Under the Hood - by Stan Slap (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

You can't sell it outside if you can't sell it inside.

You want maximum business performance? Look under the hood and you'll find your employee culture: it is the power that drives the enterprise engine. To harness that rumbling power you've got to solve the mystery of what an employee culture actually is, how it operates and how to move it forward. These are the keys that this book will put right in your hands.

Renowned business culture expert Stan Slap knows the difference between understanding your employees and understanding your employee culture. The distinction isn't semantics; it's the key to whether your strategies will succeed or fail. This myth-busting book reveals why an employee culture is an independent organism with its own rules, beliefs, and motivations--and the power to make or break any management plan (and any manager right along with it).

Slap shows you how to get whatever you want from your employee culture, whether it's improved accountability, innovation, flexibility, resilience, energy, loyalty, or trust. Along the way he solves mysteries that have puzzled managers since the first Mesopotamian farmer hired some help, including:

Why does an employee culture really resist change?

What does it care about more than money?

Why does it respond to leadership differently than to management?

How does it talk to itself, and what does it mean when it won't talk to you?

Why are company values the most dangerous threat to gaining its trust?

If you have a wonderful employee culture, this book will help you scale it. If you have a troubled employee culture, this book will help you fix it. If you have an employee culture under pressure, this book will help you ease it. If you have a new employee culture, this book will help you shape it. And if you are investing in a company, this book will help you protect your greatest purchasable asset.

Under the Hood is informed by immaculate research, including surveys of more than 15,000 employees from companies the world over. It's packed with original tactics that have driven performance for many organizations and countless managers. And it includes jaw-dropping inside stories of employee cultures from the likes of Samsung, Oracle, Progressive, CNN during wartime, Paul McCartney's band, and the Super Bowl film crew.

It's all delivered in classic Stan Slap style: profound and provocative, heartfelt and often hysterical. This is not simply a management book; it is the business case for humanity. Management advice doesn't get realer or more important than this.

Review Quotes

"I have never met anyone who knows more about employee culture than Stan Slap. If you want your own culture to stay great or get great, you must read this book."

--ROBERT HOHMAN, chief executive officer, GLASSDOOR.COM

"A supportive relationship between a company and its employee culture is essential to business success. Under the Hood is the essential guide to achieving it."

--CRAIG JELINEK, president and CEO, COSTCO

"Under the Hood is a major accomplishment. This is serious new information about how to create enterprise success. It belongs in the hands of every manager responsible for their company's performance."
--TODD GEBHART, vice chairman, INTEL SECURITY

"Wow. Stan Slap has a powerful message about improving employee culture and delivers it in a way only he can: with passion, punch, and respect. Under the Hood is a turbo-charged ride from a master communicator, with important lessons for every leader."

--KEN BLANCHARD, coauthor of The One Minute Manager(R) and The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do

"Employee culture is the most important asset of any company. If you want to know how to make the most of it in your company, Under the Hood is a must-read book--and a must-heed game changer."

--DR. THOMAS GIRST, head of cultural engagement, BMW GROUP

"The more you read Under the Hood, the less you'll understand how you ever got along without it."
--JOE BERGER, president, Americas, HILTON

"Slap's advice, guidance and directions are truly priceless. This is one of the most important business books ever written."

--JASON JENNINGS, New York Times bestselling author of The Reinventors and Think Big, Act Small

"Under the Hood provides a clear and compelling guide to putting your employee culture into motion. If you don't want to use hope as a strategy, read this book."

--JAMES CURLEIGH, president, LEVI'S(R), LEVI STRAUSS

"Under The Hood is a book that needs to be highlighted, quoted, referenced, remembered, and applied on a daily basis."

--KIP KNIGHT, president, HR BLOCK RETAIL

"This remarkable book will help you supercharge what your employee culture has to offer your business. It is vital to a well-run organization."

--VITTORIO SEVERINO, chief operating officer, North America, HSBC

About the Author

STAN SLAP is president of the international consulting company SLAP, renowned for achieving maximum commitment in manager, employee, and customer cultures. His work has produced legendary impact for a who's who of successful companies--the kind that don't include "Patience" on their list of corporate values. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Bury My Heart at Conference Room B. He lives in San Francisco.