Staying on target

In order to achieve overall success, organisations need to avoid getting sidetracked by smaller issues. Guest contributor Dr Stephen Covey says leaders and staff should focus on just the "wildly important" goals. If these are achieved, the rest will follow naturally

In my last column (HRM 8.11), I pointed out the vast 'execution gaps' in most organisations. So many crucial initiatives fail, so many change efforts collapse, due to these yawning gaps.

Several months ago, FranklinCovey asked 11,000 people in the US workforce to tell us about their execution discipline. The table of their responses below details the magnitude of this execution gap. If the typical organisation is like this, execution is obviously at high risk.

The execution gap is a human issue. It has little to do with market strategy or technology, or with any of the issues that typically occupy the time of executive leadership. It has to do with people. Either they execute, or they don't. To close the gap, organisations must practice the four disciplines of execution.

Focus on the 'wildly important' goals

People are genetically wired to focus on one thing at a time. Nevertheless, we ask our people to 'multitask.' The result is frustrated workers and poor results. The leader's job is to make crystal clear those few goals that are "wildly important" and get everyone focused there.

Some objectives are clearly more critical than others. As I watch the security people at the airport process passengers, I am impressed with their courtesy and efficiency. But if one terrorist gets through the system and disaster results, the courtesy, professionalism and efficiency will count for little. That's because these workers have one wildly important goal that must be achieved. How crucial it is, therefore, that everyone agrees on what is "wildly important" and focuses on it.

Create a scoreboard

People can know the goal, but if they don't know the score, they are working in the dark. Imagine going to a football game without a scoreboard. Everyone must know the score all the time to know what to do. Scoreboards motivate people. The scoreboard must be created by and be visible to everyone.

One firm I am acquainted with helps people save money on prescriptions. Their goal is to save their customers a certain amount of money this year, and every day they post their progress toward this goal. No one in the firm questions what is "wildly important" because together they have decided what it is, and they never take their eyes off the score.

Translate goals into action

Goals that have never been achieved require behaviours that have never been tried before.

How often do leaders announce a new goal without giving thought to how it will be executed? One company I know of announced that every store in its retail chain was to increase sales revenue by 15% that fiscal year. Store managers and staff accepted the goal, but had no notion of how to execute. Leaders must involve the front line in defining what everyone must do differently to accomplish the new goal.

Engage the team weekly

It isn't enough to meet once a year and decide what the work group is going to do. In the most effective teams, people meet weekly to account for their commitments, examine the scoreboard, resolve issues and decide how to support one another. Former mayor Rudy Giuliani, widely credited with the renaissance of New York City, met daily with his staff to do these things. Re-engaging less than weekly allows the team to drift off course and lose focus.