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Strategy without execution is nothing more than wishful thinking pursued with hope. No organization achieves true success unless it is able to effectively execute its initiatives. It is only through execution that leadership’s strategic vision is married to reality.

Tactical execution refers to the collection of actions taken and decisions made at all levels of the organization in the here and now; actions and decisions that ultimately shape the company’s future. Effective execution occurs when the right things get done efficiently. In organizations that execute effectively, leaders continually focus their workforce on accomplishing the priority activities defined by the strategic plan while workers strive to perform those activities in the most efficient manner possible.

Establishing a culture of effective execution requires executives and managers to master the art of interpersonal relationships and the skill of orchestrating simultaneous performance of a myriad of technical processes. Topics requiring mastery include:

• Standards and Expectations
• Talent Management
• Training and Development
• Portfolio Management
• Program Management
• Project Management
• Organizational Operations Methodologies and Practices

Execution is the life blood of successful organizations. Posts in this category are dedicated to discussing the leading practices of companies that effectively execute their business initiatives and operations to the fulfillment of the organization’s strategic vision.

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But can a project’s scope, time, and cost elements be both in balance – the project management triangle’s integrity established and maintained – and be out of balance at the same time? Absolutely!

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The natural question becomes can a project have too many people and too little time? While the answer is yes, this is much easier to overcome as proper prior planning and resource coordination can overcome this dilemma. The following video provides an example of one such project where a full size home was built in the record time of 3 hours 26 minutes.

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Special Edition 36 – An Interview with Robert Wysocki, author of Adaptive Project Framework explores how to deal with the often monumental uncertainty associated with project scope, resources, and time; increasing the organization’s rate of project success and improving its bottom line returns. During our discussion, Robert Wysocki, author of Adaptive Project Framework: Managing Complexity in the Face of Uncertainty and President of Enterprise Information Insights, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

• the differences and benefits of using the Adaptive Project Framework to deal with project uncertainty
• core values of the Adaptive Project Framework
• types of projects for which the Adaptive Project Framework is ideally suited
• how the Adaptive Project Framework is executed through its five phases
• how the Adaptive Project Framework helps leaders evaluate the ongoing viability of an initiative and terminate it, if necessary, while still receiving value for the time and resources expended

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Robert shares in Adaptive Project Framework and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from his website, www.EIICorp.com.   Robert’s book, Adaptive Project Framework, can be purchased by clicking here.

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Robert Wysocki, author of Adaptive Project Framework, is President of Enterprise Information Insights, a consulting and training practice that specializes in helping large organizations run projects more effectively. For more than forty years, Robert has served as a project management consultant, information systems manager, and training developer and provider. His clients range from AT&T and Aetna to the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Wal-Mart, and Wells Fargo. Robert has written sixteen books on project and IT management including the Project Management Institute-recommended book, Effective Project Management. To read Robert’s complete biography, click here.

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Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization by Micah Solomon and Leonardo Inghilleri   “Filled with treasure and big ideas, this book will help you become exceptional.” – SETH GODIN In a tight market, your most powerful growth engine and your best protection from competitive inroads is this: put every thing you can into cultivating true customer loyalty. Loyal customers are less sensitive to price competition, more forgiving of small glitches, and, ultimately, become “walking billboards” who will happily promote your brand. In Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit insiders Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon reveal the secrets of providing online and offline customer service so superior it nearly guarantees loyalty. Their anticipatory customer service approach was first developed at The Ritz-Carlton as well as at Solomon’s entertainment and technology company Oasis, and has since proven itself in countless companies around the globe from luxury giant BVLGARI to value-sensitive auto parts leader Carquest, and everywhere in between. Now, readers can take the techniques that minted money for these brands and apply them directly to their own businesses. As Ken Blanchard writes, “Leonardo and Micah’s philosophies, rules, and winning examples of service excellence will make you want to implement their suggestions immediately in your own organization.” Filled with detailed, behind-the-scenes examples, the book unlocks a new level of customer relationship that leaves your competitors in the dust, your customers coming back day after day, and your bottom line looking better than it ever has before.

