Most Companies Fail Due to Poor Execution 

As a fan of Blue Ocean strategy, you already know how important it is to have the right strategy. But, a great strategy executed poorly produces lackluster results and missed targets. Unfortunately, most companies and top executives focus their efforts on developing a strong strategy but spend very little time converting those strategies into “execution ready” plans that clearly define the actual work team members need to do to bring the strategy to fruition.

I have to admit that I am a data geek. I do know that I have a unique personality type and most people aren’t interested in digging deep into the numbers and want to jump off a bridge anytime that you mention a pivot table. The great thing is that you don’t need to be a nerd in order to increase your team and company performance with KPI dashboards. In fact, you’ll get better performance if you adjust your thinking to answering the question: What is driving the numbers? Instead of putting all of your energy on what the numbers are, start to focus on the story behind the numbers. This is where you will get true insight and help transform your weekly meetings into the most productive time of your week.

It is that time again. I am working with my clients to help create quarterly execution plans with their top quarterly rocks so they can accomplish the goals they set out to achieve. Working with one of my newer clients recently, I noticed we spent a lot of time covering how Company, Group, and Individual Priorities work together to significantly increase their chance of success. I realized that a few of our long-standing customers may have some of the same questions but didn’t want to ask. I thought I would take some time to help clarify how each of these pieces works together in your execution-ready quarterly plan. 

Are your meetings the butt of work-related jokes? Why is it that we roll our eyes with disdain when our calendar is loaded with meetings, and more specifically, why do we dread the planning meetings that are so important to our strategic success? Let me ask, have you used senior team members as facilitators? If so, you’ve very likely chosen the wrong facilitator. Save yourself a bad decision before your next planning session. Don’t choose your CEO or an executive team member for strategic planning facilitation. If you do, you’ll pay for it all year (or quarter) based on the plan developed and the pain to get there.

Bringing Rhythm into your organization can be a big change. However, it’s the first step on an exciting journey that will help you and your team build accountability, alignment and strong execution habits!

You’re not alone - many companies have been right where you are. They are experiencing stalled growth, missed numbers, people and accountability issues - the list goes on. Many of them had the same question you do: “So I decided to get started with Rhythm - what happens next?”

Below are a few common software implementation myths and how we help you avoid them:

Our Rhythm Systems consultants have worked for years to help management teams create execution ready quarterly plans to achieve their growth goals each quarter. This practice combines both art and science to analyze plans to ensure they are both practical and complete.

We learned over the years from analyzing patterns of hundreds of quarterly execution plans and built a quarter plan testing tool into our Rhythm strategy execution software. The Quarter Plan 4 Tests feature is just one of the ways we are analyzing execution plan data to help our clients create better plans to achieve their growth goals quarter over quarter, year over year to achieve predictable results.

Did you know that nearly half of all companies fail to meet their financial targets? Much of this lack of success can be traced back to poor annual planning sessions. Perhaps you talked about the targets and set them, but you failed to create an action plan to get there. I understand - there is an amazing amount of work that goes into facilitating a winning planning session. We know how hard it is, as our Rhythm experts have facilitated thousands of successful planning sessions to set our customers up for success. This blog will give a high-level overview of the five keys to creating a winning annual plan.

From a leadership perspective, there’s a real thirst for increasing accountability. Leaders have recently asked me various questions that linger over the concept of building team accountability:

“How do I build accountability in teams?”

“What else can I do to get people to do what we need them to do?”

“How can I hold my team accountable and still be seen as a good leader?”

Building team accountability requires that we understand a few dynamics because it’s more complicated than we might recognize.

Here at Rhythm Systems, we are very blessed to have almost 10,000 blog subscribers, 10+ regular contributors, and many amazing readers who comment on our posts (both online and in-person when we are lucky enough to see them). We started blogging back in 2011 before it seemed like everyone and their mother had a blog, and we’ve learned an awful lot and put a ton of time into delivering great content to you, our readers, over the last seven years. In fact, we recently tallied up the hours our team spends on creating, editing, optimizing, and publishing content for this blog, and it was about 385 hours in 2018. We appreciate all of you who read and enjoy the fruits of our hard work.