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Table of contents:
"Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization On the Growth Track - and Keeping It There"

• Foreword: Why you should read this book      

  
  

• Preface: Uncovering Predictable Success

  
  

• Introduction: What Predictable Success is, and why you should care

  
  

• Part 1: Taking the journey: Having a map means you know where you’re going

  
  

  • Chapter 1: Overview: What Predictable Success Looks Like from 30,000 Feet

    
    

  • Chapter 2: Early Struggle: Gasping for Cash, Finding a Market: Overcoming Gravity to Achieve Take-Off

    
    

  • Chapter 3: Fun: Sell, Sell, Sell: Fast Growth and Early Success

    
    

  • Chapter 4: Whitewater: Why Isn’t This Fun Anymore? Battling Complexity to Become Efficient

    
    

  • Chapter 5: Predictable Success: Achieving Perfect Balance: Succeed, Learn, Repeat

    
    

  • Chapter 6: Treadmill: Working Hard, Going Nowhere: The Over-Managed Organization

    
    

  • Chapter 7: The Big Rut: In The Organizational Comfort Zone: Rearranging the Deck Chairs

    
    

  • Chapter 8: Death Rattle: Going Quietly Into That Good Night

    
    

• Part 2: Arrival: Getting to Predictable Success - and staying there

  
  

  • Chapter 9: Almost there: Breaking through Whitewater into Predictable Success

    
    

  • Chapter 10: What to do when you've overshot: Recovering from Treadmill

    
    

  • Chapter 11: Staying at the peak: Maintaining Predictable Success once you’ve got there

    
    

Advance praise for Les McKeown and Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization On the Growth Track - and Keeping It There:

Les McKeown has an intuitive understanding of why and how business works. 'Predictable Success' is practical and easy to understand - exactly what any executive needs to grow his business.

- Keith Ferrazzi, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Never Eat Alone & Who's Got Your Back

Predictable Success is the 'ah-ha' book. Les's insight and real-world stories are not only entertaining, they clearly detail the different stages in the lifecycle of a company, and more importantly, how to avoid declining into 'treadmill' and 'death rattle'. A 'don't-miss' business book!

- David Greer, CEO, Wire Belt Company, Inc

"Embracing change and using it positively is a fundamental requirement for growth in any organization, and the health care industry today is ripe for change in all sectors. In Predictable Success, Les McKeown provides simple, elegant, and effective tools for all leaders to understand why and how change occurs in their organizations, and teaches us how to harness that change to achieve success and competitive advantage in our fields. Les McKeown’s ideas and insights are brilliantly written, entertaining, and easy to grasp and implement - no effective CEO or manager should miss this book!"

- Dr. Wendy Everett, President, New England Healthcare Institute

He's got it right. Les McKeown has uncovered the core dynamics of organizational growth, and mapped it to the best (and worst!) practices to achieve and maintain optimal, in-your-zone conditions - no matter where a group is in its evolution. This is real-world expertise, with simple but subtle and sophisticated prescriptions for all of us involved in getting things done with other people. And, oh yeah, he nailed how to address some key opportunities in my own company. Predictable Success should be required reading for every management team.

- David Allen, International Best-Selling Author, Getting Things Done and Making It All Work

It's difficult to predict success. Failure is far easier to predict because it's where most people end up. But if you want predictable success, then this book is for you. And, you might find that Les' formula for predicting success is not what you think.

- Michael Port, author of the NY Times bestseller, The Think Big Manifesto

Predictable Success isn't a textbook - it's a sensible and strategic playbook for any leader seeking to take their organization to the next level, and provides the conceptual framework to ensure a successful outcome.

- David A. Brandon, Chairman and CEO, Domino's Pizza

This book has come at the perfect time. Predictable Success will completely change the way you think about growing your business. Absorb its ideas before your competitors do.

- David McNally - Best-selling author of Even Eagles Need a Push and The Eagle's Secret

Les really captures the integration of key business processes, people, and leadership to consistently deliver a compelling vision, comprehensive plan, and profitable growth for the benefit of all stakeholders.

- Alan Mullaly, President & CEO, Ford Motor Co.

Les's ability to move seamlessly between teacher and facilitator with executives at the highest level in the organization made our strategic offsite one of the most valuable, results-oriented team experiences our senior executive group has had to date.

- Jeff Stanley, Senior Vice President, Human Resources Wells Dairy, Inc.

Predictable Success provides an incredibly useful blueprint for any leader who is looking for sustainable growth.

- Marshall Goldsmith, Million-selling author of 'What Got You Here Won't Get You There' - a WSJ #1

I learned more from Les about The Evolution of a Business, Organizational Development, Mentoring and Managing Change in three relatively brief meetings than in my cumulative 15 years previous business experience.

He came in from the outside and was able to both accurately identify current and future business challenges as well as provide us with strategies and solutions for dealing with them effectively. It was like he had been there all along!

