Senior leaders must actively architect work execution, obsessing over customer value metrics and driving continuous improvement through experimentation and data-driven methods.
"Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less" by Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao - This book is the basis for the episode's discussion on how to successfully scale initiatives and innovations within a company.
"The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder" by Bob Sutton - This is Bob Sutton's latest book from 2024, mentioned as a related work on leadership and organizational effectiveness.
Research & Studies
100,000 Lives Campaign (Institute for Health Improvement) - This campaign is used as an example of how to spread excellence by linking a "hot cause" (emotional arousal) to a "cool solution" (evidence-based practices), leading to a significant reduction in preventable deaths.
People Mentioned
Bob Sutton (Organizational Psychologist, Stanford Professor) - Co-author of "Scaling Up Excellence" and the primary expert featured in the episode, discussing principles of scaling.
Huggy Rao (Colleague of Bob Sutton) - Co-author of "Scaling Up Excellence," who studied leaders who successfully scaled initiatives.
Julia Kirby (Former HBR Editor at Large) - Conducted the interview with Bob Sutton for the HBR Ideacast in 2014.
Gary Hamel - Mentioned in the context of bureaucracy, with the podcast's perspective differing from his views on tearing down bureaucracy.
Chris Fry (Head of Engineering at Twitter, formerly Head of Development Organization at Salesforce.com) - His insights on providing just enough structure and process for people to be successful are discussed.
Louise Lang (Leader of the Tiger Team at Kaiser Permanente) - Led the team responsible for spreading the implementation of computerized medical records across Kaiser Permanente.
Jim Collins - His famous book "Good to Great" is referenced with a play on the title for the concept of "Bad to Great."
Claudia Kochka (Scaling hero at Proctor & Gamble) - Her perspective on the need for daily impatience combined with a long-term realization of the effort required for scaling is highlighted.
A.G. Lafley (Former CEO of Proctor & Gamble) - Mentioned as someone who encouraged Claudia Kochka to keep pushing on scaling efforts.
Bonnie Simmy (Scaling hero at Jet Blue) - A middle manager and pilot who made significant operational changes, illustrating that scaling can start from any level.
Mike Schrofer/Schrop (Facebook) - Mentioned as a source for understanding Facebook's approach to scaling and maintaining culture.
Chris Cox (Head of Product at Facebook) - Mentioned alongside Mike Schrofer regarding Facebook's scaling practices.
Organizations & Institutions
Stanford University - Where Bob Sutton has taught management science for over 40 years.
HBR (Harvard Business Review) - The publisher of the podcast and the source of the case studies and expert interviews.
Institute for Health Improvement - A small nonprofit in Boston that led the 100,000 Lives Campaign.
Google - Used as an example of a company that scaled significantly.
Pulse - A startup mentioned as a case study for scaling.
Delfina Pizza - A San Francisco restaurant mentioned as an example of scaling a restaurant business.
Salesforce.com - Mentioned in relation to Chris Fry's previous role.
Twitter - Mentioned in relation to Chris Fry's current role.
Kaiser Permanente - A large healthcare system used as a case study for the spread of computerized medical records.
Wyeth - A company mentioned for its manufacturing improvements and how teams were trained to help train others.
Cost Plus - A set of retail stores on the West Coast that were turned around, used as a case study for eliminating bad behavior and norms.
Facebook - Used as a prime example of an organization that scaled rapidly while focusing on maintaining a consistent mindset and culture.
Zinga - Mentioned as an example of a company that scaled quickly but potentially lost control of its culture, though noted as possibly improving.
Proctor & Gamble - A large company where Claudia Kochka helped spread innovation practices.
Jet Blue - Where Bonnie Simmy made significant operational changes.
Websites & Online Resources
rovo.com - Mentioned in an ad segment for Rovo, an AI powered teammate by Atlassian.
arm.com - Mentioned in an ad segment for Arm, an AI compute platform.
hbr.org - The website for Harvard Business Review, where listeners can find more resources.
Other Resources
Rovo (AI powered teammate by Atlassian) - Mentioned in an ad segment as a tool to streamline workflows with AI powered search, chat, and agents.
Arm (AI compute platform) - Mentioned in an ad segment as an AI compute platform trusted by global leaders.