EXECUTION – GET STUFF DONE IN 2010

Posted on 22. Dec, 2009 by Paul Marshall in Uncategorized

A topic I could spend hours talking about but a good reminder as we plan for and head into 2010.

Success in improving business performance is not in the blinding brilliance of your strategy, but rather it is in it’s execution. It is important to work efficiently and make sure you are squeezing every ounce of productivity from your team but it is equally important, and oft not focussed on as much, to ensure YOU have your team DOING THE RIGHT WORK.

Make sure you close the Strategy – Execution gap before you refine strategy. Being an organization that listens, learns and iterates is absolutely crucial to be an innovate, market leader. But if you are not good at executing the tactical details of your strategy, further refinement of that strategy will be of little value.

In small companies this is tough in most (not all) cases the person is a really creative, strategic thinker is NOT a detail oriented, nose to the grindstone executor. Know what you are good at and what you are not and make sure you get someone involved in your business who will focus tactically on absolutely driving the day to details of getting stuff done. Implement some process, use technology, do whatever works for you to ensure that you can not only execute really well but also sustain the execution of the many iterations that will inevitably come to your strategy. Execution is not a once and done proposition. A learning, changing organization needs to be able to do this CONSTANTLY. The challenge is that EXECUTION IS REALLY HARD WORK AND TAKES TIME! Strategists don’t appreciate how hard execution is and tactical operators don’t appreciate the big picture perspective and how hard it is to bring all the pieces together and build a cohesive strategy.

Understanding the effectiveness of your strategy is very important as you look to listen, learn and iterate to ensure you are modifying the right things and to make sure you know that the strategic changes will in fact be implemented and delivered on day to day.

This year focus on your execution and make sure you are comfortable that YOU or someone you trust is doing the hard grunt work executing.

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3 Responses to “EXECUTION – GET STUFF DONE IN 2010”

  1. Robin

    08. Feb, 2010

    I would also add to your post that strategy and implementation are equally important. Currently the pendulum has swung towards implementation as the titanic failure rate has acted as a catalyst and leaders recognize that something different must be done. They are just not sure what. A leader needs the skills to craft and execute strategy.
    “Strategy is about deciding what to do; execution is about getting it done. Both are essential skills for a modern leader.”
    McKinsey & Company
    Keep in mind that most leaders, if not all, who have graduated with a degree in business, studied a module on strategy but not on its implementation.

    Secondly what is missing is a framework.

    Every organization is unique and every implementation is different. We discovered, however, in our ten years of research, eight areas of excellence in execution, where all the organizations who successfully implemented their strategy, focused. In Bridges these eight areas evolved into our proprietary tool, the Implementation Compass (TM). Excellence in execution is not about doing one or two things well, such as changing measures or communicating the strategy. It is about doing eight things well, simultaneously.

    The Implementation Compass is a framework that provides you with the structure for your strategy to make it come alive. Instead of wandering aimlessly through the implementation maze it allows you to assess your implementation readiness and identify the key areas to tackle.

    The eight points of the Compass: People, Biz Case, Communicate, Measure, Culture, Process, Reinforce and Review have not changed since its introduction. In fact it has been developed further. In Beyond Strategy (my new book) the Implementation Compass provides the headers for the chapters and each chapter ends with the actions leaders must take.

    Excellence in execution is not about doing one or two things well, such as changing measures or communicating the strategy. It is about doing eight things well, simultaneously.

    Robin
    http://www.strategyimplementationblog.com

  2. CFOMarshall

    21. Jan, 2010

    Hi Marion, thanks for following and thanks for leaving a note. Glad you are enjoying and if there is anything specific you'd like to see, just drop me a note.
    ~Paul

  3. marion

    20. Jan, 2010

    I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

    Sara
    http://smallbusinessgrant.info

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