and find some other roads to travel." -- The Washington Times, March 29, 1999

"Argues that ingrained habits in organizations, often masquerading as efficient procedures, actually stall growth, and shows how to recognize typical stalls and overcome them. Uses unorthodox examples, ranging from the Titanic to da Vinci's bicycles, to examine common stalls, and gives direction for dealing with these causes of organizational inertia and inefficiency." -- BookNews February 1999

"THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION is a brightly written, well organized, enjoyable and instructive book on how to revive companies that have 'stalled out' (not growing, with shrinking market share and profits). The title refers to the exponential improvement that can be gained by getting companies out of a stall . . . I strongly recommend the book. Any managerial, and many non-managerial, members of large companies will identify with much of the book. Their world will be mirrored in any number of its pages. I hope that reading the book will motivate such people in our too-many stalled companies 'to stop the slow leaks'. . . ." -- Donald Frey -former Chairman and CEO of Bell & Howell- in DIRECTORS & BOARDS, Volume 23 #2 Winter 1999

"THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION is written to inspire executives to free themselves and their business organizations from their 'mind-forged manacles' to 'achieve exponential success' . . . Filling the book with true-life business stories, the authors ask executive readers to extract lessons from the problems and find solutions that can help them. How-to steps are included, along with calls to action, for setting objectives and plans that achieve more than today's best practices and that go for the 'maximum result that can be achieved' . . . Then, they introduce 'stallbusters,' namely ways to analyze and overcome your habits and those of your company... A series of questions guides readers on how to create the ability to 'soar like an eagle' . . . Curious about the title? It's the payoff for thinking big. 'Forget about 100 percent improvement; the achievable goal is expanded to breakthrough 2,000 percent progress' . . . ." -- William Mahoney -Editor- UPDATE, February 1999

"The authors tackle 'stalled' thinking . . . Tradition, Disbelief, Misconception, Unattractiveness, Bureaucratic, Communication and Procrastination. Any information technology manager is likely to recognize all of these. Chapters 9 through 16 identify 'stallbusters' -- seven steps for overcoming these problems. Chapter 9 is an excellent source for overcoming one's own 'stalls.' The book is enlivened with brief vignettes incorporating historical examples." -- ComputerWorld, February 1, 1999

"This book is nominated to be one of the 10 best business books of 1999. 'Stretch goals!' How many times have you either heard or spoken those words? The phrase is so often spoken that it has unfortunately become a clich. Along come three authors who obviously not only believe in stretch goals but have built a kind of science around them. They begin their book by suggesting that a great number of us are in "a stall," which is a polite way of saying 'stuck in the status quo.' No argument there, from perhaps just about all readers; few people believe their organizations are driving at 100% throttle, let alone 2000%! So, quickly, the authors assert that you, personally, can do something about this: 'Shoot for the Moon When It Counts' is their advice. Then they go, chapter by chapter, enumerating those myriad places where individuals (just like you) and teams (just like yours) get stuck: in traditions, in disbelief, in misconception, in communications, in bureaucracy, in procrastination. Less kind reviewers might say, "Yawn!" to such a list of basics; yet, taken as a whole, this book is verbal dynamite. The authors' repeated insistence that there isn't even one area of organizational life that can't be turbocharged by upping the gain on the goals' amplifier makes for a great book. Their last paragraph is worthy of framing; it says, in part: 'We must each evolve into self-actualized individuals, who can recognize stalls and the stall mind-set, both personal and corporate, and then guide companies and organizations to overcome specific stalls to become self-actualized. Mitchell, Coles, and Metz are now experts in stretch-goaling (or stall busting); their book is a testament to the fact that, with just a little effort, you can be an expert in this field as well." -- Thomas Brown -Editor-, Management General, August 1, 1999

From the Author

A Book Review from Supply Management
"The authors use artwork thoughout the book to encourage the reader to see many sides of a given situation and to become, as they say, an effective 'stallbuster'. Stalls are the frames of mind and thought processes that are the source of complacency that can delay change within an organization. The book argues that such ingrained habits, that often masquerade as efficient procedures, actually obstruct growth. It provides detailed and specific advice on process improvements, and places emphasis on the need for far better measurements of success factors. The 2,000 Percent Solution actively encourages the reader to remove the blindfold and think "out of the box" to set new standards and pursue them in different ways. Part one seeks to free the reader from 'mind-forged manacles' by looking at mindsets as stalls . . . I actually found I could relate to a number of these although the book is written with an American audience very much in mind. Part two provides you with a stallbusters guide in eight steps. This contains the obvious need to measure performance, identify not today's but tomorrow's best practice, pursue that best practice, identify the right people and provide the right culture and motivation for those individuals to succeed. The goal of the book is to shock the reader out of his/her complacency, get them thinking and then get those thoughts turned into real, positive action . . . Overall, it's an entertaining read with an innovative approach to change management . . . ."

Gary Caswell, The Stationery Office in Supply Management (March 18, 1999)

Edition details

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0595749879
• ISBN 13: 9780595749874
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 276