Execution Biz

Can Work Be More Like Twitter & Facebook Please?

2010-06-10T16:27:00.000-04:00

I love Twitter & Facebook. If I'm not careful, I can chew up and spit out most productivity from the better part of a day by getting sucked into the salty, greasy, chocolately goodness of these sites. But is it all junk food goodness? Are there some real vitamins and fruit and veggie goodness from Twitter or FB? My assessment ..... sorta.

Why Twitter & FB suck me in:

It's a community. It's connecting. It feeds our need as a human spirit to be connected.
I can be me. Creative. Sarcastic. Helpful. Funny. Sad. Whoever I am for the day.
It's a game. I currently have 1190 followers on Twitter and 333 on FB. Most days I know my follower number on Twitter and I work to get more.
Sometimes I learn stuff. Some of it helpful, some of it ridiculous, but I'm learning.

So this begs the question, how can we make work more like Twitter, so it sucks you in. How can we make work taste like a bag of Lays but really be a bowl of brocolli with a fruit salad chaser?

There are some lessons in here if you'll indulge me for a minute. Of course they are tied to The 4 Disciplines of Execution from FranklinCovey. Because that's what I do. No shame.

Community:

What if your team felt like more of a community? How would you feel if you knew exactly how your team contributed to the success of your organization? What if your contribution mattered? What if your contribution was critical to some part of the organizations success and you were proud to be a part of it?

Me being me:

What if you were so caught up in how important your team was to the success of the organization that you didn't spend time playing politcal games and middle school antics? What if you could bring your most creative, helpful, and funny contribution to work with you every day because you knew how what you did mattered?

It's a game.

We've talked about this before right? See the previous post or this one. Stop asking people to come to work and give their best if they don't know what winning looks like. If you aren't keeping score, people won't play to win, they'll play not to lose. The complete craze of Farmville should tell you something. Think about it. Mostly intelligent adults spending time playing an internet game about fake farming. Seriously? Yes.

Learning stuff:

When I know what winning looks like, I'm searching intensely to learn how to be better and play harder. I like to learn if I know what it can help me do. You won't have to bribe me with big chocolate chip cookies to come to training if I know how what you're teaching helps me to win. And especially if I know why my team matters, then, you can't make me NOT learn, so get outta my way please.

Watch this 17 minute video about The 4 Disciplines of Execution, and then tell me if that could make your work more fun, like Twitter.

P.S. I don't do Farmville, please don't ask me to come and help me build your barn. Unless it's a real barn... then I'll bring a hammer. A real one.

Execution: Life on the Ground

2010-05-05T22:49:00.000-04:00

I am the CEO of my territory, my desk, my closet and my car. I am not the CEO of my company. I am a front line worker. In most organizations, I would go to work everyday and do my work. I wouldn't have a lot of connective tissue between me and my work, and the growth strategy of the organization. That's the not the case with me. I work in an execution culture.

In an execution culture, I know exactly how my work ties into what the organization needs to achieve for growth. I also know how to keep my day to day work going. Today's post is an illustration, a play by play of what it's like to work in an execution culture.

This is how you achieve growth in the midst of the whirlwind of your day to day job.

Last Friday at 11:00 a.m. I made a few promises, commitments really. I committed to seven activities. These were activities of my own choosing. I chose these seven activities because I felt they were my best opportunity to move the needle on my scoreboard. I made these promises on a conference call with my peers. People doing similar work with shared goals.

My colleague Christine, when she heard my commitments, called a little BS on me. She said, "You really think you're going to get all seven of those things done on top of the whirlwind of your day to day work and appointments?" Christine knows how this works. Seven is a lot. In this situation, I had a reason. Last week I was traveling like crazy, next week I'm traveling like crazy. This was my week with the most desk time available and if I was going to turn those scoreboards green by the end of the quarter I had to capitalize. She accepted it. The rest of the team reluctantly agreed.

Think of that for a minute, seven activities seemed like too much. You see, those aren't the only seven activities I'll do this week. In my calendar there are also, 14 conference calls, 4 face to face meetings with clients, 2 soccer practices, 1 guitar lesson, and about 20 other tasks that need to be done. And that's only if the phone doesn't ring and I don't get any emails with things that need to be added.

