Happy Holidays!
I really enjoy the holiday season. Friends, food, gifts – and the annual regathering-mash-up of the Doehring family diaspora. It’s nutty, hectic, stimulating, tiring – and much fun. What’s not to love? [Also, I’m truly thankful for the underlying meaning – and true reason – for the season itself].
Meanwhile at work, this time of year is always crazy – a strange mix of busy (how will we get all this done)? – and not busy enough (just one more engagement and we’d hit bonus)! It’s this time of year that I’m reminded that all project schedules slip only one way: to calendar right, to more time, not less. (Projects never seem to finish sooner than expected). The slippage is usually small – a day here, a day there – but it’s insidious. By the end of the year (if we’re not very careful and disciplined) we’ve lost a full month from our businesses – and our profits.
In their excellent book Execution, The Discipline of Getting Things Done, authors Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan posited that execution is “the single biggest issue facing business today.” They’re right. We’ve shared it here before as well – it’s clear that the magic elixir of business success is execution– getting things done.” You might call it something else in your firm: accountability, responsibility, taking action – but it’s the doing (not the talking) that matters most. It turns out (frankly) that great ideas are by themselves worth very little. Meanwhile, great execution of great ideas is of extraordinary value. Or as another Larry (the Cable Guy) reminds us, “get ‘er done.”
Want to know how to accomplish this in your firm? In a word, mechanize your business. Whether it’s marketing, project management, operations, people systems – all of the important facets of the company – success demands that you design, build, and operate a sustainable business machine. There’s no choice here. As long as you pursue running and improving your business as one-off, intermittent, or occasional activities and initiatives – you’re simply not going to achieve the momentum necessary for truly extraordinaryresults. [And isn’t that what you want, in some way (hint: review your mission and vision aspirations) to achieve the extraordinary]?
The purpose of our firm is to help professional services organizations and their leaders to achieve extraordinary outcomes in business and in life. Beyond incremental improvement, we strive to work with those who themselves aspire to extraordinary. In helping them achieve, we ourselves achieve the extraordinary. That’s our mission. [Keep in mind that extraordinary outcomes occur when ordinarypeople dream, plan, and execute in extraordinary ways]. And it’s always the execution – the actual motion – that is different, unique, and special.
Here we are, at the end of another year – and another mile marker in our lives. One period ends and a new one begins. And with it comes a new opportunity – a time to finish up, tidy up, get organized, and get ready. It’s a new chance to let go of the past (the mistakes, shortcomings, and missed opportunities we all experience) and to take hold of the future. This is the season for thanksgiving and praise, and I think optimism, enthusiasm, and energy. This is the time to decide – and commit – to achieving something extraordinary.
Are you ready?
John
