It's Not Rocket Science: 4 Simple Strategies for Mastering the Art of Execution

Chapter 1Why Your Team Cannot Execute and How to Fix It

The Challenge

Leaders have a tendency to spend immense amounts of time creating goals and strategies. Many mark the start of a new year with a fresh vision to unite and excite their organization. All too often, however, their results miss the mark as the months wear on and the latest campaign fizzles into the most recent failed flavor of the month, so to speak. Why does this seem to plague many leaders? At the end of the day, conceptualizing vision and strategy is easy compared with the execution prowess necessary to convert them into results. In reality, the last thing most organizations need is another goal they will miss because their people cannot execute, oftentimes simply because they were never taught how. Ask a leader to outline his or her step-by-step execution process, and you will likely receive a blank look or hear general palaver like: “We hold meetings, prioritize strategies, and follow up.” Rarely, though, will he or she have a series of sequential actions that comprise an execution blueprint. Leaders do the best they can but still fall short of where they could be, and often should be.

MAX Is the Rx for Execution

Master the art of execution (MAX) is that step-by-step execution process for more effectively converting your vision and strategy into results. The five steps will be covered in depth over the next several sections. Although the following description of the five steps will not mean much to you ...