First Ever Strategic Execution Conference--Join Us!

IPS Learning and the Stanford Center for Professional Development will jointly present “The Strategic Execution Conference: Linking Strategy to Execution through Innovative Techniques” April 24 and 25 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, 1333 Bayshore Dr., Burlingame, CA. Ram Charan, highly acclaimed business advisor and author, will keynote the opening conference session. 

The two-day conference will bring together more than 1,000 executives, leaders and senior managers from major high-tech and innovative organizations worldwide to gain insight on current and future challenges surrounding strategic execution from the world’s preeminent thought leaders. Details at www.executionconference.com. 

Scaling Large Projects and Programs

Stanford Professors, Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao, teach in our Stanford Advanced Project Management Program, and are completing research and a book on scaling-up excellence. In a recent post, Bob pointed to Ben Horowitz's thoughts on "Taking the Mystery out of Scaling a Company". Working with leaders of complex project-based work or PBW (programs and projects) in a variety of global companies, I have seen the challenges of scaling from a small, co-located program team to a globally-distributed team with hundreds of employees and myriad vendors and contractors. Horowitz suggests three scaling techniques:

• Specialization: you can not do everything and know everything as you grow
• Organizational design: communications architecture for your PBW but recognize there is no perfect one
• Process: purpose of process is communication

Helping firms scale large PBW, I find Horowitz's critical steps around organizational design for scaling (my comments are in italics) to be especially insightful:

1. Determine what needs to be communicated (Who needs to know what, why, and what is the smoothest way to provide it? We are talking not just technical but also management information; engineers with minimal leadership experience often overlook the importance of non-technical information.)
2. Identify decisions that have to be made (Start that decision log, however small and own it. Be crystal clear about how your PBW leadership team needs to make decisions. De facto approaches cause problems...fast. Decide by design not default.)
3. Prioritize the most important communication and decision paths (Especially critical for globally-distributed teams in multiple cultures and time zones. Focus on what makes it easiest to get the program's work actually done.)
4. Decide who runs which groups (no multiple owners of work--one, single person is responsible for each group)
5. Identify communication paths that you did not optimize and mitigate (You cannot give all paths the same weight; recognize which ones that have less attention and plan for addressing those issues that may surface.)

Horowitz's post is worth a serious read for application to designing and leading PBW.  

Olympics 2012--great resource for learning how it was done

The London 2012 Olympic Development Authority has created a very useful web site on what they have learned in designing and building the facilities.  Even if you are not in construction, there is much of interest here for any of us that lead large, complex projects!

Through the Learning Legacy project, the Olympic Delivery Authority is sharing the knowledge and the lessons learned from the construction of the Olympic Park, to help raise the bar within the sector and act as a showcase for UK plc.

5 things that happen when you really know your strategy

Wow---what a succinct way to know you (and those you lead "get your strategy").  This post is from an interesting group Anectdote in Australia, focused on the power of storytelling in organizations. Wonderful diagram of their work is below.  Worth a look and they offer a very useful newsletter!

Here are five things that happen when you really do know your strategy:

1. you know when to say 'no.'
2. you get better support from your colleagues--they are trying to achieve the same things
3. you can wing it with confidence--the strategy is your safety net
4. you can focus on doing the right things rather than just doing things right
5. you can act with more autonomy because you know where others are going, and autonomy is motivating

Wonderful graphic @ organizational culture

In our Stanford Advanced Project Management program we are always addressing the power of culture in executing strategy through project-based work.  This is a neat diagram from Agilitrix that succinctly captures the critical aspects of the Schneider Model. Their site provides other discussions about the model.

Making Culture Change Stick

From the latest Harvard Business Review, Booz & Co.provides a free PDF here.  Worth the read and reinforces the many ways we look at the power of culture in our Stanford Advanced Project Management (SAPM) program.  Our next class coming in September at Stanford University in Palo Alto.  Register here.

