Book Report – Traction by Gino Wickman

Anyone who’s been stuck in the mud in Alabama knows, you step on the gas, one tire spins, the other tire does nothing. One assumes this is sorta the precarious business position Gino Wickman’s clients find themselves in when he first engages with them. Systems and processes are so sorely lacking that to call these companies merely immobilized would practically be a compliment. Let’s just say they’re worse off than Vinny Gambini and Mona Lisa Vito in a Deep South ditch and going nowhere fast. The good news is that Wickman’s learned how to straighten out the directionless and has jammed all those lessons into a fire hose of a 236-page business book called Traction. Reading it is frankly painful as it presents us with the alarming problem and let’s-get-real-or-let’s-not-play solution in one gigantic spoonful of business medicine. In other words, if you don’t implement the author’s advice you’ll surely feel like a pathetic excuse-maker who enjoys bathing in lukewarm mediocrity. And you’re not that. Right? [Ed. note: Nope. You’re good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like you.]

First off, you’re to help everyone around you develop rocks, defined as “clear 90-day priorities designed to keep them focused on what is most important.” As you might expect, there has to be a clear vision for the organization that everyone can – and will – rally around and crafting that stems from core values, a reason for being, and a niche focus. But it’s the rocks that are so vital to keeping everyone laser sharp. Wickman says that humans can only focus for 90 days at a time (and only on a handful of things at once) and literally everyone wandering the hallways should have three (ideal) to seven (max) every calendar quarter. These priorities naturally feed the advancement of the overall cause, be that revenue growth, cost containment, bottom-line enhancement, or what have you. The other thing everyone needs: a number, even if that simply means answering the phone in two rings, not three. Numbers create clarity, commitment, and competition and ultimately produce results.

Speaking of the number three, that’s how many “uniques” we must have. The author wants us to stop “trying to be all things to all people” because, bluntly, it’s “a game you will not win.” Our three differentiators and value propositions make us remarkable compared to competitors; even if they have two things in common with our offering, it’s unlikely they’d match all three. We should be saying no to prospective customers more often and celebrate the fact that doing so means we know our well-defined purpose. Wickman recalls the classic story of former Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher’s letter to a woman who wrote a complaint letter after every flight she took, noting how much she hated the open seating and casual nature of the carrier. “We will miss you,” wrote the airline innovator succinctly, “Love, Herb.” That’s it. She was not a good-fit customer for Southwest and surely your new business pipeline is clogged with those who don’t meet the ideal client profile. The author says to let ’em go and look elsewhere for revenue. Doing so helps develop glorious traction, freeing us up from the maddening mud.