Blame it on Execution!

Most of the management team believes that they have a perfect strategy but a poor execution and they blame it on their team..

Possibly true, But if their execution is bad what should be their strategy? What is the role of management team in execution?

First on strategy, its a continuous process and should take shape according to the response from time to time.. A good strategy focusses on what is right, what is possible for the organisation and adjusts itself to their executional capabilities..

A good execution is based on the team belief in the strategy, their engagement level and their capability. The management team has a major role to play in all this..

So next time you wanna blame it on execution, think twice..

Short & Simple 2

Books are one area where the technological revolution is happening after long time but still long way to go.. Books particularly non fiction need to be short & simple, gone are the days where people can read hundreds of pages.. Today we have TED talks which explains the content of a whole book in just 20 mins.. And we are seeing summaries of books being published, podcast and live TED video shows..

The future is going to be book summary written by Author himself, Summary Podcast, Book video shows, movies on books.. How good it will be if we can watch a video for one hr or so, the author explaining his book..

Books educates and transforms the world, the responsibility is more on the authors to make it short, simple and attractive..

Short and simple is beautiful

How big should be our mail communication, we receive hundreds of mails each day and will spend maximum two to three minutes for each of the mail.. So the ideal way of communication is to ensure the mail message is restricted to two or three sentences, simple, precise and clear..

What if the message goes higher than three sentences? Break into pieces and communicate periodically..

Recently seen a Aon Hewitt communication, they wanted to communicate the importance of taking Employee Engagement Survey and it was beautifully communicated in a picture representation in pieces.. Everyday short sequence of dialogue is sent by mail followed by a question which gets answered the next day.. The message was Simple, precise and creates curiosity to read the mail next day..

And the same is true for any mode of communication, the attention span is very small across audience and its important that we ask this question, how do we keep our message short and simple?

Maladies of an Organisation

As i look around and talk to my colleagues and friends, i am really shocked to see lot of wrong decisions, poor strategy and execution across organizations.. The main reasons are

1. Lack of awareness

2. Short term goals

3. Personal Benefits

And those wrong decisions are taken by strong guys in the organisation and no one can question them and worst is that, this takes the company in the reverse direction and a point of no return..

The first one can be managed by continuous learning, listening to your employees and having trusted advisors.. Even the most intuitive and successful leaders listened to their employees, not adamant on their belief.. The concept of advisors is underestimated in today's organisation and i am sure one day we will have a vertical called Advisors in every organisation.. Today atleast we can have it for the top brass..

The second one is by setting clear long term goals for the organisation, rewarding the employees on long term performance and not succumbing to the short term pressure.. Remember, focussing more on short term benefits takes the company to a dead end.. So the ability to convince the management on long term benefits, proven track record and perseverance are most important for leaders..

The third one is the most pervasive, everyone asks what is in it for me rather than what is right for the organisation.. This Peter Trucker principle need to be communicated clearly to all the employees and should stand above all personal benefits.. Easier said than done but leaders can walk the talk, rest will follow..

Management theories

The main difference between Einstein and typical management theories are, the former leaves it to the world to prove his theories experimentally, could be proved hundred years later and the later wants to prove it with statistical analysis however biased or inaccurate it could be..

Management professionals should not waste their time in trying to prove their theories with statistics, they should believe in their intuition and leave it to the world to test it out.. Right theories doesn't need any statistics and the readers will connect it with their own examples & statistics..

Peter Trucker's "Principles of effective executive" doesn't need any statistics and any reader can connect and relate the same easily to their lives..

So the next time someone ask you to prove your theories, tell them the readers will do it..

The Next Big War

The next big war is not going to be fought between two strong nations but between the weak & the strong.. The world is well connected than ever before and provides a platform for the weak to join hands, and the weak in large numbers is not a weaker force. History has proved that the weak can be destroyed or controlled by strong irrespective of their moral grounds until the weak is out numbered.. The weak is not always right but a weak will become stronger than ever before.. What we are seeing in the world today are the smaller versions of this war..

Its time the strong understand the strength of the weak, focus on taking a stand on moral grounds rather than their ability to control the weaker forces, understand the plurality of this society and relinquish the need to dominate one another..

Its only in this way the weak can be held small and less destructive force.. But to me, looking at the intolerance in this world today, we have a long way to go..

Feeling Insecure

If you feel insecure in your job, you are not learning & growing and if people around you are insecure, you are learning and growing.. In the first case you are to be blamed, start working hard and in the later you don't need to worry about, just continue what you do..