Customer Reviews

Contagious Success: Spreading High Performance Throughout Your Organization

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Contagious Success is eye-opening, meaty, and filled with advice that can be readily applied to the real business world. Annunzio identifies the factors that distinguish high-performance workgroups, with findings drawn from her team's comprehensive, worldwide study of 3,104 knowledge workers in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia. (A knowledge worker is defined as a full-time manager, professional, or technical expert who holds at least a bachelor's degree and whose earnings are within the top 10% of his or her country.) Annunzio suggests that three main factors distinguish high-performance groups: valuing people, optimizing critical thinking, and seizing opportunities. While these factors are hardly surprising, what is remarkable is the mountain of conventional wisdom that Annunzio challenges. For example, Annunzio found that pay ranked fifth in terms of what makes high-performance groups effective - behind values, teamwork, people, and planning. Another insight is that 40% of respondents could show no evidence at all that their workgroups are doing something tangible. (Remember: these are college-educated professionals in the top 10% income bracket - folks who are at least theoretically rewarded for high performance.) A third revelation is that a mere 10% of workgroups qualify as high performing (high performance is defined by demonstrable revenue/profit improvement as well as product or service innovations). A final key revelation is that most knowledge workers confuse performance with productivity -- a vestige perhaps of the industrial revolution, yet a nugget of wisdom worth remembering in this day of Blackberries, cell phones, and the other accoutrements that offer up a false sense of success simply by making us feel busy. Annunzio also suggests how to apply these insights to the real business world in order to improve profits. Here is a sampling of what one might describe as her "Roadmap for Profits"... Rule #1: The best way to achieve performance growth is to increase the performance of your best workgroups. (Most companies focus on hacking off the bottom tier.) Rule #2: Respectfully communicate (always assume good intent, try to understand a person's logic), since a failure to do so makes us run the risk of missing out on brilliant ideas. Rule #3, 4, and 5: Encourage risk-taking, create an environment in which people see mistakes as opportunities for learning, and give employees "amnesty" to speak openly about unspeakable subjects. Only through such open-mindedness do knowledge workers have a fighting chance of pushing their businesses to the next frontier. Annunzio provides many other executable ideas, and her numerous examples and citations help offer a much richer, nuanced understanding than I could ever provide in a brief review. One of the more interesting business books to come along in a long time.

Based on a study of 3,104 knowledge workers in the U.S. and 9 other countries, the author has identified the qualities of high-performing groups, i. e., those that get financial results, through being the best in developing and introducing new products, services and markets. The overall conclusion is that knowledge workers who work in environments in which 1) they are valued, 2) can do their best thinking, and 3) have the freedom to seize opportunities, constitute high-performing work groups. Such groups are adaptable, knowledgeable, and resourceful. The book goes into many factors that explain the success of these groups, offering many case examples drawn from the extensive research. The insights of this book are readily accessible. The book is written in a to-the-point, very readable style. But most importantly, it offers some mind-broadening findings that, for some, may appear to be a challenge to conventional thinking. Speaking as an organization consultant (www.FutureOrganization.com), as well as a reviewer, this book shines forth as offering some solid, although not altogether surprising, conclusions. Bottom line: highly recommended-well worth the reading.

I thought that this book offers common-sense approach to business leaders striving to attain profitable growth in an age of cost-cutting. The author's thought-provoking commentary on the global state of underperformance is a wake up call for management and employees alike. Lessons about creating an environment that inspires employees to high performance are accessible, attainable and well documented with interesting case histories about companies who are doing it right. It is an enjoyable read with solid lessons for rethinking the current business mentality obsessed with quarterly earnings.

Contagious Success caught my attention when it was named Fast Company Readers' Choice™ winner in January of 2005.

I was convinced to buy the book after reading, Fast Company magazine's book review. (www.fastcompany.com/bookclub/reviews/1591840600.html). While reading the book I learned crucial lessons. Here are just a few:

1.) Short-term thinking is the number one killer of performance - "To meet quarterly financial goals, companies are cutting staff and budgets, resulting in overworked, frustrated employees." How true is that?

2.) Contrary to what most people think, the environment, not the leader, is the most important factor in driving high performance. This is a great point.

