Stress priorities, CEO urges

Robert A. Whitman acknowledges that many corporate chiefs have a vision of what they would like their company to be. But the trick to attaining success, he says, is making sure everyone in the company can see it, too.

By Brice Wallace
Deseret News business writer

Whitman, chairman and chief executive officer of Salt Lake-based Franklin Covey, stressed Wednesday that companies and their employees — top to bottom — need to know the organization’s top priorities and focus on those each day in an organized way.

"Everybody knows what it means. ‘Execution’ is getting things done and delivering on your commitments, but very few people really know and can state what it entails," Whitman told a crowd at Utah State University’s Operational Excellence seminar.
While some missteps happen in the public arena, more common are little ones — missing forecasts, being wrong about how new equipment will improve operations — that thwart execution, he said.

"We would argue . . . that this is the topic of the decade, if not the century: How do you deliver on the commitments you make?" Whitman said.
In fact, many companies in the 1990s had good strategies but failed to attain their goals because of execution woes.
Several factors derail execution, he said. They include having workers who have no idea what the company’s major objectives are; having priorities that are not translated into front-line behaviors; having workers not "buy in" to the priorities because they feel no "ownership," disagree with the strategy or can’t see how it benefits them; and having workers who don’t stay on track or don’t work well with others to achieve common goals.

Research indicates that between one in three or, at worst, one in 10 people know their company’s critical priorities. That is compounded by people’s assessment that less than half of their time is spent on what they think the high priorities are and less than one in five plan their day to address those priorities.

"Imagine a football game. Out of the 11 people on the field, there are less than two who actually know what the play is. They may know the general objective, that we’re trying to get in the end zone. But literally only two of the 11 on the field would know what the specific play was. . . . And then of those who know what the play is, a little less than half know exactly what their assignment in that play is," Whitman said.

He was quick, however, to not fault the workers.

"It’s not because they don’t want to. It’s not because they’re lazy. They want to give their best effort, but the combination of lack of direction, lack of focus on a few priorities, because either they don’t know it or they can’t stay on track with it . . . those things just aren’t getting done."

Whitman said workers who don’t stay on track often don’t plan and prioritize their work tasks, or they have too many priorities.

"There are many, many workers in America today, based on this research we’ve done, who define a good work day as having answered all their e-mails, gone to all the meetings and returned all their phone calls," he said.
"And yet they know in their heart of hearts that they aren’t really creating any value, so they go home feeling less secure in their job because they know they’re not truly adding value and letting their job encroach on their personal life and therefore feeling guilty at home, too."

The good news is that each of the operational excellence issues can be addressed, both from organizational and institutional standpoints, he said. An important aspect is that the company needs to reinforce the behaviors that help the company meet its critical priorities — even if it involves simply calling workers to acknowledge and appreciate their efforts, he said.

Franklin Covey once was asked by a drug company how to get employees to get more things done, Whitman recalled.
"The point is, can you get them to do the right things, can you help them get the high-priority things done? The answer is yes, and that will be enriching, both for the company and the individual who knows they’re making a difference."

E-mail: [email protected]

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,410016779,00.html