ChangeThis: Issue 99

"Companies are not really machines, so much as complex, dynamic, growing systems. After all, companies are really just groups of people who have banded together to achieve some kind of purpose."

"The noise is deafening, the signal weak. Everything is too complicated and time-sucking. Welcome to the age of excess everything. Success in this new age looks different, and demands a new and singular skill: Subtraction."

"Even though our leadership choices are no longer life-or-death (for the most part), unpredictable local and global economies, new business models arising from shifts in technology and consumer buying patterns, and a changing workforce mean that it's critical for organizations to have strong and flexible leaders."

"At the core of trust-and-track is an optimistic belief about people. I have always believed that if you trained people right and took care of them, they would do the right thing for both themselves and the business."

"The framework of this manifesto will help managers and leaders identify the employees who represent the future of their business, and it will help them spot and eliminate the organizational vampires that may kill it."

"If you read the pages of the Wall Street Journal you would come to believe that business is about big deals—about multi-billion dollar acquisitions, massive pay packages for executives, macroeconomic forces ... In fact, the secret of success is in the little things."