Execution and Results

You have started an initiative. You have laid down initial plans for executing it. You now go ahead and execute the plan.

Will you necessarily have success now?

You may or may not! Execution of plans does not necessarily ensure success.

So what kind of execution or what other elements are necessary to ensure success?

-

Let us first look at our perception of execution.

Will you call execution a series of steps or an iterative process? Usual image might be it is a series of steps. If you require follow ups and iteration- well that might seem as process inefficiency!

Surprisingly, I have hardly come across initiatives that have not required follow up, iterations, or some kind of course correction.

Execution of plans is important. But plan needs to factor in 3 things mentioned above.

-

Secondly you need to have contracted beforehand with relevant stakeholders on definition of success and timing and process of success measurement.

This is important because success maybe interpreted differently by different stakeholders.

-

So execution of plans seems to be a pre-requisite but not a guarantor of success! – a necessary but not a sufficient condition for success J

 

-

Sourav

S Curves!

Sometime back, Megha was telling me about a concept she had learnt. It was the application of S curves to our lives and work.

Everything that goes up, comes down!

So it's necessary to have multiple S Curves in our lives. Ideally the next S curve would have started and would be on its way up; much before the current S curve would have started dipping.  How does one know when the next S Curve needs to be started? When you start getting disproportionately big results even when you put in negiligible/restricted efforts, it may be a sign that you are currently at the peak of your current S curve. You should start looking at initiating your next S-curve then.

Conceptually, the model appeals to me. There are 2 things in model which strike me as being critical:

• How does one know what next S-curve should be? One would need to have explored and figured out beforehand what options for next S-curve are.
• There might be an emotional attachment to current S-curve. One has to overcome this and dissociate progressively with current S-curve to ensure adequate attention is given to emerging S-curve. Especially, the period when both S-curves are co-existing might be characterized be intense emotional conflicts/dilemmas.

Both things mentioned above are constraints. We need to work with/around them to ensure this model works for us.

-

Sourav