Who is this professor? Who will challenge him? What question stumped him? Why does he think that what he has not studied clearly has been studied clearly by others?
The Harvard professor above is clayton christensen, the author of The Innovator's Dilemma, and the CEO is Intel legend Andy Grove. At that time, the dilemma faced by Intel was that AMD and Celecox were constantly devouring the market of low-end processors.
Grove's question is: "What do you think we should do?" At that time, Christensen gave the answer that "you should set up a new business department, and they should have their own independent financial system and sales targets".
Grove was very dissatisfied because the professor told him what he knew-what to do, but he didn't know how to do it. After returning to China, Christensen tried to systematically put forward a set of theories on how to do it, but it ended in vain. It was not until the appearance of "Four Principles of Executive Ability of Highly Effective People" that his distress was solved, and this book is exactly what this article wants to share.
Is the title familiar? Yes, it is "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", and the authors of these two books happen to be father and son. One is Stephen Covey, and the other is Sean Covey. The former is the father.
The four principles of executive ability of high-efficient people (hereinafter referred to as the four principles) inherit the advantages of the seven habits of high-efficient people and have a simple structure. This book is divided into three parts. The first part introduces four principles, and the second and third parts introduce the application of these principles in teams and organizations. Moreover, these four principles are not isolated, but interlocking, forming a systematic solution. These four principles are:
Principle 1: Focus on the most important goals.
Principle 2: Pay attention to leading indicators
Principle 3: adhere to the incentive scoring table.
Principle 4: Establish a regular accountability system.
? Execution begins with concentration, so the principle 1 is the premise of the other three; Principle 2 is the decomposition of goals, and a decomposition method-leading index is put forward; Principle 3 gives the method of keeping continuous motivation; Principle 4 is implementation.
Principle 1: Focus on the most important goals.
1. 1? The less the better.
I don't know if you have this feeling (I do): I am busy every day, but after a week, a month or even 1 year, it seems that I have not achieved any important results, and I seem to be in a very busy state. We have read the book Deep Work Law before and answered this question.
Avenue to Jane, the same solution they gave was concentration. After taking over as CEO of Apple, timothy d mentioned that the most important lesson he learned from Jobs was that "concentration is the key". Our time and energy are limited. If you want to do everything, it is difficult to be perfect in one aspect in the end, and focusing on a few may be the best.
1.2? Daily affairs and important goals
At work, although we know that concentration is very important, we must complete the reply email and the tasks assigned by the leaders. What shall we do? The "Four Principles" point out that, first of all, we should distinguish work, some of which belong to daily affairs, such as answering emails and holding meetings, which are the basis of organizational operation and cooperation. However, if we want to make our work fruitful, we must focus on important goals. Only by spending time on important goals will our work produce qualitative changes. So how do you identify important targets?
1.3? Contribution analysis
There is an important technology in my major (NVH, noise vibration and acoustic vibration roughness) called "contribution analysis", which I think is a general concept. Generally speaking, it is a simple truth to find the factor that has the greatest influence on the result and realize the most efficient improvement by changing it. When looking for this key influencing factor, people usually ask, "What is the most important?"
But it is usually difficult to get an answer. Take the performance development of automobiles as an example. Generally, it can be divided into safety, NVH performance, handling performance and so on. Put forward the above questions, everyone will think that their performance is the most important, and finally let it go.
And if we ask the question in another way: "If everything remains the same, which aspect can be improved to bring us the greatest benefit?" . This question has two advantages: on the one hand, it can focus, on the other hand, it will not make us focus too much on a few goals and ignore other work.
1.4? Streamline goals and set time limits.
1958, shortly after the establishment of NASA, they drew up many important plans. After Kennedy took office, he set new goals. By comparing the following table, we can see the difference.
I like the phrase "the goal is the means to an end" very much. In the above example, the goal is to land on the moon, and the purpose is to vigorously develop space technology. Through specific and clear goals, rather than just listing things, we can not only achieve the goals, but also let the people involved know the purpose and significance of their work, thus boosting morale.
1.5? Target decomposition: key, key, and then key
Humans can't directly solve a complex problem, but we can break it down into solvable sub-problems. Taking the moon landing as an example, NASA decomposed it into the following three key sub-problems:
? For these three sub-questions, you can further decompose them until you can start doing them. There is a skill in this process, and you should try to find the key in each decomposition. What's the point? We are all familiar with the 2/8 principle. The so-called key is something that can achieve 80% effect by completing 20%. Through repeated application, we can finally find the most critical part, so as to achieve the goal of less but better.
