The Milkshake Moment: Overcoming Stupid Systems, Pointless Policies and Muddled Management to Realize Real Growth (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: growth leaders, vanilla milkshake, Milkshake Moments, Home Depot, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Growth is the central focus of every business, yet many businesses continually find ways to shoot themselves in the foot. In Milkshake Moment, Steven Little shows you how to identify and overcome the stifling behaviors built into your organization and get you back on track to substantive change and real growth. Read Milkshake Moment and find out how to ditch the pointless policies and stupid rules so you can give your customers what they really want; they'll reward you for it.

From the Inside Flap

Growth. It's the central focus of every organization, the underlying goal of virtually every business project, product launch, non-profit initiative, or community campaign. To grow, an organization must encourage creativity, flexibility, and the overall capacity for individuals to recognize and respond to opportunity at every level. So why, then, do so many organizations, both big and small, continually find ways to shoot themselves in the foot?

In The Milkshake Moment, growth guru Steven S. Little shows you how to identify and overcome the stifling behaviors built into your organization and lead the way toward substantive change and real growth.

Building on the frustrating true story of his inability to order a simple milkshake, Little explains how well-intended systems meant to increase satisfaction can often produce the opposite effect for both customers and employees. The "Milkshake Moment" is that precise instant in which an organization's individuals realize that they are allowed to do the right thing— to serve the interests of others in order to grow the organization—instead of following arcane internal procedures that actually hinder growth. Little clearly demonstrates that only when we remove our own self-imposed barriers can we begin to seize growth opportunities in any organizational setting.

The Milkshake Moment helps you develop both the actions and the attributes of a true growth leader as you learn how to:

• Foster "grow" versus the status quo

• Understand the difference between "the managed" and "the led"

• Break the cycles of conformity

• "Develop" policies that promote growth

• Hone your judgment

• Uncover the BIG secret to service

• Resolve the "people problem" problem

• See your future opportunities more clearly

Packed with fascinating examples of behaviors that drive an organization's growth and those that throw it into reverse, The Milkshake Moment mixes up a refreshing blend of engaging reading and actionable advice on how you can help your organization reach another level.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (April 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470257466
• ISBN-13: 978-0470257463
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #289,060 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you want your company to overcome stupid systems, pointless policies, and muddled management ..., April 8, 2008

By	Jeff Lippincott "www.Jlippin.com" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I liked this book. It had the feel of a printed copy of a well-written and well-organized blog. The points made will usually make sense, but sometimes you will have to stretch your mind to get them. Arguably the six sections the book is split into are really chapters. And the chapters are really just point headings in those six sections. The sections and chapters in this book are titled as follows:

I. The milkshake moment
II. Foster "grow" versus status quo
III. Put purpose before profit
IV. Insource crucial judgment
V. Address the "people problem" problem
VI. Care for customers

1. It was a dark and stormy night
2. Half empty or half full?
3. This is not a customer service book
4. A brief history of organizations and man(agement)
5. Toddlers and trust
6. Some shocking behavior
7. Lessons from the cubicle farm
8. The managed
9. The led
10. It's never about money
11. The wizard of westwood
12. Profit pushers
13. NoClu Motors, Inc.
14. Purpose in the plan
15. You gotta serve somebody
16. Edicts made on high
17. Peeves from below
18. Participatory policy making
19. How `bout them promegranites?
20. Come harter or high water
21. The people problem polka
22. Eric's excalibur
23. Why people work
24. Home team drops the ball
25. The big secret to great customer service
26. Even geniuses struggle to serve
27. It takes a hero
28. The future is already here ... some folks just aren't getting the memos

The author says at page 14 of the book "A milkshake moment is a brave individual action, be it big or small, that furthers the cause of growth." This book is designed to help the reader develop the actions and attributes of a true growth/change leader. Organizations (companies) can grow if their leader or leaders encourage creativity, flexibility, and openmindedness of subordinates. They'll grow, change, and improve if they have lots of people who have the capacity to recognize and respond to opportunities. That's the message of this book.

What is this book really about? Well, if you want your company to overcome stupid systems, pointless policies, and muddled management, then consider giving this book a read. Your company will only recognize real growth if it can overcome these things. 4 stars!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good stories, but the book never came together, August 11, 2008

By	Walter H. Bock "Wally Bock - Author, Blogger,... (Charlotte NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a short book about a hugely important subject: how company policies, procedures and cultures render frontline workers incapable of doing the right thing.

Strengths:

The book is short and well written so you get the message quickly. I read it on a flight from Charlotte to Dallas. There are twenty-nine chapters and they run an average of less than four pages each.

