Table of Contents
| Introduction | 1 |
| I | Finding Out | 9 |
| II | The Acts of Life | 17 |
| III | The MBV Process | 29 |
| IV | The Search Begins | 43 |
| V | Clarifying Your Mission and Values: Phase I of the MBV Process | 51 |
| VI | Communicating: Phase II of the MBV Process | 63 |
| VII | Aligning: Phase III of the MBV Process | 79 |
| VIII | Beginning of the MBV Journey | 107 |
| IX | Reflecting Back on the Journey | 123 |
| X | Moving Forward on the Journey | 141 |
| Acknowledgments | 147 |
| About the Authors | 151 |
| Services Available | 153 |
Read an Excerpt
Chapter oblem is especially common with the 3Com Impact adapter running firmware version 2.02. If you think the second telephone number might be the problem, try reconfiguring your adapter to use only one of your ISDN numbers.
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ISDN drivers from the ISDN version 1.0 Accelerator Pack are not supported in Windows 98. Contact your ISDN adapterc; Finding Out Tom Yeomans drove his silver Lexus off the freeway two exits before the one he always used on his way home from work. He followed a winding country road for a mile or so to where a short, unpaved road took him into a stand of trees on a rise overlooking a bend in a wide river. He stopped the car and switched off the engine. He got out, walked a few paces, then stood gazing downriver. Even with designer sunglasses shading his eyes against the late afternoon sun, you could see that he wore the look of a troubled man.
Tom Yeomans' life was outwardly impressive. He'd become president and CEO of a top manufacturing company before the age of forty. The highly profitable company was a leader in its field and occupied a respected role in the community. Tom had a fine home and a wife and children who would make any man proud. Outwardly, his life did not seem to lack for any comforts or possessions.
It was an outcome of a pattern of ceaseless striving. His whole life had been a matter of setting and achieving goals. He was now at a point most people would call the "pinnacle of success," yet he felt strangely empty, cut off from the kinds of things he sensed made a man really rich. The plain fact was Tom wasn't happy.
He picked up a stone and threwit into the water. As he gazed at the widening ripples, his thoughts traveled back to a decade ago when he and Barry Lofting had founded L&Y Manufacturing, a successful furniture manufacturer. The two had been friends since junior high school and had worked night and day to craft L&Y into a leader in its field.
They'd had a ball doing it, too. Their success was due in part to their differences. Tom enjoyed the part of the "high roller," thriving on the risks of wheeling and dealing. Barry exuded a human intelligence demonstrated by his natural talent for establishing trust and rapport with clients and employees. The trouble had come when Tom went behind Barry's back to sell the company to a foreign buyer. Barry had never forgiven Tom for that.
Tom tried repeatedly to placate his partner's feelings. "Hey, what are you squawking about?" he'd say. "You 're rich!" His efforts hadn't worked. It was only when he had tried unsuccessfully to interest his friend in going in with him on a new venture that Tom had realized money was not the real issue.
Now, as he stood looking downriver, Tom's mind was replaying that last uncomfortable conversation before Barry left the office.
"Come on, Barry. I need you. We can do it - the old fire, man. just stick with me for two years. Sure, it may mean twelve- and fourteen-hour days for us, but we'll be having a blast blowing the competition away, and besides, it's only for a little while. Guaranteed, we'll triple our investment in that time. Then you and I will get that place in Baja and spend the time we want with our wives and kids."
Barry had looked at him steadily. "Tom, tell me something honestly."
"Anything, pal."
"When is the last time you and Leslie and the kids did anything together?" The silence between them had seemed to push the walls back.
"When is the last time you and Leslie had a real talk?" Again that maddening silence. "I thought so. Hey, I gotta go," Barry sighed. As he reached the door, he turned, looked at Tom directly, and said, "The trouble with you, Tom, is that you're in a rat race. Remember, even if you win the race, you're still a rat."
That was the last time Tom saw the man he'd called his best friend-the person with whom he'd won high school swim team trophies, scaled peaks in Alaska, and built a successful business. After that, Tom dropped the notion of starting another company and instead used his track record and contacts to join RimCo, a growing auto parts manufacturer, as a regional vice president.
The ensuing years found him competing in a grueling succession of power moves as he scaled RimCo's corporate ladder. Now, having attained the top rung as president, Tom was beginning to wonder what he'd given up. Keeping a schedule of long hours, late meetings, and frequent traveling had kept him from being a real member of his family Leslie complained that the kids were growing up without him.
He thought of Leslie. When they spoke, it was usually to coordinate their schedules; they seldom even went to bed at the same time now. He thought of his children. just last week he'd arrived home late at night after three days of back-to-back strategy meetings on the road. The next morning Michael, his fourteen -year-old, had come into the bedroom to kiss his mother before going off to school. Leslie, in her usual motherly attempt at building family togetherness, nudged her son, "Hey, don't you say 'hi' to your dad anymore? He's missed you while he was gone." Michael, in his sunny innocence, replied, "Oh! Were you gone again, Dad?"
Tom Yeomans turned and walked back to his sleek, silver automobile. He put his hands on the hood and leaned down over it. Reflected in the creamy wax finish he saw a face lined with suffering. As he studied that face, it spoke to him. "How about it, Tom? Do your loved ones think you're a rat?" Turning and leaning against the hood, he folded his arms and shivered in the breeze picking up off the water. The truth was, the state of his relationships at home was only the tip of the iceberg.
During the last six months at work, the ground had begun to cave in under him. Everything seemed to be coming apart. The company had lost two major accounts to its chief competitor. Complaints from customers had increased. Stockholders were getting edgy about the loss of market share. And employee morale was taking a nosedive. Some of the company's best people had quit.
Alarmed, the board of directors called in a consulting group to study the situation. Tom was concerned about outsiders snooping around, but the board gave him no choice.
The consultants used interviews, surveys, focus groups, and document reviews to put together an in-depth analysis of the company, its management, employees, stockholders, and customers. When the study was finished, the board had an all-day meeting with Lynn, the consulting team leader. Tom sat sullenly, listening to the team's list of recommendations.
The list was formidable. Tom had always thought he was out in front of the pack. But as he listened, he recognized that RimCo's problems were no different from the problems other organizations were experiencing in the highly competitive market of the nineties. The consultants suggested that the organization must be leaner, flatter. Managers must empower their people, delegating whole projects to self-managing work teams. Quality and service must become everyone's business, regardless of job title. In short, the company must "reinvent" itself from the top down.
Typically, Tom assumed that the problem was "out there." His mind began to flash with ideas about fixing "them." It was at that point that Lynn's feedback started to hit closer to home.
As she finished summarizing the results of an employee survey, Lynn put down her papers. She looked at Tom and said, "What they're saying, Mr. Yeomans, is that you manage more by fear than by consensus. Your management style breeds these problems, for it has resulted in an environment of mistrust. Without a dramatic change on your part, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for RimCo to become a really competitive company for the long term."
Well, there it was. It seemed Barry's prediction had come true. Tom's own people thought he was a rat....
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