By Ron Clark
I picked up Move Your Bus: an Extraordinary New Approach to Accelerating Success in Work and Life on a late-night trip to Barnes & Noble. I wandered the Business section, saw the cover and, intrigued, picked up the book. I’m glad I did.
About the author:
Ron Clark is the co-founder and mathematics teacher at The Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2000, Ron was named Disney’s American Teacher of the Year. He is the bestselling author of The Essential 55. Ron has been a featured guest on multiple media outlets and consults with Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, and individuals.
Move Your Bus in a sentence (or two):
In Move Your Bus, Ron Clark shares his key message: “have high expectations of people—because when you do, the people around you will meet those expectations” (xx). Ron communicates his message using a parable of a bus, a bus powered by the efforts of the people riding on it.
My quick take on Move Your Bus:
I appreciated Move Your Bus for (1) It’s straight talk. Ron is not rude, but neither is he worried about offending a low performer by pointing out one's work is not what he/she thinks it is (2). This is lived theory. Move Your Bus codifies the principles he and his team have practiced for years (3). He stomps on the entitlement mindset.
Overview and Analysis::
While the subtitle is “An Extraordinary New Approach to Accelerating Success in Work and Life,” I didn’t find much that was “extraordinarily new.” G.K. Chesterton’s words about the Christian life come to mind, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.” I feel that way about much of this book:
Chapter titles include: Get there early, Say hello, Ask for help, Accept criticism, Listen more than you talk, Find solutions, Be credible, Realize you are not entitled to this job, Pay attention to details.
Not really “extraordinarily new.” But . . . Ron has years of putting these principles into action – and that is where the book shines. His book is not simply a list of good ideas to work by, but a way of work that he and his team model. That's why Ron has stories to tell and not simply theories to offer.
The parable of the bus:
The bus: Your business, the goals and achievements toward which you work. The bus only moves with the help of the workers (think Fred Flintstone).
Runners: Top performers, who lend their muscle to moving the bus.
Joggers: Conscientious works who do a good job but are not at the same level as the runners.
Walkers: Contribute less forward momentum than the Runners and Joggers.
Riders: Dead weight.
Drivers: The leader who wants to steer the team toward something strong and lasting.
My Takeaways:
1. The miracle of high expectations: Expect more, hold oneself accountable for more, communicate specifically, let people shine and reward them for doing just that.
2. Support runners! They are making sacrifices to move the bus. Treat them with respect and a certain amount of reverence. Don’t beat them up, they will slow down. Just because they are runners does not mean they won’t need to be coached.
3. Negative forces: “If you have a high-performing negative force in your organization, that can be even worse than having Walker on your team, because that person may be forcing the bus to go backward” (8).
4. What joggers want: Joggers often want to be recognized as Runners, even though they really are not. Runners don’t need to let everyone know they are running, Joggers do! (13).
5. What walkers do: The love to point out everything that they see that is wrong in the organization; they do this because they want to deflect any blame that could be placed on themselves. Walkers plod and stumble along (18).
6. Treat everyone fairly, but not equally. “There is nothing more frustrating than to give 100 percent to a cause and see others who produce halfway work receiving the same pay, same bonuses, same perks, and same treatment” (22).
7. Ron Clark Philosophy: “I support the Runners first and then, while they are off and running, I turn my attention to the Joggers, Walkers, and Riders either to help them improve or to kick them off the bus” (29).
8. If you think you might be a Walker or Rider: In meetings, don’t raise your hand to offer ideas or suggestions, only raise a hand to offer to volunteer or ask a question (81). Don't promote yourself. Prove yourself.
9. Change the conversation to change the culture: Stop negative conversations. Change it to: “How can we make things better?” And “How can we make a positive change?”
10. Don’t waste your time trying to improve the Riders.
11. Promote runners: “The Runner deserves the promotion. The Runner deserves the biggest office. If there is money for members of the team to get new computers, then the Runners deserve to have it. It always amazes me how team members in organizations will complain when they aren’t selected for perks or opportunities. They view everyone in the organization as equal and so, therefore, they all should have just as much access to rewards. But that isn’t so. You all aren’t equal; some are working much harder and contributing much more, and those are the individuals who deserve more” (92).
12. The Godiva chocolate experience: How can you enhance the customer experience in your line of work? What can you do that would be equivalent of the Godiva chocolate on the hotel pillow? (14).
13. If you feel you are not being recognized: “When their boss doesn’t recognize them, they become disgruntled and feel they aren’t getting the attention and praise they deserve. In actuality, the reason they aren’t getting praised for being awesome is because . . . they aren’t awesome. If you feel you aren’t being recognized, a likely reason is that the job you’re doing isn’t as great as you think it is or that, while you may be doing some things well, other aspects of your performance are lacking” (119).
The author piqued my curiosity about these books:
1. The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator’s Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child by Ron Clark
2. See the movie Amadeus
3. The Excellent 11: Qualities Teacher and Parents Use to Motivate, Inspire, and Educate Children by Ron Clark
4. The End of Molasses Classes by Ron Clark
Words to ponder:
1. An Administrator No-No: “As an administrator, there is nothing you can do that is more detrimental to the organization than kill the spirit of your Runners” (39).
2. To his incoming students”: “You can spend your time at our school however you choose, but you can only spend it once” (42).
3. Mentors: “Everyone needs a muse. Or a mentor. Or maybe both, all rolled up into one” (57).
4. Working with urgency: “People who walk slow ain’t got nowhere to go.” Ron Clark’s grandmother.
5. Be solution-oriented: When you become known for offering up solutions and finding ways to get something done, you raise your worth in the organization and become the most valuable player in your supervisor’s eyes” (102).
6. Some people have credentials, but no achievements: Not good. “We are a nation built by people with a tremendous work ethic, people who weren’t afraid of a challenge. Now, it seems Runners are becoming the rarity, and everyone feels they are owed something. And the sense of entitlement that is so commonplace in America starts with you. No one promised you that you will have the job you have forever” (104).
Coddling: “When a society coddles the brain trust, it marks the beginning of its decline” (107).
Conclusion:
Samuel Johnson said, “People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed.” Ron reminds me of many things I need to hear and hear again. Move Your Bus is a good read: A helpful parable, easy-to-grasp concepts, real-life examples, straight talk, a proven path to “success.” As more than a million people have shown, this book is worth your time, especially if you are the Driver who wants to move your bus!
