TA的首页How to Do Fewer Things - and Do Them Better
天气: 晴朗心情: 郁闷
Beware of launching too many unrelated initiatives, as it leads to a loss of focus and energy. Instead, zero in on those initiatives that truly merit a high level of commitment.
Thomas Malnight and Peter Killing with Tracey Keys
Editor's Introduction: All companies need a process to create focus and organizational energy by doing fewer things, but doing them better. Such a process drives them toward key priorities and, more important, identifies how employees - as a team and individually - can contribute to achieving these goals through tangible actions.
Another month, another initiative. Or so it seems to embattled managers tying to win in their markets and, at the same time, deal with initiative after initiative coming from corporate office, the quality manager, the new executive next door, and so on. Each initiative, taken alone, may make sense. But too many unrelated initiatives lead to a loss of focus and energy. Each gets half-hearted attention, and those that really deserve a high level of commitment do not get it. As one executive stated, "Until we have our own agenda, we are at the mercy of others and their agendas. It is easier to say 'no' to a continuing stream of requests when we have a clear understanding of what we will lose by diverting our resources and attention."
There's a process that helps create focus and organizational energy by doing fewer things but doing them better. These few things are your "must-win battles" (MWBs), and the name says it all. These are the battles that your organization absolutely needs to win if you are to achieve your key objectives.
The MWB process builds on the "old" stuff - the tried and tested strategic planning tools. The difference is that it recognizes the absolute necessity to be together these intellectual inputs with the organization's emotional energy to craft a strategy that works in practice. At the end of the day, it is people that make or break a strategy. Too frequently, there are gaps between strategic thinking and implementation. The process focuses management on the key priorities but more importantly, identifies how they as a team and individually can contribute to achieving these goals through tangible actions.
The MWB process is exciting as it creates a much higher level of personal commitment to winning the battles ahead than a normal "strategy review and priority setting" exercise. This commitment is the key to success.
Must-win battles are the three to five key "wars" that your organization must win to achieve its key objectives. Once established, MWBs become the focal point of the organization. They drive actions that the top team can track, monitor, and discuss each time they meet. MWBs get priority when it comes to resource allocation and organizational decisions. But be careful if you create more than five MWBs - each will diminish in importance and your organization's energies will be dispersed. Be disciplined and be tough.
The only criterion for determining what is and is not an MWB is impact. The simple question is: If we win this battle, what difference will it make? The answer has to be that it would make a huge difference - not just to one part of the organization but to achieving overall collective objectives as well. If an MWB is not perceived by everyone in the organization as having a major impact on value creation, they will not give it their full commitment.
Making the marketplace the battleground.
Managers are often tempted to create MWBs that address internal challenges. Don't do it. If you create five must-win battles, not more than one should be internally focused. The internal battles too often reflect the passion of executives who are competing among themselves for resources and attention. The point is to win and create value in the marketplace.
Ensure that your MWBs are exciting - real challenges create real energy. Obviously, you do not want your people charging off on hopeless quests that are impossible to win but for maximum impact, a MWB should focus on a collective objective that might previously have been though impossible.
Moreover, a must-win battle must have real meaning to the whole organization. If your MWBs are not inspirational, the commitment and trade-offs required to win them will be difficult to maintain over time. One executive at the end of an MWB session said, "Intellectually, we have been here before. We know what needs to be done. The challenge will be to maintain the energy and commitment that we have developed and to make the individual sacrifices necessary to do what we know we need to do."
Must-win battles likewise need to be tangible and specific enough for you to define the actions needed to win and the measures of success. MWBs that say, "We must innovate more! Or get closer to customer! Or reduce costs!" are not useful. Your MWBs need to apply directly to your markets and your organization. If you find it difficult to create explicit targets and a list of actions required to win your battles, chances are your MWBs are not sufficiently specific and tangible.
The list of actions required to win your must-win battles ("Must do's") should be paired with a list of other actions that must be stopped to minimize interference or free up resources ("Must Stops"). Creating the must do's is usually exciting but building a must-stop list will be painful for those whose initiatives are being cut. But this is a vital part of the process - do not avoid it.
Essential inputs.
To develop must-win battles, you need to focus on five essential factors:
The personal history/agenda factor is often avoided in strategy discussions. However, it is critical to get the emotional energy out into the open so that you can focus it on driving forward rather than blocking. Again, it is people who make a strategy work, not intellectual brilliance alone.
If you are not confident that you have sufficient or the right inputs upfront, get these before you start the MWB process. But do recognize that the process itself will draw out the personal history and agenda of the participants - this is not something you can prepare ahead of time.
Get the process going.
The MWB process itself needs to be both intellectually rigorous and emotionally involving so that the chosen battles will be the right ones for the organization, and passionately committed to by the managers who will have to win them.
