The art of execution

Not to be too much of a Guy Kawaski fanboy, but I’m still reading his book “Reality Check” and I wanted to provide another example of why I think it’s worth picking up.

Sometimes when you’re in a startup or even a group inside a larger company, people can get heavily bogged down in strategy and meta-level discussions: what is it that we need to decide, who should be deciding, who should we talk to about deciding to decide, etc. While strategy’s important, it can turn into a rat hole pretty fast.

In startups, there’s no time for rat-hole discussions, especially if you’re burning cash. You make some pretty basic decisions about how you’re going to measure your progress and then you better get everyone focused on execution. In a big company, maybe the perils of rat holes are less obvious, but those who can develop a reputation for execution stand out among those who simply go to meetings and report on the actions of others.

Over the years, I’ve developed a style of management that is pretty straightforward. Figure out the big things that need to happen, then assign specific goals with deadlines. In most cases, that’s 8, 10, or maybe 12 items for an individual or manager during a quarter. These are the items that if we got to the end of the quarter and delivered, we’d feel like we did a good job. It’s not everything that could be done and it doesn’t include things like attending meetings or internal presentations. It has to be about things that will move the business forward.

When I hire people, I tell them that if they’re delivering 8/10, 9/10, or 10/10 of the goals, then they’ll be in good shape. If it’s 7/10, then I will micromanage them, and if it’s less than that, well, there are other jobs.

So how exactly do you manage goals? This is where Guy Kawasaki’s essay “The Art of Execution” does such a great job.

Goals should be measurable. Quantifiable goals include shipping deadlines and sales volume. This affects your number of goals because you can’t measure everything.

Postpone, or at least de-emphasize, touchy-feely goals. Touchy-feely goals like “create a great work environment” are bull-shiitake. Companies that execute on measurable goals are happy. Those that don’t aren’t. As my mother used to tell me, “Sales fixes everything.”

Communicate. For goals to be effective, they have to be clearly communicated to every single employee.

Measure progress weekly. If you don’t measure your progress toward a goal, you might as well not set it. The optimal frequency of reviewing progress is weekly. Monthly is too little pressure; daily is too anal.

Establish a single point of responsibility. If you ask employees who is responsible for a goal and no one can answer you in 10 seconds, there’s not enough accountability. Lousy employees avoid responsibility. Good employees accept responsibility. Great employees seek responsibility.

Follow through on a goal. Many organizations set goals and even measure their progress. However, some goals tend to fall off the radar because people start focusing on just the coolest stuff. For example, fixing bugs in your software may not be quite as interesting as designing a breakthrough product, but it’s just as–if not more–important to your customers.

All this and more in “Reality Check” by Guy Kawasaki.

Update: Also worth checking out is Guy’s new Web site www.alltop.com, which gives you at-a-glance coverage of a diverse range of tech, business, work, and life topics, including product management, gadgets, open source, hockey, marketing, venture capital, startups, and music.

Alas, still no sign of www.guitarvibe.com in the music section. But if you’ve got an open source mobile gadget startup focused on hockey news, you’re in luck! More on that later.