Principle 2: Pay attention to leading indicators
Principle 1 refers to focusing on the most important goals and decomposing them. The decomposed indicators can be divided into two categories: leading indicators and lagging indicators. What's the difference between them?
2. 1? Two types of indicators: leading indicators and lagging indicators.
Take losing weight as an example. If you want to lose weight 12kg at the end of the year, then 1kg every month, then weeks, then days ... seems reasonable, but there is a problem. We don't know whether these indicators have reached the time point, that is to say, these indicators are lagging behind, so they are called lagging indicators.
Accordingly, leading indicators have two typical characteristics: predictability and controllability. The so-called predictability means that you can predict the possibility of achieving the ultimate goal after these indicators are realized; Controllability means that the whole process is controllable.
For example, to lose weight, monitoring your calorie intake and daily exercise is a leading indicator, and how much you lose is a lagging indicator.
Management guru Edward Deming has an image metaphor. He said: "Managing a company only through financial indicators is like driving in the rearview mirror." Financial indicators are typical lagging indicators. Since lagging indicators have this shortcoming, why do people still like to use them? On the one hand, it can be well measured and directly reflect the results; On the other hand, it saves trouble. If you monitor calorie intake, you have to measure the process, which is much easier than just looking at the results.
2.2? How to find leading indicators?
Leading indicators are predictive, which also hides the assumption that such indicators should have obvious leverage effect and causal relationship, which also means that it is difficult to find because its relationship with the ultimate goal is not so direct. For example, how to calculate the relationship between 12kg and daily calorie intake?
There are no specific suggestions in the book, but there are cases. According to my understanding, I think there are the following ways:
(1) Experience and industry knowledge, such as advertising can increase sales, but it is difficult to accurately measure the increase;
② Causality obtained from scientific research, such as adding a certain quantity to the project, can accurately obtain the transformation of another quantity;
③ Correlation obtained from statistical analysis.
Some behaviors are difficult to quantify, but they will greatly affect the final result. We can turn them into leading indicators. For example, it is mentioned in the book that a shoe store is not selling well and the manager sells it. Through data analysis, it is found that the sales of a salesperson is three times that of other salespeople. Through observation, it is found that the salesman has several different behaviors:
(1) She will completely put herself into the customer's world, observe their clothes, talk about their families and find their needs;
She will take out six pairs of shoes at once, instead of one pair for customers to choose from;
She won't directly ask the customer's purchase intention, and then she will be rejected. Instead, she will briefly outline the business and say, "If you have a membership card, you can enjoy a 10% discount today, just sign here";
These behaviors are difficult to appear in statistics, but they do affect sales. This process can be transformed into leading indicators, which is manifested in three steps:
① Show at least 4 pairs of shoes to customers;
2 write a thank-you letter;
③ Invite every customer to apply for a membership card.
Through the promotion and implementation of such indicators, the sales volume of the whole shoe store has been greatly improved. This case typically embodies two characteristics of leading indicators: predictability and controllability.
But usually, the follow-up of such indicators requires more investment, sometimes the effect is not immediate, and people's willingness to continue to act is not strong. How to keep people motivated to do so? This is the question to be answered in principle three!
Principle 3: adhere to the incentive scoring table.
This book tells an experience of the author. Once, he gave advice to others, and a big football match was being held in the local area. Although it was windy at that time, there was a large audience. As the game went on, strange things happened, and people's shouts suddenly became less loud than before. Later, I found that the original scoreboard was blown down by the wind.
Imagine a scene. If you are watching a basketball game and the score suddenly stops, only the referee is scoring silently, and neither the players nor the audience can see it, and they don't know the score now. What will happen? A simple scorecard can actually play a huge role. Why?
3. 1? Progressive cycle
20 1 1 year,? Teresa amabel published a paper entitled "The power of smallwins" in Harvard Business Review, which introduced how to motivate people through small progress. The mechanism is that when people know their progress and the direction of their efforts, small achievements will inspire people to continue their efforts. It's like the small step principle we introduced in * * *. Based on this principle, the author puts forward the scorecard method.
