Strategic Speed

Book excerpt: Only 30 percent of strategic initiatives are successfully executed. Of those that are, most CEOs view the process as too slow. What’s going on? And how can you accelerate execution in your company? In Strategic Speed, the authors provide the answers. Start by understanding the barriers to execution: Employees don’t grasp where an initiative is going. They don’t adopt new behaviors. They’re not committed to working together to achieve results. Most leaders try to speed things up by changing processes or installing new technologies. But better processes and systems won’t remove the barriers. Instead, you need to unleash three people factors—clarity (understanding the goal), unity (collaborating across work groups), and agility (adapting quickly). The authors explain how to unleash these factors by exercising four leadership abilities: • Affirming strategies: Ensuring everyone knows the destination and wants to go there • Driving initiatives: Accelerating projects called for by your strategy • Managing climate: Controlling what it feels like to work in your team • Cultivating experience: Harnessing employees’ knowledge and expertise Strategic Speed provides real-world examples—from companies as diverse as Tata Sky, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Ameriprise, and Fender Guitars—showing these practices in action. And it’s packed with tools and assessments for diagnosing where your execution efforts are in trouble and choosing specific actions for accelerating results in your firm.