Now seven seems pretty stupid to you too, doesn't it.

Monday started out okay with mostly scheduled conference calls, none of which involved the lucky seven. By Monday afternoon I knew I needed to get 'one with the list' if I was going to pull this off. I pulled out the list and started on it. Focus focus focus. Don't look at your email, don't answer the phone, don't check Twitter. Check and Check. Two down, Five to go. It's 6:05, gotta check out for the day.

Tuesday is drive two hours north for face to face appointments with clients. Most of the day is shot. I look at my calendar and find a 90 minute block and add in more of the lucky seven to my calendar. I have to block it on my calendar because I have the most effective partner in the world and she is booking me appointments faster than my Newf can scarf his kibble. I find a quiet table at a restaurant and pull out the list. Check and check. Four down, three to go.

Wednesday. Tired, tired, tired. The tiny girl comes down with some ick and I spend part of my day in the pediatrician's office. After I go home and bathe in Purell, I get back to the list. Then I get interrupted by some drama with my BF, then my Mom calls with a question about her Facebook account, then my husband needs help with a job application. ARRRGGHHH! Focus.

Tomorrow is Thursday. I have 2 face to face appointments, some windshield time, and then need to hunker down to hammer out the last three on the list. Are you wondering if this is some special contest I'm working on? No, this is how I work. Whirlwind of day to day job meets execution commitments.

You see on Friday morning I need to get back on the phone again with those same people at 11am. I need to tell them if I kept my promises. Christine will be on that call. I want to win. Not only is my integrity a factor, I know those commitments are what I need to do to achieve my goals. Those are also the things designed for my organization to achieve its goals. I want that scoreboard to be green. Green is good, green is winning.

I like to win. You like to win. Everyone on your team likes to win. Execution is creating a win-able game. Bring on the Friday. I'll be ready.

Empowerment, Execution, Micro-management and Dilbert

2010-04-26T15:14:00.000-04:00

Empowerment
Execution
Micro-management

Even as a consultant these words bring visions of Dilbert cartoons to my head. These words are corporate code for the leadership team just went to a new 'class'. Because Execution is my Biz, but with a healthy dose of skepticism in mind, let me try and describe what an effective execution process is, and what it is not.

Let's start with what it is not.

It is not micro-management. Here's how I define micro-management: Some leader tells a manager what to do and then that manager tells everyone else what and how to do it.

Picture the manager lining everyone up each morning and handing out their daily task cards. Everyone goes back to their section of real estate, cubes or trucks or offices, and starts to work on their tasks.

This works until:

1. You leave to go get coffee or go to a meeting
2. Something happens that isn't on their card that they need to react to

Not all that sustainable. While it looks efficient, it's a waste of time, money and talent. People don't wake up every day excited to be a cog in a machine, that day is over.

There are some teams and organizations that try and operate this way. This is exactly why Dilbert became so popular. There's no greater path to sucking the life out of someone then to tell them what to do and even worse how to do it.

Empowerment. Doesn't that term just make you feel all warm and fuzzy? Just having the word 'power' in it is supposed to make it motivating. That's the problem. Empowerment looks really good on a marketing sheet for a training class, or a memo you're sending out to your employees. Sadly, very few know how to do it so they abuse the term and then Dilbert has new material.

Unfortunately, empowerment has been giving people enough rope to hang themselves for years. Then the leader looks so disappointed when they come in to find them hanging. If you're going to give the power to the people, you should tell them how to use their powers and what you expect. Leaders are busy, they don't do this, they send people off with too much of a blank slate and expect us to guess correctly. They might as well make the noose themselves and custom fit it with the assignment.

Execution and empowerment could be very similar if people knew how to do empowerment. They don't.

So what is execution?

Execution is getting the strategic goals accomplished in the midst of a 150 mph whirlwind of day to day work. An execution process is institutionalizing that ability into an operating system that facilitates this accomplishment each week, each quarter, each year, every goal, every manager, every time.

