Page 144 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

Focusing on Results 133

In addition to their newfound knowledge and skills, the teams achieved
significant early results in the first 100 days, bringing in millions of dollars
in new premium revenue. The teams then built on these initial successes
and expanded them in the target cities, while Macia commissioned new
RRI teams for other markets. As the process evolved, she asked one of her
business leaders, Gary Kaplan, to oversee this effort and apply the RRI ap-
proach to other aspects of the growth strategy such as creating a new busi-
ness to insure construction projects. In a two-year period, Macia launched
over thirty RRI teams, engaging hundreds of XL people and generating
hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue while building new capabil-
ities across the company.
Creating this kind of iterative learning cycle—with rapid tests of what
works and how to fit pieces together—is a low-risk way of ensuring that
your people really do deliver results. As Macia noted to us in our discussion
about the RRI process at XL, “It won’t fail. It’s just not an option. We would
take corrective action at the check-ins. We’ve had situations where teams
have struggled in thirty days, but then you catch up with them so you can
correct it.”
Still, the iterative process can yield some challenging leadership dy-
namics: you can’t completely control the outcomes because the teams will
learn as they go along and most likely will come up with solutions and
approaches that may be somewhat different from the original strategic
plans. Fight your instincts and let this happen—in fact, encourage it. If you
and your direct reports merely give teams rote instructions about how to
proceed, they won’t use their brains or reflect on their experience along the
way. By empowering them to experiment as they learn, and learn from both
failure and success, you’ll allow them the flexibility to actually im- prove
and enhance what was called for in the strategy.

Maintaining organizational discipline

The fourth element of focusing on results is to create and maintain a dis-
ciplined approach to monitoring the ongoing business performance of
your unit. This involves choosing the right kind of metrics, establishing an