..two books to help navigate strategy vs execution.
I’ve found that people in business tend to sit in one of 2 distinct camps:
A “Doers” – Let’s crack on – JFDI – focused on execution
B “Thinkers” – why are we doing this? – focused on strategy
the reality is that any business needs both.
If you are in a senior position in any organisation, or running your own business, you need to move between the two regularly – and it’s hard..
So how do you navigate this balance?
Two books I’ve read which have helped are:
1. Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
Ashamed to say I’ve only just read this, having bought it several years ago.
I assumed it would be corporate, whereas in fact it is quite the opposite:
His elements of bad strategy:
– corporate “fluff” pretending to be strategy
– failure to face the challenge
– mistaking goals for strategy
– bad strategic objectives
Rumelt says Strategy is deciding on how to apply your “strength applied to the most promising opportunity”. Both will vary significantly depending on circumstances, which he goes through in depth – well worth reading..
2. The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney
Once we know what we want to achieve, the hard bit can be keeping the focus on it consistently.
I’ve implemented the key ideas from this book and it does work:
– Decide on the most important thing – “wildly important goal” – ie don’t have 35 objectives and achieve zero!
– Decide, measure and act on the lead indicators (rather than just lag measures like profit).
– Keep a scorecard so you know if you are winning.
– Create a cadence of accountability – consistent, weekly, short meetings focussed on the goal.
..this book is so good that I have given copies of it to colleagues (and I am a tight accountant).
Neither book is new but the lessons still make sense to me today.
Are you a doer or a thinker?
Any other books you’d recommend on strategy and execution?
#fractionalcfo #stopandthink #jfdi