Execution requires leaders to set the strategy with a few very real measurable targets. The team takes over figuring out how they will accomplish it. You did hire them because they know how to do the job, right? The team decides what they will measure along the way, what commitments they will make each week. They hold each other accountable weekly to those commitments. Weekly commitments that each of the team members made for themselves, not their daily task card they were assigned. Weekly accountability around established targets; Not enough rope to hang themselves.

Are you starting to see the difference?

An execution process is most important for the front line manager. Those are the folks that get it coming and going. Those are the folks that read Dilbert because the leader is in a class on empowerment.

How do I motivate my team?

2010-03-21T16:16:00.001-04:00

Ahh yes, the ever popular topic of motivation. There is much debate on the key ingredients to truly motivate individuals and teams to greatness. Most of it is crap. Not all, but most. You can do your own google search and form your own opinions.

This is my opinion on motivation.

The only way to get me, you, your sister, that weird guy that picks his nose in the cube one row over, or anyone truly motivated to better performance is to create a game we can win.

My last post talks about the power of focus, it's a great starting point for this topic of motivation.

It's tough to be motivated by the monotony of every day work. Yea, I'm going to rock out this expense report better than I ever have. Watch me answer this next client call with more motivation and energy than that battery bunny on an expresso high.

That just doesn't happen.

To create a game the team can win, it first has to feel like a game. We have to know what winning looks like. We have to know where we are now, where we need to get to, how much time we've got to do it in, and what are the rules of the game. It's nice to know the rules so we can challenge them and get to a better answer.

If you want to know how to create this game like atmosphere, watch your kids play video games. Break out a board game and take a few notes on how it compares to work.

The first thing you'll notice in video games or board games is a visual idea of how you're doing at every moment. Either the points that rack up on Guitar Hero on the screen or where you sit on the board in Monopoly, both tell you 'at-a-glance' if you're winning or losing. Do you and the team know 'at-a-glance' if you're winning or losing?

If not, you need a scoreboard. A scoreboard for you the players, one that tells you 'at-a-glance' if you're winning or losing. Think about a football scoreboard, it's for the players, not for the coaches. A football scoreboard gives you the data you need to make decisions in the huddle; A handful of datapoints that tell you everything about where you stand in the game.

How motivated would Peyton and the Colts be if they didn't have a scoreboard to help them adjust each play and lead them to a win?

Motivation isn't about big chocolate chip cookies in the cafeteria or having a best a friend at work. Motivation is about creating a game they can win and letting them give everything they've got to rock it out. Winning is fun and has us bring our A game.

Time to get to work creating a game they can win.

Focus: Like Ant Boy on the Sidewalk

2010-03-20T11:54:00.000-04:00

If I asked you to name your most important goal, could you immediately do it with clarity and passion? Without your marketing department or a PowerPoint presentation? Without looking it up in your strategy binder or your performance plan?

If not, read on.

Why is this so hard? We're passionate driven people with a track record of success and great ideas.

Yes, that's the first part of the problem.

The sheer number of ideas and scope of those projects is likely way too much for you and your team to be focused on.

Remember when you were a kid and you took the magnifying glass outside to the sidewalk? To laser an ant into oblivion. That's the power of focus. If you had taken a 200 watt bulb or a just a piece of glass and held it over that ant, I'm guessing it wouldn't have held your attention very long because that's not a game you could win.

Your team might feel the same way.

I'll bet you a beer and a bag of chips that if you walked into the conference room and asked your team to see how many ants they could zap with your newfangled magnifying glass, they'd be pushing each other out of the way to be the first to the parking lot. And they'd be keeping score. They'd be high fiving each other with each ant slaughter. They'd find new and better ways to gather the ants just to zap them. They'd be passionately pursuing excellence.

Want to know why?

Because you had finally given them a game they could win.

Work isn't fun anymore because it's like digging a hole and filling it everyday. We need to have a game we know we can win. It needs to have focus and a finish line.

Spend this weekend thinking about which of the 8 or more goals you have the team working on is really the most important. What's the one thing if you don't achieve it, nothing else matters?