Once you have the right inputs, you need to set the right context by inviting the right participants. The people who will need to win your MWBs should be the same ones who discuss, debate, and agree on the battles in the first place. This usually means a fairly wide involvement in the process typically involving 25 to 50 people. Handing large groups can be difficult - as the process generally creates individual winners and losers - but it is well worth it in terms of ownership of the end result.
The final critical factor in preparation is ensuring that the leader truly leads. The process has to be a direct discussion between leaders and their teams. The leadership role must not go to an academic or a consultant. Outside support can help, because MWB discussions will include heavy debate, the need to challenge participants and a drive for emotional commitment - all of which can be a significant challenge to many leaders. The most critical roles for outsiders are adjusting the discussion mid-stream when things do not unfold as planned, and giving the leader the confidence to continue open discussion even when he disagrees with what is being said. Flexibility, trust, and partnership are key - but the leader always drives.
When the stage is set, follow the guidelines below as the process itself gets underway.
· Allow debate and decide together. The most successful MWB sessions often contain a crisis or a period of sharp conflict. These arise when participants test the transparency and responsiveness of the process or raise issues on which there is strong disagreement. Do not become defensive or try to stifle these discussions; instead, openly address and resolve them as part of the process. Your response - good or bad - will be powerful message, demonstrating in practice how future disagreements will be handed.
· Build the team and the agenda together. Many organizations separate strategic work (intellectual work on "hard issues") from team building (interactive work on "soft issues"). Your process should take an integrated approach using team-building discussions both prior to and during your MWB discussions to promote more meaningful dialogue and increase ownership of the MWB decisions. You build the team and the agenda at the same time.
· Align individuals' actions and behaviors to the collective agenda. Towards the end of your MWB process, identify the behaviors that will be required to accomplish your must-win battles - both at a team and an individual level. This means identifying acceptable and unacceptable behaviors, for which members will in future hold each other accountable.
· Define the follow-up in the process, and ensure follow-up from the top. Make sure you measure and follow-up on the actions you have identified to make the MWBs happen - or don't start in the first place. It is important to solicit feedback on progress from the original participants at regular intervals (for example, after six months). This should address progress on the agenda (including factors supporting or hindering progress), the leadership team (in terms of owning and leading the agenda), and team members (in terms of sticking to both action and behavior commitments).
Reaping the rewards.
A successful MWB process will result in clarity and commitment to real actions. The organization will know what it must do to win - and the individuals and teams within it will know what their specific contributions will be to the actions needed. Senior management will know what success looks like and how to keep track of progress.
Even when behaviors have to change or resources have to be reallocated, the sheer empowerment of knowing what is important and where to focus your energy drives huge enthusiasm for shared objectives.
To have a good idea of what the gains of a must-win battle look like, consider the success of Unilever in Africa. Unilever's African Regional Group had a long history of success, boasting leadership positions in most of its major product categories. Underlying this was deep local market knowledge, a high quality local talent base, extensive distribution networks, and a consistent flow of innovations. But a few years ago, regional management recognized that many of its sources of success could be imitated by competitors. Future success would therefore require a new focus that would create new energy.
The first result was a new vision: "We will touch the lives of all Africans by better anticipating and fulfilling their cleaning, caring, and nutritional needs, everyday, everywhere." Unilever backed this up with a specific target: "To double the sales in Africa in five years from 1.8 billion euros to 3.6 billion euros, and to deliver above Unilever average value creation." Aspirational in terms of its financial and business objectives, these statements were also inspirational to local employees who wanted to have a positive impact on their societies.
The five must-win battles developed by the regional leadership team to achieve these collective objectives were the following:
Winning the MWBs would require managers who had been focused on delivering results within their territory to cooperate more broadly across the region. Some executives would become more dependent on others to meet their local objectives, losing much-valued independence. However, everyone realized that the collective opportunity could not be reached if each country continued to operate alone. The commitment to a new way of working was made.
Condensed and translated from "Must-Win Battles" by Thomas Malnight and Peter Killing with Tracey Keys from Perspectives for Managers, March 2004 (http://www.imd.ch). All rights reserved.
Thomas Malnight and Peter Killing are Professors of Strategy and International Management at IMD. Tracey Keys is a Research Associate at IMD.
Beware of launching too many unrelated initiatives, as it leads to a loss of focus and energy. Instead, zero in on those initiatives that truly merit a high level of commitment.
Thomas Malnight and Peter Killing with Tracey Keys
Editor's Introduction: All companies need a process to create focus and organizational energy by doing fewer things, but doing them better. Such a process drives them toward key priorities and, more important, identifies how employees - as a team and individually - can contribute to achieving these goals through tangible actions.