1. Did you shine that doorknob? Research shows that customers remember the first and last minutes of a service encounter much more vividly — and for much longer — than all the rest of it. Make sure that the first and final elements of your customer interactions are particularly well engineered, because they are going to stick in the customer’s memory.
2. Set your clocks forward: Modern customers expect speedier service than did any generation before them. (Not only speedier than their parents expected, but even than their older sisters and brothers expected.) In this age of Blackberrys and iPhones, of Amazon.com and Zappos, you may as well not deliver your product or service if you’re going to deliver it late.
3. Customers want to connect with a real person – online or off. For example, instead of a web-based chat window that blandly announces “you are now chatting with Jane,” try “you are now chatting with Jane Yang-Katzenberg.” The customers will treat your “Jane” better, they’ll take her advice more seriously – and they’ll be more likely to want a committed customer relationship with her company.
4. Remember each returning customer. Whatever your business – and no matter how large, work to achieve the computer-assisted effectiveness of a beloved bartender, doorman, or hairstylist – the kind who would know Bob’s preferences, the name of Bob’s pet, when Bob was there last … Superb client tracking systems can create that same “at home” feeling in your customers – regardless of the size and price point of your business, and whether it exists online or off.
5. Anticipate a customer’s wishes. When a customer’s wish is met before the wish has been expressed, it sends the message that you care about the customer as an individual. That cared-for feeling is where you generate the fiercest loyalty.
6. Don’t leave the language your team uses up to chance. Develop and rehearse a list of vocabulary words and expressions that fit your business brand perfectly. For example, the expression “no worries” sounds fine if a clerk at a Portland Bose® Audio Store says it, but would be exceedingly off-brand for the concierge at The Four Seasons in Milan. Equally important, search and destroy any vocabulary words that could hurt customer feelings. For example, your service team should never tell a customer “you owe us.” (Try instead: “our records seem to show a balance…”)
7. Be patient when filling positions. In a superb service organization, a single disagreeable or unresponsive team member can erode customer loyalty and team morale. That is why it can be better to leave a position unfilled rather than rushing to hire someone unsuitable. More generally speaking, customer excellence is most fully achieved once you become expert at recruiting, selecting, training, evaluating and reinforcing the efforts of service personnel.

Micah Solomon is the co-author with Leonardo Inghilleri of Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization (AMACOM Books) and President of Oasis Disc Manufacturing. His free online resource site for customer service advice is CollegeOfTheCustomer.com.
 

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Whether it’s ice cream, bean bags, or shirts with funny slogans, find a product or service you’re passionate about selling. I started my career as a marketing executive. One day, I was invited to dinner with Japanese business associates. The dinner was a great success, and afterwards we moved to a Japanese tea house where, following tradition, everyone removed their shoes. I looked down, and I had two different socks on – one with a hole in the big toe. I sat cross-legged for an entire evening, trying to hide my foot. I’m passionate about helping executives avoid such embarrassments by allowing them to buy fine-quality essentials in one convenient place online, and have them delivered to their doorstep. Because wouldn’t it be wonderful if your sock drawer could replenish itself?

Blacksocks Socks on subscription In 1999, in order to rid the world of sock sorrows, we founded Blacksocks and launched the sockscription. We now send socks – and since 2007 we have also been sending underwear – all around the world. To celebrate our anniversary, we have rummaged the archives and dug out a few anecdotes. Would you like to draw your own picture of our story? Never enough socks in your drawer? Never buy socks again, never sort out socks again. You… More…

Keep your Internet presence fresh.

The first version of Blacksocks’ website was launched in 1999. It was a single shot of a washing machine. Customers entered their orders into a slot in the machine, which sent an e-mail directly into my inbox. As the Web has developed, our site has become increasingly sophisticated, with the most recent relaunch this April. We’ve positioned content more intuitively and enhanced visual communication to make for smoother and more enjoyable shopping for Blacksocks clients. Ask yourself, if I were a customer looking at my site, what would I want to be different?

Maintain a human connection with your customer.

No one likes to feel they’re buying products from a machine. Remind your customers that there’s a human face to behind your online business. Humor helps. At Blacksocks, we’re lucky to have a funny story behind the origins of the brand, and no one can take the business of selling socks too seriously anyway – after all, they’re just socks. Incorporating humorous touches into your website’s content will make a virtual transaction feel personal, enhancing the customer experience.

Experiment with social media.

Everyone knows that Facebook has now overtaken Google as the most popular U.S. website, but not everyone is sure how to turn social media into profit. Explore these new distribution channels and marketing concepts. Blacksocks has an active presence on Facebook; Joe and Jane Blacksocks run Twitter accounts on the company’s behalf; and Blacksocks is the official sock sponsor of iweartyourshirt.com, run by two guys who serve as human billboards. We also strive to keep our customers engaged by inviting them to post comments on the Blacksocks site.

Invest in long-term success.

Many budding Web-preneurs give up after only a few months. Be realistic about your goals: it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll achieve financial success immediately, particularly if you’re one person on a shoestring budget. Most decisions, whether they’re for online businesses or brick-and-mortar ones, need to be made within a working time frame of two to five years at least. Think about where your website will be a decade from now. If you’re creating original content, timeless content, content that connects with customers, and you have researched the market your product is aimed at thoroughly, you have the tools you need to create a successful online enterprise.

