i tried to find literature and guide to being good in execution.
this is it.
it covers the essential concept of being good in executing.
basically it boils down to S.O.P
S-trategy
O-perations
P-eople

this is one of the best business management book i have picked up.
although written in 2000-ish, concepts are still highly relevant.
highly recommended.

It's not you, it's me.

Well . . . that's what I think at least.

So many business books read like a rehash of a boring seminar and this is no exception. Every page could be a power point. Every line could be a bullet point. Everything is crafted for presentation with very little background, substance or reference. Anecdote is not evidence, yet anecdote is ever-present.

You know, it reminds me of sitting through talks and speeches in church when I was a kid. All Mormon talks are exactly like this - a few bullet points, an anecdote, a weak conclusionary statement and a call to action. Amen.

Maybe that's why I rebel.

Excelente libro, el arte de ejecutar va más allá de simplemente hacer un seguimiento o micromanagement. El arte de ejecutar se convierte en parte fundamental dentro de la cultura de una organización.

I almost threw this book away after the first 50 pages--it seemed like a typical business book which explains a relatively simplistic common sense idea in business speak and using 10 pages for every one thought--and dated to boot. But being stuck in the Newark airport for 12 hours and having read everything else on me led me to gradually getting deeper into the book--and by the time I had finished it, I was convinced this is a really helpful book to leaders/managers. The authors' basic idea is that getting things done (right) is not as easy as it sounds--especially not in complex organizations where people are likely to self-promote/claim credit and seek to avoid responsibility. The effective leader should focus simultaneously on three large processes: people, strategy and operations. In describing each process, the authors actually do say some very useful things, bringing out what leaders must do to be effective--and by the same token, what distinguishes good leaders from well educated non-doers. Ownership and accountability, positive energy, listening, and realism are all concepts worth emphasizing--regrettably, too many organizations do not really implement. Well worth reading for business leaders!

There were a few takeaways however it took a while to get to them. Here's what I learned:
First you must clearly Define the results you need. Next you must show them how to get the results you need. Then you must reward when results are achieved or coach when they are not and remove Rewards.
Clearly Define on what criteria is that will make the person effective in their job. This is the key to leadership.
Attack your business constantly as if you were your competition trying to overtake you. This will expose your weaknesses and where you need to improve.

Bom livro de negócios: daqueles que resume bem, contém bons exemplos e modelos de atuação.

I generally dislike "business books," and regularly counsel the businesspeople I work with to read just about anything *but* business books. However, EXECUTION is one business book I do like. It's direct and relevant, not overly jargon-laden, and offers useful ideas on how to engage people and organizations to define and execute plans. The fact that the book was co-written by an academic and a (former) practicing CEO may be a key to the book's success.

I think the book is overrated.

Although it includes some useful tips, however it lacks the deep thoughts that one can expect form such an over-hyped book.

This book is valuable to individuals and is even more value to senior leadership in organizations. I enjoyed considering the key difference between what behaviors successful companies exude. Also, I strongly agree that a culture of execution normally separates industry leaders from other companies. Here is my personal review of this book.

“Execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability. It includes making assumptions about the business environment, assessing the organizations capabilities, linking strategy to operations and the people who are going to implement the strategy, synchronizing those people and their various disciplines, and linking rewards to outcomes. It also includes mechanisms for changing assumptions as the environment changes and upgrading the company’s capabilities to meet challenges of ambitions strategy. In its most fundamental sense, execution is a systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it. Many companies don’t face reality well.” (Pg. 22- paragraphs 1 & 2)

Too many people like to dwell on pie in the sky planning. An person or organization must seriously expose and address what can and should be done.

