IT’S NO USE HAVING the best ideas if you can’t make them happen. An ability to get things done – to execute consistently and well – is essential to success. While high-quality thinking and connecting with others are necessary prerequisites to doing, there are three further elements required in order to create real impact:
First we have to Create Space to Plan. This builds on the decision-making and strategising we discussed in Part 1. If we don’t adopt clear goals, and have a well worked out plan to realise them, we will limit what we can achieve no matter how good our ideas or how hard we work. The brothers running Red Technologies are finding that a failure to plan is causing real damage to their business.
Second, we need to Create Space to Deliver. This is about making our vision – and plans – a reality and actually getting things over the line. Tamsin doesn’t seem able to make the transition from being a ‘Jill of all trades’ to having the discipline to get on with delivering the few things that really matter.
Finally, for those of us whose job involves leading people, we must Create Space to Lead. It is vital that we learn how to deliver through others rather than tending to deliver ourselves. As Yulia discovers, that is about making a fundamental change in who you are and how you behave at work – becoming someone who motivates and empowers those around you, rather than just yourself.
In all three stories in Part 3 we will see how an ability to step back and really master the art (and science) of getting things done is the foundation of real and sustained success.