I believe his message and have followed his advice (to my benefit) ever since!

- Gregg White, Vice President, Finials Doors & Windows

After successfully growing my business for many years, in 2001 it became clear we needed to develop both our management benchstrength and our management processes if we were to reach the next stage in our growth. As the business owner and President, I was personally stretched thin. I found much of my daily activity was given over to firefighting. While we had a solid business with passionate, committed people, much of the fun had gone out of our business and the strong 'family' culture that I had built was coming under threat.

That Fall my management team and I started working with Les McKeown. We quickly came to the conclusion that we needed to rebuild our organization's 'chassis' - the entire management infrastructure - while at the same time keeping the business moving forward. This was clearly going to be stressful and complicated - but we all agreed it was vital if we were to get to the next stage in growth.

Using the Predictable Success process, Les helped us identify the changes we needed to make in how we were running the business, guided us each step of the way, and held us accountable for implementing the actions we agreed. With Les's facilitation, we re-defined our management roles, brought in new expertise to the management team, restructured our group interactions and communications, and revamped some functional areas and introduced some new ones such as recruiting, training and retention.

We found one of the most important benefits of the Predictable Success process to be the open, secure environment in which it is conducted. With Les's facilitation, our managers were encouraged to communicate openly - to express fears and concerns, and to jointly discuss the implications of the many changes we were making.

As we implemented the Predictable Success program over a number of years, we totally transformed how our business is managed. Our management team deepened in knowledge, experience and benchstrength, and now shoulders the daily responsibility of managing the business. As managers, we've been able to break down many of the 'silo's' in the business, and we work much more cohesively and cross-functionally than previously.

Personally, I'm now able to spend more time mentoring and coaching my great team, and I spend much less time managing crises and fixing problems. As an organization, we communicate better, think more strategically, and make better decisions, all as a direct result of the Predictable Success program. Most importantly, the fun is back, and although we are now employing almost three times the number of people we were when we started Predictable Success, we have been able to retain much of our 'family' culture.

If you're a business owner or a CEO looking to take your business to the next level, I'd strongly recommend you contact Les McKeown. The best investment you can make in your future growth is in the Predictable Success program.

- John Higman, President, Pacific Architectural Millwork, Inc.

When my management team and I first started working with Les McKeown, we knew we had the fundamentals needed to make it to the next stage in our growth - a great product, great people, a great track record and a commitment to excellence. What we didn't have was a clear road map on how to get there, and particularly, how to manage a business of that size.

The Predictable Success methodology provided us with that road map. At an initial diagnostic workshop, Les facilitated an in-depth analysis of our five-year goals and the likely barriers to achieving those goals. Based on that analysis, and after spending time with me and each of my senior management team, Les was able to quickly draw up and agree with us a customized workplan to enable us to overcome those barriers to growth on an accelerated timescale.

Working with Les, we restructured our org chart, our reporting structure, our management and decision-making processes, and our hiring, training and retention activities - all to accelerate our growth. We developed needed processes and policies, and discarded those no longer appropriate to our stage of development. More importantly, we learned how to operate as a team at a higher level.

Throughout the Predictable Success process, I learned a lot about myself, and developed personally as a CEO. With Les's help, my General Manager and I were able to clarify our roles, and together we have been able to devote more time to mentoring and coaching our excellent management team for the next stage in our growth.

If you want a road map to get the the next stage with your organization, I urge you to get on board with Les McKeown. Quite simply - there is no better, more intuitive, results-focussed business growth process than Predictable Success.

- Chan Lundy, President, Pella Products of Kansas City, Inc

Les McKeown has for over 5 years assisted us in the growth and development of our distributorship network. His understanding of what makes a business succeed - and a passionate commitment to teaching others how to accomplish 'Predictable Success' - has been our secret weapon and can be yours, too.

- Mel Haught, CEO, Pella Corp

Les McKeown is absolutely on top of his game. Les not only knows - and shows - how your businesses can grow and succeed, he explains it a way that is intuitive, entertaining and immediately actionable.

- Darryl Hutson, CEO, American Express Incentive Services

When I first started working with Les McKeown I had just had taken responsibility for a major division of our family business. This division had gone through a period of poor results and high turnover in senior management, negatively impacting employee morale.

Right from the outset, Les helped me identify and stay focussed on the key steps needed to get through this period of what he terms 'Whitewater', and to return the business to 'Predictable Success'. Starting with a diagnostic workshop facilitated by Les, my management team and I developed a three year growth plan, which we then 'stress-tested' to identify what we needed to do to get there.

Les and the Predictable Success methodology provided us with a powerful and intuitive framework to achieve our growth goals. We were able to easily identify the structural, managerial and process changes needed to reach those goals, and Les was invaluable in keeping us on track: he held us accountable for the changes we agreed to undertake, and ensured we kept the commitments we made to each other. Although Les is non-prescriptive by nature, and works hard to avoid building a 'dependency culture', he was direct with us when necessary, and never shirked from telling me what I needed to hear.

