Wiring the Winning Organisation - Gene Kim & Steven J. Spear
CoLab Book Club - October 2024
Our #CoLabBookClub pick for October was Wiring the Winning Organisation by Gene Kim and Steven J. Spear. Known for their work on business transformation, Kim and Spear deliver a practical model for building high-performing, resilient organisations. Their strategies sparked some engaging discussions for us - and plenty of note-taking!
Overview
The book is well written and well researched. It presents a new theory of performance management centred around “Social Circuitry and Organisational Wiring” and revolved around three guiding principles:
Simplify – promotes independence of action,
Amplify – supports effective feedback loops, and
Slowify – provides time for reflection and improvement.
The approach organises a company into three layers of a sociotechnical system, where Layers 1 and 2 cover the technical aspects, and Layer 3 (the Social Circuitry) focuses on human collaboration. Through examples across industries - from hotel renovations to NASA - this structure provides a roadmap for leaders aiming to embed agility and problem-solving capabilities in their teams.
Our Key Takeaways
✔️ Reframing Familiar Concepts – this model gave us new insights into operational issues and highlighted the impact of wiring on both efficiency and responsiveness.
✔️ Empowering at All Levels – Kim and Spear emphasise autonomy, enabling teams to make proactive problem-solving and adapt in real-time.
✔️ Growth as a Core Value – improvement isn’t just encouraged, it’s embedded as a value.
✔️ Systems Thinking – the book advocates for a systems approach, helping organisations anticipate challenges and avoid quick fixes in favour of sustainable solutions.
Who is it For?
This book is ideal for leaders, managers, and consultants working toward operational excellence. It would be a very useful toolkit for an organisation wanting to move consciously from Startup to Maturity.
Thank you!
A huge thank you to Gene Kim and Steven J. Spear for this structured, practical guide to building resilient organisations. Wiring the Winning Organisation is a valuable resource that we’ll be referencing for a long time.
Cheers Elisabeth Stiller, Pete Tansey, Peter Bink (host), and Toni Wilson for tuning in. We were a small group this month but the discussions were BIG!
An extra shout out this month to Shane Gibson and Murray Robinson and their No Nonsense Agile Podcast. Their episode #108 with Gene Kim added useful insights to our conversation.
https://nononsenseagile.podbean.com/e/0108-wiring-the-winning-organisation-with-gene-kim/
#Leadership #BookReview #NoNonsenseAgile