THRIVE: The Leader’s Guide to Building a High-Performance Culture
Andrew Freedman with Paul Elliott
Lioncrest Publishing (January 2021)

How and why strategic initiatives achieve breakthrough, high-impact results

First, I want to commend Andrew Freedman who — with substantial assistance from Paul Elliott — makes brilliant use of several reader-friendly devices throughout the lively and eloquent narrative. They include “THRIVE Accelerators (e.g. tools, templates, or examples that llluminate and energize key insights and issues),” “THRIVE Reflection” interactive exercises, mini-case studies, and an “In Summary” review of key points in each chapter.

As I began to read this book, I was again reminded of Peter Drucker’s assertion that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” and perhaps for lunch also. In Leading Change, James O’Toole  suggests that the strongest resistance to change initiatives is cultural in nature, the result of what he so aptly characterizes as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.”

Freedman wrote this book in order to share his thoughts about the dos and don’ts to keep in mind when attempting to establish a high-performance culture. One of the most difficult challenges is to get those involved to think differently about change. Thriving is an admirable goal but surviving tends to be more urgent. Moreover, as Marshall Goldsmith reminds survivors, “what got you here won’t get you there.” In fact, it won’t even let you stay here.

In or near the downtown area in most cities, there’s a farmer’s market at which (at least pre-COVID) a few merchants offer samples of their wares. In that same spirit, I now share several brief excerpts that suggest the thrust and flavor of Freedman’s thinking:

o “A thriving enterprise requires employees to understand how their contributions, results, and accomplishments link to the organization and its strategic intent.”  (Page 33)

o “Three organizational organizational influences — Environments, Systems, and Resources; Expectations and Feedback; and Rewards, Recognition, and Consequences —  align to comprise overall corporate culture.” (69)

o “For an organization and its employees to thrive, there must be alignment of the three individual influences: capacity and job fit, skills and knowledge, and motivation and preferences…They reflect the totality of the individual, and none outweighs the others — they must all fit together in a harmonic mosaic.” (103)

o “Creating clarity around what excellent performance looks like and using the new standard as the design point for recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, coaching, performance management, and career mobility can have a significant impact on your organization’s top — and bottom-line business results.” (124)

o “Organizational momentum comes  in a position to  ove your organization to a halt when employees can’t see how their role fits in with the strategy — distance and disconnection create disengagement and, ultimately, diminished performance…[Focus on] measuring what matters most and putting your people in a position to move your organization forward.”  (146)

o “New initiatives will not deliver the intended benefits with a fractional focus or effort. Leaders must set the example of full commitment to an execution and implementation effort that delivers the intended business outcomes.” (168)

o “Get your head right…In order to bridge the gap between strategy and execution, leaders need to understand the that providing steadfast leadership amidst chaos, clarity and certainty during times of great ambiguity, and fortitude when it would be easier to relent and retreat are defining characteristics that form the foundation of a high-performance culture.” (189)

o “‘Good’ results put you out of business. ‘Great’ results keep you in the middle of the pack. Organizations that THRIVE set new standards for business.” (194)

These are among the WHATs of building a high performance culture. (Presumably the WHYs are self-evident). The exceptional value of THRIVE is derived from how well Andrew Freedman explains the HOWs.

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FYI:  Paul Elliott designed the Exemplary Performance System (EPS), the framework that he and Andrew Freedman use to help leaders “view the world through a different lens. It helps create a path to process improvement, employee engagement, and consistent, higher levels of performance. The six influences of the EPS originated from the work of Tom Gilbert.”