Execution, the discipline of getting things done

Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan 2002 – Picture: Tokyo 2012

Often the gap is what a company wants to achieve and the ability to achieve it.

3 Core processes: STRATEGY + PEOPLE + OPERATIONS

No worthwhile strategy can be planned without taking into account the organization’s ability to execute it.

The Hardware of a computer is useless without the right software. Similarly, in an organization the hardware (strategy and structure) is inert without the software (beliefs and behaviors).

If your organization is worried, you’ve got a problem, because you said you’re not. It’s shocking to see how many people don’t want to confront issues realistically.

Here is the fundamental problem: people think of execution as the tactical side of business, something leaders delegate while they focus on the perceived “bigger” issues. This idea is completely wrong. Execution is not just tactics – it is a discipline and a system. It has to be build into a company’s strategy, its goals, and its culture. And the leader of the organization must be deeply engaged in it. He cannot delegate its substance. But their failure to understand and practice execution negates the value of almost all many business leaders learn and preach. Such leaders are building houses without foundations.

Strategy:

Leadership:

To be deeply and passionately engaged in your organization and honest about its reality with others & yourself (note: see ICO, the Human Element)

First, you have to have the highest integrity. This is an issue where there are no second chances. Breach the rule, and you’re out. Second, you must know that the Customer comes first. Anf finally, you have got to understand and to manage the 3 processes, for people, strategy and operations.

Lots of business leader like to think that the top dog is exempt from the details of actually running things. It’s a pleasant way: you stand on the moutaintop, thinking strategically and attempting to inspire your people with visions, while managers do the grunt work. Who wouldn’t want to have all the fun and glory while keeping their hands clean?

The leader has to be engaged personally and deeply in the business. Execution requires a comprehensive understanding of a business, its people, and its environment.

All you’ve got to prove is that you care for the people who are working for you. Whatever your respective personalities are, that’s the personal connection.

Management:

First you tell people clearly what results you’re looking for. Then you discuss how to get those results, as a key element of the coaching process. Then you reward people for producing the results. If they come up short, you provide additional coaching, withdraw rewards, give them other jobs, or let them go. When you do these things, you create a culture of getting things done.

The skill of the coach is the art of questioning. Asking incisive questions forces people to think, to discover, to search.

Know yourself:

It takes emotional fortitude to be open to whatever information you need, wheter it’s what you like to hear or not.

It’s advice as old as the hills, and it’s core of authenticity. When you know yourself, you are comfortable with your strengths and not crippled by your shortcomings. You know your behavioral blind sides and emotional blockages, and you have a modus operandi for dealing with them.

You change the culture of a company by changing the behavior of its leaders.

The 3 core processes of execution:

People process

Strategy process

Operations process