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Contagious Success: Spreading High Performance Throughout Your Organization
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Sales rank 570,835
Customers rating (based on 15 reviews)
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The Hudson Highland Center for High Performance recently completed the largest and most in-depth global study ever done of the factors that accelerate or stifle high performance. The alarming conclusion: only 10 percent of knowledge workers are part of a high-performing workgroup, one that makes money for the company and is creating a new product or service. Contagious Success reveals Susan Lucia Annunzio’s proven strategies for identifying, nurturing, and replicating business units that are already high performing. These workgroups tend to be ignored while senior management focuses on fixing its lowest performing units. But Annunzio argues for the opposite strategy: Focus on the groups that are doing the best work in the organization, learn their secrets, and help spread their expertise to the average groups. Annunzio focuses on groups, not individuals, because even a great individual can’t succeed in a weak environment. By using the high-performing groups to improve just the top 20 percent of the average performers—what Annunzio calls "moving the middle"—a company can achieve dramatic, sustainable growth in revenue and profits. This is a book for leaders who want to unleash the hidden potential in their organizations.
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| Publisher | Portfolio Hardcover | | Release date | 11/2004 | | Availability | | | Edition | Hardcover |
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 How a smart company acts
The case history of International Truck and Engine Corporation (now known as Navistar) is a good example of a multi-discipline team at work on a complex problem that must be solved for the company to succeed. Here is a 100-year-old company (originally International Harvester), totally based on diesel technology, with a core product -- diesel school buses -- threatened by new government regulations on emissions. The way this team of engineers, business unit managers, corporate staff and others zeroed in on the answer -- get the sulfur out of diesel fuel and advance the technology of diesel engines -- is fascinating and instructive.
More "what" than "how"
Susan Annunzio and her research associates studied about 3,000 people who belonged to high performance work groups in dozens of different companies. What they learned is shared in this book. The core concept of this book is to spread high performance through an organization by identifying its high-performing workgroups - examine their environment -- and then share their "secrets." The book's premise is that success will then be contagious and "spread" throughout the entire organization.
What is required? First, "value people." I agree. However, in any organization, some people are more valuable than are others. The challenge is to get each person's strengths in proper alignment with the results that person is expected to produce. Next, "optimize critical thinking" and again I agree. However, some people's critical thinking skills (e.g. problem solving) are stronger than others'. The challenge is to identify those with the strongest skills and then locate them where those skills are most needed. Finally, "seize opportunities" and once again I agree. However, some positions offer greater opportunities to improve performance than do others. The challenge is to select those areas in which improvement will be of greatest value to the organization and then assign to those areas the people who are best qualified (in terms of knowledge, skills, temperament, etc.) to achieve the desired improvement. Measure what matters to improve what matters.
There are no head-snapping revelations in this book, nor does Annunzio claim to offer any. Several of the book's assertions are problematic. For example, on page 190, the reader is provided with a chart displaying two columns: On the left, "Conventional Wisdom" (e.g. "Hiring and nurturing high potential individuals will drive high performance.") and "Reality" (e.g. "It's the workgroup, not the individual."). In fact, both statements are true rather than mutually exclusive. I also challenge most of the other juxtapositions of "Conventional Wisdom" and "Reality" which incorrectly suggest either/or rather than sometimes yes/sometimes no.
Many readers will find the results of the research interesting and few will disagree with the importance of creating a workplace environment within which collaborative high performance is achieved and sustained. I would have added a fifth star to my rating had Annunzio devoted less attention to "what" and more attention to "how." For those in need of such guidance, I highly recommend The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization co-authored by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, Patrick M. Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, and Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration co-authored by Warren G. Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman.
 Not worth it, common sense information; not for MBA students
This book was a dissapointment for my whole MBA class. Definitely, if you have the slightest idea about how management works, this book will not bring you any new information. It is all based on a 3,000 people study.
The author repeats the same ideas 2-5 times, so it becomes pretty boring. The examples are not something you can relate to.
This book does not have any longevity, it is not something that you can go back and refer to, in a few months/years.
 Real Life Experiences?
The first couple chapters were full of information that did not make sense. After Chapter Two the author does a great job showing the big picture. I couldn't help but chuckle during company meetings after reading this book. The real life experiences described in the book are exactly what my workforce reactions are to everyday situations. This book has been key to crossing the divide between upper management and the shop floor worker.
contagious success- - - -
I purchased this book for my husband who liked it enough to buy more copies to use at his workplace.
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