Table of Contents
Introduction: Why Great Strategies and Change Initiatives Fail xi
Part 1 M = The Middle: Where Transformations Either Happen or Get Stuck 1
Chapter 1 The Beginning of the Middle: Why New Strategies Stall After the Exciting Kickoff 3
Chapter 2 Concrete Outcomes: Stop Admiring the Problem and Define Some Specific Actions 9
Chapter 3 Timing and Momentum: Maintaining a Sense of Urgency for a Long Time 25
Chapter 4 Control Points: Metrics That Drive Action on the Right Things 33
Chapter 5 Resource Reality: Your Strategy Is Where You Put Your Resources 47
Chapter 6 Don't Sign Up for the Impossible 53
Chapter 7 Sponsors and Enemies: Reduce Your Personal Risk 61
Part 2 O = Organization: Are You Leading the Team You Have or the Team You Need? 67
Chapter 8 The Right Team: The Fundamental Ingredient for a Highly Effective Team 69
Chapter 9 Organize for Outcomes: Create the Ideal, Blank-Sheet Org Chart 79
Chapter 10 The People: How to Attract the Right People and Eliminate the Wrong People 91
Chapter 11 Building Capacity: Performance Management and Delegating for Development 109
Chapter 12 Unstructured Conversation: How to Drive Personal Accountability and Belief 119
Chapter 13 Stop Having Status Meetings: Go Faster and Reduce Risk 125
Chapter 14 Virtual and Remote Teams: Optimizing Performance and Results from Afar 133
Chapter 15 Getting People to Actually Care: Engagement and Context 143
Part 3 V = Valor: Facing the Hardest Stuff with Courage and Persistence 149
Chapter 16 Mission Impossible: Dealing with Obstacles, Fear, and Imposter Syndrome 151
Chapter 17 Burn the Ships at the Beach: How to Keep Moving Forward When No One Wants To 161
Chapter 18 Too Busy to Scale: Use Ruthless Priorities to Enable Growth 167
Chapter 19 Detail: The Momentum Killer: Manage Outcomes Instead 175
Chapter 20 Clarity and Conflict: Expose and Master Necessary Conflict-Don't Avoid It 179
Chapter 21 Decision Stall: Accelerate Effective Decision Making 187
Chapter 22 Tracking and Consequences: How to Identify and Recover from Setbacks 197
Part 4 E = Everyone: You Can Lead a Transformation from the Top, But You cant do a Transformation from the Top 207
Chapter 23 Conversation: Change How You Communicate to Make Your Strategy Stick 209
Chapter 24 Decorate the Change: "Yes, We Are Really Doing This" 219
Chapter 25 Top-Down Communications: Why People Do and Don't Listen 227
Chapter 26 Listen on Purpose: Finding the Insights That Make You Brilliant 237
Chapter 27 Sharing Information: Communicating Across Organizational Silos 245
Chapter 28 Power and Trust: How to Make People Feel Like Superheroes 253
Acknowledgments 263
Resources 265
About the Author 267
Index 269