Progress. Moving forward. Execution. That’s what business is about. Disagree with someone’s idea or recommendation? Just argue that the idea might slow down progress. It will be killed before the person can respond. In many organizations most people are afraid to be the one to stop the train.

Progress and execution are good as long as they are accomplishing something. Progress and activity are two different things. So are and activity and results. Often in our haste to proceed, we don’t do what is necessary to ensure success.

We can plan forever. We need to get something done.
I attended a planning meeting for a major project. The meeting was divided into two hours to determine requirements and six hours for driving out the action plan. After two hours we didn’t have the requirements fully understood. One person in the meeting recommended that we spend another two or three hours on understanding the requirements. The leader’s response was, “We can plan this forever; at some point we need to act.” This isn’t uncommon. Many leaders fear that introducing any time for thought or planning will grind their projects to a halt.

The project lasted over a year. It had several restarts. Their progress was similar to a hiker walking in circles – a lot of movement and activity but little distance from the starting point. Activity is not the same as progress.

There seems to be general agreement that more planning prior to the Iraq war might have provided better results. How different do you think those discussions looked compared with those in your business? “Look we can plan forever but we need to take action. We’ll figure out the details as we go.” We’re still figuring them out.

I often hear people raise concern over too much time planning (regardless of how much or how little time is actually being spent). I rarely hear people concerned that we are jumping into execution too quickly.

The train has left the station
One executive was planning a key meeting. She set the date, booked the venue, mapped out topics, and even booked a few speakers. She asked for some help with designing the topics. I asked what the purpose was for the meeting and the topics. She wasn’t sure yet. It would depend on who the audience was. I suggested that she step back, figure out what she wanted to accomplish in the meeting, understand the needs of her audience, and then complete her planning. Her response was, “The train has left the station, we don’t have time to think that through.”

Ironically, I actually got on the wrong train once. I got off as soon as possible. I didn’t want to wait to find out where it was going. Getting off quickly and returning to the station seemed to provide me with the best shot at ending up where I needed to be.

Don’t be so idealistic. Sometimes you have to compromise
I believe that something is not always better than nothing. I think this is contrary to many leaders. We don’t get rewarded for doing nothing and it doesn’t feel good. Taking action makes us feel like we are solving problems whether we are or not. It makes us feel in control. But it doesn’t always change things.

I was on one project where we were asked to reduce a list of terms used to classify people’s skills. The purpose of the list was to better match people’s skills with job requirements. The current list had over 8,000 terms. It was unusable and ineffective.

Through a simple data analysis we found that about 150 of the terms addressed 80% of the skill requests for the organization. By redesigning the process and using information other than skills we could accommodate the other 20% of the request.

The solution would have solved the problem, but was deemed “too hard”. We were told to be more realistic. We were trying to do too much. At one point the project leader even said, “This isn’t about solving the problem, it is about being able to show Joe that we did something.” They cut 1000 terms out of the skill list. The result: An unusable list of 8000 terms became an unusable list of 7000 terms. Within a year the project leader was replaced and the project was started over.

I’ve found many leaders who challenge people for trying to create the “perfect” solution. Yet, I’ve never heard someone say, “Maybe we’ve compromised and dumbed it down too much.”

Step up and advocate for what’s right
Great leaders take time to understand what they want to accomplish, how they want to do it, and they don’t compromise. The amount of time to do things right is the same (or less) than the time to do things wrong. Given the current problems we see in banking, the airlines, and the economy, perhaps it would be good if more leaders had the courage to stop and think, question more and stop things that don’t make sense. To get started on focusing on what’s right, I would recommend Peter Block’s book, “The Answer to How is Yes: Acting on What Matters” or Tad Waddington’s book, “Lasting Contribution.”