As organizations grow in volume and complexity, the demands on
leadership change. The same old moves won't cut it any more. In Chess
Not Checkers, Mark Miller tells the story of Blake Brown, newly
appointed CEO of a company troubled by poor performance and low morale.
Nothing Blake learned from his previous roles seems to help him deal
with the issues he now faces. The problem, his new mentor points out, is
Blake is playing the wrong game.
The early days of an organization are like checkers: a quickly played
game with mostly interchangeable pieces. Everybody, the leader included,
does a little bit of everything; the pace is frenetic. But as the
organization expands, you can't just keep jumping from activity to
activity. You have to think strategically, plan ahead, and leverage
every employee's specific talents--that's chess. Leaders who continue to
play checkers when the name of the game is chess lose.
On his journey, Blake learns four essential strategies from the game of
chess that transform his leadership and his organization. The result:
unprecedented performance!