Many entrepreneurs dream of starting a business in their garage, scaling it, then selling it to Google for a billion dollars.
Such things rarely happen.
But scaling happens every day, in our career, our business or our workplace. We are constantly trying to improve ourselves, share our ideas, and put in systems and infrastructure that will grow our organizations without destroying that which made them great.
Stanford professors Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao describe in their exceptionally well-researched and readable new book, Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less that knowing how to scale is a critical skill for the 21st century workplace.
And they have 7 years worth of research, analysis and case studies, consolidated into this great book.
In my lively conversation with Bob Sutton, we discuss:
- Scaling excellence in your own career
- Scaling up competence as startups get past bootstrapping
- Looking for hot causes and cool solutions
- Why big teams suck
- Scaling excellence in large companies: Why change should happen in pockets of excellence, not be spread like peanut butter across an organization
Bob has been my “adopted professor” and High Council of Jedi Knight member for the last 8 years. I respect his work so much, and hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!
Read more about the book and order it here: http://scalingupexcellence
Give Bob a shout out on Twitter @work_matters
Download the podcast here: http://traffic.libsyn.com/escapefromcubiclenation/BobSuttonScaleExcellence_1.mp3
Listen to the podcast here:
Hi Pam and Robert. Thanks for the awesome podcast. I was fascinated to hear about the optimum team size of 4,5 people. It makes perfect sense now you’ve highlighted it. Anyway just wanted to say thanks for thought provoking podcast, it kept me going interested over two gym sessions. Looking forward to the next one and I’ve added the book to my booklist to read. Cheers, Geoff
I saw the failure to properly scale ideas, processes, etc in the corporate world so often – – – glad I now am free of that world : )
Interesting interview!
Wonderful podcast, and the book needs to be read.