Build an A Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve
Whitney Johnson
Harvard Business School Press (May 2018)

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” Warren Buffett

I selected the Buffett observation to serve as the subject of this brief commentary because it refers to patterns of behavior that most of us adopt, consciously or unconsciously. Often, these routines define and eventually control what we do as well as when and how we do it.

According to Whitney Johnson, companies such as WD-40 can achieve and then sustain extraordinary success with a strategy she characterizes as “personal disruption.” It is based on a process of ongoing learning by everyone involved throughout the given enterprise: “you start as a beginner, embracing the confusion that comes with being a novice; you experience a state of deep engagement as you learn, grow, and gain traction; and you feel the joy of mastery once you get to the top of your learning curve. But then — crucial — you find a new challenge to tackle and the cycle starts over; human beings are wired to learn and change, not to stay in one place, doing the same thing over and over again.”

FYI, WD-40 has achieved and then sustained a dominant share of more than 80% for more than 60 years. How about employee engagement at a time when Gallup research suggests that, on average, employee engagement is less than 30% in U.S. companies, at WD-40 “a whopping 93 percent of employees consider themselves to be engaged in their work, and 97 percent say they are excited about the future of the company.”

In an article published by Forbes magazine, Mary Ray, a co-founder of MyHealthTeams, suggests that these are the defining characteristics of an A Player: they have a strong desire to compete; develop a champion’s mindset; possess self-discipline and integrity; and think ahead, anticipate, and act. The profile is even clearer if we add insatiable curiosity, personal accountability, highly developed empathy, and an eagerness to communicate, cooperate, and especially, to collaborate.

Note Johnson’s reference to “personal disruption.” Keep that concept in mind as you work your way through her narrative. She explains how to avoid or overcome what James O’Toole so aptly characterizes as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.” Individuals need to “disrupt” their cherished assumptions and premises. Leaders must help their direct reports to do it. I think this is a must read for both supervisors and those entrusted to their care.

Not all of those who participate in this learning process will necessarily become an A Player but, more to the point, they will at least increase their personal growth and professional development. Moreover, in a global marketplace such as the one we now survey, change is the only constant. Therefore, an A Player must be adaptable or will inevitably become a B, C, D or worse.

Johnson is a relentless empiricist and diehard pragmatist who is determined to understand what works, what doesn’t, and WHY. These are among the strategic objectives on which she focuses:

o How to increase the percentage of employees who are actively and productively engaged?
o How to inspire self-motivation in others?
o How to attract A Players?
o How to develop them?
o How to retain A Players?
o How to develop what Peter Senge characterizes as a “total learning organization”?

There is no business thinker I admire more than I do Whitney Johnson. This will be her most valuable book — thus far — because the material she shares will have wider and deeper impact. Read and then re-read it with appropriate care.

To those who wonder “Why bother?” I suggest they consider this suggestion by Ann Landers (Eppie Lederer): “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”