Six Disciplines for Excellence 
asked by jbritt on November 23, 2006 4:12 PM
For twenty years, as founder of Solomon Software, the author worked with thousands of small businesses. The sale of his company opened the door for the author and his team of experts to pursue their growing passion --helping small businesses achieve and sustain excellence. Building on their many years of experience, this team invested $10 million and fifty man-years to combine the practical parts of strategic planning, quality management, integrated learning, business process automation, people performance management and measure-driven improvement into a single business-building methodology. This synthesis resulted in six fundamental business disciplines that are specifically designed to help small businesses move beyond momentary success to enduring excellence.
This book is NOT for those who are looking for a quick fix. Six Disciplines is a "long-term fitness program, not a fad diet". If you hunger to move beyond 'widget building' to 'business building' then this book is for you!
Reviews
0%
0%
Most new jobs created in the United States today are the result of small businesses forming or expanding. Gone are the days when large manufacturers rapidly created hundreds or thousands of jobs to support their growing requirements. However, small businesses have special needs, not only to survive the early years but to sustain their foundational growth. Author Gary Harpst actively taps into these critical needs in Six Disciplines For Excellence.
As Harpst mentions in the Introduction, "figuring out the right things to do isn't nearly as difficult as continuing to do them over the long term". He continues by commenting why this book was written, "That passion is directed toward helping small businesses not only achieve excellence, but sustain it". Throughout the remainder of the book, Six Disciplines For Excellence integrates the best practices to grow a small business and unifies them into a interconnected plan. Furthermore, unlike most business books, Harpst cleverly focuses on implementation (how to) rather than simply principles. He states that this "book's content is focused 20% on principles and 80% on implementation".
Six Disciplines For Excellence is composed of 10 chapters and an Epilogue. The first three chapters introduce the book and discuss the challenges of being a small business. The next six chapters each discuss one of the six disciplines. For example, chapter eight analyzes the fifth discipline entitled Innovate Purposely. In this invigorating chapter Harpst demonstrates how innovation works in concert with the other disciplines and how it should permeate the daily culture of a small business.
This is a book that should be read by everyone who leads a small business. Six Disciplines For Excellence has the clever ability to connect solid principles together with proven strategies to create a workable plan. It makes sense of the seemingly complex and fragmented problems facing any organization in a book that is colorful, easy to comprehend and well written. If you own, manage or lead a small business, this book will make you and your organization better!
reviewed by spiderman on November 28, 2006 7:44 AM
0%
0%
I have read hundreds of books on leadership, strategy, and management and have for years continued to struggle to 'operationalize' strategy & the management of strategy execution. This is the best book I have ever read to overcome my struggles and have bought copies for everyone on my leadership team. We will adopt the 'Six Disciplines' methodology and I know my business will be better for it.
reviewed by reader99 on November 29, 2006 8:08 AM
0%
0%
It's not just a book. It's a playbook. It now has a permanent place in my laptop bag.
Any business could benefit greatly by ditching their Operations Manual - if they have one - and using Six Disciplines in its place.
Loaded with worksheets, processes, workflow graphics, checklists and examples, this book brings focus, alignment and synchronization into your business operations.
Without a doubt - Buy It.
Any business could benefit greatly by ditching their Operations Manual - if they have one - and using Six Disciplines in its place.
Loaded with worksheets, processes, workflow graphics, checklists and examples, this book brings focus, alignment and synchronization into your business operations.
Without a doubt - Buy It.
reviewed by jbritt on November 29, 2006 2:48 PM
0%
0%
From the back of the book: "This book is NOT for those who are looking for a quick fix. Six Disciplines is a "long-term fitness program, not a fad diet". I think that's an excellent description. I'm "into" ITIL, and process methodology as a whole, with a technical focus. Six Disciplines has made a very nice addition to my process skills arsenal with its focus on the business side of the house.
The Six Disciplines break down as follows:
* Decide What's Important
* Set Goals That Lead
* Align Systems
* Work The Plan
* Innovate Purposefully
* Step Back
and each of those major headings above breaks down into additional sections, which are then explained fully in the book.
This is a circular, continuous improvement methodology, with outputs from one section readily feeding into another, and that there are linkages throughout the methodology.
Frankly, I wish I'd had this book a few years ago, when I was part of a project that DID create a global IS department, from several smaller departments, and set visions, mission statements, processes, and so forth in place, many of which are still in operation today. We got it done, but at times it seemed like we were winging it, as there was no central reference like this to go to, other than process steps we defined for ourselves. If I was in that situation again, this would be a process guide that I turned to. I'm honest enough to admit that I might not follow it to the letter - the curse of man is that he likes to change things to his own preferences - but it would definitely be a good starting point.
In reading the book, I'm struck that the author spends time focusing on HOW to achieve maximum benefit from each of the six interdependent Disciplines, and not just providing a laundry list without explanation. There are plenty of "lists" and "summaries" out there, but getting a strong sense of the reasoning behind a recommendation adds to the value.
The book is subtitled "Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last", and that's a great focus; while it may not scale to a larger company in its entirety, there's no reason individual departments within such couldn't benefit as well.
Along with my ITIL maps, project management maps and so forth, the Six Disciplines will form a permanent part of my reference set that I use when I work as a manager.
The Six Disciplines break down as follows:
* Decide What's Important
* Set Goals That Lead
* Align Systems
* Work The Plan
* Innovate Purposefully
* Step Back
and each of those major headings above breaks down into additional sections, which are then explained fully in the book.
This is a circular, continuous improvement methodology, with outputs from one section readily feeding into another, and that there are linkages throughout the methodology.
Frankly, I wish I'd had this book a few years ago, when I was part of a project that DID create a global IS department, from several smaller departments, and set visions, mission statements, processes, and so forth in place, many of which are still in operation today. We got it done, but at times it seemed like we were winging it, as there was no central reference like this to go to, other than process steps we defined for ourselves. If I was in that situation again, this would be a process guide that I turned to. I'm honest enough to admit that I might not follow it to the letter - the curse of man is that he likes to change things to his own preferences - but it would definitely be a good starting point.
In reading the book, I'm struck that the author spends time focusing on HOW to achieve maximum benefit from each of the six interdependent Disciplines, and not just providing a laundry list without explanation. There are plenty of "lists" and "summaries" out there, but getting a strong sense of the reasoning behind a recommendation adds to the value.
The book is subtitled "Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last", and that's a great focus; while it may not scale to a larger company in its entirety, there's no reason individual departments within such couldn't benefit as well.
Along with my ITIL maps, project management maps and so forth, the Six Disciplines will form a permanent part of my reference set that I use when I work as a manager.
reviewed by squeege on November 29, 2006 4:54 PM