Additional tips can be found at Blacksocks.com.

Following his studies of economics and business administration at the University of St. Gallen, Paris and Toronto (earning the title of lic. oec. HSG in 1993) Samy Liechti was a marketing and communications consultant for various agencies in Switzerland and abroad, working with numerous prominent brands. Samy Liechti has been Blacksock’s managing director ever since its foundation in the summer of 1999.
 

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Project baselining provides project managers and sponsors a frame of reference against which project progress can be measured. Created at the beginning of a project, the baseline helps leaders establish how different their initial estimates were to the actual results achieved; forming the foundation for further assessment of the project’s scoping, planning, and execution quality. When significant scope change occurs, project manager may re-baseline their project because the updated initiative is so graphically different from the original as to make it newly unique. Project managers may also re-baseline a project if their team falls significantly behind schedule. (They could re-baseline when significantly ahead of schedule but this author has never observed that practice.) Regardless of the reason, frequent re-baselining obscures the project manager’s ability to assess project performance over time against a singular, consistent reference point which in turn diminishes individual accountability and the identification of lessons learned to improve future project performance.

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Adaptive Project Framework: Managing Complexity in the Face of Uncertainty by Robert K. Wysocki, Ph.D.   For an increasing number of critical projects, traditional project management models simply are not appropriate. In many cases, complete requirements and objectives cannot be specified up front, and significant changes cannot be avoided. What’s needed is an entirely new framework for project management: one that combines agile methods with the profession’s most enduring best practices. In this book, Robert K. Wysocki provides that framework – the Adaptive Project Framework (APF) – and shows how to apply it in any domain. Robert, one of the world’s leading project management consultants, has spent decades helping large organization succeed with complex projects. Drawing on everything he’s learned, he explains why a fundamentally new framework is needed and introduces all five phases of that framework. He covers artifacts, processes, and deliverables, and shows how to utilize each phase most effectively in your environment. Through four detailed case studies, you’ll discover how APF can help you adapt to unexpected events, encouraging creative responses based on open partnerships between clients and project teams. Coverage Includes Bringing greater flexiblity and speed to any project, regardless of its goals or context Moving forward successfully with projects that have vague requirements Discovering what clients really want, not just what they say they want Managing ongoing scope changes throughout a project Customizing APF to your won environment Integrating APF with existing agile software development methods Using APF to overcome the obstacles to success Preparing for the future of project management This book is written for every project participant – project and program managers, software and product developers, process designers, and business analysts – who needs to deliver results in a world that won’t stand still.

The world doesn’t stand still just because you are managing a project. That is one reason why requirements cannot possibly be completely documented at the initiation phase of a project. Whatever management approach you choose to use for your project must be adaptable to changing conditions. Traditional project management models are poorly equipped to accommodate change.

Adaptive Project Framework (APF) is an agile approach to any complex and uncertain project whose solution is not known at the beginning of the project but can only be discovered as part of doing the project. APF is built on a set of six core values:

• Client-focused – Decisions are made based on what delivers maximum business value to the client at that point in time.
• Client-driven – The client makes decisions on how to proceed based on feasible alternatives presented by the project manager.
• Incremental results early and often – Each completed iteration delivers a better solution than all previous iterations.
• Continuous questioning and introspection – An open and honest collaboration assures success and vested ownership by the client and the project team.
• Change is progress to a better solution – Change is essential in order to converge on a solution that delivers expected business value.
• Don’t speculate on the future – When in doubt – leave it out. If it’s important, it will be discovered during a later iteration.

In closing, APF has been particularly effective for project managers who take the position that their approach to managing a project will be proactive, not reactive, and they are willing to stand by their management decisions. If you are this type of project mgr, APF may be exactly what you are looking for.

This article is abstracted from the book: Adaptive Project Framework: Managing Complexity in the Face of Uncertainty by Robert K. Wysocki, Ph.D. (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2010, ISBN 978-0-321-52561-1, Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.).

Robert K. Wysocki, Ph.D., has more than forty years of experience as a project management consultant and trainer, information systems manager, systems and management consutant, author, and training developer and provider. His sixteen books on project and IT management include the PMI-recommended Effective Project Management, Fifth Edition (Wiley, 2009). In 1990, Robert founded Enterprise Information Insights, Inc. (EII), a consulting and training practice that specializes in helping large organizations run projects more effectively. His clients range from AT&T and Aetna to the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Wal-Mart, and Wells Fargo.

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One such circumvention method is to break-up a large project into several smaller, less resource-intensive initiatives. These less expensive projects can then be authorized by lower level managers, thus avoiding the time consuming ‘sales pitch’ needed for larger projects.

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