Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution: Solving the One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier

by Gary Harpst

book data

12 ratings, 3.33 average rating, 6 reviews (more data...)

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3		50%
2		16%
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published

July 1st 2008 by Six Disciplines Publishing

binding

Hardcover, 208 pages

isbn

0981641105 (isbn13: 9780981641102)

description

With all of the pressures successful business leaders have today, none is more urgent or challenging than learning the ability to execute strategy.

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10/04/08

Gene Babon rated it:

bookshelves: strategy

Read in October, 2008

Does your business seem to be in perpetual, reactive, fire-fighting mode? If so, then, Six Disciplines is for you. Its focus is to help you and your organization plan and execute, while at the same time, manage the unknowns of the real world on a daily basis.

First, the author introduces the Business Excellence Model which graphically depicts the balance between an organization's strategy and its execution. Fire-fighting is characterized by a combination of weak strategy and equall...more

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07/25/08

Robert rated it:

Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution: Solving the One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier
Gary Harpst
Six Disciplines Publishing

Harpst asserts that "excellence is the enduring pursuit of balanced strategy and execution. Strategy requires choosing what promises to make to all stakeholders and a roadmap for delivering on those promises. Execution requires getting there, while overcoming unending surprises. Of the two, execution is far more dif...more Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution: Solving the One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier
Gary Harpst
Six Disciplines Publishing

Harpst asserts that "excellence is the enduring pursuit of balanced strategy and execution. Strategy requires choosing what promises to make to all stakeholders and a roadmap for delivering on those promises. Execution requires getting there, while overcoming unending surprises. Of the two, execution is far more difficult to achieve, but it is fruitless without sold strategy. Learning how to balance these two is the key to excellence. Excellence is a journey that never ends. It's an enduring pursuit that requires an enduring approach." In my opinion, the greatest value of this book is derived from the clarity, concision, and precision with which Harpst "nails the basics" in terms of how to formulate an appropriate strategy, with its primary objective to solve an organization's most serious problem because, "if you focus on solving the right problem, the solution of all other problems will be easier (not easy)." On occasion, "all the pieces fall together, creating a leapfrog opportunity to solve old problems." Whether or not what Harpst recommends is "a fundamentally new way" is for each reader to determine.

With all due respect to the worthy goals of producing more and better work in less time and at a lower cost, of productivity and efficiency, etc., Harpst stresses the importance of knowing and then doing what will add the greatest value to the stakeholders involved in the given enterprise. In this context, I am again reminded of what Peter Drucker said in 1963: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." Decision-makers in all organizations (regardless of their size or nature) will find a wealth of practical advice in Harpst's latest book. As is his custom, after acknowledging what everyone agrees is the "what" of execution, he spends most of his time explaining the "how," guided and informed by all six of basic but absolutely essential disciplines. Harpst notes that "whatever issues an organization faces today, they will be different and bigger tomorrow. Planning and executing, while at the same time, managing the unknowns of the real world, is the biggest challenge in business. Overcoming this challenge is what we mean by solving the problem that will make solving all other problems easier. It builds an organization that is preparing for an ever increasing set of future challenges that are the natural result of overcoming today's challenges."

It should be noted that all of Harpst's observations and recommendations are based on a wealth of research that he and his associates have conducted for several years as well as on their central involvement with decision-makers in hundreds of different organizations that have substantially increased the speed, efficiency, and productivity of their performance by executing the six disciplines. Correctly, Harpst stresses that change efforts must be initiated and then sustained at all levels and in all areas throughout the given enterprise.
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01/01/09

Robin is currently reading it

bookshelves: currently-reading

Page 108. Finish reading. Good stuff!

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12/19/08

Jimcook rated it:

bookshelves: business

Read in November, 2008

Pretty much just ok. The big lesson - learn to execute. Duh.

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09/25/08

Kimberly rated it:

Ok business book. We know what we should do, but because we are human, we don't. Strategies on how to better do the things we know we should do. Definately built on the idea of groups of people vs. one person building a company.

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