Thursday, December 17, 2015

"The Peters Principle"....



Your move...
Tom Peters easily makes everyone's Top 10 list of management gurus over the last quarter century.  

The author of "In Search Of Excellence", the business leadership classic, has had a lot to say about the rise and fall of organizations over the years. Mr. Peters invariably finds "the taproot" of organizational success or failure to be.... Hey, we all know the answer to that... and we don't even have to read the book!  


Last time Peters was scheduled to speak at a CUNA conference, he told Credit Union Magazine he would be "preaching"  a mantra of "destroy and reimagine" to the credit union faithful in attendance.  Peters said:

"I'm a strong supporter of decentralized organizations that have energetic and talented people who are allowed to try any darn thing that comes to mind. You act your way into thinking more than you think your way into acting."


"We need some people who are disruptive - those who'll roll their eyes when "(Fill in the blank as appropriate)" talks about an outdated idea and who will say under their breath, "that's so 2009"[or 1979!].  The alternative is obsolescence, failure, and - plain and simple - evaporation."


Evaporation!?!...

It is getting mighty "dry" in some CU quarters....  




 ..... is "reimagine" unimaginable to us? 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Peters & Peter...

Tips from the Peters principle of simplistic innovation - do it better everyday, question the process (we have always done it this way), just look around at other industries - they serve the same consumer we seek.

One of the greatest challenges to the Peters principle is the Peter principle (promoted by Lawrence Peter) where many who are a testament to the Peter principle are trying (really struggling) to subscribe to the Peters principle.

Big disconnect :)

(Greetings Mr. B.)

Anonymous said...

It all boils down to what the Blaine has been talking about for weeks--leadership. Or in the case of CUNA, the lack of it. When you take an honest look at the trade associations operating across the country you see an enormous amount of money being spent on salaries, administrative costs,travel, dinners, cocktail parties and publicizing the image of the various league presidents in their attempt to show that they should be the national leader. That has been going on for decades and will continue to go on. Recognize this people, it's the culture and until such time as a real leader takes charge you will see no change, feeble accomplishments on the hill, no real challenge to the regulators and rhetoric worse that coming out of the candidates for the Republican and Democrat nominations for President. So Merry Christmas and best wishes foe another suck it up New Year.

Jim Blaine said...

Sundeep,

Glad you picked up on the difference between Tom Peters, the author referenced, and The Peter Principle which is a whole different story... was afraid it was too oblique a play on words.. there is hope!!!