Bridge Builders

  Communications Management   Leadership   ProjectsAtWork  

How do project leaders bridge the execution gap and get results that matter? They instill a culture of accountability, performance expectations, change readiness and cooperation. Here are time-tested tips and techniques to help you and your project teams traverse the execution gap.

So now you’re familiar with “The Five Bridges” that enable a company to execute well (see “The Bridges of Execution”). But how do you go about building them? First, you get comfortable with the fact that it’s a never-ending process. Then, you put certain time-tested tools and techniques in place and implement them relentlessly.

Here, excerpted from Closing the Execution Gap: How Great Leaders and Their Companies Get Results (Jossey-Bass/A Wiley Imprint, June 2010), are some of my favorite tricks of the trade for getting these bridges underway.

Bridge Builder #1: Create and Use Action Plans

Action plans are the cornerstone of effective execution. They are the way you translate broad strategic objectives into specific, more easily monitored activities for teams and individuals. In short, they help you manage the work and bridge the gap between strategy and results. There are three steps to creating and using action plans:

Step 1: Clarify your goals and standards. This step provides direction for the work, gives …

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