The Great Team Turnaround: How to Unlock Growth Using PVTV
Jeff Hilmire
Ripples of Hope Publishing (2021)
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” African proverb
This is the third of four volumes in the Turnaround Leadership” series; the other three focus on turning around an organization (2019), a crisis (2020), and a workplace culture (2022). I highly recommend all of them. For reasons that are best explained by Jeff Hilimire, the order of publication has little (if any) relevance to the timeline of the business narrative he develops.
He suggests this order when tracking his story’s timeline: The Culture Turnaround, The Crisis Turnaround, The 5-Day Turnaround, and The Great Team Turnaround. He is a superb raconteur, anchoring key business concepts within real-world situations, no doubt based on their wide and deep experiences. The protagonist (Will) and colleagues as well as his company and its board members are fictitious, but almost all of those who read this book can readily identify with the issues to be addressed, the questions to be answered, and the conflicts to be resolved.
According to Hilimire, “Great Team Turnaround. is an essential element of the series. It more fully brings to life Purpose, Vision, Tenets, & Values (PVTV) and introduces a new, pivotal concept to the reader, [Bo Burlingham and Jack Stack’s] The Great Game of Business (GGOB).” Page 14
This book,much deeper into each of you’ll learn muc h mo®e about Hilimire sets the scene: “As the book opens, we find Will at the conference where our story last ended [in 5-Day Turnaround]. He is preparing to give the keynote address, speaking on building an entrepreneurial, growing business through the use of PVTV. He published his book, 5-Day Turnaround, three months prior and has spent more and more time consulting, finding his true passion in helping leaders to build great teams.”
My objective is not to provide a plot synopsis. Details are best revealed by Hilimire in context, within a frame of reference. My purpose, rather, is to suggest why the material in this book could be of substantial value to C-level executives (or their equivalent) as well as to those who aspire to become one. Also, to anyone else — including other exercises — who enjoys reading a good story, whatever its subject may be.
What is the “great game of business®”? According to Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham, it helps to achieve these results: “Every member of your team was operating as if he/she owned the business;; your staff made decisions as a team with intentionality and insight; they all understood the impact they personally could have on the outcomes by working towards common goals; each team was accountable and responsible for projecting and controlling revenues and/or expenses within their area; and everyone in the company had access to the financials and understood what they meant.
While you are reading The Great Team Turnaround, I suggest that you highlight key passages, and, record your own comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), and page references as well as your responses when completing various exercises with care and candor. Pay close attention to the “plot” developments as well as to key points strategically inserted throughout the narrative. These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of the most important material later.