Wiring the Winning Organization - by Gene Kim & Steven J Spear (Hardcover)

About the Book

In Wiring the Winning Organization, Gene Kim and Dr. Steve Spear present a groundbreaking theory on how leaders win by creating "organizational wiring" to liberate individual creativity, ingenuity, and collaboration toward a common purpose. Backed by numerous case studies, they present three key mechanisms--slowification to make problem-solving easier, simplification to make problems easier to solve, and amplification to ensure problems are seen and solved. This blueprint creates resilience, agility, engagement, profitability, and the enhancement of overall organizational performance.

Book Synopsis

"Elegant and simple. It's a teacher's best companion--a lesson plan for teaching the theory of performance." --Adm. John Richardson (ret.), from his foreword to the book

"This book is a must-read that deeply informs leaders on how to create great systems for outstanding performance and to win." --Jeffrey K. Liker, PhD, author of The Toyota Way, 2nd edition

A 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist and Shortlisted for the 2024 Business Book Award.

Forget vision, grit, or culture. Wiring the Winning Organization reveals the hidden circuitry that drives organizational excellence.

Drawing on decades of meticulous research of high-performing organizations and cross-population surveys of tens of thousands of employees, award-winning authors Gene Kim and Dr. Steven J. Spear introduce a groundbreaking new theory of organizational management. Organizations win by using three mechanisms to slowify, simplify, and amplify, which systematically moves problem-solving from high-risk danger zones to low-risk winning zones.

Wiring the Winning Organization shines an investigative light on some of the most famous organizations, including Toyota, Amazon, Apple, and NASA, revealing how leaders create the social wiring that enables exceptional results.

This is not feel-good inspiration or armchair philosophy but a data-driven prescriptive playbook for creating excellence grounded in real-world results and proven theory. This is the rare business book that delivers concrete tools--not platitudes--to convert mediocrity into mastery.

"All organizations, large and small, public and private, are overwhelmed by complexity, multiple priorities, conflicting goals, shifting landscapes, and constrained resources. Kim and Spear lay out an amazing vision of the social circuitry for organizations to not only handle this but thrive while doing so." --Phil Venables, Chief Information Security Officer, Google Cloud; former Board Director, Goldman Sachs Bank

"This book clearly teaches you how to rewire your organization to move with focused, sustained urgency and win!" --Courtney Kissler, SVP Customer and Retail Technology, Starbucks

"In a world where complexity is the norm, Kim and Spear provide the essential guide for those in need of a compass for the maze of today's business environment." --David Silverman, CEO of CrossLead, coauthor of Team of Teams

Review Quotes

"This book clearly teaches you how to rewire your organization to move with focused, sustained urgency and win!"--Courtney Kissler, SVP, Customer and Retail Technology Starbucks

"Through a coherent mix of new terminology, case studies, thought experiments, and guided reflections--all backed by sound research--the authors provide an irrefutable case for more deliberate, reflective communication and action as part of a winning organizational strategy. Highly recommended."--Matthew Skelton, CEO of Conflux and co-author of Team Topologies

"This is a fabulous book that I highly recommend. I'm not aware of anyone who has put their finger on the fundamental truth that Kim and Spear have articulated so amazingly well: successful organizations flow from leaders who create the conditions in which many others thrive."--Paul Gaffney, former CTO and head of technology, The Home Depot, Kohl's and Dick's Sporting Goods

"A great piece of work! ...the authors not only provide an encompassing schema for those looking to drive performance by improving operations, but they also help take practices developed for particular industries and functions and generalize them across all contexts. The guidance they provide is outstanding."--Joel Podolny, CEO of Honor Education and former VP & Dean of Apply University

"All organizations, large and small, public and private, are overwhelmed by complexity, multiple priorities, conflicting goals, shifting landscapes, and constrained resources. Kim and Spear lay out an amazing vision of the social circuitry for organizations to not only handle this but thrive while doing so."--Phil Venables, CISO Google Cloud, former Board Director Goldman Sachs Bank

"Having spent the majority of my thirty-five-year US Navy career and subsequent private industry career working in large complex industrial organizations, what Kim and Spear have written completely resonates with me. I wish I had read this book decades ago; it would have helped me be a better leader."--RADM Mark R. Whitney, US Navy (ret.), USN Executive Director of Hampton Roads Maritime Industrial Base Ecosystem

"In a world where complexity is the norm, Kim and Spear provide the essential guide for those in need of a compass for the maze of today's business environment. This is more than a book--it's a toolkit for transforming your organization and rising to the challenges of our ever-changing landscape."--David Silverman, President of American Atheists, CEO of CrossLead, coauthor of Team of Teams

"The framework in this book brings together the most useful insights I've learned over my thirty years of study and practice. Save yourself the time and start here."--Jeffrey Fredrick, coauthor of Agile Conversations

"This book is a must-read that deeply informs leaders on how to create great systems for outstanding performance and to win."--Jeffrey K. Liker, author of The Toyota Way

"Who hasn't been in an organization where everyone is super busy, yet delivering value to customers is still super slow and requires vast amounts of perseverance and patience? Gene and Steve's book will guide you on how to move from that 'danger zone" to a 'winning zone' by improving the social circuitry, which is present in all organizations but all too often neglected."--Manuel Pais, coauthor of Team Topologies

"Wiring a Winning Organization is an indispensable guide for modern leaders seeking to navigate the complexities of organizational success. With a keen focus on avoiding pitfalls and steering clear of the danger zone, this book provides actionable insights that propel a company into the winning zone. Drawing from a wealth of practical case studies, it equips leaders with the tools needed to lead effectively."--Christopher Porter, SVP, CISO, Fannie Mae

"Wiring the Winning Organization illuminates the dynamics that drive organizations to success or failure. More importantly, the book condenses a century of disparate insights into a grand unified theory of management. Simple enough for anyone to understand but profound enough to address the needs of the world's most high-stakes organizations, this book has the potential to equip generations of leaders with principles that are both effective and humane."--Andrew Davis, author of Mastering Salesforce DevOps

"With a compelling mix of carefully selected case studies from diverse industries and times, combined with actionable insights and reader prompts, Wiring the Winning Organization offers a unique blend of theory and practice. This book is an invaluable read for anyone seeking to create a winning organization--one where greatness can be achieved not by accident but because it is wired to do so."--Adrienne Shulman, Founder of Tenger Ways

About the Author

Gene Kim is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, researcher, and multiple award-winning CTO. He has been studying high-performing technology organizations since 1999 and was the founder and CTO of Tripwire for 13 years. He is the author of six books, The Unicorn Project (2019), and co-author of the Shingo Publication Award-winning Accelerate (2018), The DevOps Handbook (2016), and The Phoenix Project (2013). Since 2014, he has been the founder and organizer of DevOps Enterprise Summit, studying the technology transformations of large, complex organizations. He lives in Portland, OR, with his wife and family.

Dr. Steven J. Spear, DBA, MS, MS, is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and author of influential publications like The High-Velocity Edge, "Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System," and "Fixing Healthcare from the Inside, Today." An advisor to corporate and governmental leaders across a range of fields, he is also the founder of See to Solve, a business process software company. Spear once worked in finance, at a Congressional agency, and at the University of Tokyo. He has a doctorate from Harvard, masters degrees in mechanical engineering and management from MIT, and a bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton. He and his wife, Miriam, an architect, live in Brookline MA, where they volunteer for several community organizations.