We are intellectually indebted to the work of P. Ranganath Nayak and John M. Ketteringham and their book Breakthroughs! as a rich source of background material on the development of the 3M Post-it Notes, the microwave oven, Tagamet, Federal Express, and the CT Scanner, which we use as examples in our chapter on innovation.

My engineering background had made me a fan of Perrow’s groundbreaking book Normal Accidents, first published in 1984, which had a lasting influence on experts’ thinking about safety and risk. Perrow focused on how systems, rather than individuals, produce consequential failures. The importance of that distinction cannot be underestimated. Understanding how systems produce failures—and especially which kinds of systems are especially failure-prone—helps take blame out of the equation. It also helps us to focus on reducing failure by changing the system rather than by changing or replacing an individual who works in a faulty system.

At the heart of this book are the stories of dozens of people who changed careers. It analyzes their experiences through the lens of established psychological and behavioral theories. Based on the stories and extensive re- search in the social sciences, the book affirms the uncertainties of the career transition process and identifies its underlying principles. But it does not offer a ten-point plan for better transitioning, because that is not the nature of the process. Instead, it lays out a straightforward framework that describes what is really involved and some tried and proven unconventional strategies that will make the difference between staying stuck and moving on.

The book hinges on two disarmingly simple ideas. First, our working identity is not a hidden treasure waiting to be discovered at the very core of our inner being. Rather, it is made up of many possibilities: some tangible and concrete, defined by the things we do, the company we keep, and the stories we tell about our work and lives; others existing only in the realm of future potential and private dreams. Second, changing careers means changing our selves, reworking our identities. Since we are many selves, changing is not about swapping one identity for another but rather a transition process in which we reconfigure the full set of possibilities. These simple ideas alter everything we take for granted about finding a new career. They ask us to devote the greater part of our time and energy to action rather than reflection, to doing instead of planning. Hence, the unconventional strategies.

“Consistency: Walk the Walk

One of our favorite management books that got far too little attention was Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic. It's a magnificent chronicle of how one of the best hospitals in the world delivers excellence by putting patients first and innovating around the still-revolutionary notion of team-based medicine. The book also speaks to the leadership philosophy of former CEO Glenn Forbes. Forbes fiercely protected and grew the Mayo Clinic's culture of excellence. And he summed up the challenge this way: "If you've just communicated a value but you haven't driven it into the operations, into the policy, into the decision making, into the allocation of resources, and ultimately into the culture of the organization, then it’s just words.

“Consistency: Walk the Walk

One of our favorite management books that got far too little attention was Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic. It's a magnificent chronicle of how one of the best hospitals in the world delivers excellence by putting patients first and innovating around the still-revolutionary notion of team-based medicine. The book also speaks to the leadership philosophy of former CEO Glenn Forbes. Forbes fiercely protected and grew the Mayo Clinic's culture of excellence. And he summed up the challenge this way: "If you've just communicated a value but you haven't driven it into the operations, into the policy, into the decision making, into the allocation of resources, and ultimately into the culture of the organization, then it’s just words.