The story of EDS and its CEO Dick Brown provided valuable insight into effective hard working execution driven leadership. It also shows an effective attempt at leadership with transparency. Pgs. 46-54

Three Building Blocks of Execution
I.tLeaders 7 Essential Behaviors
1.tKnow your people and your business
2.tInsist on realism
3.tSet clear goals and priorities
4.tFollow through
5.tReward the doers
6.tExpand peoples capabilities
7.tKnow yourself

In Chapter 4 – Building Block 2: Creating the Framework for Cultural Change

“The basic premise is simple: cultural change gets real when your aim is execution. You don’t need a complex theory or employee survey to use this framework. You need to change people’s behavior so that they produce results. First you tell people clearly what results your looking for. Then you discuss how to get those results, as a key element of the coaching process. Then 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 (1st paragraph – pg. 86).”

“There’s a saying we recently heard: We don’t think ourselves into a new way of acting, we act ourselves into new ways of thinking (1st paragraph – pg. 89).”

“The beliefs that influence behaviors are more likely to need changing (3rd paragraph – pg. 89).”

When being a realist when dealing with issues of a business requires what the authors call “Emotional Fortitude” which means to be secure and strong enough to listen to negative and be forceful with people. This emotional fortitude is mentioned through-out the book.

I think the importance of robust dialogue section in this book is a key component to an individual that executes. “You cannot have an execution culture without robust dialogue—one that brings reality to the surface through openness, candor, and formality. Robust dialogue makes an organization effective in gathering information, understanding the information, and reshaping it to produce decisions. It fosters creativity—most innovations and inventions are incubated through robust dialogue. Ultimately, it creates more competitive advantage and shareholder value (pg. 102).”

“Informality is critical to candor. … Formality suppresses dialogue; informality encourages it. Formal conversations and presentations leave little room for debate. … Informality gets the truth out. It surfaces out-of-the-box ideas – the ideas that may seem absurd at first hearing but that create break throughs. … Finally, robust dialogue ends with closure. At the end of the meeting, people agree about what each person has to do and when. They’ve committed to it in an open forum; they are accountable for the outcomes. … The reason most companies don’t face reality very well is that their dialogues are ineffective (Pg. 103 – paragraphs 2 – 3).”

WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
“The person who is a little less conceptual but is absolutely determined to succeed will usually find the right people and get them together to achieve objectives. I’m not knocking education or looking for dumb people. But if you have to choose between someone with a staggering IQ and an elite education who’s gliding along, and someone with a lower IQ but who is absolutely determined to succeed, you’ll always do better with the second person (paragraph 3 – Pg. 119).”

“You’re searching for people with an enormous drive for people with an enormous drive for winning. These people get satisfaction from getting things done (pg. 120).”

He (speaking of an effective CEO) never finishes a conversation without summarizing the actions to be taken (1st Paragraph – pg. 123 – last sentence).”

The bottom of page 123 explained that good leaders are decisive on tough issues. Decisiveness is the ability to make difficult decisions swiftly and well, and act on them. “Organizations are filled with people who dance around decisions without ever making them. Some leaders simply do not have the emotional fortitude to confront the tough ones. When they don’t, everybody in the business knows they are wavering, procrastinating, and avoiding reality (last paragraph – pg. 123).”

“Getting things done through others is a fundamental leadership skill (pg. 125).” After reading this section I also think a person needs a good balance between hands-off delegation and micromanagement by smothering others.

“Never finish a meeting without clarifying what the follow-through will be, who will do it, when and how they will do it, what resources they will use, and how and when the next review will take place and with whom. And never launch an initiative unless you’re personally committed to it and prepared to see it through until it’s embedded in the DNA of an organization (1st paragraph – pg. 128).”

HOW TO GET THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT JOBS
“The first things I look for are energy and enthusiasm for execution. Does the candidate get excited by doing things, as opposed to talking about them? Has she brought that energy to everything she’s done, starting with school? I don’t care if she went to Princeton or to Poduck State; how well did she do there? Is here life full of achievement and accomplishment (3rd Paragraph – Pg. 129).”

Chapter 6 – The People Process: Making the Link with strategy and Operations

“To put it simply and starkly: If you don’t get the people process right, you will never fulfill the potential of your business. (Last sentence – 1st paragraph – pg. 141).”