Harvard Business Review: Cultural Change That Sticks by Jon Katzenbach, Ilona Steffen, and Caroline Kronley When properly harnessed, an organization's culture can be a true differentiator that no competitor can duplicate. However, as pressures on companies build, leaders often become frustrated with the comparatively slow pace of culture evolution. In the rush to implement new strategies and make performance improvements, the legacy culture—employees' ingrained ways of doing things—can seem like the greatest barrier to change. Unfortunately, most well-intended efforts to "change the culture" fizzle out, fail, or backfire. Here's the good news: There is an alternative. Drawing on recent research and real examples, the article's authors present a new approach that leverages what is strongest in an organization's existing culture, providing a practical road map for real, substantive evolution in employees' ways of behaving by focusing on a few critical shifts. This approach has been tested and proven in client engagements across a range of regions and industries.

Keeping Gen X Talent Engaged

Don't Dismiss Your Gen X Talent - Sylvia Ann Hewlett - Harvard Business Review

• Develop corporate chameleons. "Once I've learned my job, I like to move on," says one X'er interviewed for the CTI report. "I need something new to keep things fresh." To prevent X'ers from feeling stalled and browning out, companies are rotating promising employees through different functions on a regular schedule. A Sibson Consulting survey (PDF) shows that more than half of Fortune 500 companies say they've begun shuffling potential leaders around to give them broad experience.
• Let them learn. "I really like my company. It's a great fit," says another X'er. "But having said that, if it's the right thing, I'd jump. I won't stop learning or growing just to have a job." That's why even in the middle of a recession, smart companies are maintaining their tuition-reimbursement programs, as well as instituting mentoring and sponsorship programs that pair Boomer managers with Gen X'ers.
• Bring them out of the shadows. Mentoring and sponsorship programs serve another purpose: They match mid-level managers with senior-level executives who can provide opportunities to enrich their career experience. Placing Xers in charge of high-visibility projects is also a way to spotlight their abilities.
• Test their wings. Many X'ers would agree with one of their cohort who declares, "I have an entrepreneurial spirit that won't shut up." With many having been brought up as latchkey kids, Gen X is highly self-reliant; today, 70% of X'ers surveyed by CTI prefer to work independently, and 34% aspire to be an entrepreneur. Why not let them test their wings with a company-sponsored venture than risk having them fly the coop?
• Promote partnerships. It's easy for X'ers to demonize Boomer managers as intransigent dinosaurs and Gen Y subordinates as self-aggrandizing upstarts. Break down the barriers through intergenerational partnerships and teams. Each cohort has its own strengths and gifts; sharing them will enhance everyone's abiliti

Keeping Gen X Talent Engaged

Don't Dismiss Your Gen X Talent - Sylvia Ann Hewlett - Harvard Business Review

• Develop corporate chameleons. "Once I've learned my job, I like to move on," says one X'er interviewed for the CTI report. "I need something new to keep things fresh." To prevent X'ers from feeling stalled and browning out, companies are rotating promising employees through different functions on a regular schedule. A Sibson Consulting survey (PDF) shows that more than half of Fortune 500 companies say they've begun shuffling potential leaders around to give them broad experience.
• Let them learn. "I really like my company. It's a great fit," says another X'er. "But having said that, if it's the right thing, I'd jump. I won't stop learning or growing just to have a job." That's why even in the middle of a recession, smart companies are maintaining their tuition-reimbursement programs, as well as instituting mentoring and sponsorship programs that pair Boomer managers with Gen X'ers.
• Bring them out of the shadows. Mentoring and sponsorship programs serve another purpose: They match mid-level managers with senior-level executives who can provide opportunities to enrich their career experience. Placing Xers in charge of high-visibility projects is also a way to spotlight their abilities.
• Test their wings. Many X'ers would agree with one of their cohort who declares, "I have an entrepreneurial spirit that won't shut up." With many having been brought up as latchkey kids, Gen X is highly self-reliant; today, 70% of X'ers surveyed by CTI prefer to work independently, and 34% aspire to be an entrepreneur. Why not let them test their wings with a company-sponsored venture than risk having them fly the coop?
• Promote partnerships. It's easy for X'ers to demonize Boomer managers as intransigent dinosaurs and Gen Y subordinates as self-aggrandizing upstarts. Break down the barriers through intergenerational partnerships and teams. Each cohort has its own strengths and gifts; sharing them will enhance everyone's abiliti

How Many Direct Reports?

