The Excellence Habit - How Small Changes In Our Mindset Can Make A Big Difference In Our Lives: For All Who Feel Stuck by Vlad Zachary

Author:Vlad Zachary [Zachary, Vlad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Central Street Publications
Published: 2015-11-09T18:30:00+00:00

Four

“Move Your Own Cheese” for Organizations

As a PhD student at the University of South Carolina-Columbia, Taffy Williams had been working in the lab for six months, with no results to show for it. One day, in his frustration, he went to his mentor:

“The experiment you gave me is not working, so give me something else to do!”

His mentor looked up from his own work, and fired back, “You are not doing it right. Go back and figure out how to make it work!”

Within two weeks of this conversation, Taffy had figured out what the problem had been and made the experiment work. The results became the foundation of his dissertation. He ended up with six publications out of this and became one of the most productive graduate students to come out of that university. It all happened because he was pushed to look back, question why something wasn’t working, and figure out how to make it work.

Today, Taffy Williams is the CEO and President of Colonial Technology Development Company and the author of the best-selling book Think Agile—How Smart Entrepreneurs Adapt In Order To Succeed. His experience spans more than 35 years in business and development of medical technologies. He serves as a board member for multiple medical and IT companies, and former positions include president and CEO of Photogen Technologies Inc., IMCOR Pharmaceutical Co., president and founder of InKine Pharmaceutical Company, and president of Heat Biologics. Taffy Williams has raised more than $150 million for various companies, authored eight patents and several patent applications, and has authored 53 scientific publications. And it all started in this one moment, when his mentor pushed back. We might say a small change in his mindset resulted in lifelong excellence and success. Taffy Williams built a set of excellence habits that started in science and applied in his business life later on. But how can someone’s personal excellence habits become contagious in the businesses they lead?

Before we answer this question, a quick step back. For excellence in business we have to mention the seminal work of Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence. This number one national best seller shaped the views of a generation. In Search of Excellence—The Lessons From America’s Best-Run Companies is still the best collection of insights, ideas, and principles, which business leaders try to follow and apply. Peters and Waterman employ unparalleled scientific vigor in searching for the common principles that turn good companies into great ones. Their book is as thought-provoking as it is fun to read.

The business world, however, has changed since In Search of Excellence was first published. Some of the distinct changes that seem to work across the board are the need for speed and innovation within established companies. Minimum viable product, lean and on-demand delivery, agile development, inbound marketing, user experience design—these are some of the new concepts in business today. As these processes evolve, we see an increasing trend toward applying concepts from software development and the start-up world. Because

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