“One of the biggest shortcomings of the traditional people process is that it’s backward-looking, focused on evaluating the jobs people are doing today. Far more important is whether the individuals can handle the jobs of tomorrow (Last paragraph on Pg. 141).”

Chapter 7 – The Strategy Process: Making the Link with People and Operations

“The basic goal of any strategy is simple enough; to win the customer’s preference and create a sustainable competitive advantage, while leaving sufficient money on the table for share holders (1st Sentence – Pg. 178).”

“Few understand that a good strategic planning process also requires the utmost attention to the hows of executing the strategy (1st Sentence of 2nd Paragraph – Pg. 178).”

“A business unit strategy should be less than fifty pages long and should be easy to understand. Its essence should be describable in one page in terms of its building blocks, …If you can’t describe your strategy in twenty minutes, simply and in plain language, you haven’t got a plan. … Every strategy boils down to a few simple building blocks.

A good strategic plan is a set of directions you want to take. It’s a road-map, lightly filled in, so that it gives you plenty of room to maneuver. You get specific when you’re deciding the action part of the plan, where you link it with people and operations (Paragraph 1 & 2 – Pg. 185).”

The rest of the book was insightful too. These are only a few recorded comments. I enjoyed stories about good leadership who executed by hard work, follow-up, and emotional fortitude, using open dialogue and allowing people to take ownership and build themselves by accomplishing specific executable goals. I desire a personal culture or execution and therefore will continue to reference this book. Personally, I need to be real about my situation, set clear strategic, operational goals and be held accountable for my progress.

Recommendation: Buy this bookt

2014: Excelent book.

I learned a lot of things from Bossidy and Charan, specially that execution is not something you delegate, it is the direct responsibility of the leader. I also learned that business plans have to be so detailed, they become daily guides.

The only thing I didn't like is that they wrote the book from the perspective of huge company, in the billions of dollars of sales category. I understan that is the primary area of expertise of the author, but I would like to read a book this good intended for medium size companies and start ups.

I highly reccomend this book.

2017: Even Better

I just finish re-reading this book, looking for ways to apply Bossidy's and Jack Welch's teachings on creating an execution culture to small and medium size companies.

I still find this book amazing and revealing. In my company we now have and operating plan, and are working on stepping our managers up to a culture of accountability.

The authors recommendations will become a guided plan for becoming as execution oriented as Honeywell and GE.

I still, highly recommend this book.

I’m a life hacker. I love tools, corner-cutters, and tip for living. The problem is, you can spend so much time hacking that you never get around to lifing. This can really cause problems at work, when strategy never gets around to action. Execution is an excellent and much recommended instruction on putting those hacks to practice.


Notes:

Recommended by Manager Tools

Library

The three core processes of execution
1 strategy
2 people
3 operations

Leaders must be sensitive to an a strategy has run its course and needs to be changed and have the flexibility to act quickly to make the change (xv)

The fractious culture in which people and subsidiaries were looking out for themselves, not for the overall well-being of the company (xxi)

The seven essential behaviors
1 know your ppl and your business ((xxiii)

It requires you to become a better listener, seeking peoples’ opinions and ideas even when they may not be as forceful in making their points or arguments as others (XXIV)

Remember the people are constantly searching for indications about their leaders’ abilities to carry them through a raging storm and they will interpret or misinterpret the slightest signals, whether those signals are sent intentionally or mistakenly (XXV)

2. insist on realism

Only the paranoid survive

Being relentlessly realistic rather than trying to gloss over problems

3. identify clear goals and priorities

There is no reward without risk, but the failure to understand and guard against those risks jeopardize the ability to reap the reward (XXVII)

4. follow through
5. Reward the doers ((xxvii)
6. Expand people’s capabilities (XXX)
7. Know yourself

Leaders spend too much time on intellectualizing and not enough time in implementation (6)

Follow through

Strategies most often fail because they aren’t executed well (15)

