Friday, April 25
Execution means DO SOMETHING!!
No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.
-- George Eliot
One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or No.
-- Thomas Carlyle
The importance of "execution" is a concept that has gained a lot of currency in today's business environment.
Execution is simply a big word for DO SOMETHING!!
In the old business world, the normal process for getting something done could be described as "Ready, Aim, Fire!"
With the quality movement and the other management fads that came and went during the 1980's and 1990's, the process became a little more involved. Perhaps "Aim, Ready, Aim, Fire!" could describe the resulting corporate mindset:
-- George Eliot
One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or No.
-- Thomas Carlyle
The importance of "execution" is a concept that has gained a lot of currency in today's business environment.
Execution is simply a big word for DO SOMETHING!!
In the old business world, the normal process for getting something done could be described as "Ready, Aim, Fire!"
With the quality movement and the other management fads that came and went during the 1980's and 1990's, the process became a little more involved. Perhaps "Aim, Ready, Aim, Fire!" could describe the resulting corporate mindset:
Document everything you Do, and Do everything that you've Documented. That
meant a lot of extra work and not much improvement in actual quality (but that's another book).
Then Tom Peters encouraged managers to adopt a new philosophy which he presented as "Ready, Fire, Aim" -- execute on your ideas, and then refocus/refine later.
Today, successful leaders need to be innovative, brave, smart, and fast. Perhaps the new motto is "Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire!"
That means that "Ready" has to be built in - to every department, every manager, every employee. Ready is the new status quo. And aiming is no longer a separate step. Aiming is about creativity, scoping out the possibilities, and finding the next opportunity before the competition does.
Part of being Ready is, in fact, to always be aiming! This is the only way that "Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire!" is ever going to work without descending into havoc.
Yes or No? Fire!
