Friday, October 28, 2011

The 5 Stages of Performance Improvement

One of the world’s top business consultants is Ram Charan.  He has personally coached leaders from several top 100 Fortune Companies for many years.   He is probably best known for his work around Strategic Goal Execution.  Ram once said, “To understand execution, you have to keep three key points in mind: (1) Execution is a discipline, and integral to strategy; (2) Execution is the major job of the business leader; (3) Execution must be a core element of an organization’s culture.”

We are going to explore this today because Execution is probably the biggest challenge a leader will ever face.  In the beginning, it sounds easy.  You’re the leader, you have a team, you have shared your strategy and now, all they have to do is execute, right?  Wrong!  It’s much more difficult than that.

First of all, only half of the people will claim they understood what you said.  In reality, only 15% of people can articulate the strategy back to you and only half of those people probably know what to do.  If 7-8% of your staff knows how to execute your plan, do you think you will make it?

Having the capability to execute is probably one of the most important aspects a leader can instill in their culture.  While the statistics above are more of a picture of most businesses, there is still light at the end of the tunnel.  Some organizations get it right year after year, and yours can too!
Please take a moment to review the photo below of The 5 Stages of Performance Improvement. 

Let’s review each of these stages, so you can see HOW a culture is developed and strategy shifts towards execution. 

1.)    Drive to improve - Obviously, this is the first step.  If you don’t change what you are currently doing in your business, you will not improve what you are doing now.  So, the leaders must have this “drive” in order to begin making a shift in the culture.
2.)    Leadership Emphasis - This is when the executive team picks something.  It is best, to pick one or two top strategic imperatives.  When you start adding goals to the list, The Law of Diminishing Return will kick your tail!  It is also important that leaders don’t change this emphasis on a regular basis.  If they do, their teams will never start to accept accountability because they know a new strategy will be developed soon.
3.)    Team Accountability - Once the teams take ownership of the goal is when you begin to see a momentum building towards creating your culture.  Division leaders now understand the goal; they know how they contribute to executing the strategy.  Now they are communicating to their teams regularly and holding individuals accountable for measurable activity towards the goal.
4.)    Individual Ownership - It’s one thing for a leader to tell you what to do, but when your individual contributors hold themselves accountable and start behaving in new proactive ways to take new steps towards implementation, this is when the wheels start moving. 
5.)    Habits - When individuals start putting new practices into place and do them consistently, you’ve got something!  This is when the rubber is beginning to hit the road.  Now leaders can predict outcomes based on a large group of individual behaviors or habits. 
To sum it all up, our Regional Execution Practice Leader Scott Thele, recently said, "Your organization's culture is nothing more or less than the collection of habits of the majority of people most of the time."  You can have a culture that executes or one that doesn’t.  It’s all a result of your culture and people’s habits. 

The goal is get your middle performers to behave like your top performers.  Whether you have one location and you want most of the people performing at peak performance or whether you have multiple locations and you most of them performing like your top sites, the challenge is getting the large group to behave well, consistently.  We call it Moving the Middle.  How would your bottom line be affected if you could shift performance by 20% of your middle 60% of your organization?  Do the math! 


If you are a leader and are looking to execute a strategy that is going to take a substantial change in human behavior, then I highly encourage you to take a serious look at our proven process known as, The 4 Disciplines of Execution.  We are helping clients across the globe achieve some pretty amazing results. 

For more information or to join us for one of our upcoming sessions, Creating a Culture of Execution, please give me a call.  We would like to be your strategic partner in 2012 and beyond!

Sincerely,

John Vakidis
Associate Client Partner | FranklinCovey
214.387.9960 |
john.vakidis@franklincovey.com


Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Speed of Trust Press Release

Franklin Covey’s ‘The Speed of Trust’ Named Best of Elearning! 2011 Award Winner for Best Leadership Training

Elearning! and Government Elearning! Magazines’ Readers Choose The Speed of Trust for Award of Excellence and Best-in-Class Product: Best Leadership Training

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Franklin Covey Co. (NYSE: FC), a global provider of training and consulting services, announced today that its The Speed of Trust leadership training was named a Best of Elearning! 2011 Award Winner by Elearning! Media Group for Best Leadership Training. The leadership training is based upon the New York Times bestselling book, The Speed of Trust, authored by Stephen M.R. Covey.

Elearning! and Government Elearning! magazines’ reader community chose The Speed of Trust for an Award of Excellence and named it a Best-in-Class Product via an open-ended online ballot posted at www.2elearning.com this summer.