Unless you translate big thoughts into concrete steps of action, they’re pointless (19)

execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats , questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability (22)

In its most fundamental sense, execution is a systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it (22)

Dialogue is the core of culture and the basic unit of work (25)

The leader who executes often does not even have tot Tell people what to do, she asks questions so they can figure out what they need to do. In this way she coaches them, passing on her expertise as a leader and educating them to think in ways they never thought before. Far from stifling people, this kind of leadership helps them expand their own capabilities for leading. (28)

Management by walking around (28)

Six Sigma processes for continual improvement (30)

Chapter 2: the Execution Difference (34)

Though he chewed his executives out for not making their numbers, he never asked why they didn’t make their numbers (37)

While stretch goals can be useful in forcing people to break old rules and do things better, they are worse that useless if they’re totally unrealistic, or if the people who have to Meet them Aren’t given the chance to debate them beforehand and to take ownership of them. (38)

Part 2: The Building Blocks of Execution (55)

Chapter 3: Building Block One: The Leader's Seven Essential Behaviors (57)

1. Know your people and your business
2. Insist on realism
3. Set clear goals and priorities
4. follow through
5. Reward the doers
6. Expand people's capabilities
7. know yourself
1. Authenticity (81)
2. Self-awareness
3. Self-mastery (82)
1. Keep your ego in check
2. take responsibility for your behavior
3. adapt to change
4. embrace new ideas,
5. adhere to your standard s of integrity and honesty under all conditions
4. Humility

Building Block Two: Creating the Framework for Cultural Change (85)

Linking rewards to performance (92)

Bring reality to the surface through openness, candor, and informality (102)

Leaders get the behavior they exhibit and tolerate (105)

Building Block Three: The Job No Leader Should Delegate -- Having the Right People in the Right Place (109)

Why the right people aren’t in the right jobs
1. Lack of knowledge
2. lack of courage
3. 'Psychological comfort
4. Bottom line: lack of personal commitment (118)

What kind of people are you looking for? (119)
1. they energize people
2. they're decisive on tough issues (123)
3. they get things done through others
4. they follow through

Personal note: how can I make interview questions that will bring these out?

Part 3: The Three Core Processes of Execution

Chapter 6: The People Process: Making the Link with Strategy and Operations (141)

Chapter 7: Making the Link with People and Operations (178)

A strong strategic plan must address the following questions (188)
* What is the assessment of the external environment?
* How well do you understand the existing customers and markets
* What is the best way to grow the business profitably, and what are the obstacles to growth?
* Who is the competition
* Can the business execute the strategy
* are the short term and long term balanced?
* What are the important milestone for executing the plan?
* what are the crucial issues facing the business?
* how will the business make money on a sustainable basis?

Chapter 8: How to Conduct a Strategy Review (207)

Chapter 9: The Operations Process: Making the Link with Strategy and People (226)

After seeing how the comanpy was executing the last 3 year strategy and joining the company's recent 3 year strategy planning exercise, I read this book. Even it is not a very new book,but it looks like our company culture is far older than what is described in this book. Execution culture is not in place and strategy is not well planned.


people, structure, strategy make things happen. The key element of making things happen -people strategy and operation


building block one: 7 essentials -know your people and business, insist on the realisim, set clear goals, priorities and follow through, reward the does, expand people's capabilities.

Building block two: creating the framework for culture change 1)operationalize culture, 2) social structure mechanism: concil meeting, right governance structure 3)importance of robust dialogue - power of informal meeting is open for out of the box discussion s. formal meeting review is more about sale and show, not munch room for questions.

Building block 3- have right people on the right place reasons why the right people not in place-lack of courage, capability the psychological comfort zone

People process: 1. Linking people to strategy and operations 2.develop the leadership pipeline through CI, succession depth and reducing retention risk, 3. dealing with non performer 4. Link Hr to business operations

Strategy process: define where we are now, future and how.

Operation process: make sure the strategy is translated to operational plans.

Key learning from Counceltancy: sense of urgency, project management