Article on Ford Motor Company and CEO Alan Mulally yesterday in the newspaper. Mulally is doing a phenomenal job of bringing Ford back from the brink. For me the operative quote in the article was: “Mulally is relentless. He’s got a laser-sharp focus on a simple vision that he just drills into the organization.”
There it is. That’s all you have to do! Focus on a simple vision that you drill into the organization. When you put it like that it seems so easy, right? Of course, it’s anything but easy. Defining the right strategic direction, distilling that strategy (imagine how complex that must be at a place the size of Ford!) down to the essence, then communicating clearly to the team. Believe, it is anything but easy.
Mark Twain once said, “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Distilling a simple vision from a complex strategy rarely if ever just pops into one’s head. It takes work to boil it down. And then, you have to hammer that vision, every day, constantly, pretending that overnight everyone’s forgotten what the strategy is.
The implications for your business? You have to take the time to define a clear three-year vision and plan; take the time to build alignment around that plan among not only your executive team, but the critical mass of you employees as well. To do that, you need a simple story around which you build that alignment – a simple vision that you can focus on with laser-like intensity, hammering away every day until not only does everyone get it, but everyone is working to achieve the same results. It’s the stuff successful execution is made of.
There it is. That’s all you have to do! Focus on a simple vision that you drill into the organization. When you put it like that it seems so easy, right? Of course, it’s anything but easy. Defining the right strategic direction, distilling that strategy (imagine how complex that must be at a place the size of Ford!) down to the essence, then communicating clearly to the team. Believe, it is anything but easy.
Mark Twain once said, “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Distilling a simple vision from a complex strategy rarely if ever just pops into one’s head. It takes work to boil it down. And then, you have to hammer that vision, every day, constantly, pretending that overnight everyone’s forgotten what the strategy is.
The implications for your business? You have to take the time to define a clear three-year vision and plan; take the time to build alignment around that plan among not only your executive team, but the critical mass of you employees as well. To do that, you need a simple story around which you build that alignment – a simple vision that you can focus on with laser-like intensity, hammering away every day until not only does everyone get it, but everyone is working to achieve the same results. It’s the stuff successful execution is made of.
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