Altogether, approximately 1,750 nominations were collected over a three-month balloting period. Of these, 56 products across 20 categories were named ‘best-in-class’ by learning professionals and executives in 2011, including The Speed of Trust.

“Given the number of nominations, for Franklin Covey’s The Speed of Trust to earn an Award of Excellence for Best Leadership Training is quite an honor,” says Catherine Upton, Elearning! Media Group’s publisher. “It is a true testament to Franklin Covey’s product and service excellence, for which it has been known for more than 25 years.”

“We are pleased to receive this award for The Speed of Trust, especially because it was chosen by the readers of Elearning! and Government Elearning! magazines. It further validates the overwhelmingly positive reaction The Speed of Trust has received from leading organizations around the world that see it as a timely performance multiplier,” said Gary Judd, Practice Leader, The Speed of Trust Practice, Franklin Covey.

The Speed of Trust will be featured in the 2011 Best of Elearning! Awards issues of Elearning! and Government Elearning! magazines. Readers can not only learn more about these solutions, but hear from real-world users about how they are leveraging these solutions to drive enterprise performance. The awards issues will mail November 2011 and can be downloaded at www.2elearning.com.
About Franklin Covey Co.

Franklin Covey Co. (NYSE: FC) is the global consulting and training leader in the areas of strategy execution, leadership, customer loyalty, sales performance, school transformation and individual effectiveness. Franklin Covey clients have included 90 percent of the Fortune 100, more than 75 percent of the Fortune 500, thousands of small- and mid-sized businesses, as well as numerous government entities and educational institutions. Franklin Covey has 42 offices providing professional services in 155 countries. For more information, visit www.franklincovey.com.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Learning Explosion

Earlier this year, two of my colleagues from our Online Learning Department at FranklinCovey released a great book titled, The Learning Explosion.  Authors, Matthew Murdoch and Treion Muller, discuss the importance of bringing Online Learning into organizations. 


As a company rooted in standard LIVE instructor led training (ILT), making this leap was huge for FranklinCovey.  But after plenty of market research and studying industry trends, we realized we needed to embrace this change, rather than shy away from it.  Matthew and Treion break the book into two main parts, The New Mindset and The New Rule Set.  If you are involved in L&D, consider picking up a copy of their book or checking out their blog.

In a recent blog post, 21 Ways To Create a Personal Learning Lab Today!  Treion and Matt  provide 21 tips, tools and apps to leverage the information available to you to make your own controlled learning environment.  To learn more about Online Learning, please go to our website to see what FranklinCovey has to offer or contact me directly.  At this time, we have approximately 40 webinars available and other types of self-paced learning (InSights On Demand and 7 Habits Interactive) that can be purchased individually or for an enterprise engagement.  Keep checking in regularly, because more offerings are in development and will be coming soon!


Taking learning to people everywhere!
- John Vakidis

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The 5 Choices - FranklinCovey Planner App

With the release of our newest solution on Sept 26th: The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity, FranklinCovey has changed the game for individuals to utilize technology in tandem with our timeless and revolutionary principles for Individual Productivity with our NEW FranklinCovey Planner App.

When participants attend this powerful 2-day program, they will walk away with a deep understanding how to make Microsoft Outlook (or IBM Lotus Notes) work for them… instead of the other way around.  Lastly, they will leave with an application for their iPhone, iPad or Android device (at no additional charge) that operates and syncs with the latest cloud technology on the market.  Below are a few screen shots that show you this app supports our facilitation for Roles, Big Rocks and more!
This new smart phone app syncs contacts, calendars, tasks and notes, too!  No more needing to use multiple applications for each function.  AND, it syncs with Microsoft Exchange.  What can I say, except that our guys and gals working on this project are EXTRAORDINARY! 
With the new release of the Apple iOS5, timing could not be any better.  For more information, download the PDF slideshow with more info about the application. 
If you would like to learn more about The 5 Choices, consider joining us for one of our upcoming webinars.  Follow this link for details.
Helping individuals take quantum leaps in productivity,
John Vakidis

PS - Yes, the application will be available for individual purchase, too.  Details coming soon…


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The 3rd Alternative - On Sale Now!




Stephen R. Covey has dedicated his life to demonstrating how people can control their own destinies with profound, yet straightforward, guidance. His new book, The 3rd Alternative: Solving Life's Most Difficult Problems shows how to move through conflict to achieve success at work, at home, in our personal lives, and our larger world.
  • Revolutionary insight into personal, community, professional, and global problems
  • Straightforward, creative solutions for life's complex challenges
  • Tools for 3rd Alternative problem solving and a unique "Teach to Learn" section
  • New and deeper insight into empathy and synergy, as well as key
    ideas from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People