Booz&Co. has a nifty tool for assessing C-level Span of Control but I find it is just as useful for leader of large complex programs and projects.  Find the tool here and also a free download of the April 2012 HBR article, How Many Direct Reports?, about this---worth thinking about as you design and adjust governance structures for large programs.

Building Effective Teams Isn't Rocket Science, But It's Just as Hard

Building Effective Teams Isn't Rocket Science, But It's Just as Hard - Douglas R. Conant - Harvard Business Review

1. Hire Highly Effective Team Members
2. Focus on Inspiring Trust.
3. Encourage Candor.
4. Be Clear About Expectations

The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs

The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs - Harvard Business Review

Walter Isaacson describes the 14 imperatives behind Jobs’s approach: focus; simplify; take responsibility end to end; when behind, leapfrog; put products before profits; don’t be a slave to focus groups; bend reality; impute; push for perfection; know both the big picture and the details; tolerate only “A” players; engage face-to-face; combine the humanities with the sciences; and “stay hungry, stay foolish.”

Help Those You Lead--The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time - Tony Schwartz

The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time - Tony Schwartz - Harvard Business Review

If you're a manager, here are three policies worth promoting:
1. Maintain meeting discipline. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes, rather than an hour or longer, so participants can stay focused, take time afterward to reflect on what's been discussed, and recover before the next obligation. Start all meetings at a precise time, end at a precise time, and insist that all digital devices be turned off throughout the meeting.
2. Stop demanding or expecting instant responsiveness at every moment of the day. It forces your people into reactive mode, fractures their attention, and makes it difficult for them to sustain attention on their priorities. Let them turn off their email at certain times. If it's urgent, you can call them — but that won't happen very often.
3. Encourage renewal. Create at least one time during the day when you encourage your people to stop working and take a break. Offer a midafternoon class in yoga, or meditation, organize a group walk or workout, or consider creating a renewal room where people can relax, or take a nap.

New Product Development Best Practices

An Examination of New Product Development Best Practice - Kahn - 2012 - Journal of Product Innovation Management - Wiley Online Library

This recent study provides insights on NPD best practices and reinforces the importance of strategy for successful NPD---one of the reasons we spend so much time on it in the Stanford Advanced Project Management Program. Sample factors include:

Strategy

• Goals: Clearly defined, visible to the organization, clearly aligned with organization mission and strategic plan
• Projects and programs are reviewed on a regular basis
• Opportunity identification is ongoing and can redirect the strategic plan in real time

Process

• Common NPD process cuts across organizational groups, is visible, and well documented
• Go/no-go criteria are clear and predefined for each review gate
• NPD process is flexible and adaptable to meet the needs, size, and risk of individual projects

Culture

• Top management supports the NPD process
• Management rewards and recognizes internal “entrepreneurship”

Project climate

• Cross-functional teams underlie the NPD process
• Activities between functional areas are coordinated through formal and informal communication

Research

• Ongoing market research is used to anticipate/identify future customer needs and problems
• Concept, product, and market testing is consistently undertaken and expected with all NPD projects
• Customers and users are an integral part of the NPD process
• Results of testing (concept, product, and market) are formally evaluated

Metrics - Practitioners surveyed could not agree on any consistent best practices for metrics

Commercialization

• The launch team is cross-functional in nature
• A launch process exists and project postmortem meeting is held after the new product is launched
• Customer service and support are part of the launch team

10 Best Collaboration / Innovation Tools on the Web

Tim Ferriss provides these excellent examples of creative use of the web to support innovation and collaboration.

1. X PRIZE Foundation (www.xprize.org): The X PRIZE focuses on designing and running incentive competitions in the $1M – $30M arena focused on solving grand challenges.

2. CoFundos (cofundos.org): cheap and really good platform for the development of open-source software.

3. Genius Rocket (geniusrocket.com): solid crowdsourced creative design agency composed solely of vetted video production professionals producing content as a fraction of the cost of a traditional ad agency.

