Execution to Die For: The manager's guide to making it happen

by Graham Haines

Overview

This book is about overcoming the barriers to execution; the barriers that frustrate managers the world over as they see their plans and strategies undermined by poor execution.

The author Graham Haines identifies 36 barriers to making it happen, explains why they occur and what to do about them. The book draws on the author's forty years of experience developing plans for others to implement and executing the plans of others.

Barriers that are caused by inadequate planning, lack of alignment, inability to manage change and unenthusiastic employees are among those addressed.

The book is packed with case studies and anecdotes from all over the world of what to do - and what not to do - to achieve "Execution to Die For".

Comprehensive and wide ranging in its scope, "Execution to Die For" is a must-buy addition to any manager's toolkit.

Haines on Planning

"Planning and execution are not separate activities - the seeds of success in execution are sown the moment the planners sit down to plan"

Haines on Employee Engagement

"I believe Employee Engagement to be a misnomer. It should be Employer Engagement - it's the role of managers to engage with their employees, not the other way around"

Haines on Managing Change

"It may seem an obvious distinction but whereas planning is all about the analysis of environments, markets, products, IT, functions and processes; implementation is all about people"

Haines on Teams

"The primary benefit of teams is seen as enhanced organisational performance with the spin-off being quality of individual work life"

Haines on Communication

"Effective Communication is the Central Nervous System of any organisation. If it's damaged, paralysis is the result"

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781463592936
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	10/24/2011
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.54(d)

About the Author

Prior to establishing his own management and strategic marketing consultancy in 1987, Graham Haines worked in business development in the UK, Europe and Australia for a major international chemical company. One of the many lessons learned from this experience was that the more people involved in the execution of a particular plan, the harder it was to make it happen.

This observation has been reinforced by his consulting experience and over the years, he started to compile a list of the barriers to execution and to sort the barriers into categories depending at which stage in the operational process they occurred. It was at this juncture that Graham Haines recognised the need for a model that covered the entire cycle from planning through to implementation, monitoring, measuring and adapting. Then each barrier would not only have a "home" but they could also be arranged in a logical sequence. The Wagon Wheel Way was the result, a unique model based on the construction, operation and maintenance of an iconic and memorable variant of man's greatest invention.

Graham is a Certified Management Consultant and a Certified Practicing Marketer. He has a joint honours degree in Law & Economics from Durham University in the UK and a Graduate Diploma of Education from Melbourne University, Australia. His web site www.planstoreality.com.au contains upwards of sixty articles upon which "Execution to Die For" is based. This is his second book.

Editorial Reviews

Haines provides a how-to for managing the execution of business projects. While many business books emphasize broad, overarching management principles, Haines focuses squarely on the brass tacks of getting things done. Haines divides his book into five parts--planning; implementation; monitoring, measuring, adapting; reinventing the wheel or revising the plan; and "execution to die for." The book concentrates on listing specific "barriers" to reaching goals and explains how they undermine progress; a typical planning barrier may have occurred because "there was no Action Program that set out the objective of each action, who was to be responsible for it and its completion date." Haines offers specific tactics and techniques to counter such obstacles. The bulk of the book, Part 2, revolves around implementation, or "making it happen," as Haines calls it. Here the author addresses organizational alignment, change management, leadership, teamwork, employee engagement and communication. Many chapters include charts and illustrations that support the text. Haines is a bit overly fond of gimmicks; abbreviations as mnemonic devices seem to run rampant at times. Still, the content is solid, and the book presents a level of organizational expertise that in itself is an example of just how to execute a project. The author uses a conceptual framework he calls "the Wagon Wheel" that illustrates aspects of project management. Marketing, products, activities, competitive strategy and competitive advantage are at the hub of the wheel; relevant support functions, such as finance, customer and distribution make up the wheel's outer rim. Haines provides a real-life example of the wheel in action so readers can relate it to their own work environments. Ultimately, the book provides a carefully sequenced road map that guides the manager through the entire implementation process, with plenty of guidance and specific examples. A serious study of project planning and implementation.

Kirkus Reviews