by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling
8/10
Key Ideas:
Most people are just trying to survive battling that whirlwind and don’t have the time or energy to do something new.
Choose 1-2 goals and the key measures that affect those goals.
Make it easy to see if we are on target and create accountability.
Other interesting notes:
Developing a strategy is easy but that executing that strategy is much harder, especially if that requires a significant change in human behavior.
The key to increasing execution is not to manage your whirlwind. It is instead to execute your most critical strategy in the midst of that whirlwind.
Elect one or at absolute most two wildly important goals and make them your top priority. Make it clear to everyone this is what matters most.
Measures can be lagging (reported after the fact) or leading (precursors to performance). Lag measures are important but lead measures get you the results lag measures reflect. Identify your best lead measures and make them your key leverage points.
For ‘losing weight’, eating healthy and exercising three times a week are good examples of lead measures.
Keep a compelling scoreboard. To increase engagement, make executing a winnable game. Make sure this scoreboard is designed by the players for the players. If you’re team can’t tell quickly and simply whether they are winning or not, they’re probably on their way to losing.
Create Accountability with weekly meetings on progress and plans to improve the score.
Teams need freedom to define their own goals that will contribute the most to the overall goal. The rule is: Leaders only veto, never dictate. This will allow teams to be fully committed to their goals and therefore be accountable for their results.
All goals must have the formula of “From …x… to …y… by …when…”
Features that can encourage disengagement:
- Anonymity
- A lack of acknowledgment of individual work
- A team member feeling irrelevant to the overall team’s goals and results
- Team members who cannot measure and assess their work
Thoughts on the book:
Great book on managing change. Summaries are enough to ‘get the joke’, but do get the book if your day job includes managing change.
Longer summary/notes: S, JR, SS, video
If you like this, you’ll probably like: Principles, 4 hour workweek, 7 habits, The practice, books
Leo :) 