Quotes About Execution

how they might be articulated into productive shape.

Plans get you into things but you've got to work your way out. —Will Rogers

The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

Thought is useful when it motivates action and a hindrance when it substitutes for action.

Think of what a successful outcome would look like: where would you be physically, financially, in terms of reputation, or whatever? Brainstorm potential steps. Organize your ideas. Decide on the next actions. Are you any clearer about where you want to go and how to get there?

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.

Things rarely get stuck because of lack of time. They get stuck because what "doing" would look like, and where it happens, hasn't been decided.

I have found that lack of time is not the major issue for them (though they may think it is); the real problem is a lack of clarity and definition about what a project really is, and what associated next-action steps are required.

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is more important than the eye. . . . The hand is the cutting edge of the mind. —J. Bronowski

Getting things done requires two basic components: defining (1) what "done" means (outcome) and (2) what "doing" looks like (action). And these are far from self-evident for most people about most things that have their attention.

three different kinds of activities you can be engaged in: Doing predefined work Doing work as it shows up Defining your work Doing

You must use your mind to get things off your mind. An

something is "on your mind" is that you want it to be different than it currently is, and yet: • you haven't clarified exactly what the intended outcome is; • you haven't decided what the very next physical action step is; and/or • you haven't put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you trust.

At any point in time, the first thing to consider is, what could you possibly do, where you are, with the tools you have?

The vast majority of people have been trying to get organized by rearranging incomplete lists of unclear things; they haven't yet realized how much and what they need to organize in order to get the real payoff. They need to gather everything that requires thinking about and then do that thinking if their organizational efforts are to be successful. The

You've got to think about the big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction. —Alvin Toffler This

you haven't decided what the very next physical action step is; and/or you haven't put reminders of the outcome and the action required in a system you trust.

Planning something never seems risky. It's in the execution where all the risk comes." "And

Success or failure was always defined largely during the preparation. With good planning all one had to do was execute. Even last-second changes could be made with greater ease if the planning in the first place had been precise.

it was botched. A traffic police officer intervened and the whole plan fell apart. But that was from low-level external sources and had nothing to do with us. Our strike will be quick and clean. And it will succeed." "And you have your team in place?

El éxito o fracaso dependían en gran medida de la preparación. Con una buena preparación, lo único que se requería hacer era ejecutar. Incluso podían realizarse cambios en el ultimo momento si la planificación lo requería." ? David Baldacci , MÁXIMO IMPACTO (The Hit)

his former boss at CIA, Simpson had still been sitting in death, only with him instead of a car seat it was a ladder-back chair in the kitchen that was now all mottled with the dead man's blood. The shot had come from the unfinished chunk of construction across the street. The hour of execution—for

If you want to perform well over both the short and long term, pay close attention to executive leadership in general. As much as you might invest in areas like culture, process transformation, and M&A, you'll only make progress if you have talented senior leaders who are both committed to the company's strategies and capable of executing on them. Having the right number of those leaders matters too.

In truth, mobilizing people is only about 5 percent of the leader's job. The best leaders dedicate almost all their time to the latter two elements: making great decisions and executing consistently with those decisions.