In their book, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan and Charles Burck drive home the point that execution is vital.
The difference between a company and its competitors is its ability to execute; that is the critical difference for success.
In their view, execution is not tactics; it is a discipline and a system that has to be built into the company’s strategy, its goals and its culture. Strategies most often fail because they are not executed well; things that are supposed to happen do not happen. The crucial gap in business is the gap between what a company’s leaders want to achieve and the ability of the organization to achieve it.
Three Crucial Points
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Execution is a discipline and integral to strategy
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It is a systematic process of rigorously discussing the how’s and what’s, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability
- Why – “Why are things not getting done.”
- How – “How are things going to get done.”
- Why – “Why are things not getting done.”
- Its heart is in the three core process: people, strategy, and operations
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Execution is the major job of the business leader
- The leader is in charge of getting things done by picking other leaders, setting the strategic direction, and conducting operations
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The leader sets the dialogue in the company: candid and reality –based
- Raising the right questions
- Debating them
- Finding realistic solutions
- Raising the right questions
- A leader needs to search for problems to solve and then make sure that they get solved
- A leader needs to be passionate about getting results
- The leader is in charge of getting things done by picking other leaders, setting the strategic direction, and conducting operations
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Execution must be a core element of an organization’s culture
- Present in the reward system
- Leaders look for gaps between the desired and actual outcome in everything and then move to close the gap and raise the bar still higher
- The challenge in execution is to get to the heart of an issue through persistent and constructive probing
In short, execution requires a three step approach
- Present in the reward system
- Involve everyone in the development of the plan
- Ask about the how’s of execution
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Set milestones for progress of the plan with strict accountability for the people in charge.
Building Blocks for Execution
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One: The Leader’s Seven Essential Behaviors
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Know your people and your business
- Conduct probing and in-depth business reviews and plant tours
- Conduct probing and in-depth business reviews and plant tours
- Insist on realism
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Set clear goals and priorities
- Focus on 3 – 4 priorities
- Focus on 3 – 4 priorities
- Follow through
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Reward the doers
- Leaders need the confidence to explain to a direct report why he got a lower than expected reward
- Leaders need the confidence to explain to a direct report why he got a lower than expected reward
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Expand people’s capabilities
- Coach by observing people in action and then providing specific useful feedback
- The skill of the coach is the art of incisive questioning
- Coach by observing people in action and then providing specific useful feedback
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Know yourself
- Know strengths and weaknesses
- Have emotional fortitude to allow you to put the right people in the right jobs and to deal with under performers
- Be authentic: your outer person should be the same as your inner person
- Self-aware
- Humble
- Know strengths and weaknesses
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Two: Creating the Framework for Cultural Change
- Cultural change gets real when your aim is execution
- Operationalizing Culture: We don’t think ourselves into a new way of acting; we act ourselves into a new way of thinking.
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Link rewards to performance
- Measure people against how well they perform against their competitors in the business environment
- Measure people against how well they perform against their competitors in the business environment
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Robust dialogue
- Truth over harmony
- Robust dialogue ends with closure; people agree what each person has to do and when
- Truth over harmony
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Leaders get the behavior they exhibit and tolerate
- You change the culture by changing the behavior of its leaders
- Measure the change in culture by measuring the change in the personal behavior of its leaders and the performance of the business
- You change the culture by changing the behavior of its leaders
- Cultural change gets real when your aim is execution
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Three: The Job No Leader Should Delegate: Having the Right People in the Right Place
- The quality of a company’s people is the best competitive differentiator
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Why the right people are not in the right jobs
- Lack of knowledge
- Lack of courage
- Psychological comfort factor
- Lack of personal commitment
- Lack of knowledge
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What kind of people are you looking for?
- Key question: How good is this person at getting things done?
- Can this person energize others?
- Can this person be decisive on tough issues?
- Can this person get things done through others?
- Can this person follow through?
- Key question: How good is this person at getting things done?
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How to get the right person in the right jobs
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Focus on ethics, energy, implementation and accomplishments
- How does he set priorities?
- What qualities is he known for?
- Does he include people in decision making?
- What are his work ethic and his energy level?
- How does he set priorities?