3.) Even a company's highest performers have room to grow - "the easiest, most efficient way to in increase the overall performance of your company is to increase the performance of those groups already at the top."

I was happy to see Annunzio point out micromanagement is a prominent characteristic of low-performing workgroups and it severely stymies high-performing environments. She states, "The best way to value people is to show respect by treating people as if they are smart people. You don't tell them how to do their job; you trust them to do it well."

This book will appeal to a wide audience - those who would like to look within their company to find the barriers and accelerators to success, those that would like to break away from the misguided norms of "conventional wisdom," and those who just want to work towards cultivating an environment where high-performance thrives.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Contagious Success as it provided a unique and different perspective on the evolving role of global knowledge workers. The author, Susan Lucia Annunzio, Chairman and CEO of the Hudson Highland Center for High Performance, has through her global in-depth research and analysis provided a useful managerial roadmap of how knowledge workers around the world contribute to accelerating high performance for their corporations. It is a must read for seniors managers working in the international arena who want another important perspective into understanding global competitiveness and multinational mergers and acquisitions. Traditionally, multinational corporations and international development agencies have paid little focus on the importance of valuing people.

Annunzio has skillfully demonstrated the key factors of success: (i) valuing people, (ii) optimizing critical thinking, and (iii) seizing opportunities. Annunzio's comprehensive analysis has provided for the necessary analytical underpinnings to the conventional skeptics and soothsayers. What was most telling of her analysis is that only 10% of the global knowledge workers could provide evidence that their working group was profitable and was adding value to the corporation as a whole. A shocking disconnect for a segment of the workforce that are generally the highest paid and best educated workers in the world.

It would be very interesting to see Annunzio and her team continue to expand and refine the scope of their research in this field to include: (i) the work force that are not necessarily knowledge workers, (ii) the differences in behavior of the knowledge workers between public and privately owned companies; and (iii) the differences in behavior among knowledge workers based on the nationality and cultural leadership of the senior management.

Anil Kapur, former Private Sector Specialist, The World Bank, Washington, D.C.

Contagious Success offers surprising findings about the actual effectiveness of the highest paid and best educated employees around the world. Annunzio's research shows a definite and compelling perceptual gap between those who consider themselves high performing and those who actually are. This should force companies to take a long, hard look at their current business units. Environmental factors are critical to increasing revenues and profits, according to Contagious Success, because individual performance is influenced by the environment. Annunzio offers practical solutions on how companies can create a working environment that fosters innovation and growth, which will ultimately affect the bottom line. I really enjoyed this book and have already found ways to apply its theories to my working environment.

Susan Annunzio and her research associates studied about 3,000 people who belonged to high performance work groups in dozens of different companies. What they learned is shared in this book. The core concept of this book is to spread high performance through an organization by identifying its high-performing workgroups - examine their environment -- and then share their "secrets." The book's premise is that success will then be contagious and "spread" throughout the entire organization.

What is required? First, "value people." I agree. However, in any organization, some people are more valuable than are others. The challenge is to get each person's strengths in proper alignment with the results that person is expected to produce. Next, "optimize critical thinking" and again I agree. However, some people's critical thinking skills (e.g. problem solving) are stronger than others'. The challenge is to identify those with the strongest skills and then locate them where those skills are most needed. Finally, "seize opportunities" and once again I agree. However, some positions offer greater opportunities to improve performance than do others. The challenge is to select those areas in which improvement will be of greatest value to the organization and then assign to those areas the people who are best qualified (in terms of knowledge, skills, temperament, etc.) to achieve the desired improvement. Measure what matters to improve what matters.

There are no head-snapping revelations in this book, nor does Annunzio claim to offer any. Several of the book's assertions are problematic. For example, on page 190, the reader is provided with a chart displaying two columns: On the left, "Conventional Wisdom" (e.g. "Hiring and nurturing high potential individuals will drive high performance.") and "Reality" (e.g. "It's the workgroup, not the individual."). In fact, both statements are true rather than mutually exclusive. I also challenge most of the other juxtapositions of "Conventional Wisdom" and "Reality" which incorrectly suggest either/or rather than sometimes yes/sometimes no.

