Tom Peters' Causes of Failure

Whenever failure happens leaders and managers must learn from them - therefore when things go wrong, key questions to ask around the 8 attributes of success include:

1.What are the causes of delay and inaction?
2.Who and what is responsible for over-staffing and needless bureaucracy?
3.What is leading to customers being neglected - and why?
4.What is causing people to be less productive than they might be?
5.What is stifling ideas and entrepreneurial instincts?
6.What is distracting us from our core value?
7.What is responsible for our lack of focus on our core activity?
8.What prolongs unnecessary red-tape and controls?

There are many possible root causes, perhaps:

1.Too many layers of management and stifling committees
2.Resistance to change - doing stuff because it has always been done this way
3.Staff are being incentivised in ways that do not emphasise customer satisfaction
4.There is no (or ineffective) feedback process to implement employees improvement ideas
5.Fear of failure or blame culture penalizes and discourages initiative
6.Staff do not believe in or share the key driving value
7.Staff lack confidence in direction and plans
8.Managerial rules, procedures and financial controls dominate in such a way to hinder progress

Peters believes that if your company "rules" mean that you cannot affect changes - break the rules! Don't wait for the people at the top to act - get on with it yourself. Peters refers to this as becoming a "skunk" Here's how to do it:

If you need to break a rule(s) to achieve what you need to achieve - break it!

Experiment all the time to find better ways of doing stuff

Seek out and team up with other iconic-rule-breakers

Challenge decisions you don't like

Welcome change - be an agent for change

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