- How leaders meet their commitments is at least as important as whether they meet them
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- The quality of a company’s people is the best competitive differentiator
The Three Core Processes of Execution
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The People Process: Making the Link with Strategy and Operations
- Focus on whether the person can do the job of tomorrow or take the business to the next level
- Link people to strategy and operations (e.g. what will be expected of them in the near, medium and long-term future)
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Develop the leadership pipeline through continuous improvement, succession depth and reducing retention risk
- Look at a leadership assessment summary (performance and behavior) with characterizations of high potential, promotable, experienced professional, too new, needs heavy coaching or new job, needs job change.
- Look at a continuous improvement summary focused on skills (business acumen, customer focus, strategic insights, vision and purpose, values and ethics, action, commitment, teamwork, innovation, staffing, developing people, performance)
- Look at a leadership assessment summary (performance and behavior) with characterizations of high potential, promotable, experienced professional, too new, needs heavy coaching or new job, needs job change.
- It must be realized that everyone has unforeseen events that come along, and the people who ultimately succeed are those who overcome them.
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Deal with Non-performers
- A non-performer is not performing at the level that is essential for the company’s success
- They must be dealt with quickly and fairly
- A non-performer is not performing at the level that is essential for the company’s success
- Link human resources to business results
- Candid Dialogue: The “Live Ammo” in the people process
- Focus on whether the person can do the job of tomorrow or take the business to the next level
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The Strategy Process: Making the Link with People and Operations
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Identify and define the critical issues behind the strategy:
- How are you positioned in the context of its business environment and the market opportunities and threats?
- What are your competitive advantages and disadvantages?
- How are you positioned in the context of its business environment and the market opportunities and threats?
- Question: How good are the assumptions upon which the plan hinges? What are the pluses and minuses of the alternatives?
- Link to People: Do you have the right people in place to execute the strategy? If not, how are you going to get them?
- Link to Operations and the operating plan so that the moving multiple parts of the organization are aligned to get you where you want to go
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The Importance of the How’s – Focus on how the strategy will be done
- Tie in with internal and external realities
- Test critical assumptions
- Have an alternative plan if assumptions are wrong
- Tie in with internal and external realities
- Building blocks of a strategy are the 5 or so key concepts and actions that define it
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Building the strategic plan
- Who: it should be built and owned by those who will execute it
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Questions in the plan
- What is the assessment of the external environment
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How well do you understand the existing customers and markets
- Who makes the buying decision?
- Who makes the buying decision?
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What is the best way to grow the business profitably and what are the obstacles to growth
- Does the business need to develop new products?
- Does it need to take existing ones into new channels and to new customers?
- Does it need to acquire other businesses?
- How are its costs compared with its competitors?
- What productivity programs are in place to improve costs?
- Does the business need to develop new products?
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Who is the competition?
- What will be the competition’s response to our moves?
- What will be the competition’s response to our moves?
- Can the business execute the strategy?
- Are the short term and long term balanced?
- What are the important milestones for executing the plan?
- What are the critical issues facing the business?
- How will the business make money on a sustainable basis?
- What is the assessment of the external environment
- Who: it should be built and owned by those who will execute it
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Questions to raise at a strategic review
- How well versed is each business unit team about the competition?
- How strong is the organizational capability to execute the strategy?
- Is the plan scattered or sharply focused?
- Are we choosing the right ideas?
- Are the linkages with operations and people clear?
- How well versed is each business unit team about the competition?
- Follow through after the strategic plan is critical
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The Operations Process: Making the Link with Strategy and People
- The operating plan provides the path for achieving the strategic plan to the people who need to achieve it
- Synchronizing the operating plan requires that the organization overall has common assumptions about the external environment and a common understanding
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To set realistic goals ensure that the assumptions are sound
- Who is the customer?
- How does he buy and why?
- What is the need?
- How long will the need last?
- What is the competition doing?
- Is our value proposition good enough?
- Who is the customer’s customer?
- Who is the customer?
- Using the operations plan create realistic goals and targets within the unit
- After the operations plan is developed, follow up and look at contingency plans, create quarterly review to keep the plan up to date and reinforce synchronization
- Use stretch goals very carefully as a way to force people to think about doing things in a radically different way or to help people execute exceptionally well.
- The operating plan provides the path for achieving the strategic plan to the people who need to achieve it
David,
Another great job – this is an important subject and you helped tell the story clearly.
Thanks,
Rick