Words to Live By
Executing
Guy Kawasaki has a great post on the art of execution. There are many good points in it and, besides being a guide to organizations just starting out, it would serve as a great refresher to organizations that are losing their way. The problem can often be convincing companies that they're doing something wrong in the first place. Often, a company experiencing some level of success is very reluctant to admit that they're screwing something up ("We're making money, so we must be doing things right"). I'm very fond of the idea that one of the greatest impediments to progress is your current level of limited success. Executives also always seem to get unnecessarily defensive about too many suggestions of how to improve the status quo. I digress.
Although every point is relevant and valuable, from my experience the most powerful points (and the ones most organizations fail at) in the article are:
- set achievable goals
- communicate the goals
- measure progress on a weekly basis
- establish a single point of responsibility
- reward the achievers
- heed your “Morpheus”
Achievable Goals
Nothing is more demoralizing than having a set of impossible goals. Managers sometimes mistakenly believe that having these difficult goals will motivate people. It doesn't. Usually, after the initial planning / kickoff meeting the people responsible for attaining those goals go back to their offices and immediately start telling each other how ridiculous the goals are. Then, throughout the rest of the release, they make only passing sarcastic remarks to the preposterous goals and accept the reality that they won't even come close to the goals set for them. They then work the normal amount (maybe even slightly less) and complain to each other in passing about their current work situation. Management is labelled as a bunch of out of touch idiots and this serves as another reason for people to get another job.
Communicate the Goals
Management usually does a mostly adequate job of communicating goals. I mention this item here mainly as an opportunity to increase the trasparency within an organization. Management should start a blog laying out the goals and post regular updates as to the progress toward those goals.
Measure Progress on a Weekly Basis
Despite being told that it's the ultra cool generation Y that likes getting regular reviews of their performance, I think everyone in the organization (regardless of their generation moniker) needs a regular update on progress. It's the only way to make the necessary course corrections along the way. It's also very agile, which is greatly in vogue at the moment (and rightfully so).
Establish a Single Point of Responsibility
This is probably one of the greatest failings of organizations of which I have been a part. I think it's essential to have a point person for any goal. Unfortunately, no one wants their ass in the fire when things go wrong. If that's the case, you probably have a company that engages in way too much CYA and blamestorming during a project. Accountability can be a good thing, but when people are held accountable for not meeting impossible goals with inadequate support / tools, then no one will want to be saddled with any kind of responsibility. And, if no one is willing to step up, nothing is going to get done.
Reward the Achievers
This mostly speaks for itself. Sometimes, though, rewards go to the wrong people or they don't trickle down from project managers to the people that really made things happen. I've also seen organizations that are scared to reward people because other employees will get jealous of those rewarded. If your reward policy is clearly defined and fairly applied, those people just need to get over it. If it's not, then of course you need to fix the system rather than "not reward" everyone equally.
Heed Your “Morpheus”
This is a reference to the Matrix and the fact that the character Morpheus gives Neo the pill that exposes the world for what it really is. These people are the ones in an organization that aren't "drinking the Kool-Aid." The risk is that they're simply labelled as bitchers and complainers then ignored. As these people often have valid points see also Cassandra. The role of the "monkey wrencher" is severely undervalued in many companies. Managers and fellow employees don't want to hear how things aren't going to work, especially if they're all powerless to fix things. You need to find a way to make this a constructive role and protect the person that's pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. Ignoring risks is not the same as managing them–when they're brought to the surface, make sure you heed the warning and don't shoot the messenger.
Do These Things
Do these things well and you increase your chances of success. You're also likely to be light years ahead of your competition, since most places don't apply these points very well, if at all.
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