Page 50 - Banking Finance February 2023

ARTICLE

to measurable business results. When your aim is execution, distribution of power, where such things as assignment of
you need to change people's behavior so that they produce tasks and budget-level approvals are visible, hardwired, and
results. First you tell people clearly what results you're formal. The social software includes the values, beliefs, and
looking for. Then you discuss how to get those results, as a norms of behavior, along with everything else that isn't
key element of the coaching process. Then you reward hardware. Like the computer's software, it's what brings
people for producing the results. If they come up short, you the corporate hardware to life as a functioning system.
provide additional coaching, withdraw rewards, give them
other jobs, or let them go. When you do these things, you Structure divides an organization into units designed to
create a culture of getting things done. perform certain jobs. The design of structure is obviously
important, but it is the software that integrates the
Execution paces everything: It enables you to see organization into a unified, synchronized whole. Hardware
what's going on in your industry. It's the best means for and software in combination create the social relationships,
change and transition-better than culture, better than the norms of behavior, the power relationships, flows of
philosophy. Execution-oriented team change faster than information, and flows of decisions.
others because they're closer to the situation.
The Importance of Robust Dialogue:- You cannot
Know Your People and Your Business:- The leaders have an execution culture without robust dialogue-one that
are usually out of touch with the day-to-day realities. They're brings reality to the surface through openness, candor, and
getting lots of information delivered to them, but it's filtered- informality. Robust dialogue makes an organization effective
presented by direct reports with their own perceptions, in gathering information, understanding the information,
limitations, and agendas, or gathered by staff people with and reshaping it to produce decisions. It fosters creativity-
their own perspectives. The leaders aren't where the action most innovations and inventions are incubated through
is. They aren't engaged with the business, so they don't robust dialogue. Ultimately, it creates more competitive
know their organizations comprehensively, and their people advantage.
don't really know them.
Leaders Get the Behaviour they Exhibit:- The
Being present allows you, as a leader, to connect personally
culture of a company is the behavior of its leaders. Leaders
with your people, and personal connections help you build
get the behavior they exhibit and tolerate. You change the
your intuitive feel for the business as well as for the people
culture of a company by changing the behavior of its leaders.
running the business.
To build an execution organization, the leader has to be
present to create and reinforce the social software with the
Execution is all about action: No strategy delivers desired behaviors and the robust dialogue.
results unless it's converted into specific actions. Unless you
translate big thoughts into concrete steps for action, they're Right People in the Right Place:- An organization's
pointless. Without execution, the breakthrough thinking
breaks down, learning adds no value, people don't meet
their stretch goals, and the revolution stops dead in its tracks.
What you get is change for the worse, because failure drains
the energy from your team. Repeated failure destroys it.

The Social Software of Execution:- Like a computer,
a corporation has both hardware and software. We call the
software of the corporation "social software" because any
organization of two or more human beings is a social system.
The hardware includes such things as organizational
structure, design of rewards, compensation and sanctions,
design of financial reports and their flow. Communication
systems are part of the hardware. So is a hierarchical

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