Ten Thousand Horses

Seventeen hundred miles later, Matt was back in familiar urban chaos. The red-white-and-blue-lit Empire State Building and an overly talkative limo driver told him he was home. He directed the limo to take him straight to the office, even though it was 1:30 in the morning. Only Bob Herman, the night guard, was there to greet him. “Come into my office, Bob,” Matt invited. “Do you have a minute to talk?”

With a puzzled but interested audience, Matt laid out a plan to create the structure of goal achievement teams throughout his division and to introduce the Engagement Equation as the process his team would use to improve their results. To the guard’s bemusement, Matt also printed out photos of wild mustangs, Rocky Mountain scenes, and children ...