“The System produces the results; your people manage the system. “And there is a Hierarchy of Systems in your business. “This Hierarchy is composed of four distinct components: “The first is, How We Do It Here. “The second is, How We Recruit, Hire, and Train People to Do It Here. “The Third is, How We Manage It Here. “The Fourth is, How We Change I

“In short, you need people who want to play your game, Sarah. Not people who believe they have a better one.

“Talk to me more about management,” Sarah said. “I heard you say earlier that I don’t need professional managers to be successful in my business; that, in fact, I’m better off without them. What’s wrong with hiring experienced managers?” “Everything’s wrong with it, Sarah! “Because, if you don’t know how to manage, how are you going to choose them,

Taking the new employee on a tour of the facilities, highlighting people at work and systems at work to demonstrate the interdependence of the systems on people and the people on systems • Answering clearly and fully all the employee’s questions • Issuing the employee his uniform and his Operations Manual • Reviewing the Operations Manual, includin

also the business’s history and experience in successfully implementing that idea, and the attributes required of the successful candidate for the position in question. 2. Meeting with each applicant individually to discuss his reactions to and feelings about the idea, as well as his background and experience. At this meeting, each applicant was al

As the Manager explained it to me, the hiring process was comprised of several distinct components: 1. A scripted presentation communicating the Boss’s idea in a group meeting to all of the applicants at the same time. This presentation described not only the idea but

A place where discipline and will become prized for what they are: the backbone of enterprise and action, of being what you are intentionally instead of accidentally. A place that replaces the home most of us have lost. That’s what a business can do; it can create a Game Worth Playing. It can become that place of community. It can become that place

They keep people in the game and make the game appealing, even when it’s not. 4. Change the game from time to time—the tactics, not the strategy. The strategy is its ethic, the moral underpinning of your game’s logic. This must remain sacrosanct, for it is the foundation of you and your people’s commitment to each other. But change is necessary. Fo

The Rules of the Game As in any game, the “people game” has rules that must be honored if you are to become any good at it. I’ve included a few here to give you a taste for them. As for the rest of them, you’ll have to discover them for yourself by playing a game of your own. You’ll learn the rules in the process. 1. Never figure out what you want