Mastering the Rockefeller Habits

Priorities—Does the organization have objective Top 5 priorities for the year and the quarter (the month if growing over 100% annually) and a clear Top 1 priority along with an appropriate Theme? Does everyone in the organization have their own handful of priorities that align with the company’s priorities?

How do you keep everyone aligned and reading off the same page? Many gazelles find it useful to set priorities for each quarter—no more than five—and then to identify one goal that supersedes the others. This is known as a Top 5 and Top-1-of-5 priority list.

Executive summary: Having a few rules, repeating yourself a lot, and acting in ways that are consistent with the rules—these are the three keys whether you’re providing your children with a good moral foundation or providing a company with a strong cultural foundation. And the evidence is irrefutable that a strong culture leads to superior performa

Whatever strengths or weaknesses exist within the organization can be traced right back to the cohesion of the executive team and their levels of trust, competence, discipline, alignment, and respect.

highly recommend his latest book Topgrading. It’s very “how-to.

took him up on the proposition. “In 20 minutes,” he told Schwab, “I’ll show you how to get your organization doing at least 50 percent more.” He started by having Schwab write down and prioritize his six most important tasks to complete in the next business day. Then he told Schwab, “Put the list in your pocket and take it out tomorrow and start wo

just resting on the laurels of a respected name and a commanding market share. If so, those days are long gone. Thanks to global competition, the rise of e-commerce and the ever-quickening pace of innovation, clear communication of an effective strategy is absolutely essential to survival.

Executive summary: The bigger your company gets, and the faster it’s growing, the harder it is to get everybody on the same page. The problem, of course, is that there isn’t a single page around which to align. Instead, there are likely more than a dozen pages, actual and imaginary, along with memos and e-mails, each purporting to describe your com

For a more complete definition and process for discovering your core values, read Jim Collins’ September–October, 1996 Harvard Business Review article entitled “Building Your Company’s Vision” (go to www.hbr.com to download a copy for $6). I’ve chosen to align with our friend Jim’s language. Jim was the co-author of Built to Last, which I consider