 | Outstanding!: 47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional |
| List Price: | $21.95 |
| Price: | $14.03 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
96 new or used available from $1.99
Average customer review:
(32 customer reviews)
Product Description
"Outstanding! hits the nail on the head in every way: Practical content, terrific stories, and an easy read. Miller has provided a road map for organizations to become exceptional--just follow the path laid out. Definitely a must read!"
--Dave Ramsey, author of Total Money Makeover and host of The Dave Ramsey Show
Every day outstanding organizations do things and promote values that ensure they will retain customers, grow revenues, increase market share, and build their reputations. People in these organizations hold values and take actions-- individually and collectively--that are not always easy or obvious but are fundamentally powerful.
Informed by his own commitment to the concept of personal accountability and enlivened by compelling true stories from exceptional organizations, in this insightful and accessible book John Miller identifies the principles and behaviors that distinguish such organizations from the pack and provides readers with ways to integrate them into their own work.
With its pithy entries that carry significant impact, Outstanding is by turns a playbook, a guide, and an inspiration. It is filled with practical ideas that can--and should--be used every single day by individuals and teams from the boardroom to the stockroom for creating a distinguished organization with which customers and stakeholders will want to work.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #62817 in Books
- Published on: 2010-01-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.00" h x 5.40" w x 8.30" l, .70 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 224 pages
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: John G. Miller Talks About Outstanding!
John G. Miller, a Cornell University graduate and founder of QBQ, Inc., has worked with hundreds of Fortune 500 companies and governmental and nongovernmental organizations and thousands of individuals to help them make personal accountability a core value--and become outstanding. Miller, who has appeared on national television and radio, is the author of the bestselling QBQ! The Question Behind the Question and Flipping the Switch. He lives in Denver with his wife, Karen. They have seven children.
Be Outstanding!
Outstanding means being superior, striking, exceptional, clearly noticeable—essentially, standing out. People are attracted to outstanding organizations. They want to buy from them, sell to them, invest in them, volunteer at them, and work for them. And as we close out the first decade of the twenty-first century, what better time than this to consider new ideas and implement ways to become better at everything we do so that we can have an outstanding 2010!
In Outstanding! I've outlined 47 ways that can help make any organization exceptional—whether it's a corporation, a nonprofit, a small business, a government agency, a church, or a service group. While every reader will no doubt find his or her favorites, these six speak to every organization, no matter what its size or purpose.
Choose to Change: Many organizations have terrific ways of doing things, but outstanding organizations are willing to set aside "the way we've always done things" and—while keeping their end goals in mind—recognize when it's time to do things differently. They know that change will come and that it's better to initiate change from the inside than have change happen to them from the outside. When the latter takes place, it's often too late to effectively respond.
Keep the Mission Top of Mind: People will do practically anything (as long as it's legal and ethical) if they understand why they are doing it—and they'll do it joyfully, with a full heart. The truth is this: purpose powers passion. The organization's mission can excite people, giving them fuel, if you will, to do their jobs each day and do them well. Outstanding organizations and their people never forget why they exist.
Get Actions in Line with Values: Espousing values like "customer first," respect, and "people are our greatest asset" is meaningless unless our behaviors support those ideas. For example, if we embrace the word "humility," then we have to avoid boasting, bragging, and trying to top each other in our interactions. Or if we say we value learning and continuous improvement, then we need to work to ensure that complacency is driven from our cultures and that we are each coachable in all we do. Integrity is a rare commodity in our world, so let's allow that light to shine within our organizations.
Fight the Fat: When radio host Dave Ramsey talks about financial issues he instructs people to "bother to bother." In other words, decide to stay on top of and in control of the dollars. Whether times are good or bad, great organizations don't get fat. The mistakes organizations commonly commit are things like not paying attention to costs, taking clients for granted, ignoring market trends, failing to improve inefficient systems, disregarding customer input, or not worrying about the competition. When dollars rush in like a dyke upstream has burst, it's not uncommon to look past those errors and let our standards slip. But outstanding organizations always fight the fat.
Speak Well … Make the Right Impression: People have perceptions of organization that stem almost entirely from how people representing the organization speak to them. As far as customers are concerned, the people with whom they interact are the organization. No matter how an organization sees itself, it's what customers think that's important. And how we speak to anyone with whom we do business is what tells them whether we are outstanding—or not.
Listen in All Directions: In Outstanding! I write about listening in three ways: management listening to the people, the people listening to each other, and everyone in the organization listening to the customer. Multitasking is the enemy of good listening. It's critical that we look each other in the eye with undivided attention, saying, in effect, "You are the most important person in my world at this moment and I want to hear every word you have to say." Listening is ultimately done by an individual, yet organizations must create cultures that encourage and support listening in all directions and ways.
