What increases the likelihood that an improvement initiative will be successful?

About 70%! That’s the percentage of improvement initiatives that Dr. Toby Travis (author of TrustED: The Bridge to School Improvement) says do not succeed in both schools and businesses. Why are such a high percentage of improvement initiatives in schools and businesses unsuccessful? Because, says Travis, there’s a lack of execution—meaning, there’s a lack of leadership (Zoe Routh Podcast 253, 5:53 – 6:42). Ouch!

So, what increases the likelihood that an improvement initiative will be successful? Execution-enhancing practices that come to mind for me include:

1. Asking God for help. Regularly.
2. Getting buy-in by framing the initiative as inspiring, engaging, and significant.
3. Developing a documented plan for each initiative that identifies the timeline, action steps, resources, and who is responsible for what. (Be sure to assign someone to be the execution champion for the entire initiative.)
4. Making the documented plan easily accessible. Using a Google Doc works well for me!
5. Getting some quick wins. This builds momentum.
6. Frequently discussing and asking questions about the improvement initiative.
7. Using a scoreboard to visually display progress on the improvement initiative.
8. Holding people, including myself, accountable. One way to do this is to review the scoreboard during meetings.
9. Celebrating small wins.
10. Practicing discipline and patience over time.

Let’s try this another way: How can you avoid being unsuccessful with an improvement initiative? One way to avoid being unsuccessful with an improvement initiative is by doing a pre-mortem. Have those working on a given improvement initiative imagine that the initiative has not been successful. Next, ask them to identify the factors that caused the lack of success. Finally, work together to address those factors in the plan.

What about you? What percentage of improvement initiatives in your organization are unsuccessful? What causes improvement initiatives to be unsuccessful? What increases the likelihood that an improvement initiative will be successful? How can you avoid being unsuccessful?

Here’s what I’m learning from reading The Psychology of Money:

• “The correct lesson to learn from surprises is that the world is surprising. Not that we should use past surprises as a guide to future boundaries; that we should use past surprises as an admission that we have no idea what might happen next” (loc 1320).
• “Margin of safety—you can also call it room for error or redundancy—is the only effective way to safely navigate a world that is governed by odds, not certainties” (loc 1423).
• “…the most important part of every plan is planning on your plan not going according to plan” (loc 1524).
• “Go out of your way to find humility when things are going right and forgiveness/compassion when they go wrong” (loc 2150).

Michael

P.S. Bonus! Here’s a list of 10 quotations from things I’ve read and listened to that contain the word execution:

1. “The connection between execution and engagement…is the leadership topic” (Creating a High-Stakes, Winnable Game: Chris McChesney).
2. “…leaders have three fundamental responsibilities: They craft a vision, they build alignment, and they champion execution” (The Work of Leaders: How Vision, Alignment, and Execution Will Change the Way You Lead, loc 381).
3. “At its most basic level, execution is making the vision a reality. And not just any reality, but the right reality, one that takes the imagined future and turns it into a real accomplishment. Execution is how organizations and teams take all the good ideas and turn them into results” (The Work of Leaders: How Vision, Alignment, and Execution Will Change the Way You Lead, loc 1537).
4. “Leading well isn’t about perfection, but about execution. Knowing exactly what your goal is and finding creative ways to hit the target in your authentic style shows your willingness to learn, grow, and do good for those you serve” (Leading with Grace: Leaning into the Soft Skills of Leadership, loc 432).
5. “We’re stuck in permanent ‘execution mode,’ without a moment to take stock or ask questions about what we really want from life” (The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World, loc 81).
6. “When we’re busy and focused on execution, there’s no time to ask questions that might have discomfiting answers. Is this the right path? What does success really mean? Am I living my life the way I want to?” (The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World, loc 322)
7. “…large number of leaders view vision as secondary. That’s because there’s an action bias inherent to leadership. Execution, after all, is right there in the word—executive. These leaders limit their job to effective execution of their current objectives. That’s necessary, but insufficient. Execution is just part of the picture. Without a destination and the people to follow you there, you might be busy, but you’re not busy leading your company” (The Vision Driven Leader: 10 Questions to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business, loc 351).
8. “Wasted money, time, and talent. When leaders focus on execution to the exclusion of vision, they miss the role vision plays in execution. As a result, they create frustration within their teams and waste valuable resources, including their own scarce time and energy. Vision provides a direction for execution, as well as a standard by which to judge performance. Without it, teams invest themselves in irrelevant outcomes and unimportant projects. Beyond that, they don’t even know if they’re winning because there’s no external standard to evaluate their progress. Everybody runs in circles. By aligning around a clear and compelling vision, you can avoid sideways energy and wasted effort. By minimizing or even eliminating the cross-purpose activities within your company, vision allows you to execute more effectively” (The Vision Driven Leader: 10 Questions to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business, loc 678).
9. “…Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless” (Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, p. 7).
10. “Team coaching is entirely different from executive coaching. Executive coaching is one-on-one interaction aimed at developing the capabilities of individual managers. Both approaches have a place in helping leaders be more effective. However, individual coaching contributes to the leadership team only to the extent that it focuses on individual members’ contributions to the team processes and to the execution of the team’s accountabilities” (Senior Leadership: What It Takes to Make Them Great, p. 164).