The Eight Keys to Execution, part 8

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Curt Swindoll

The eighth and final key to execution is recognition. Acknowledging great performance, great project management, great accountability, and great follow-through is critical to creating cultures of execution.

Think of recognition as a deposit in the bank account of future strategic initiatives. It is a public opportunity to say, “This is what we are looking for. This is what we value. This is the kind of thing we want everyone to model.”

We have to make celebration a priority. I recently bought an old cowbell for our CEO to ring publicly when we land a major account. Several companies I have worked for have thanked their employees in different ways for attracting quality staff to come on board. We celebrate anniversaries and birthdays. Why don’t we do that at work?

Is it because it costs to much? Hogwash. Take off an hour early on a Friday, head to a park and do a barbecue. Everyone brings a dish. Is it because it takes too much time? Bologna. Set up a celebration committee of three staff members and have them plan the quarterly party. They’ll stay late to have the opportunity to put something together.

Or perhaps you don’t think it really matters. Several years ago I was assembling a presentation on “developing a talent strategy” for nonprofit organizations. I discovered that there are several elements to talent: acquiring, developing, deploying, and retaining talent. Which of these four categories do you think is impacted by celebration? It wouldn’t be hard to make a case that two, or even three, of these areas is affected by celebration, and yet a McKinsey study several years ago found that:

  • 73% of executives strongly agree they need to find and retain top talent, but only 9% felt their actions would lead to that outcome
  • 84% didn’t even know who their top performers are
  • Only 23% felt they could attract top talent, and only 10% felt they could retain top talent
Yikes! Serial recognition won’t solve all these problems, but it would sure help-and it doesn’t take a lot of money.
Frederick Hertzberg, a recognized authority on organization cultures, conducted a study that was published in Harvard Business Review in January 2003 on what he called “hygiene” motivators, or essentially external motivators versus intrinsic/internal ones:
He asked employees which of the above factors contributed to their job satisfaction versus dissatisfaction. Here is what he found:

Recognition may provide some motivation for executing a strategic initiative, but far more valuable is what it does for the culture, for future projects, and for individuals who have worked long and hard to see a project through to completion. It’s time to make their success a visible, celebrated part of the culture.

Do you celebrate success? Do you do it in a way that contributes to the growth of your culture? What is stopping you from celebrating success? What is worth recognizing in your environment? Where might you find inexpensive ideas for celebrating on a tight budget?

So that’s our final Key to Execution! Want to read more by Curt and the Pursuant team? Check out our other whitepapers here-let us show you how data and expertise drives strategy that excels.

Remember your people strategy

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Tim Entzminger

Seth Godin had a post last week that is relevant in our world, and I thought I would share it with you.

He talks about the mistake of focusing on tools rather than people. All too often we get caught up in the media we choose to use for connection as opposed to the actual connection we are trying to make. In our attempt to create new strategies and utilize new tools we forget that our focus is to clearly tell a compelling story and connect with people; build relationships and provide opportunities to engage.

We don’t need to drop monikers like “email strategy” or “social media strategy.” However, it is a good reminder that tools simply help accomplish goals and are not the goals in and of themselves.

Everything we do at Pursuant follows a similar workflow (from Planning Studies to our Charitable Partners Program to Online Acquisition Campaigns to Online Newsletters). It is all about working with a client to 1) identify a problem/challenge, 2) define (campaign) goals, 3) build an execution plan to achieve those goals, 4) execute the (campaign) plan, 5) analyze the results in order to define the next challenge. Confusing tools as goals or forsaking goals for “shiny, cool” tools can break our workflow and set us and our clients up for failure.

Seth Godin – Do You Have a People Strategy?