Another month, another initiative. Or so it seems to embattled managers tying to win in their markets and, at the same time, deal with initiative after initiative coming from corporate office, the quality manager, the new executive next door, and so on. Each initiative, taken alone, may make sense. But too many unrelated initiatives lead to a loss of focus and energy. Each gets half-hearted attention, and those that really deserve a high level of commitment do not get it. As one executive stated, "Until we have our own agenda, we are at the mercy of others and their agendas. It is easier to say 'no' to a continuing stream of requests when we have a clear understanding of what we will lose by diverting our resources and attention."
There's a process that helps create focus and organizational energy by doing fewer things but doing them better. These few things are your "must-win battles" (MWBs), and the name says it all. These are the battles that your organization absolutely needs to win if you are to achieve your key objectives.
The MWB process builds on the "old" stuff - the tried and tested strategic planning tools. The difference is that it recognizes the absolute necessity to be together these intellectual inputs with the organization's emotional energy to craft a strategy that works in practice. At the end of the day, it is people that make or break a strategy. Too frequently, there are gaps between strategic thinking and implementation. The process focuses management on the key priorities but more importantly, identifies how they as a team and individually can contribute to achieving these goals through tangible actions.
The MWB process is exciting as it creates a much higher level of personal commitment to winning the battles ahead than a normal "strategy review and priority setting" exercise. This commitment is the key to success.
Must-win battles are the three to five key "wars" that your organization must win to achieve its key objectives. Once established, MWBs become the focal point of the organization. They drive actions that the top team can track, monitor, and discuss each time they meet. MWBs get priority when it comes to resource allocation and organizational decisions. But be careful if you create more than five MWBs - each will diminish in importance and your organization's energies will be dispersed. Be disciplined and be tough.
The only criterion for determining what is and is not an MWB is impact. The simple question is: If we win this battle, what difference will it make? The answer has to be that it would make a huge difference - not just to one part of the organization but to achieving overall collective objectives as well. If an MWB is not perceived by everyone in the organization as having a major impact on value creation, they will not give it their full commitment.
Making the marketplace the battleground.
Managers are often tempted to create MWBs that address internal challenges. Don't do it. If you create five must-win battles, not more than one should be internally focused. The internal battles too often reflect the passion of executives who are competing among themselves for resources and attention. The point is to win and create value in the marketplace.
Ensure that your MWBs are exciting - real challenges create real energy. Obviously, you do not want your people charging off on hopeless quests that are impossible to win but for maximum impact, a MWB should focus on a collective objective that might previously have been though impossible.
Moreover, a must-win battle must have real meaning to the whole organization. If your MWBs are not inspirational, the commitment and trade-offs required to win them will be difficult to maintain over time. One executive at the end of an MWB session said, "Intellectually, we have been here before. We know what needs to be done. The challenge will be to maintain the energy and commitment that we have developed and to make the individual sacrifices necessary to do what we know we need to do."
Must-win battles likewise need to be tangible and specific enough for you to define the actions needed to win and the measures of success. MWBs that say, "We must innovate more! Or get closer to customer! Or reduce costs!" are not useful. Your MWBs need to apply directly to your markets and your organization. If you find it difficult to create explicit targets and a list of actions required to win your battles, chances are your MWBs are not sufficiently specific and tangible.
The list of actions required to win your must-win battles ("Must do's") should be paired with a list of other actions that must be stopped to minimize interference or free up resources ("Must Stops"). Creating the must do's is usually exciting but building a must-stop list will be painful for those whose initiatives are being cut. But this is a vital part of the process - do not avoid it.
Essential inputs.
To develop must-win battles, you need to focus on five essential factors:
- An assessment of your competitive marketplace (including activities such as "Getting into the Heads and Hearts of Competitors and Customers")
- Your company's objectives (including the hard financial and business targets set for the organization or unit)
- A realistic and challenging assessment of the company's current and required organizational capabilities
- The collective ambition of the top management team (representing the team's desired legacy, the type of business and organization they wish to create and leave behind)
- The personal experience and ambition of the executives that will drive the MWBs forward (representing the emotional energy that will need to be harnessed to ensure action)
The personal history/agenda factor is often avoided in strategy discussions. However, it is critical to get the emotional energy out into the open so that you can focus it on driving forward rather than blocking. Again, it is people who make a strategy work, not intellectual brilliance alone.
If you are not confident that you have sufficient or the right inputs upfront, get these before you start the MWB process. But do recognize that the process itself will draw out the personal history and agenda of the participants - this is not something you can prepare ahead of time.
Get the process going.
The MWB process itself needs to be both intellectually rigorous and emotionally involving so that the chosen battles will be the right ones for the organization, and passionately committed to by the managers who will have to win them.