3.2? Coach scorecard? VS player scorecard
There are many scorecards, but not all of them are inspiring. The author divides it into two categories: coach type and player type. Taking basketball as an example, the coach scorecard may record players' passing, assists and other information, which can be used for player analysis and game arrangement, but these data can not directly motivate and guide players' actions; At this time, it is necessary to use the player scorecard, such as the previous scoring records, so that all players can see the performance of the whole team at a glance and the direction of their efforts.
3.3? How to establish a player incentive scorecard?
The book mention four points for attention in establish such a scorecard:
① Is it simple?
② Is it obvious?
③ Is it a leading indicator or a lagging indicator?
You can see at a glance how far it is from victory.
① ② ④ It is easy to understand, and here we will focus on ③. The advice given in the book is that a good scorecard should display both at the same time, because the lagging indicator is the result that everyone wants to achieve, while the leading indicator is something that we can directly control. If we can link the two and let people see the direct impact of their efforts on the final result, they will work harder.
Take losing weight as an example. If you monitor your calorie intake and weight change at the same time and see a direct connection between them, is it easier to be full of fighting spirit?
However, I want to add, as we did in execution 2: how to move? How to keep moving? As mentioned above, the results of our actions are usually delayed. For example, if we read a book now, we can't directly see its influence on our progress. At this time, we need patience or some means to "cheat" ourselves (such as a progress bar) to get through this seemingly ineffective period, because after all, actions and results are not linear without delay.
Principle 4: Establish a regular accountability system.
The above three principles will eventually be implemented through the fourth principle, the core of which is law and accountability. The focus of accountability here is not the superior to the subordinate, but the mutual commitment and expectation between team members. Only this kind of self-restraint from the inside out can form a strong team execution.
4. 1? The third drive
Daniel Pinker, a famous best-selling author, introduced the third motivation that drives us to do things-intrinsic motivation. The first two are familiar to everyone-reward and punishment. Pinker's research found that sometimes people want to do something, not because of external rewards and punishments, but because they really want to do it well and get a sense of accomplishment. Although it is not mentioned in the book, I understand that this driving force is an important cornerstone for the fourth principle to work.
4.2? The most important goal meeting
Principle 1 refers to distinguishing between daily affairs and important goals. Sometimes we know the importance of important goals, but we are often overwhelmed by daily affairs. In order to avoid this situation, principle 4 emphasizes regular accountability.
(1) "double regulations"-specify the time and place.
The so-called law can be understood as "double regulations", that is, to complete this matter at a specified time and place, so that everyone has a clear psychological expectation and knows that they will do it at work, typically at the same time and in the same conference room.
② Enlarge the stone first?
Stephen Covey once gave a lecture and did a classic experiment. He uses a barrel to contain four things: big stones, small stones, sand and water. He showed the different effects of different sequences on the results. If the volume of a bucket is used to represent our resources (time, energy or money), and the four things are regarded as events of decreasing importance, if there is too much water and sand in the beginning, there will be no room for important big stones.
At the same time, there is a famous "Parkinson's Law" in the field of time management, which means that as long as there is time, the work will continue to expand and eventually use up all the time. Imagine a situation where your carefully prepared meeting is suddenly cancelled. What do you usually do during this extra time? It is usually bound to be occupied by other relatively minor things.
So take the initiative to leave time for important goals first.
③ Responsibility-Review Scorecard-Action Plan
What do important meetings usually do? The book puts forward three important contents:
1) accountability: report the completion of the work plan;
2) Check the scoring table: check the status of leading indicators and lagging indicators, and analyze the reasons;
3) Action plan: improve the shortcomings.
Is this much like PDCA (plan-implement-check-improve)? This reminds me of my former leader. When he was listening to our report, he skillfully conveyed the idea. Every time he reports, he will first care about the achievement of the goal, and then care about the reasons for not achieving it and the follow-up plan. He will be criticized if he gives reasons from the beginning. I feel quite grateful now.
abstract
I think this is another book ruined by its title and cover (at least in the Chinese version), which is actually very enlightening to read carefully. Looking back, the author built a systematic implementation system through four principles, which are progressive and mutually supportive, forming a complete closed loop with strong guidance. Let's review four principles:
Principle 1: focus on the most important goals;
Principle 2: Pay attention to leading indicators;
Principle 3: adhere to the incentive scoring table;
Principle 4: Establish a regular accountability system.