Quotes from Jack Stack

I've seen workaholics who've destroyed people. They become obsessed. They send out terrible messages. They make people feel guilty if they don't show up on Saturday. What a stupid message. People should be giving that time to their families.

you can't have an effective bonus program if you don't have a forecasting system that's taking people forward to where they want

overcoming your fear of disclosure

When you report to people every week about the condition of the company, you establish credibility. When you get them to write the information down, you teach. Education comes by repetition.

there is no security in ignorance.

COMMUNICATING IS ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT CHALLENGES IN ANY BUSINESS, BECAUSE PEOPLE HEAR WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR.

go after the ones who are greedy, who only want to help themselves, who exploit other people for personal gain. But the fault lies in those individuals, not in the nature of capitalism.

When you flaunt what you've got, when you intimidate, when you treat people badly, you lose power.

THE SEVENTH HIGHER LAW IS: When You Raise the Bottom, the Top Rises.

In this company, you get equity. When you play the Great Game of Business, that's the measurement of success.

When people focus on their narrow specialties, the different departments go to war. They don't function as the parts of one company. They act more like competing factions.

the balance sheet is the company's thermometer. It lets you know whether you're healthy or not.

1. You Get What You Give.

6. You Can Sometimes Fool the Fans, But You Can Never Fool the Players.

KEY POINT: If you don't stabilize a sales forecast, you can't control your company. If you control a forecast, you control the world.

3. CELEBRATE EVERY WIN.

one reason we like liquidity as a Balance-Sheet goal. It greatly increases the odds that we will have the cash we need to pay bonuses and do a lot of other things.

If you want people to grow, you have to let them take risks, and you have to let them fail.

by failing to tap the strengths of every individual in our company, we were heading toward a dead end by dumbing people down.

change our focus so that the company was our product. The GGOB became an accelerated learning process we used to bring about a cultural and behavioral change and take down the walls that our command-and-control system had created.

THE ULTIMATE HIGHER LAW When you appeal to the highest level of thinking, you get the highest level of performance.

when people are feeling good about themselves, they begin to feel good about others as well.

The GGOB addresses the notion that the longer you stay with the company, and the more time you invest, the greater the chances are of reaping your rewards if the venture is successful.

Standards are tools for finding solutions. benchmarks can turn an operation around