Leadership - Execution

Execution – “Perform” or “Achieve”

Some of us are not perfect, I’m not, and maybe you aren’t either. I exercise daily and eat a balanced portion controlled tasty diet at home thanks to my dietitian spouse. I have fully established a standard process and I have executed consistently in the last six months. The results have been measurable and quite rewarding.

So why am I drawn like a piece of metal to a magnet, when I venture out on a road trip and pass a McDonald’s? Rather I stop at the McDonald’s for my large diet coke and invariably eat two double cheeseburgers and large fries. Maybe you have a similar magnet in your life where you venture out of the successful execution of your personal health regimen. Variations in process or a failure of execute a plan result in consequences to the organization or body in this case.

Lean business system and six sigma protocols are designed to reduce the variations in the process through continuous improvement. Still there are always variations, the business environment changes, the nature of the product changes, something always changes! So if you have a great standard process, do leaders make a difference in execution?

Definitely! Take McDonald’s where I earlier established my vast experience. I had the occasion over the few weeks to observe the culture of execution at two different McDonald’s at various times of day for a week. (Spouse was visiting her mother)

Both restaurants were relatively new and basically identical in layout. McDonald’s had deployed their legendary standard work so all the food was made on the same equipment, the process metrics were all the same, uniforms were the same, and the training manual was identical.

The execution of the process and the results could not have been starker. The first restaurant X was a pleasant place to dine and Y was a chore to leave unstressed. Y had more associates running around consistently bumping into each other. X and Y used almost exactly the same words of greeting, but you felt like X associates cared about what you ordered and your day was going. Y never listened to your answers to their questions asked from the manual. X had eye contact and seemed to take more time with you. Y always seemed rushed to get to the next customer in the long line. The appearance in uniform was dramatic: Y pressed and professional; Y hanging on the associates. One drink area was messy (Y) with straw wrappers and spills, while the other (X) always seemed to shine.

Execution is about enabling your team to translate the standard work and continuous improvement into a culture of high expectations for achievements. There is a case to be made that while successful managers perform the basic operation of the organization. Leaders create a culture and expectation for consistent execution of operational excellence, even in an environment of difficult economic conditions or operational stress.

Eliminate the distractions and uncertainty from the work environment that impact the core of the performance expectation.

Provide a culture of high expectations for the team’s execution of the spirit and not just the words of the business process.

Motivate the team members to embrace the standard process as the way to satisfy customers and lead to success, not just follow ‘stupid’ rules or repeat ‘empty’ words.

Develop a culture that allows enthusiastic execution of the organization’s strategy. Make it fun to come to work, as well as delivering a consistent high quality product.

Envision a clearly defined and understood work practice that manifests itself in sustained excellent results.

My final thought - Larry Bossidy, in his book Execution sets out an excellent frame work for “the discipline of getting things done”. A great read for all levels of managers in forming a strategy of performance within their group.