--John G. Miller
About the Author
John G. Miller, a Cornell University graduate and founder of QBQ, Inc., has worked with hundreds of Fortune 500 companies and governmental and nongovernmental organizations and thousands of individuals to help them make personal accountability a core value--and become outstanding. Miller, who has appeared on national television and radio, is the author of the bestselling QBQ! The Question Behind the Question and Flipping the Switch: Five Keys to Success at Work and in Life. He lives in Denver with his wife, Karen. They have seven children.
Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.Fundamental Principles of Excellence
By Mark Jones Jr.
I don't go to work to be part of a losing team, to make policies and procedures that confound progress and productivity. I don't want to sit around and watch our country get deeper in debt, yoked to the burdens of irresponsible lawmakers.
I am not striking out "on my own" to start a consulting firm that does not succeed. I don't lead my family, so we can be average, just get by, merely survive.
In each of these endeavors, I want to excel, to be outstanding, to win. What does it mean to "win"? I think a leader's vision is the answer to that question. Vision is what gives us hope each day, the motivation to work hard, because I have a mental image of the outcome, whether that is at the end of the day, week, year, or lifetime. But it's more than that, because if no one buys into the vision, than a leader has no followers, so "winning" is a team's shared outlook.
I've read John's other two books, QBQ and Flipping the Switch, and now this one. In all three, he writes with concise clarity. By that, I mean that he explains and illustrates each principal in just a few short pages.
This is the essence of Multiplying Leadership with atoms--small, fundamental principles that exist independently, building blocks. In this case, they are building blocks of organizational excellence. I didn't need to read the whole book to walk away with one actionable idea. In fact, I can absorb a whole chapter that stands alone, an introduction to an idea that has endless possibilities for application that I can easily imagine, in the time it takes to read four pages.
Who should read it? Anyone who feels they are accountable, in some degree, for the excellence of their organization or team or family or relationship.
What is it about? 47 concepts you can implement today...that take a lifetime to master--ideas to help you accept responsibility for and achieve an exceptional organizational culture.
When? It doesn't matter where you are in your journey of leadership or what level your at in the company org chart--don't wait until you are in a position of leadership. Read it now--you can finish in one weekend.
Where can you get it? Amazon is cheapest: Outstanding! 47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional (affiliate link). But it is available at any bookstore or the author's website [...]. John is very friendly and real, and he even answered my email within minutes. You can follow him on twitter @qbqguy or facebook/theqbq.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.OUTSTANDING!
By Monty Rainey
John Miller's book, OUTSTANDING!: 47 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR ORGANIZATION EXCEPTIONAL, is, well, ... OUTSTANDING! The author of QBQ and Flipping the Switch, may have written his best book ever. Quite often authors put out a book that is little more than a regurgitation of their earlier books. Not so, here.
Each of Miller's 47 points are given a chapter. Each one is valuable in its' own way. In Chapter 3, I realized why some of my training initiatives fail. I don't always put purpose first. If people don't have a good understanding of why it is necessary for them to do things a certain way, they are much less likely to adopt it as their own. This one little piece of knowledge and understanding on my part will totally change how I develop and delivery new initiatives.
In Chapter 5, I learned the true definition of a customer. A customer is anyone who has a legitimate expectation of you. This opens up a whole new realm and an entirely new dynamic on how we view people. Customers are not just people who buy from us, they are our vendors, supervisors, family members, co-workers, etc. If we treat these relationships with the same respect and regard as we give our "paying customers", imagine the results we will see.
Chapter 44 is a refresher course in doing the little things that will make a difference for customers. These are just a few things you'll find here. There are tips of doing a better job of coaching, the importance of encouragement, even ways to hire better people.
As I read Chapter 12, aptly titled "Value Ideas Over Politics", I kept remembering Ronald Reagan when he said, "It's amazing what can be accomplished when we don't care who gets the credit."
This should become required reading for anyone at the corporate level. I'm giving this one my highest recommendation. As always, Miller writes clearly with direct points and succinct summaries. QBQ set a pretty high bar for Miller, but he may have succeeded in surpassing that bar with Outstanding!
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.Truly "Outstanding"
By Matthew Morine
John Miller is an accomplished author and consultant in the business world. His previous book "QBQ" was an exceptional work on identifying empowerment thinking. He continues the linage of thought provoking and insightful works in this text. The book identifies the 47 ways to make an organization better. This book is packed with helpful information. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on the ever increasing literature in the business culture, one can buy this book for the best of the latest ideas. The book also highlights some of the latest and trendy "foolish" ideas that would never work. The author shows these ideas to be lacking. Instead of having to read all of the material out there searching for the best practices, the author has done this for you. This book will provide a framework for any church, club, or business. There is not a single wasted page. For a journey in the best ideas for an organization, pick up this title.
http://astore.amazon.com/amazon-book-books-20/detail/0399156402
No comments:
Post a Comment