Publications
Partners
Execution IS the Strategy: How Leaders Achieve Maximum Results in Minimum Time, by Laura Stack
IN 1990, Jeffrey Pfeffer wrote a seminal book with the intriguing title of The Knowing-Doing Gap. The question he addressed was why so much knowing leads to so little doing in so many large corporations. The book goes on to describe what successful companies do that is different.
In 2005, David Maister dealt with the same problem as it relates to strategy in professional services firms. His book was entitled Strategy and the Fat Smoker, because like a fat smoker, the partners know what they have to do, they even know how to do it, they also understand why they should do it.
Like the fat smoker (in whose ranks Maister fitted), the partners simply do not do it.
In my work as a business strategist, the most serious challenge I encounter with regularity is the lack of action on strategy. I am always looking for angles and techniques, which is why I bring this accessible book to your attention.
Laura Stack’s book is particularly relevant to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggling to implement their strategy. This book is necessary because there are few lessons that SMEs can learn from well-run, large corporations. Their issues are very different and so are their solutions.
In her work over 20 years, Stack has identified four factors or keys that are mission critical to the execution of the strategy. The leader’s task is to ensure that these four factors are in place. Without them, success is not possible.
The book contains a number of tools as well as references to Stack’s website for additional material. The “Execution Quotient Assessment” is in the book and is a good place to start. It provides a view on how well you execute, and perhaps more importantly, a stimulus to taking the book seriously.
The four keys form the acronym L-E-A-D: leverage, environment, alignment and drive.
A leader alone can achieve very little, which is why we have staff. Having the right people in the right places in the company provides an opportunity to leverage so much more. A lever over a fulcrum vastly increases a person's ability to lift what is on the other end of the lever.
The leader applies the pressure, the staff form the lever, and the fulcrum is the enabling technologies and work tools.
If you do not have the right people in place, the first action required is to do so. One cannot run an A-grade operation with B-grade people. You cannot move the strategy without the right lever.
The “Environment” refers to the organisation’s atmosphere, practices and culture. There are cultures that make it very easy for people to perform and others that are unpleasant and drain commitment and energy.
Staff will not work hard to support the strategy if they feel mistreated or misunderstood. If this pertains to your company, you have a cultural and engagement issue. This needs attention, because even the best strategy will never succeed in a poor environment.
“Alignment” in the LEAD model refers to the daily activities of staff. Are the tasks they are asked to accomplish going to promote the strategy, or are they a distraction from it?
Pursuing what does not promote the strategy is either a waste of professional time or a waste of the company’s money. If this is a problem in your organisation, you have either a communication problem or a productivity problem to attend to.
Finally, the D in LEAD refers to the organisation’s leaders, teams and employees’ ability to act quickly. If the first three factors are in place and things are not happening fast enough, you have a speed or agility issue that requires attention.
LEAD is a very useful way of looking at your business issues. The bulk of the book is a set of good practices to address each of these areas. There is little that is novel among these prescriptions, but that does not detract from their value.
The obvious benefit is that you have them all in one place. The power lies in the clarity you will have as to where the blockages lie that are stopping executing on your strategy.
Stack does make some serious errors in her understanding of contemporary strategy. But she makes it clear: “I am not a strategist; I am an efficiency expert.”
I point this out so that if you own an SME, you do not dismiss a very useful book.
Readability: Light -+--- Serious
Insights: High --+-- Low
Practical: High -+--- Low
- Fin24
*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works. Views expressed are his own.
IN 1990, Jeffrey Pfeffer wrote a seminal book with the intriguing title of The Knowing-Doing Gap. The question he addressed was why so much knowing leads to so little doing in so many large corporations. The book goes on to describe what successful companies do that is different.
In 2005, David Maister dealt with the same problem as it relates to strategy in professional services firms. His book was entitled Strategy and the Fat Smoker, because like a fat smoker, the partners know what they have to do, they even know how to do it, they also understand why they should do it.
Like the fat smoker (in whose ranks Maister fitted), the partners simply do not do it.
In my work as a business strategist, the most serious challenge I encounter with regularity is the lack of action on strategy. I am always looking for angles and techniques, which is why I bring this accessible book to your attention.
Laura Stack’s book is particularly relevant to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggling to implement their strategy. This book is necessary because there are few lessons that SMEs can learn from well-run, large corporations. Their issues are very different and so are their solutions.
In her work over 20 years, Stack has identified four factors or keys that are mission critical to the execution of the strategy. The leader’s task is to ensure that these four factors are in place. Without them, success is not possible.
The book contains a number of tools as well as references to Stack’s website for additional material. The “Execution Quotient Assessment” is in the book and is a good place to start. It provides a view on how well you execute, and perhaps more importantly, a stimulus to taking the book seriously.
The four keys form the acronym L-E-A-D: leverage, environment, alignment and drive.
A leader alone can achieve very little, which is why we have staff. Having the right people in the right places in the company provides an opportunity to leverage so much more. A lever over a fulcrum vastly increases a person's ability to lift what is on the other end of the lever.
The leader applies the pressure, the staff form the lever, and the fulcrum is the enabling technologies and work tools.
If you do not have the right people in place, the first action required is to do so. One cannot run an A-grade operation with B-grade people. You cannot move the strategy without the right lever.
The “Environment” refers to the organisation’s atmosphere, practices and culture. There are cultures that make it very easy for people to perform and others that are unpleasant and drain commitment and energy.
Staff will not work hard to support the strategy if they feel mistreated or misunderstood. If this pertains to your company, you have a cultural and engagement issue. This needs attention, because even the best strategy will never succeed in a poor environment.
“Alignment” in the LEAD model refers to the daily activities of staff. Are the tasks they are asked to accomplish going to promote the strategy, or are they a distraction from it?
Pursuing what does not promote the strategy is either a waste of professional time or a waste of the company’s money. If this is a problem in your organisation, you have either a communication problem or a productivity problem to attend to.
Finally, the D in LEAD refers to the organisation’s leaders, teams and employees’ ability to act quickly. If the first three factors are in place and things are not happening fast enough, you have a speed or agility issue that requires attention.
LEAD is a very useful way of looking at your business issues. The bulk of the book is a set of good practices to address each of these areas. There is little that is novel among these prescriptions, but that does not detract from their value.
The obvious benefit is that you have them all in one place. The power lies in the clarity you will have as to where the blockages lie that are stopping executing on your strategy.
Stack does make some serious errors in her understanding of contemporary strategy. But she makes it clear: “I am not a strategist; I am an efficiency expert.”
I point this out so that if you own an SME, you do not dismiss a very useful book.
Readability: Light -+--- Serious
Insights: High --+-- Low
Practical: High -+--- Low
- Fin24
*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works. Views expressed are his own.