There are many good stories in here that you haven't heard before. The chapters built around these stories are usually excellent.

Warnings:

Even though this is a short book, it sometimes seems padded. For example chapter 6 is one of the longest chapters in the book. It covers the already-well-covered research of Philip Zimbardo and Stanley Milgram but that research doesn't seem to make a point that moves the book forward.

Mr. Little offers cultural references and puns without explanation. He has a breezy style that can make it seem like he's not taking things as seriously as he wants you to.

The chapters that are not built around stories from Little's personal experience tend to be glib, but not necessarily accurate or complete. Mr. Little often seems willing to sacrifice content on the altar of "cute."

Mr. Little is an exponent of "leadership good, management bad." Actions that he thinks are good, he labels "leadership." Those he doesn't think are good are labeled "management."

There is a promise that what you learn from this book will help your organization grow. There is no discussion of whether this is a good idea or if other goals might be better for you. Little's comment is that "Most are trying to grow something at some level." Perhaps, but addressing how that relates to "Put purpose before profit" would have been helpful.

There is virtually no practical, "I'll-try-that-tomorrow," advice in this book. Most change in organizations requires attention to recruiting/training, processes, reward systems, and supervision. Not one of those is addressed with simple, actionable suggestions.

Bottom Line:

This book never came together for me. The good parts, building on Little's experience were usually excellently written and chosen. Much of the rest seems thrown together to make the word count and re-purposed from other uses.

The short stories and examples could give you value for the cover price. To see if it will, either page through the book in the store or use the "Search Inside the Book" feature on Amazon.

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious Initiative, July 29, 2009

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Steven Little explains that "a Milkshake Moment is a brave action, be it big or small, that furthers the cause of growth in an organization. Milkshake Moments materialize when individuals understand the organization's true purpose, honestly believe it is their job to fulfill it, and are given the tools and the freedom to make it happen." These remarks remind me of what William L. McKnight, then CEO of 3M, said in 1924: If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need." In stagnant organizations in which little (if any) room for initiative is provided, Little acknowledges that a would-be growth must possess "the guts to stand up and say, `This idea is contrary to everything we say we believe.'" That's a Milkshake Moment.

My take on this book is that Little has written it for two separate but related audiences: One consists of would-be growth leaders whom he encourages to take whatever initiatives they sincerely believe are required by what their organization's stated values; the other consists of their senior managers who must create and then sustain a culture within the workplace that encourages, recognizes, and rewards Milkshake Moments. These senior managers must also be growth leaders who "clearly communicate an organization's true purpose and grant individuals permission to do whatever can be done ethically to achieve it."

Long ago, Andrew Carnegie hired Napoleon Hill and directed him to interview the world's most prominent businessmen and learn the secret(s) of their success. Carnegie paid him and all of his expenses. He also wrote letters of introduction for Hill who then began a two-year assignment. After completing the last interview, Hill returned to the United States and met with Carnegie to report on what he had learned. He was especially interested in knowing what the businessmen shared in common. Hill's response? They all went "the extra mile."

Contrary to what this book's subtitle may suggest, it is not always possible to overcome "stupid systems, pointless policies, and muddled management to realize growth." In those instances, if the initiatives of would-be growth leaders are discouraged and perhaps even punished, they need to leave that organization and join another. In this context, it is worth noting that during exit interviews of highly-valued employees, one of the major reasons they cite for leaving is a lack of respect for their supervisor and a lack of faith in the organization's integrity.

Little includes dozens of especially interesting stories throughout his narrative to illustrate, indeed dramatize his key points. One of his recurrent themes is the inability and/or unwillingness of senior managers to recognize the nature and extent of damage that results from the "fences" they maintain around the minds, hearts, and souls of those for whom they are responsible. If not exactly the "toxic" leaders that Jeanne Lipman-Blumen and Kenneth Gangel so brilliantly discuss in their books and articles, they are nonetheless barriers to growth and expediters of the stagnation to which Little frequently refers.

I appreciate Little's Snap! Crackle! & Pop! writing style as well as his passion to help prepare would-be growth leaders to cope with what James O'Toole so aptly characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." I agree with Little that significant growth does not always require major changes. Last year, Toyota implemented more than one million ideas generated by its production workforce. Most involved minor refinements to improve quality or to eliminate waste. I hope that many of those who read this book are owners of small companies or work for such companies. I also hope that they read it carefully and, while doing so, think about all the opportunities they have each day to share a Milkshake Moment with fellow workers and, especially, with customers. My final hope is that those who have such moments also share them with Steven Little by contacting him at www.stevenslittle.com.