4. Amazon Mechanical Turk (mturk.com): popular and powerful crowdsourcing platform for simple tasks that computers cannot perform(yet), such as podcasts transcribing or text editing. There are also companies, like CrowdFlower, that leverage Mechanical Turk (and similar tools) for even more elegant solutions.

5. Innocentive (www.innocentive.com): one of today’s best online platform for open innovation, crowdsourcing and innovation contests. This is where organizations access the world’s brightest problem solvers.

6. UTest (http://www.utest.com): the world’s largest marketplace for software testing services.

7. IdeaConnection (www.ideaconnection.com): open innovation challenge site for new inventions, innovations and products.

8. NineSigma (www.ninesigma.com): open innovation service provider, connecting clients with a global innovation network of experts.

9. Ennovent (www.ennovent.com): worldwide expert platform seeking solutions for sustainable development in energy, food, water, health and education in rural India.

10. TopCoder (www.topcoder.com): the world’s largest competitive software development & creative design community, with over 200,000 at your fingertips.

How Do You Think About the Future...try MindTime Maps

In the daily grind to execute strategies through project-based work, it may seem like the future is too far to matter, especially when innovation is the goal..  A recent study, Future Quotient, provides insights and frameworks that help leaders think how the world will be different in the future, whether for you employees, your customers, your partners.

Future Quotient, co-authored by Volans and JWT, introduces the Future Quotient (FQ), which is designed to measure our ability to think and act along inter-generational timescales.
The report also included use of a really nifty and innovative technology from my friend, John Furey, CEO of  MindTime Technologies.  Their technology enables you and your team to create powerful MindTime maps. These are designed to help groups and organizations develop a greater awareness of how thinking about time is shaping and driving people’s roles, decisions, attitudes, and much more.
A simple 2-minute quiz locates people in the world of thinking™. Everybody learns how their thinking is driving their perceptions, communication, and relationships. When you create a MindTime map of your group or organization, you can expand your insights into how thinking is shaping it all by choosing from a menu of pre-prepared surveys on a variety of topics (brand allegiance, innovation, leadership, happiness, etc). These are offered to participants at the time they map their own thinking and results are shown as correlations between thinking archetypes and participant’s responses. See how you and your time rate in thinking about the future at MindTime Maps

The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution: The Idea in Practice - Ilona Steffen, Niko Canner, and Gary Neilson - Harvard Business Review

The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution: The Idea in Practice - Ilona Steffen, Niko Canner, and Gary Neilson - Harvard Business Review

There are several critical lessons from this company's experience in the Idea in Practice. Here is a preview:

Find a common language. Make sure everyone can talk about the execution issues you face in the same way.

Walk the talk. People at the top of the organization need to believe in the changes and visibly support them so that the rest of the organization is motivated to change behavior.

Focus on both organizational and behavioral changes. It is more effective to change both rather than focusing on one or another.

Know your organization. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to improving an organization's ability to execute. You must find what works for you.

Taking People With You By David Novak: Great Read and Most Useful - Bob Sutton

Taking People With You By David Novak: Great Read and Most Useful - Bob Sutton

Innovation Requires Great Projects

Innovation of any type requires the successful execution of project-based work. A recent MIT Sloan Management Review article (What Great Projects Have in Common by Dov Dvir and Aaron J. Shenhar) captured the essence of successful projects based on research across different industries. These seven reinforce what practical experience has shown as critical for success in a rapidly evolving business environment.

As part of a decade of research, Dvir and Shenhar collected quantitative and qualitative data on more than 400 projects that were undertaken in various industries since the late 1950s. ... They searched for projects with unusual success and long-term impact and found that seven managerial characteristics were common.  A great project:

• Creates a unique competitive advantage and/or an exceptional value for its stakeholders.
• Begins with a long period of project definition dedicated to defining a powerful vision and clear need and selecting the best execution approach.
• Creates a revolutionary project culture. The execution of great projects often requires a different project culture, which can later spread to an entire organization.
• Needs a highly qualified project leader who is unconditionally supported by top management.
• Maximizes the use of existing knowledge, often in cooperation with outside organizations.
• Has integrated development teams with fast problem-solving capability and the ability to adapt to business, market and technology changes.
• Has a strong sense of partnership and pride.