Summary: Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers

Review and Analysis of Kriegel and Brandt's Book

BusinessNews Publishing

• Publisher: Must Read Summaries
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9782511016398
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Strategy
• Index: Business

The must-read summary of Robert Kriegel and David Brandt's book: `Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers: Paradigm Busting Strategies for Developing Change-Ready People and Organizations`.

This complete summary of the ideas from Robert Kriegel and David Brandt's book `Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers` shows that `sacred cows` are the outdated policies, practices, procedures and paperwork that drain the productivity of companies and organisations. In their book, the authors argue that they prevent companies from changing to respond to evolving market conditions, or from taking advantage of new emerging opportunities. In an era of ever-increasing changes, however, it is vital for corporations to be able to let go of their usual ways and strategies if necessary and to make themselves open and ready to adapt to these changes. This summary shows how people working for corporations can get rid of all these `sacred cows` of the business world and bring dynamism and life to their business.

Added-value of this summary:
• Save time
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To learn more, read `Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers` and find out how to get rid of old practices and create an organisation that is ready for change.

Summary of Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers (Robert Kriegel & David Brandt)

The Ultimate Goal:
To Create a Change-Ready Organization

Main Idea

To get people on board and motivated to change an organization, you have to develop a Change-Ready attitude in them. There are five steps to building Change-Readiness:

1. Round up all your sacred cows
2. Develop a Change-Ready environment
3. Turn resistance into readiness
4. Motivate people to change
5. Develop the seven personal Change-Ready traits

Supporting Ideas

Change-Readiness is an attitude that is:

• Open to new ideas
• Excited rather than anxious about the effect of change
• Challenged by transitions rather than feeling threatened
• Committed to ongoing change as an essential and normal part of doing business effectively

Change-Readiness is an active rather than a passive state. Actions that can be taken to further enhance Change-Readiness include:

• Anticipating and initiating change
• Challenging the status quo
• Creating rather than reacting to change
• Leading the industry or leading the customer rather than following.

Good organizations react to change positively and confidently. Great organizations actually create change, and use it to their advantage.

In the final analysis, people are the gatekeepers of change. They have the power to open the door or to shut it completely. Often, change can only be realized if the people most closely involved have time to absorb and adjust to the new requirements. Try and move too quickly and they will resist – even to the point of staging a guerrilla campaign if necessary.

The key lies in hitting the right balance. For example:

If you try and make change too quickly, people will move into the Panic Zone. Here the challenges far outweigh the available resources, causing all sorts of anxiety and stress. Similarly, if the changes are incremental and unsubstantial, people will stay in the Drone Zone where resources far outweigh the challenges. Everyone in the Drone Zone accepts and strengthens the status quo.

Position people in the Change-Ready Zone and everything will come together impressively, decisively and powerfully. Companies in the Change-Ready Zone will out perform competitors, and assume long-term market leadership.

The sustainable competitive advantage lies in positioning your organization in the Change-Ready Zone. And the basis for that positioning is built around sacred cow theories and practices.

Key Thoughts

“Coming up with ideas is the easy part, but getting things done is the tough part. The place where reforms die is down in the trenches.”

– Michael Hammer

“The ability and willingness of individual e,employees to change is the key factor limiting an organization’s ability to reinvent itself. Change is personal. Forceful leadership can accomplish only so much. The shift from machine-age bureaucracy to flexible, self-managed teams requires that lots of ordinary managers and workers by psychologically prepared.”

– Erika Andersen, Proteus International

“A new computer system spreads confusion, doubt and stress. The hardware may work, the software may work, but the system won’t work if the people who are supposed to use it don’t cooperate.”

– Terry Neill, partner, Andersen Consulting

“Change is rarely accepted readily. We have installed terrific systems, great strategies, cutting-edge technologies. We’ve done reengineering and quality programs. But they never seem to live up to expectations. Why? Because when you get right down to it, people are the obstacles. The key to success of any new process, system or strategy is implementation. And that’s about people. People have to execute. They have to support the new system or it will go nowhere. Processes are easy, people are tough. It’s been my experience that people naturally resist change.”

– Head of change management division, management consultancy

“Most dissen...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Book Presentation
• Summary of Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers (Robert Kriegel & David Brandt)
• About the Summary Publisher
• Copyright