Execution

Create the Vision. Implement the Plan. Get the Job Done.

Tom Gorman

• Publisher: Adams Media
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781440516603
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Productivity, Results, Accomplishments - These are the outcome of good, solid management. Management is the art and science of getting things accomplished via other people and executing results. Execution is about getting things done. Execution shows readers how to manage money, people, equipment, time and other resources, and successfully run anything from a project, to a department, to a business. It helps readers learn how to get things done on their own or through employees or freelancers, how to prepare and control budgets and how to make management and financial decisions.
This book goes beyond delegation and supervision to give readers all of the principles, practices, strategies and tactics that they absolutely must know including:

• how to communicate goals to your staff and define concrete ways of reaching them
• the budgeting and finance basics needed to manage projects and processes
• how to manage cycles of growth, setbacks, and success so your business is sustainable

MANAGING PLANSAND PEOPLE
Part 1

1
Execution:The Way to Get Things Done

Getting things done—whether you’re doing them yourself or getting them done through others as a manager or as an entrepreneur—calls for organization. I don’t mean being organized in the clean-desk versus messy-desk sense of the term, though many of us might do better in a more orderly working environment. I’m talking about being organized in another sense.

Execution calls for organizing your thoughts, actions, time, and resources for efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency means that you are getting things done with the right amounts of effort, time, and resources. Effectiveness means that you are getting the job done properly and reaching your intended goals.

In this chapter we look at the overall issue of execution and how to go about it. We’ll touch upon the goals and results that you may want or need to achieve, and at the general ways to think about those goals, results, and means of execution.

Basic Background

To work in an effective and efficient manner, you should understand three basic concepts: cause and effect; risk and reward; and goals and success. You may think you understand these concepts, but a good look around you and perhaps at situations in your own life may reveal that they can easily be misunderstood or misapplied.

ef•fect

1. noun: result of doing or not doing something, as in “The effect of lower prices will be more customers.”

2. verb: to bring about a result, as in “To effect higher sales, we cut our prices.”

These three concepts form the environment in which execution takes place. Cause and effect links your actions to the results you generate. Risk and reward links the element of probability to the results you may (or may not) generate. Goals and success link your state of mind to the results you create.

Such linkages help you develop a framework for setting goals, planning your actions, allocating your time and other resources, and evaluating your progress.

Cause and Effect

We live in a world of cause and effect. Every action we take generates a result. Some of these results are the exact ones we want. Others are not the ones we want. But often we create results without giving much thought to what we want, and that’s too bad.

However, the latter fact presents a huge opportunity because creating results that you’ve given no thought to may amount to a waste of energy. For instance, many of us spend hours browsing the Web, watching television, or working on minute details of our jobs without really thinking about what we’re getting out of it. If we’re enjoying it or accomplishing something, that’s fine. If we’re not, however, we may be missing real opportunities to enjoy ourselves or accomplish things.

Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.
—A. A. Milne (author)

The results we create are the effects of our actions. What kind of effects do I mean? Broadly, our actions affect the physical world, other people, and ourselves.

We affect the physical world when we build or maintain a thing or place, or destroy or neglect it. If we plant dune grass on a beach or lakeshore, we’ll probably preserve it from erosion. If we maintain our cars, they’ll run better and last longer. On the other hand, if we destroy a sand dune we may foster erosion. If we neglect auto maintenance, our cars won’t run well or last long.

We affect others in our interactions with them. An interaction can be anything from a pleasant remark while you’re buying a pack of gum to a major argument over a matter of policy at work. Usually, we affect others in small ways, but those small effects can add up to major ones. If you’ve ever described someone as “happy-go-lucky” or “a pill” you know what I mean. That impression results from the positive or negative effects they’ve created in their interactions with you and others. We affect other people by the way we dress, drive, talk to them, look at them, and listen to them. Even the way we think about people may affect them by affecting the way we treat them, sometimes without our knowing it.

af•fect

1. noun: behavior, as in “The customer’s affect was quite belligerent.”

2. verb: to influence something, as in “We can affect sales by changing our prices.”

Take Action

See the book Motivation in this Adams Media series to learn how to get yourself charged up about improving your habits and behavior.

Our actions have very definite effects on ourselves. The way we eat and exercise affects our health and fitness. The way we spend our time and money affects our success and finances. The books and newspapers we read, the movies and TV shows we watch, and the music we listen to all affect us. There’s now a well-established connection between our habits and behavior and our levels of health, wealth, and happiness.

At the action level—at the level of execution— we definitely live in a world of cause and effect.

Risk and Reward

Considering risk and reward helps you deal with the uncertainties surrounding execution. Although the world operates on cause and effect, a wide range of effects can result from any given decision or action. For instance, saving and investing will, over time, generally cause wealth to accumulate. However, unforeseen events can affect the value of an investment. Therefore, risk is an element in any investment decision. Risk also attends most career, hiring, purchase, and personal decisions.

There are also unintended consequences. It’s impossible to foresee every potential outcome, effect, and side effect of any but the simplest decisions or actions. For example, seat belts keep accident victims from hitting dashboards and windshields, but they also trap some of them in burning or submerged vehicles. (The latter cases, however, represent a miniscule number compared to those saved from injury by seatbelts.)

Characteristics of Risks and Rewards

A risk or a reward may be long term or short term, large or small. People who deal with risk for a living recognize many different types of risk. For instance, financial professionals think in terms of inflation risk, credit risk, and foreign-exchange risk, among others. Similarly, you will face a range of risks when you make decisions and execute plans for your employer or your own business, including:

Risk of failure: the possibility that you will fail to execute properly, or that you will execute properly and still fail to achieve the goal

Business risk: the possibility that your organization’s growth, competitive position, or regulatory or legal status will be jeopardized

Financial risk: the possibility that you will lose invested money or make less money than you could have made from alternative pursuits

Professional risk: the possibility that a decision will hamper your career progress or tarnish your reputation

Emotional risk: the possibility that you will feel fear, anger, anxiety, or regret

Creative risk: the possibility that you will waste time, energy, and good will on a fruitless endeavor, or that your creation will fail to express what you wanted it to

People—sane business people anyway—don’t take risks for their amusement. They risk money, time, resources, competitive position, and emotional turmoil with the expectation of a reward and a return. The potential rewards relate to prudently considered risks as follows:

Risk of failure provides the opportunity to make decisions, set goals, and execute plans as you see fit.

Business risks offer the chance of more rapid growth, higher sales, or improved competitive position.

Financial risks provide the opportunity for increased sales, profits, or income.

Professional risks attend attempts to achieve advancement, extend your reputation, or increase your professional standing.

Emotional risks hold the possibility of personal growth, deeper relationships, and increased happiness.

Creative risks typically accompany true breakthroughs in business, artistic, and personal endeavors.

Dealing with risk effectively in making decisions, setting goals, and executing plans involves assessing the risks and potential returns, and then managing the risks. At least some risk is inherent in virtually any decision or plan you make, and you can identify and manage most of those risks.

Goals and Success

Every decision and plan has a goal. You make a decision to achieve or create something and, in doing so, set a goal. Then...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• introduction
• Part 1: MANAGING PLANS AND PEOPLE
• Part 2: MANAGING MONEY, PROJECTS, AND PROCESSES
• Part 3: MANAGING GROWTH, SETBACKS, AND SUCCESS