Now define what winning looks like. A real goal. One of those smart ones you learned about in goal setting class in 10th grade. Does your goal currently sound something like this: To be the sexiest IT department focused on providing value to your stakeholders. Yea, that actually freaks me out a little. But I see it all the time in organizations I work with. I have no idea what winning looks like for that goal. I have some ideas and all of them are creepy. I wouldn't work on that goal.

How about something like this:

To increase the number of new clients from 0 to 25 by June 15, 2010
or
To decrease expenses from $500K to $375K by September 1, 2010

Your goal must be written like a math equation, From X to Y by when.

Start to Finish with a deadline. No excuses. No complaining. No marketing spin.

Then start to build your story about why accomplishing that goal is critical to your organization. Not everyone likes math so you better appeal to the others with a compelling "why" behind the "what". If you can't talk about it passionately, why should they work on it passionately. The old elevator speech idea is still sound, except today you need to communicate it in 140 characters or less so you can Tweet about it too.

One of my clients gave a team of front line employees the goal of restructuring their entire department. They knew exactly how much money needed to be saved, and what the job was to be done for the customer. Instead of a closed door meeting with pink slips at the end, they went to work passionately focused on new ideas and new structures. One member of the team decided she really did want to retire early, another really did want to work in another department. With two members moving out of the cost model and a slew of passionate new ideas, they achieved the exact financial measures they needed, with happy customers and a team with rejuvenated ownership and spirit. Not bad, huh?

Get clear, get focused, get passionate about it: like ant boy on the sidewalk.

Image found at www.thegiantnapkin.com

Dear PETA members:
Look, it's just a metaphor, in fact I have never killed an ant with a magnifying glass in my life so don't show up to picket my blog. Or maybe you should, because any PR is good PR, right? Tiger Woods would likely disagree but as a lonely blogger I'm just vying for attention like a toddler on a rampage.

Work doesn't have to be like my root canal

2010-01-23T22:46:00.000-05:00

I had a root canal yesterday. Yes, it sucked.

What does this have to do with execution?

I was in a situation that I had to have fixed. I was in pain. We get into situations in business that cause us pain and we just want it fixed. We assume that people will just go along with the routine without thinking about building confidence in the people, the process, or the outcome.

After seeing my regular dentist, he referred me to an Endodontist. I didn't have my first cavity until I was 21 years old, I didn't even know what an Endodonist was before yesterday. Yet, here I was, speeding to this doctor I've never met hoping he or she could heal my pain. Stat!

After I get into the Endodontist chair it occurs to me I have no idea who this doctor is or what this procedure is all about. I'm in so much pain, however, I'm willing to risk it to stop the pain. Then the assistants in the room start to bicker a bit. One is new to the office and is questioning the kind of equipment they are using for the x-rays. Then the more senior to the office comes in and reads to me about root canals off a postcard and I almost laughed because she sounded just like the legal disclaimer announcer. Sadly, she was not joking.

Contrary to what most think about me, I have a small mouth and they can't fit the stuff in my mouth and it gets really ugly. Ugly and chaotic.

After multiple attempts at shoving things in my mouth that don't fit and at one point even poking me in the eye, they get the stuff all rigged up. By this time, I've had it.

Finally, I pull the cord and stop the train. They take everything out of my mouth. I tell the doctor we're not going anywhere until I get some confidence that this team is capable of this procedure. The doctor sends the assistants out of the room and apologizes. Finally she stops and talks to me, about me. Finally, when we're eyeball to eyeball she tells me about my options, my concerns, and finally starts to build my confidence.

I allow the procedure, she files and drills and sucks the pulp out of my tooth and sends me home with less pain and more drugs. Mission accomplished.

This whole deal had me thinking about how often we send people into situations that are unfamiliar and often painful and then do very little to build their confidence. We need to build their confidence in the people, the process and the outcome. We just expect them to go along with things because, "that's the way we do it around here".

