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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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Scaling Up Excellence summary
Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao
Getting to More Without Settling for Less
19 mins
Brief summary
Scaling Up Excellence by Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao is a practical guide on how to scale up success within organizations. It provides actionable strategies for leaders to embrace and spread excellence throughout their teams.
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Scaling Up Excellence
Summary of 9 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 9
You need it: scaling is essential to the success of organizations.
Scaling is one of the major challenges that every leader or executive in a successful organization faces. Scaling refers to the practice of spreading the excellent performance that always exists somewhere in the organization to more people and more places.
That’s why scaling is also called the “problem of more.”
But creating more commendable behavior looks very different in each different organization. For instance, scaling can mean growing a technology start-up from twenty to forty employees, opening a new burger store in another country, or reducing treatment errors in hospitals.
Moreover, scaling not only requires replicating best practices but improving performance along the way. In other words, the “problem of more” is also a “problem of better.”
Scaling requires the drive to keep innovating, change organizational behaviors and structures, and find better strategies of delivering your product or service.
Take the Bridgewater International Academies, a chain of elementary schools in developing countries. It scaled up from one school in 2009 to over 210 today. During its scaling process, the leadership team not only focused on growing the organization but also on improving their practices.
For instance, they’re currently working on a new initiative that equips teachers with customized content to work better with students who have different abilities.
Scaling is an important yet tricky organizational challenge. And while there’s no easy recipe for effective scaling, if we look at successful examples, we can glean some fundamental principles and strategies for success.
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What is Scaling Up Excellence about?
Scaling Up Excellence is the first major business publication that deals with how leaders can effectively spread exemplary practices in their organization. Readers can expect to learn about the latest research in the organizational behavior field, lots of instructive industry case studies, and many helpful practices, strategies and principles for scaling up.
The authors help leaders and managers understand major scaling challenges and show how to identify excellent niches, spread them and cultivate the right mindset within their organizations. They also set out scaling principles that guide leaders in their daily decisions.
Scaling Up Excellence Review
Scaling Up Excellence (2014) is a must-read for anyone interested in organizational growth and scaling. Here's why this book is worth your time:
- It provides practical strategies and tools that can be applied to any organization, helping leaders navigate the complexities of scaling.
- Through numerous real-world case studies and examples, the book offers valuable insights into the challenges and solutions of scaling excellence.
- With its engaging storytelling and actionable advice, the book ensures that readers stay engaged and find inspiration in achieving excellence at scale.
Best quote from Scaling Up Excellence
To spread excellence, you need to have some excellence to spread.
—Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao
Who should read Scaling Up Excellence?
- Leaders and managers seeking to improve the performance of their organization
- Anyone who wants to know how to spread best practices in an organization
- Anyone interested in cutting-edge organizational research
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Scaling Up Excellence FAQs
What is the main message of Scaling Up Excellence?
Scaling Up Excellence shows how to spread and sustain positive influences throughout an organization.
How long does it take to read Scaling Up Excellence?
The reading time for Scaling Up Excellence varies, but the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is Scaling Up Excellence a good book? Is it worth reading?
Scaling Up Excellence is worth reading because it provides valuable insights and practical strategies for scaling success in organizations.
Who is the author of Scaling Up Excellence?
The authors of Scaling Up Excellence are Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao.
What to read after Scaling Up Excellence?
If you're wondering what to read next after Scaling Up Excellence, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux
- Scaling Up by Verne Harnish
- Holacracy by Brian J. Robertson
- Exponential Organizations by Salim Ismail
- The Pursuit of Excellence by Ryan Hawk
- Do Scale by Les McKeown
- Zero to One by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less by Nicholas Boothman
- The Best Place to Work by Ron Friedman