“Finally, everyone involved must give the decision reached by the group full support. This does not necessarily mean agreement: so long as the participants commit to back the decision, that is a satisfactory outcome.”

“an organization does not live by its members agreeing with one another at all times about everything. It lives instead by people committing to support the decisions and the moves of the business.”

“What is the role of the supervisor in the staff meeting—a leader, observer, expediter, questioner, decision-maker? The answer, of course, is all of them. Please”

“As a general rule, you have to accept that no matter where you work, you are not an employee—you are in a business with one employee: yourself. You are in competition with millions of similar businesses.”

“This device became a big hit. Our new challenge became how to satisfy demand for it. To put this in perspective, we were a company composed of a handful of people with a new type of design and a fragile technology, housed in a little rented building, and we were trying to supply the seemingly insatiable appetite of large computer companies for memory chips. The”

“the performance rating of a manager cannot be higher than the one we would accord to his organization!”

“you need to develop a higher tolerance for disorder. Now, you should still not accept disorder. In fact, you should do your best to drive what’s around you to order.”

“The review is usually dedicated to two things: first, the skill level of the subordinate, to determine what skills are missing and to find ways to remedy that lack; and second, to intensify the subordinate’s motivation in order to get him on a higher performance curve for the same skill level (see the illustration on this page).”

“The long and short of it: if performance matters in your operation, performance reviews are absolutely necessary.”

“The absolute truth is that if you don’t know what you want, you won’t get it. So”

“The biggest problem with most reviews is that we don’t usually define what it is we want from our subordinates, and, as noted earlier, if we don’t know what we want, we are surely not going to get it.”

“the basic requirements of production. These are to build and deliver products in response to the demands of the customer at a scheduled delivery time, at an acceptable quality level, and at the lowest possible cost.”

“as you review a manager, should you be judging his performance or the performance of the group under his supervision? You should be doing both. Ultimately what you are after is the performance of the group, but the manager is there to add value in some way.”

“How are we going to do this in the most intelligent way? We start by looking at our production flow. The first thing we must do is to pin down the step in the flow that will determine the overall shape of our operation, which we’ll call the limiting step.”

“Finally, remember that by saying “yes”—to projects, a course of action, or whatever—you are implicitly saying “no” to something else. Each time you make a commitment, you forfeit your chance to commit to something else.”

“One big pitfall to be avoided is the “potential trap.” At all times you should force yourself to assess performance, not potential. By “potential” I mean form rather than substance.”

“the performance rating of a manager cannot be higher than the one we would accord to his organization! It is very important to assess actual performance, not appearances; real output, not good form.”

“Business success contains the seeds of its destruction.”

“By elevating someone, we are, in effect, creating role models for others in our organization.”

“management by objectives—MBO”

“A successful MBO system needs only to answer two questions: 1. Where do I want to go? (The answer provides the objective.) 2. How will I pace myself to see if I am getting there? (The answer gives us milestones, or key results.)”

“The sad news is, nobody owes you a career. Your career is literally your buisness.”

“In other words, the output of the planning process is the decisions made and the actions taken as a result of the process.”

“replacement of corporate heads is far more motivated by the need to bring in someone who is not invested in the past than to get somebody who is a better manager or a better leader in other ways.”

“Complacency often afflicts precisely those who have been the most successful.”

“The one thing an MBO system should provide par excellence is focus. This can only happen if we keep the number of objectives small. In practice, this is rare, and here, as elsewhere, we fall victim to our inability to say “no”—in this case, to too many objectives.”

“Once responsibility has been assumed, however, finding the solution is relatively easy. This is because the move from blaming others to assuming responsibility constitutes an emotional step, while the move from assuming responsibility to finding the solution is an intellectual one, and the latter is easier.”

“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.”

“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”

“It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.”

“Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love.”

“The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.”

“Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory.”

“Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have.”

“Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.”

“We're all human, aren't we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.”

“Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.”

“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.”

“Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.”

“He can run faster than Severus Snape confronted with shampoo.”

“You're a prefect? Oh Ronnie! That's everyone in the family!"

“It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.”

“Not my daughter, you bitch!”

“Percy wouldn't notice a joke if it danced naked in front of him wearing one of Dobby's hats.”