Domino. Tasler Nick
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Nick Tasler
Domino
Cover image: iStockphoto©ekinyalgin
Cover design: Paul McCarthy
Copyright © 2016 by Nick Tasler. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Tasler, Nick, 1978-
Domino: the simplest way to inspire change/Nick Tasler.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-119-08306-1 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-119-08314-6 (ebk);
ISBN 978-1-119-08316-0 (ebk)
1. Organizational change. 2. Strategic planning. I. Title.
HD58.8.T374 2016
658.4'063 – dc23
2015020839
INTRODUCTION: WHAT'S EATING GLEN PETERSON?
Glen Peterson opened his eyes and instinctively brushed the back of his thumb across his lips in a quick search to track down any stray drool unbecoming of a well-mannered adult. A scan of the other snoozing passengers in the business-class cabin told him it would still be hours before his flight from Melbourne touched down at LAX.
“Now what?” he muttered to himself.
During his two decades of international travel, Glen had developed a habit of popping two Advil PMs shortly after takeoff, which usually knocked him out until the pilot announced the final descent. But this time was different. Glen had woken up just a few hours after falling asleep. He couldn't stop thinking about a comment that Priya – one of his most trusted team members and vice president of Davis Medical's Asia-Pacific region – had made during a team dinner in Melbourne the night before.
The dinner capped off a standard two-day meeting with key leaders from the Asia-Pacific team to check in on a number of key initiatives, and to discuss the rollout of the new strategy Glen's leadership team had put together a few weeks before. Glen had his assistant arrange for dinner plans at a family-style Italian restaurant, because he liked the low-key atmosphere and always felt that the simple act of dishing your food from common bowls was a solid, if not so subtle, way to reinforce the value he placed on cohesion and collegiality among his teams.
To Glen's dismay, the meal revealed more confusion than cohesion.
When the heaping dishes of food were placed on the center of the table, everyone just sat there for a moment staring at the massive spread of edible options, trying to decide where to begin. That's when Priya leaned over to Glen.
“It's funny,” she said.
“What's that?” Glen had asked with a big smile, his eyes still fixed on the feast before them.
“I always get slightly nervous when I eat at a place like this.” She shook her head and smiled sheepishly. “I look at all this delicious food, and I know that my stomach will not afford me all the space I need to try everything. So I have to choose wisely in the beginning, or I might not make it to the very best entrees.”
“I know exactly what you mean!” Glen laughed. “Unfortunately for me,” he said while patting his stomach, “I think I have a little too much spare room for sampling these days.”
“Perhaps,” Priya chuckled. Then her eyes narrowed. “Our new plan for the business is kind of like that,” she said. “We have all these different bowls laid out before us, each of them filled up with heaps of initiatives and deliverables. It all looks so delicious and exciting, but something about it also makes me slightly nervous.”
“Yeah, I guess anytime we do something new it is always a little exciting and a little nerve-wracking at the same time, isn't it?” Glen said.
“Yes, I suppose so,” Priya continued. “But Glen, I think my concern about this plan is about more than just the anxiety of doing something new.”
“Okay, now you've got me curious,” Glen said. “Please do continue.”
“It seems as though we have identified some rather significant changes to the way we want to do things in the coming year, correct?”
“Yes, you could certainly say that,” Glen said.
“Well, I shared the plan with a couple of my savvier team members, James and Caroline, and – ”
“Of course. I like them both a lot,” Glen said. “Caroline in particular always impresses me.”
“Yes, they are both very bright, Glen. That's what concerns me.”
“Wait. You're concerned that you have two really bright team members? I think we need to give you more things to worry about,” Glen said with a grin.
Priya laughed.
“I'm sorry,” Glen said. “I interrupted you. Please go on. What concerns you?”
“Well, I asked them to explain the new plan to me the way they thought they would explain it to their own teams, and to tell me how they would go about their work differently each day given this new strategy. I wanted to test the plan on them – to see what stood out to them and…” Priya looked away for a moment, searching for the right words.
Glen leaned in. “And…?”
“They are two of the highest performers we have in our department and they almost completely missed the most critical changes to our plan this year. I suppose it's not fair to say that they ‘missed’ the changes. They did mention them. But I believe they missed the significance of the changes, and the implications for what they should be doing this year. The core of our plan