It's Not Rocket Science. Dave Anderson

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      Now in its second decade, my annual three-day Strategy Summit is consistently ranked as our most helpful workshop offering of the year. I traditionally teach this course in the fourth quarter to help clients prepare for the upcoming year. The format is simple:

      • The first day covers how to create a compelling vision that unites and inspires the team for the upcoming year.

      • Day two covers strategies to reach that vision. I present dozens of sample strategies and teach the implementation principles to ensure they succeed.

      • On the final day I teach tactical execution (how to convert the strategies into results).

      Because a significant number of attendees return each year with their leadership teams to once again plan the upcoming year, they are comfortable sharing with each other their biggest challenge with the process. Those enterprises that are most frustrated with the past year's results consistently sound the following chorus: “We started the year with a vision people were excited about, and the strategy was sound. We knew what we needed to do; we simply didn't do a good enough or consistent enough job of getting it done. In a nutshell, we did a poor job of executing.” If you have ever said something similar, cheer up. You are well on your way to solving your execution woes once and for all.

      • Resolve up front to close the gap between knowing and doing. You may know many of the principles in this section but still end up missing the mark because you do not do them consistently, if at all.

      • Embrace consistency. Even if you are executing some of the disciplines in this book, you may not be doing them consistently enough to maximize your results. By the time you finish the final chapter of this book, every day means every day (EDMED) will become a valuable addition to your vocabulary and culture.

      • Involve other teammates in the MAX journey, because regardless of how great you are, you cannot do it alone. You need others on the same page – others speaking the same language and creating peer-pressure accountability for the five disciplines of MAX throughout your organization.

      • Keep an open mind and find reasons why MAX can and will work for you, rather than dismissing aspects because you believe your situation is unique.

      • Look in the mirror. Be prepared to look reality in the eye and deal with it. This will be key as we delve into the book's second strategy, “Get the Leaders Right!”

      • Understand that no process will save you without getting the leader(s) right, the culture right, and the team right (strategies two, three, and four). MAX is maximized when driven forward by effective leaders, supported by a strong culture, and executed by high-quality people at all levels within an organization.

      • Accept that for a process to work, it does not have to be complicated or extraordinary; often, what is simple, concise, and ordinary works extraordinarily well when implemented consistently and with excellence.

      • Contemplate the potential difference in results when you, and everyone on your team, are more focused on maximizing results each day through more focused execution – which is exactly what the next section will explain in detail.

      Most of us have fallen short of enough goals during our lifetime to understand that execution is where results really happen. In addition, common sense tells us that the most effective processes or systems in life should naturally have the fewest steps. MAX, then, in many respects, is simply a structured and sequential set of principles that helps us execute by addressing what we know has been missing from our approach and by organizing what we already intuitively know is best. See? It's not rocket science!

      CHAPTER 2

      MAKE EACH DAY A MASTERPIECE

      Leaders often spend immense time giving thought to, creating, and communicating annual visions or forecasts for their enterprises. These are then broken down into monthly objectives for their teams to achieve. These big pictures provide essential direction, unity, and meaning in the workplace. Although vision-casting is vital, the conversation must quickly shift to “What must we execute daily to get there, and how must we do it?” Your focus should first prioritize the where, but then be invested disproportionately toward identifying and managing those essential daily behaviors that convert what I call TUFs (short for the ultimate few objectives that mean the most) into reality. Without this specific focus on the what and the how, you will succeed only in creating more goals that will disappoint because their execution failed.

      The outcome focus versus activity focus imbalance is somewhat understandable because team vision casting and goal setting are fun, and dreaming of new outcome objectives (TUFs) is creative and inspiring. Selecting and focusing on those ultimate few objectives will be discussed in detail in the upcoming chapter “Get TUF!” Determining, discussing, and executing the activities most likely to create the outcomes can seem mundane and often requires deeper thought; therefore, it is harder work than dreaming up goals. Communicating and holding team members accountable for executing their master the art of execution (MAX) acts may also create pain and discomfort throughout the ranks, because changing one's behavior and restructuring one's daily routine is rarely easy, pleasant, or welcomed by the masses. (For more in-depth coverage of MAX acts, see Chapter 5.)

      The reality is, to achieve the TUFs you have never reached before, your team must do daily what it has never done before. This includes executing with a focus and consistency like it's never executed before. As inspiring as your TUFs may be, these goals should never be considered a “destination thing,” but a daily thing. To that end, a leader's objective must be to create a structure within his or her culture that makes each day a masterpiece – a structure that, when each step of a process is followed, predictably leads to execution success.

      I first heard the mantra “make each day your masterpiece” from the late UCLA men's basketball coach John Wooden. Wooden was known for his intensely structured practices that required perfecting basic drills to the point of exhaustion. Wooden famously observed, “It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen” (BrainyQuote, n.d.). Indeed they did; Coach Wooden's teams won 10 national championships in 12 years, including an astonishing seven in a row, and sprinkled in four undefeated seasons for good measure. In the 10 years that UCLA won national championships under Wooden's leadership, their win/loss record was a mind-blowing 290–10!

      What follows are three thoughts for helping you and your team MAX by making each day a masterpiece in your own enterprise:

      1. Redirect more of your focus and energy away from desired outcomes and toward the daily MAX acts that create them. Outcomes, of course, are your TUFs. MAX acts are the maximum-impact daily actions that create them. TUFs, vital as they may be, are the lagging indicators; they show up too late to affect performance. MAX acts, when consistently well executed, take you to the TUFs and should be focused on daily with more diligence than the TUF itself. Frankly, there is far too much discussion in organizations about the numbers, whereas focus given to managing the daily MAX acts necessary to make them a reality is anemic. In Chapter 5, I will discuss more about MAX acts, including: how to select them, communicate them, train others to do them, and hold team members accountable for executing them.

      2. Identify and communicate MAX acts for each position. We are not talking about 40 things, or 14 things, but instead the handful of actions most essential for achieving the desired TUF: one, two, three, or four at the most.

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