Once you have the right inputs, you need to set the right context by inviting the right participants. The people who will need to win your MWBs should be the same ones who discuss, debate, and agree on the battles in the first place. This usually means a fairly wide involvement in the process typically involving 25 to 50 people. Handing large groups can be difficult - as the process generally creates individual winners and losers - but it is well worth it in terms of ownership of the end result.
The final critical factor in preparation is ensuring that the leader truly leads. The process has to be a direct discussion between leaders and their teams. The leadership role must not go to an academic or a consultant. Outside support can help, because MWB discussions will include heavy debate, the need to challenge participants and a drive for emotional commitment - all of which can be a significant challenge to many leaders. The most critical roles for outsiders are adjusting the discussion mid-stream when things do not unfold as planned, and giving the leader the confidence to continue open discussion even when he disagrees with what is being said. Flexibility, trust, and partnership are key - but the leader always drives.
When the stage is set, follow the guidelines below as the process itself gets underway.
· Allow debate and decide together. The most successful MWB sessions often contain a crisis or a period of sharp conflict. These arise when participants test the transparency and responsiveness of the process or raise issues on which there is strong disagreement. Do not become defensive or try to stifle these discussions; instead, openly address and resolve them as part of the process. Your response - good or bad - will be powerful message, demonstrating in practice how future disagreements will be handed.
· Build the team and the agenda together. Many organizations separate strategic work (intellectual work on "hard issues") from team building (interactive work on "soft issues"). Your process should take an integrated approach using team-building discussions both prior to and during your MWB discussions to promote more meaningful dialogue and increase ownership of the MWB decisions. You build the team and the agenda at the same time.
· Align individuals' actions and behaviors to the collective agenda. Towards the end of your MWB process, identify the behaviors that will be required to accomplish your must-win battles - both at a team and an individual level. This means identifying acceptable and unacceptable behaviors, for which members will in future hold each other accountable.
· Define the follow-up in the process, and ensure follow-up from the top. Make sure you measure and follow-up on the actions you have identified to make the MWBs happen - or don't start in the first place. It is important to solicit feedback on progress from the original participants at regular intervals (for example, after six months). This should address progress on the agenda (including factors supporting or hindering progress), the leadership team (in terms of owning and leading the agenda), and team members (in terms of sticking to both action and behavior commitments).
Reaping the rewards.
A successful MWB process will result in clarity and commitment to real actions. The organization will know what it must do to win - and the individuals and teams within it will know what their specific contributions will be to the actions needed. Senior management will know what success looks like and how to keep track of progress.
Even when behaviors have to change or resources have to be reallocated, the sheer empowerment of knowing what is important and where to focus your energy drives huge enthusiasm for shared objectives.
To have a good idea of what the gains of a must-win battle look like, consider the success of Unilever in Africa. Unilever's African Regional Group had a long history of success, boasting leadership positions in most of its major product categories. Underlying this was deep local market knowledge, a high quality local talent base, extensive distribution networks, and a consistent flow of innovations. But a few years ago, regional management recognized that many of its sources of success could be imitated by competitors. Future success would therefore require a new focus that would create new energy.
The first result was a new vision: "We will touch the lives of all Africans by better anticipating and fulfilling their cleaning, caring, and nutritional needs, everyday, everywhere." Unilever backed this up with a specific target: "To double the sales in Africa in five years from 1.8 billion euros to 3.6 billion euros, and to deliver above Unilever average value creation." Aspirational in terms of its financial and business objectives, these statements were also inspirational to local employees who wanted to have a positive impact on their societies.
The five must-win battles developed by the regional leadership team to achieve these collective objectives were the following:
- Everywhere (Ensure Unilever brands are available everywhere in Africa)
- Everyone, everyday for life (Provide for the everyday needs of all Africans)
- Priority pillars for growth (focus resources around three key product categories critical for future growth)
- Winning West Africa (Meeting the potential of Nigeria, Ghana, and Francophone West Africa)
- Simply the best (about having the "best people in the best business" - leadership, culture and communication)
Winning the MWBs would require managers who had been focused on delivering results within their territory to cooperate more broadly across the region. Some executives would become more dependent on others to meet their local objectives, losing much-valued independence. However, everyone realized that the collective opportunity could not be reached if each country continued to operate alone. The commitment to a new way of working was made.
Condensed and translated from "Must-Win Battles" by Thomas Malnight and Peter Killing with Tracey Keys from Perspectives for Managers, March 2004 (http://www.imd.ch). All rights reserved.
Thomas Malnight and Peter Killing are Professors of Strategy and International Management at IMD. Tracey Keys is a Research Associate at IMD.
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