VOL 9 - BURN THE PLAYBOOK by Lawrence M. Schneider

Your company is not failing. That may be the problem.
 
Revenue still comes in. Customers still recognize the name. The team still knows how to deliver. Yet decisions take longer, familiar methods produce weaker results, and every 
serious attempt to move forward gets pulled back toward the way the business has always operated.
 
Burn the Playbook examines the moment when yesterday’s winning rules become today’s hidden constraint.
 
Most companies do not consciously decide to follow one playbook forever. The playbook forms gradually. A pricing decision made during a difficult year becomes policy. The 
founder’s approval habit becomes the accepted route. A customer promise that once created loyalty becomes too expensive to deliver. A report designed for a smaller company 
continues guiding decisions after the business has become larger and more complex. A hiring preference that once protected culture begins screening out the capability the next 
stage requires.
 
Each rule has a history. Many were intelligent when they were created. Some saved the company. Some built its reputation. Some produced the first real growth. That is precisely 
why they are so difficult to challenge.
 
Burn the Playbook helps founders and leadership teams recognize the Success-to-Stagnation Loop:
 
A rule produces a win.
The win gives the rule authority.
The rule is repeated beyond the conditions that made it effective.