Five Barriers to Executing Your 2003 Plan...
   and Proven Methods to Overcome Them

Bob Zagotta

Web design and development by:

Page 2

BARRIER #2 The Plan is Overly Optimistic

Most executive teams tend to take on too much. The very real and pronounced opportunities and issues they face make it exceedingly difficult to prioritize initiatives and activities. At the same time, as organizations evolve, they collect initiatives, management processes and pet projects from bygone eras that dilute focus and soak up resources. In addition, when executives plan, they often assume a perfect world -- one free of distractions, changes in the internal or external environment, and unexpected problems.

Unfortunately, this kind of environment doesn’t exist. The effect of overly optimistic planning can be devastating for execution. Runaway optimism builds failure into the plan, corrupting the entire notion of execution in the minds of the people required to follow-through and in the processes required to maintain the plan.

CASE EXAMPLE: $500 MILLION TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING FIRM

In a recent project with a $500 million technology consulting firm, we ran into some serious execution barriers. In interviews, several members of the executive team complained of a “flavor-of-the-month” culture and an inability to follow-through on projects and initiatives. To prove our hunch about the team’s tendency to take on too much, we facilitated a session where each member of the executive team listed all of the initiatives they were currently managing (and considered “strategic”) on flipcharts. The result was shocking to the CEO and the team. Collectively, these 10 executives were attempting to manage and execute over 200 strategic initiatives. After working with the group to sort through these and prioritize, we came to realize that the root cause of this situation was centered on avoidance of tough decisions. Making the calls on which initiatives were the true priorities represented a level of decision-making they were not comfortable with. In avoiding these challenging decisions, the team hindered any substantial progress. We worked with the team to deploy some specific decision making tools and forums that facilitated regular prioritization and pruning of initiatives. The firm went on to achieve record growth for the year.

What To Do: Define Priorities

Creating an executable plan requires putting as much discipline and focus on those things that are not considered a priority for execution as those that are. In other words, the “Not-Do’s” must be identified, captured and communicated along with the “Must-Do’s.”

Again, simplicity pays off. From a comprehensive list of all initiatives, projects, and activities currently underway or planned, create a rough-cut prioritization by assigning each item to one of three “buckets”:

• Must-Do this year
• Nice-To-Have this year, and
• Not-Do this year.

The previously mentioned Strategic Framework and Quantified Vision serve as useful criteria for this prioritization. Basically, you are asking which of these items are most critical to execution of the strategy and achievement of the vision. When the prioritization is finalized (which may require further study), items that are Nice-To-Have’s can be put into a holding bin for consideration in the next year. The Not-Do’s, which are often comprised of initiatives, activities and pet projects peripheral to executing the strategy, must be clearly identified and put on hold. Typically, clear communication and disciplined follow-through are required to ensure activities relating to the Not-Do’s do, in fact, cease. (These activities sometimes take on a life of their own as “skunkworks” and side projects.)

BARRIER #3 No One is Accountable for Results

The lifeblood of execution is accountability. Accountability is the unseen force that motivates individuals to follow-through on their commitments. A primary driver of accountability is clarity on “who is on the hook for what.”

Unfortunately, even organizations that are good at identifying accountabilities often focus the accountabilities on activities, as opposed to results. This creates many challenges in execution. Since there is always so much activity throughout an organization, it is difficult to gauge progress against strategy when looking solely at activities. The question that must be asked is, “does all of this activity add-up to real progress against strategic objectives?”

Everyday there are conversations between bosses and employees where employees articulate the many, many things they are working on. Despite these conversations, the boss is left wondering whether these employees are really making progress against their commitments. In this situation, absent a clearly defined “finish line,” accountability can be confused or diluted.

Here is a quick example:

Fernando is trying to get in shape. Assuming his main goal is to lose weight, if his accountability (self-inflicted or otherwise) is not tied to a specific result (i.e., lose 20 pounds), Fernando may end up in a situation where he goes to the gym every day but makes no progress. There is no way for him to gauge his progress and therefore nothing to tell him if he needs to adjust his program to achieve results. By the same token, if Fernando is accountable to someone for losing weight, unless the result is specified, he can always hide behind the fact that he does, in fact, engage in a lot of “activity” by going to the gym everyday (even if he is just grabbing a Smoothie and sitting in the sauna).

In terms of a business example, consider the last IT project that was implemented in your company. Chances are it was sold on the basis of a specific ROI. Management of the effort, however, was focused on the activities of implementation, instead of the results associated with the Return on Investment. Did the system deliver the return? Many times the answer is a clear “no.”

What To Do: Raise the Stakes

As initiatives are prioritized (see the Must-Do’s mentioned above), tie the initiative to a specific time horizon. Then, take the time to define a specific business result associated with effective execution of that initiative. What do we expect to get out of this initiative? By when should we expect to realize this result? And, of course, who is on the hook to make this happen?

Defining initiatives in this manner raises the stakes for execution and enables the organization to fully commit. These “souped-up” initiatives become our business commitments.