The most successful high trajectory companies in the world never celebrate too early and never settle. Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, Google, Disney, and Facebook are constantly evaluating ways to do better. They use the continuous improvement process to look for areas to advance through lessons learned in the losses and wins.
It reminds me of an interview I watched with a head scout who worked for some of the most and least successful sports franchises in American football. The interviewer asked him this simple question – why do some organizations struggle with ups and downs for many years but never succeed consistently, whereas other teams seem to be in the mix almost every year fighting for titles. Basically – what is the difference between a consistent winner and consistent loser?
He laughed and said – that’s an easy question to answer. The bad teams pat themselves on the back for wins and talk about how close they were to real success, never really evaluating how close they were to losing more games. The great teams focus on the losses and search for the how and why they lost. Of course the great teams celebrate the wins but they are not overwhelmed by their own egos and live in a state of self reflection. They are experts at evaluating results properly.
His answer made sense to me. I have seen the same behaviours in the boardroom in many of the companies I have consulted. They don’t spend enough time on reflection and they don’t do a good enough job of evaluating results. They simply keep doing what they have been doing for years and expect the same results. They focus more on why they won than on what they’ve lost.Check out my video that goes into more detail.