Working with Les has undoubtedly accelerated both the development and growth of our business, and my personal growth as a CEO. My management team and I have worked with Les for four years now, and the Predictable Success methodology underpins almost every major decision we make. It has changed the way in which we think, communicate and manage the business together.

I've experienced first-hand the positive impact and lasting change that Les McKeown's Predictable Success brings to a growing business - and to its leaders. If you want to structure your organization to get to the next stage in growth, and also want to develop personally as a leader, I strongly recommend you call Les McKeown and get started with Predictable Success.

- Matt Long, President, J.E. Higgins Group

When Les McKeown first came to work with me and my team, we had grown a successful business 'on the fly' - our growth to that point had required only a minimum of structure and process. As the business owner and president, I could see that successfully getting to the next stage in growth would require us to develop and mature as a management team, and to put in place more robust decision-making and management processes.

Since then, over the past three years, Les McKeown's Predictable Success has completely revolutionized how I and my team manage our business. Our decision-making process, our short and long-term planning, and our growth and profitability have all improved as a direct result. Les utilized his Predictable Success methodology to help us redesign how we managed the business from the ground up to meet the needs of our future growth.

Using personal one-on-ones, team workshops, group and individual coaching, training and facilitation, Les guided us to discover for ourselves the barriers to our future growth, and the solutions to overcome those barriers. Using the Predictable Success methodology, we put the entire business through a top-to-toe 'CAT scan' and implemented needed changes in our organization structure, our management roles, our communication and decision-making processes, and our hiring, development and retention activities. We made important changes to the management team itself, and my own role moved more from that of an 'owner/manager' to a professional CEO.

While these are all changes that we would undoubtedly have implemented ourselves eventually, working with Les vastly accelerated the process, and saved us from a multitude of potential 'dead-ends'. I'm convinced our investment in Predictable Success has repaid itself many times over.

I thoroughly recommend Les McKeown and the Predictable Success program for any business wanting to break through to the next stage in growth.

- John Estabrook, CEO, Horne Building Specialties, Inc,

When we needed a truly exceptional keynote speaker for our tenth annual all-employee meeting, I'm delighted to say we found exactly what we were looking for - and more - in Les McKeown.

As our conference (entitled "10 Years and Growing") was to celebrate our ten-year anniversary, we wanted a speaker who could motivate and challenge our entire workforce with a vision for continued growth in the decade ahead. Les met our challenge - and surpassed our expectations - with a stirring, entertaining and visionary presentation that left everyone in the hall excited, re-energized and wanting more.

The content of Les's keynote presentation (which was based on his 'Predictable Success' methodology) was so strikingly fresh and insightful, and pitched so perfectly to our needs at that precise stage in our development, that everyone who attended left the conference with a genuinely new perspective as to how we could continue to grow and achieve new successes in the years to come, both individually and as a team.

Ahead of the conference, I was particularly impressed with Les's commitment to fully understanding our needs and goals for his presentation. Les scheduled not one, but three conference calls with me and my senior executives, in addition to reading our most recent employee surveys and other data to fully brief himself of our history, current situation, and future challenges.

From the outset, Les went out of his way to make us feel comfortable that we had made the right choice in selecting him as our keynote speaker: before, during and after his presentation, Les's conduct, communication and materials were first-class - professional, timely and complete - and he was always available to answer any questions we had, which he did with honesty, integrity and thoroughness.

After the conference, Les followed up with us to ensure that our needs for the session had been met and to solicit our feedback. Again, this was not limited to just one follow-up call, but multiple calls with me and my senior colleagues.

So impressed were we with both the Predictable Success methodology, and Les's ability to communicate with every level of the organization - C-level executives, senior and middle managers and individual contributors alike - that we subsequently engaged Les to work with our senior management team.

I can thoroughly recommend Les McKeown as a captivating, entertaining, world-class speaker for your next event. Les is an event planner's delight, and your audience will be glad you hired him.

- Dianna Baker, Vice President, Employee Development and Human Resources, American Express Incentive Services

Les has consistently delivered for us over the past 5 years. He has consistently added value, motivated, challenged and inspired us at every level in our organization: from our Board and senior managers, to our front line contributors. Les has a unique ability to lock in to an organizations' needs and deliver precisely-targeted content in a lucid, disarming, entertaining, yet highly content-rich manner. We are a better organization for Les' involvement with us.

- Al Carlson, PDSN HR Director, Pella Corporation

Very few consultants have made the transition into understanding the implications of the Internet age. Les McKeown has clearly bridged the digital divide through his groundbreaking work on the impact of corporate lifecycles on employee retention and management development. He has helped us understand our own business from a profound angle.

- President/CEO, Overture Services, Inc, a Yahoo! Company