The power of planning and executing

Published 12:00 pm Thursday, October 3, 2019

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” –President John F. Kennedy

Can you afford this?

Imagine that you are the CEO of Company B. Company B employs 1,000 workers. Your employees were surveyed about the goals of your organization. Here are the results:

• Only 150 of your workers are aware of the goals of your organization.

• Only 60 of your workers have any idea how the company’s goals affect their daily work.

• Only 90 of your workers feel committed to your company.

Of the 40,000 hours your employees worked last week, they spent:

• 9,200 hours on “urgent but irrelevant” activities,

• 6,800 hours on counterproductive activities (actually taking the company farther away from their goals), and

• 11,200 hours on “distractions”.

Again, can you afford this?  

Few organizations can, but these are the results of a McKinsey and Company study of 150,000 employees. Similar results have been found in surveys by Gallup.  

The facts are simple. Most employees are distracted and disengaged.

Why? They don’t know where the company is going. Even if they are aware of the company’s goals, they don’t know how they can help the company reach those goals. They are distracted and most likely spending way too much of their day on urgent, but not important, activities. That time should be used to help the organization move closer to its vision.

If you were one of these distracted and disengaged employees, how excited would you be about coming to work?

What’s the solution? A strong strategic plan with a good execution strategy will show every employee their role in helping the company reach its objectives. It will force regular progress checks to make sure nothing is getting in the way of meeting the goals. A good plan focuses the teams’ energies on the right objectives that lead to the greatest results for the organization. A good plan helps everyone know if they are winning each day.

A strong vision unites people towards a common goal. A strong vision attracts people who are motivated to achieve great things in their lives. A strong vision also helps job candidates opt out of your recruiting process. If they don’t want to go where you are headed, it is best for everyone if they never apply to work with you.

If you don’t have one, now is the time to create a great plan for 2020 that will be the next step towards achieving the greater vision for your organization.

Great plans are worth the effort to build and a waste of time if you don’t make the effort to execute the plan.

If you’d like some great resources to help you on your journey you can find them on our resources page at www.valuesdrivenresults.com or call me at 229.244.1559.

Curt Fowler is President of Fowler & Company and Director at Fowler, Holley, Rambo & Stalvey. He is dedicated to helping leaders build great businesses and better lives for themselves and the people they lead.

Curt is a syndicated business writer, keynote speaker and business advisor. He has an MBA in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from the Kellogg School, is a CPA, and a pretty good guy as defined by his wife and four children.