Work doesn't have to be as painful as a root canal. There are a few basic rules for execution. Learn more about them here. >>>>>>>>>>>> Hit Play

You can't get Punk'd without Execution

2010-01-18T19:11:00.002-05:00

You don't have to work in a cube or a corner office in corporate america to care about execution. Even @aplusk, otherwise known as Ashton Kutcher, star of That 70's Show, husband to Demi and mastermind behind the punk'd series knows how important execution is. On January 13th he sent this tweet:

Brilliant ideas are a dime a dozen, I've had three of them since starting this post. Getting from brilliant idea to end result, that's where execution lives. You can't even get Punk'd without execution.

Watch this 17 minute video to learn the 4 critical disciplines that will take your strategy or idea from concept to concrete results, then post your execution questions or challenges and we will address them in future posts.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution video

What kind of leader are you?

2010-01-15T13:56:00.000-05:00

If you are serious about execution, it's time to take inventory of your leadership skills, style and perspective.

Sustainable execution must start with the leader. Just a couple of questions to get you started.

Question 1:

Do you suffer from "oooohhh shiny" syndrome? You start down a path, all fired up about something, and then someone presents a new idea, or you read about a new concept and all of a sudden you're caught, blinded by the shiny light of the next big thing? I call that "ooooh shiny" syndrome. This will not help your execution efforts.

By chasing the next big shiny thing, your team knows not to put too much into what you say, because next week it will be something totally new and more exciting. You may need to buy some blinders. You must stay focused if you want them to.

Question 2:

Who's goals are they? Let's not pretend that everyone gets to set their own strategic direction. They don't. Nearly everyone has a boss somewhere that tells them what needs to happen in some fashion. It's o.k. to hand down a goal to someone or to a team. Once we hand it to them, we must then give them the freedom to present "how" they will achieve it. Once the team has presented their plans for how to achieve it, you have a very important rule to follow. You can veto their idea, but you can't dictate and tell them how to achieve it. If their plan is completely wacky, by all means, veto. But don't then proceed to tell them how. Have them go back and prepare another plan to present to you. There needs to be a level of ownership and commitment to how they will achieve it. Once you dictate, you violate that principle of ownership.
Just a couple of questions for you to ponder for today.

List your execution questions and challenges in the comments and I'll address them in future posts.

Who is the Enemy?

2010-01-13T23:09:00.000-05:00

Raise your hand if you've been in this meeting.

It's the yearly offsite planning meeting. All of the greatest minds, including yourself of course, have gathered around the coffee and danish to ponder and plan the issues and opportunities of your team for the next fiscal year.

You review the spreadsheets, crunch the numbers, look at your customers, plan for the new customers you're going to land, and projects you're going to complete with excellence, on time and on budget.

There are speakers, catered lunches, happy hours and the best brainstorming you've ever seen.

As the meeting begins to wrap, you all high five or fist bump or whatever it is you do when you celebrate your brilliance. You review the 35 flip chart pages taped carefully around the room, appoint someone to type them up for the binders that will be distributed, and hurry off to catch your flight. You're giddy from the excitement.

You fall back in line the next day with your emails, voice mails, all the catch up that needs to be done from being out of the loop.

A few weeks go by and a new binder shows up in your inter-office mail with the summary of the offsite. You put the binder on the shelf and head to your next meeting.

Sometime in the future, maybe it's 6 months, maybe it's a year, you review the progress. What happened to the new clients you were going to land, why haven't those projects started? What happened to the fire and enthusiasm from the offsite?

I thought we all did the fist bump and agreed on the plan!

There is one very real and very powerful enemy of your ability to execute on those brilliant plans? And everyone in your organization has one. It's called the Whirlwind. It's the day to day work that has to be accomplished just to keep the lights on. It's the email, voice mail, customer visits, reports, meetings, and all of the work that could easily take up 40-50 hours in your week without ever having a strategic project to work on.

Answer that question for yourself.

Could you be busy more than 40 hours every week without any strategy whatsoever?

That is the whirlwind at work.

You go home on Friday night completely exhausted and frustrated because you never got to those strategic projects. There's this little lie we tell ourselves. It goes something like this, "When I get caught up, I'm going to nail that project." The problem is, we're never going to get caught up. Ever.

The key is to execute on that wildly important strategy in the midst of the whirlwind.

Know your enemy.

For more information watch this brief video
FranklinCovey Video - The Whirlwind