During my summer vacation this year, I enjoyed two seemingly unrelated activities that rolled into one important strategic lesson: I did a few dives in
The slogan is important for divers to remember when entering a dangerous element in which their survival depends on a limited supply of air and the fact that the deeper they go, the faster they deplete air and the slower they need to ascend. The environment also contains numerous distractions, which can either draw you deeper than you intended or make you lose track of time. Hence the need to plan carefully—factoring in the planned depth and the number of safety of stops required on the ascent—and the discipline to stick to the plan, regardless of the interesting marine creature you might spot, 20 feet deeper than planned, when your air is running low.
The connection to Execution? The great value of their book is that Bossidy and Charan stress the importance of a rigorous strategic planning process, which must result in a clear and realistic plan, as well the corporate-wide discipline to execute the plan. In other words: plan the dive and dive the plan. The book’s sub-title is “the discipline of getting things done,” and Bossidy, the CEO of Honeywell, explains why he places a premium on accountability and the role it plays in creating a culture of discipline: “I start with the premise that your higher quality people want to be held accountable, because it gives them an opportunity to display their performance. To do that, I try to give them clear objectives and goals, so they can be measured against those objectives and goals at the end of the period, and they can demonstrate that they've been accountable.”
For divers, the pressure gauge on the air tank provides the measurable statistic and the water supplies the accountability. For business people, there is no equivalent leading indicator to a pressure gauge nor are there business penalties similar to running out of air 60-feet below the surface. The absence of such incontestable metrics and consequences may be why we’ve all experienced “deadline creep” or witnessed plans re-written mid-way through the quarter because none of the milestones have been attained.
Of course, there are consequences for companies who fail to achieve their objectives, and in Execution Bossidy and Charan point out that many organizations struggle with the gap between goals and results. They develop great ideas and bold plans, but then don’t follow through properly. In other words, they plan the dive and then don’t dive the plan.
In the author’s view, planning the dive requires a great strategy that comes together block-by-block and is in synch with the realities of the marketplace, the economy, the competition, and the company's resources. Diving the plan means creating a realistic operating plan, with specific programs and actions and clear accountability. Such a plan breaks down the long-term goals into short-term targets that will force hard decisions to be made across the organization.
In Prescient’s experience, exactly the same process and discipline applies to creating a great Internet strategy. We provide our clients with rigorous methodology to plan their site, and clear milestones to follow in order to achieve a great site. In other words, we help them plan the dive, and show them how to dive the plan. But the sites have turned out to be great because the clients had the discipline to execute the plan, despite interruptions and competing priorities. That’s important because just as a diver can’t deny that she’s out of air, a company can’t deny that its highly visible Web site is underperforming.
