The 2000 Percent Solution: Free Your Organization from "Stalled" Thinking to Achieve Exponential Success

by Robert Metz, Carol Coles, Donald Mitchell

Book Overview

Organizations, like people, are creatures of habit. They tend to approach problems in predictable ways. This revolutionary book argues that such ingrained habits, which often masquerade as efficient... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814404766
• ISBN13: 9780814404768
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Amacom
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Unstoppable Change: Peril or Opportunity?

I presume to suggest that you first read the authors' more recently published book, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise in which they explain how to achieve "breakthrough gains from unstoppable change." One of the key points in that book it is imperative to understand the nature and extent of such forces as they affect a given organization...then respond accordingly. Another key point stresses the importance of anticipating future changes which inevitably create problems. Each of these problems requires an effective solution. That is, a "2,000 Percent Solution" which enables an organization to get "20 times better and faster results from the same or fewer resources."The subtitle of this book correctly suggests why the authors wrote it: To "free" organizations from "stalled" thinking so that they can achieve "exponential success." Note the words embraced by quotation marks. Most organizations (especially the larger ones) can easily become captive to basic assumptions and presumptions which are no longer valid...or at least appropriate. As a result, those involved feel obligated to defend the status quo. Their thinking is stalled. Managers become bureaucrats. Because they are defending the status quo, they resist and resent any suggested changes of it. Of course, change does occur: The organization deteriorates. The "best and the brightest" employees leave as do under-served customers. The reference to "exponential success" is also very significant. The authors correctly believe that, in the absence of Divine Intervention, sustainable success can only be achieved exponentially: building a skyscraper one floor at a time, paving a road to Oz one yellow brick at a time, eating a whale one bite at a time. Part One explains how you can free your organization from "mind-forged manacles." To do so, you must overcome:The Stall Mind-Set ["If I ignore it, it will eventually go away."]The Tradition Stall ["But we've never done it that way before."]The Disbelief Stall ["I can't believe you suggested that."] The Misconception Stall ["Wet highways cause rain."]The Unattractiveness Stall ["It may work but it just doesn't look right."]The Communications Stall ["I'll get back to you with some feedback when I can."]The Bureaucratic Stall ["This is highly irregular."]The Procrastination Stall ["Interesting. I'm going to give it the careful thought it deserves."]The authors analyze each of these familiar stalls and evasions. Then in Part Two, they suggest (and explain in detail) "Eight Steps" by which to overcome them. This book is "primarily about what to do differently rather than how to do something better than you do it today." Pogo once observed, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Stalling and evading strategies are basic to human nature. We tend to employ one or more of them whenever we feel threatened or confused or inadequate...or because, like Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, we simply don't want to do what we are asked to do. I highly recomme

2000 Solutions to help keep process moving.

Being a creature of habit, I put the 2000% Solution on my bookshelf and thought about reading it. Without ever touching it, I was in a "stall". Finally, I read it!The 2000% Solution offers is an excellent book to help keep processes moving along- both organizationally and personally. In this very entertaining and well written book, Mitchell, Coles and Metz, offered very practical, creative, innovative and thoughtful ways to overcome both simple and complex obstacles. Chapters entitled "Manana" "where many cooks improve the broth", and "the square peg in the square hole" not only ring true in terms of issues I've encountered, but also provide the necessary and rigourous solutions to improve the inherent strength of corporate organizations.An added benefit is that the 2000% Solution also has real life, personal implications. It's true life skills for productivity an open capacity.An excellent book

Different and provocative approach to organizational change.

The authors have established that most organizations perform below their potential due to mind-sets that stall thinking and effective action. Applying "stallbusters" that unclog organizational thought processes, they show how companies can achieve 20 time 100 percent improvement. The first section examines seven causes for ways of thinking that stall organizations and describes stall-busting methods for overcoming these barriers so that an organization can move on toward change. Section two presents an eight-step process for making organizational change happen, aiming at achievable goals that are established to reach theoretical best practice-the most effective best practices that can possibly be accomplished. A different and provocative approach to organizational change. Recommended. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder HRconsultant.com, author of Stern's Sourcefinder The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, the CyberSpace SourceFinder, and the Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

Beyond best practice: "perfection as only you can imagine"

The title of The 2000 Percent Solution, the new book from business strategists Don Mitchell, Carol Coles, and Robert Metz, plays off the famous Sherlock Holmes mystery title. But the mystery here is how the authors have uncovered a whole new way of looking at improving business performance.They define the "stall' - a condition that affects us all - which keeps us from achieving accelerated growth. They introduce "stallbusters" - a plethora of ideas for overcoming the dreaded stalls. They pepper their analysis with hundreds of colorful examples and anecdotes, such as the story of Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin. A typical stall Is: avoidance of the unattractive. Fleming did the opposite by focusing on the green mold such as found on old bread.In the second part of the book, they introduce the eight step process for improving performance twenty-fold - 2000%. Their advocate "uncovering and capturing maximum opportunity by asking new questions". They go beyond best practices to discussing how to pursue the theoretical ideal best practice, which they call "perfection as only you can imagine it".Don't miss their stimulating "thought-starters", any one of which could justify your time investment in reading this book. If you have a problem stretching your mind on a Sunday afternoon or a long plane ride, here's your 2000 percent solution.Roger Fridholm; President, Business, Technology, and Staffing Services Group; MSX International.

Who knew getting results could be this easy -- and fun?

Who knew making huge leaps in achievement could be this easy -- and this fun? The 2000 Percent Solution gives you a simple process for overcoming mind blocks (the book calls them "stalls") and achieving fantastic results. The book gives funny and vivid examples (my favorite is the apes in the cage)which make the book an enjoyable read instead of just another dry essay on management. You'll be kicking yourself because you haven't recognized many of the self-imposed obstacles to progress that the authors describe. I had to read the book more than once to grasp some of the ideas in the second part and I'm sure that I will read it again to get more of the fine points. The best part of the book is that the authors give you this great concept but then they also give you a process to enable you to act on that concept. You'll actually find yourself acting differently instead of just filing the book and then proceeding with business as usual. Read this book and you'll start looking at the world in a whole new light. Suddenly the unattainable seems just around the corner!