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Quotes About Organization

Mr. O'Hanlon's not prejudiced, Jean Louise. He's a sadist." "Then why did you all let him get up there?" "Because he wanted to." "Sir?" "Oh yes," said her father vaguely. "He goes about addressing citizens' councils all over the state. He asked permission to speak to ours and we gave it to him. I rather think he's paid by some organization in Massachusetts—
~ Harper Lee
Hard work applied properly and intelligently, and thinking in an organized manner, must lead to success.
~ Harry Lorayne
The best way to deliver a speech is to talk it in your own words, thought for thought. A speech is a sequence of thoughts; if the thoughts are out of sequence, the speech won't make much sense. Now, you know how to use the Link system to remember things in sequence.
~ Harry Lorayne
For some reason all the middle-aged women he knew were very efficient.
~ Haruki Murakami
a highly fragmented day is also a very lazy day.
~ Harvard Business Review
Management must think of itself not as producing products but as providing customer-creating value satisfactions. It must push this idea (and everything it means and requires) into every nook and cranny of the organization. It has to do this continuously and with the kind of flair that excites and stimulates the people in it.
~ Harvard Business School Press
The company's approach illustrates a point I stress repeatedly to my clients: Structure divides; social operating mechanisms integrate. I hasten to add that structure is essential. If an organization didn't divide tasks, functions, and responsibilities, it would never get anything done. But social operating mechanisms are required to direct the various activities contained within a structure toward an objective.
~ Harvard Business School Press
Because major change requires people across an entire organization to adapt, you as a leader need to resist the reflex reaction of providing people with the answers. Instead, force yourself to transfer, as Roosevelt did, much of the work and problem solving to others. If you don't, real and sustainable change won't occur. In addition, it's risky on a personal level to continue to hold on to the work that should be done by others.
~ Harvard Business School Press
To work in an organization whose value system is unacceptable or incompatible with one's own condemns a person both to frustration and to nonperformance.
~ Harvard Business School Press
the organization must learn to think of itself not as producing goods or services but as buying customers
~ Harvard Business School Press
When you look across the good-to-great transformations, they consistently display three forms of discipline: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. When you have disciplined people, you don't need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don't need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you don't need excessive controls.
~ Harvard Business School Press
Transformations often begin, and begin well, when an organization has a new head who is a good leader and who sees the need for a major change.
~ Harvard Business School Press
Articulate each meeting's purpose (Making an announcement? Delivering a report?). Terminate the meeting once the purpose is accomplished. Follow up with short communications summarizing the discussion, spelling out new work assignments and deadlines for completing them. General Motors CEO Alfred Sloan's legendary mastery of meeting follow-up helped secure GM's industry dominance in the mid-twentieth century.
~ Harvard Business School Press
Executives trying to recognize high levels of achievement motivation in their people can look for one last piece of evidence: commitment to the organization. When people love their jobs for the work itself, they often feel committed to the organizations that make that work possible. Committed employees are likely to stay with an organization even when they are pursued by headhunters waving money.
~ Harvard Business School Press
In both small and large organizations, a successful guiding team may consist of only three to five people during the first year of a renewal effort. But in big companies, the coalition needs to grow to the 20 to 50 range before much progress can be made in phase three and beyond.
~ Harvard Business School Press
Vision and Priorities In the press of day-to-day activities, leaders often fail to adequately communicate their vision to the organization, and in particular, they don't communicate it in a way that helps their subordinates determine where to focus their own efforts. How often do I communicate a vision for my business? Have I identified and communicated three to five key priorities to achieve that vision? If asked, would my employees be able to articulate the vision and priorities?
~ Harvard Business School Press
Our research indicates that of the six leadership styles, the authoritative one is most effective, driving up every aspect of climate. Take clarity. The authoritative leader is a visionary; he motivates people by making clear to them how their work fits into a larger vision for the organization. People who work for such leaders understand that what they do matters and why. Authoritative leadership also maximizes commitment to the organization's goals and strategy.
~ Harvard Business School Press
Too often, senior managers convey that everything is important. They start new initiatives without stopping other activities, or they start too many initiatives at the same time. They overwhelm and disorient the very people who need to take responsibility for the work.
~ Harvard Business School Press
If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.
~ Harvey Mackay
There was a way that you could sleep properly when a house had been straightened up, when all the Ranger Ricks were put up on the shelf and the toys were put in the plastic box and tomorrow's clothes were laid out neatly on a chair. But then again, when everything was left out all over the floor and the dishes were still in the sink, there was a way that you could dream.
~ Heather O'Neill
I've never been able to understand 'faith' myself, nor to see how a just God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion out of an infinitude of false ones - by faith alone. It strikes me as a sloppy way to run an organization, whether universe or a smaller one.
~ Heinlein
I was Paul Schrader's assistant for six months before I went to film school, and he's very much about knowing what's going to happen on every page before you even start writing dialogue - the entire plot and character arcs are mapped out.
~ Jonathan Levine
Writing, for me, is the great organiser. It's while writing that I think most deeply about things.
~ A. A. Gill
In writing a series of stories about the same characters, plan the whole series in advance in some detail, to avoid contradictions and inconsistencies.
~ L. Sprague de Camp