The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results

Generating activity is not a problem; in fact it is easy. The fact that it is easy makes the real problem harder to solve. The problem is getting the right things done – the things that matter, the things that will have an impact, the things a company is trying to achieve to ensure success. A high volume of activity often disguises a lack of effect

3 GIVE PEOPLE SPACE AND SUPPORT Do not try to predict the effects your actions will have, because you can’t. Instead, encourage people to adapt their actions to realize the overall intention as they observe what is actually happening. Give them boundaries which are broad enough to take decisions for themselves and act on them.

need to be developed so that they master the appropriate briefing and decision-making skills. A common development program covering the behaviors which go along with these skills can begin to shape the culture, as long as it is reflected in day-to-day practice. Even if they understand what part they are to play in executing a company’s strategy, pe

Thinking strategically involves “going round the loop” to establish coherence between aims, opportunities, and capabilities.

The concept of friction is entirely consistent with systems thinking and chaos theory, but it is more useful to managers because it describes how working in a complex adaptive system is experienced. Its elements can be seen and felt, so we can more easily work out how to deal with them.

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You cannot create perfect plans, so do not attempt to do so. Do not plan beyond the circumstances you can foresee. Instead, use the knowledge which is accessible to you to work out the outcomes you really want the organization to achieve. Formulate your strategy as an intent rather than a plan.

The leader who turned the culture into a system was Helmuth von Moltke the elder, who fostered high levels of autonomy and worked out how to simultaneously achieve high alignment.

toward making them flexible is to create an operating rhythm with quarterly reviews of progress, in which adjustment is expected and the budget is a treated as a rolling forecast.