| Book Review: Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done by
Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
Authors Larry Bossidy (Chairman, Honeywell International) and Ram Charan (management advisor to business leaders) present a simple thesis: today's leaders MUST be able to take the goals they set for their organizations and turn them into results. Too many companies struggle to bridge the gap between goals and results despite solid, even brilliant, plans. Many organizations treat their people, strategies, and operations processes as separate, independent entities when, in fact, they are intimately related and interrelated, and must be treated as such to ingrain the discipline of execution into the corporation. Leaders cannot remain detached. They must involve themselves deeply and personally with the subject. I recently met the president of a large (70,000) state university system, and he said the first two things he did when he arrived were to remove the door to his office and spend two weeks living in the dorms. Instead of changing the organization's values (as many endeavor to do, the authors emphasize changing the beliefs that influence specific behaviors. "Behaviors are beliefs turned to action, the things that deliver the results. To deliver better results, start with examining whether your organization's ingrained beliefs are helping the business perfect its execution.
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