The new excellence: spreading constructive beliefs and practices from the few to the many

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present an interview asking Robert I. Sutton how leaders can create or discover wellsprings of excellence and engagement within their organizations and then scale them successfully to encompass the company as a whole, and then continue to scale them successfully as the business expands.

Design/methodology/approach

Sutton discusses what was learned in the process of researching his book Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More without Settling for Less (Crown Business, 2014), co-authored with fellow Stanford professor, Huggy Rao.

Findings

Scaling depends on having shared beliefs and behaviors that people not only talk about, but they also actually live – and that help guide and motivate people in the pursuit of the local definition of excellence.

Practical implications

To scale excellence the best leaders and teams employ a one-two punch of first arousing collective emotion, especially pride or anger, and then channelling that emotion to propel the desired action.

Originality/value

The paper provides an insightful look at the process of scaling up continuous customer-focused performance and product innovation by a well-known expert.

Citation

Leavy, B. (2014), "The new excellence: spreading constructive beliefs and practices from the few to the many", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 42 No. 5, pp. 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-08-2014-0056