Many readers will find the results of the research interesting and few will disagree with the importance of creating a workplace environment within which collaborative high performance is achieved and sustained. I would have added a fifth star to my rating had Annunzio devoted less attention to "what" and more attention to "how." For those in need of such guidance, I highly recommend The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization co-authored by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, Patrick M. Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, and Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration co-authored by Warren G. Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman.

The first couple chapters were full of information that did not make sense. After Chapter Two the author does a great job showing the big picture. I couldn't help but chuckle during company meetings after reading this book. The real life experiences described in the book are exactly what my workforce reactions are to everyday situations. This book has been key to crossing the divide between upper management and the shop floor worker.

"Contagious Success: Spreading High Performance Throughout Your Organization"
By Susan E. Fisher
Business books are a lot like self-help books: They make some pretty obvious points telling you to do things you already know in your gut that you should be doing. Just as the hottest books making the self-improvement rounds counsel you to take control of your life so you can lose weight or make money, today's popular business books urge businesses to empower their workers to raise productivity and profits.
"Contagious Success: Spreading High Performance Throughout Your Organization" by Susan Lucia Annunzio provides no startling revelations; the basic premise tells you what you know instinctively. Boil down her 256-page tome into a sentence and you get this prescription: "Value people, and you'll get better business results."
Yet, the book is a fresh departure from the hollow analysis of the too-many formulaic volumes cramming the self-help and business books shelves. Its clearly articulated points are backed by considerable analysis and hard numbers. Annunzio's Hudson Highland Center for High Performance studied more than 3,000 "knowledge workers" from Georgia to Shanghai in companies from Abbott Laboratories to Zurich North America.
The hard data alone would make the book worthy material for any managers or entrepreneurs eager to up their organization's performance. Annunzio takes the book to the next level by serving up the lessons provided by the study as a simple, easy-to-digest guide.
The management consultant identified the characteristics that make high-performing workgroups soar: valuing people, optimizing critical thinking and seizing opportunities. "For the first time, quantifiable proof that there is a direct correlation between how you treat people and financial results," the author claims.
Certainly, it is sad to think that businesses actually need quantifiable proof to realize there's a meaningful link between how you deal with employees and financial results.
Still, the point should be well taken and used as a springboard for the other useful guidance Annunzio offers:
1. The workgroup (defined as a unit that works together on a temporary or permanent basis with common goals and shared experience) is the core unit of the company, not the individual.
Business, the book notes, is a team sport. If you have a great player in a lousy squad, chances are better that the failing team will bring the great player down, rather than that the great player will convert losers to winners. Focus on developing great workgroups.
2. Great workgroups are made, not born.
Organizations must deliberately create environments for workgroups that can sustain high performance. The right environment is much more about providing respect than resources. "Treat smart people as if they are smart people," the book counsels. High-performing groups create a "learning environment in which people can take risks, generate new ideas, make mistakes and learn from them."
3. Don't clip the wings off high-flying groups.
Nothing sends great performers sputtering to mediocrity faster than micromanaging and hording information, leaders who act in their own self-interest and companies that have short-term, rather than long-term goals. Give high-performing groups the support they need.
In short, "success is contagious," as Annunzio writes in the opening sentence of the book. But, success does not spread like the stomach flu in a nursery school class. Instead it has to be nurtured in something of a corporate Petri dish.
To take the analysis that direction, Annunzio and her able team of researchers would have to take a slightly different tack and segment the types of workgroups they study.
Of course, Annunzio and their team are happy to help with the task. The Hudson Highland Center for High Performance will benchmark your company against the findings of the study. Their experts promise to pinpoint "the three aspects of your company's work environment that require immediate attention."
So create a work environment that lets smart people act smart, and your company will reap the benefits.

The case history of International Truck and Engine Corporation (now known as Navistar) is a good example of a multi-discipline team at work on a complex problem that must be solved for the company to succeed. Here is a 100-year-old company (originally International Harvester), totally based on diesel technology, with a core product -- diesel school buses -- threatened by new government regulations on emissions. The way this team of engineers, business unit managers, corporate staff and others zeroed in on the answer -- get the sulfur out of diesel fuel and advance the technology of diesel engines -- is fascinating and instructive.