Jane C. Linder with Scott Bennett
Janet C. Linder discusses her book “Spiral Up” on how to deal with today’s challenging management issues.
Linder examined 46 “wildly successful initiatives” from both public and private sector case studies and examines them with great detail and insight (including product and service innovations, entrepreneurial start-ups, and corporate transformations) and conducted more than 145 interviews. However different in nature and extent the initiatives were, she found the reasons so many well-intentioned management initiatives fall short is because typical “best practice” methods only help managers avoid failure, rather than produce genuinely spectacular results. Linder proposes a new way of managing. Based on her study, she has identified five characteristics that fly in the face of conventional practice:
Make Space — Allow the project to grow and develop in unpredictable ways.
Get it Right — Insist on finding the right answers to the toughest questions.
Make a Difference — Reach beyond your grasp to accomplish the impossible.
Energize People — Create an emotional environment filled with challenge.
Spiral Up — Don’t stop with a single achievement; use it as a step to greater success.
From developing a virtual reality simulator for underwater mining equipment to saving an Ohio oil refinery from closure, Spiral Up presents accounts of everyday project champions who have produced breathtaking results … and shows readers how to do the same.