With a gentle execution, you can shake the world

Creating high performance individuals through gentle execution 

In defining and driving our strategic objectives and targets from dream to reality, we need to link the details in terms of ‘what we need to do in order to realize the dream’ and then convert all the “WHATs” in terms of ‘how we will be converting that dream into a reality’.

Here’s what I suggest if we are really serious about awakening our inner self so that we begin to see stellar in our life.

Barker wrote in 1993, ‘When a paradigm shifts, everyone goes back to zero’ and companies are being faced with this rule time and time again. When we move into a new age, a new race starts. Barker continues, ‘By zero, I mean that regardless of what position was with the old paradigm – number one in market share, leader in technology, best reputation – you are back at the starting line with the new paradigm. Because of this change in leverage, the practitioners of the new paradigm have a chance to not just compete with but defeat the titans of the old paradigm. [Paradigms, The business of discovering the future, J A Barker, Harper, 1993]

The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friend party but they say nothing. And if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them silently away. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

In our personal excellence scenario this is more essential to remember and we need to compete with Chasers of the Chasers and Leaders of the Leaders. Excellence not accustomed to the needs of the market/new paradigm will fail. As the old saying goes, if you’re not taking care of your customers (paradigms), someone else will be more than happy to.

Vision is far from the only characteristic of effective path for Excellence, but it’s probably the most distinctive. Without it, there is no Excellence. Poor vision, fickle minded, or a non-existent vision will cause execution to fail.

Excellence is about change and influencing others to change. It’s focused on doing things differently because it’s all about implementing change for the great cause and not just for survival. Our human mind works through pictures. Every great accomplishment from climbing Everest, the most stunning inventions of the world began with a series of pictures set in the imagination of their creators. All great excellence began with visualization and they begin within the mind first. All progress is nothing more than an invisible dream made visible. So make time to close our eyes and waken our inner self and awaken the Winner.

People who possess empathy, humility and kindheartedness are signs of execution strength – not weakness. Execution which lack discipline will model the wrong behaviors and will inevitably spread too thin results.

Example for “Execution is a systematic process of rigor”:

In 1992, the pump divisions of Ingersoll-Rand and Dresser Industries merged to form the Ingersoll-Dresser Pump Company. This new venture produces pumps for such diverse industrial applications as petroleum refineries, water treatment facilities, and Navy battleships. President and CEO explained the importance of focusing improvement efforts (how?) and on performance drivers to customer value (What?).

The key to focusing a new organizational culture on strategic improvement is to establish performance drivers that are critical to the success of business readily understood by employees worldwide, and supported by literally thousands of initiatives. At Ingersoll-Dresser Pumps, they have determined that three performance drivers are essential to their ultimate success as a world class performer. They are responsiveness, availability, and delivery. First they want their employees to develop a keen sense of the need to improve the quality of their responses, not only to external, but to internal customers as well. Second, they know that a large measure of their success depends upon having certain products and spare parts available for immediate delivery or within few weeks of the customer’s order. 

Finally, they know that customers all over world depend upon the integrity of delivery schedules to complete planning. Making deliveries on time, every time, will help to differentiate performance from that of the competition and give them that much-needed special edge to secure the next order. 

Response, availability, and delivery are the performance drivers that they are communicating to our associates all over the world with the expectation that their improvement activities will be prioritized to focus on these critical areas.

Ingersoll Rand is a $14 billion global diversified industrial company, driven by employees who are proud to offer products and solutions people use every day to create a positive impact in their world. Driven by a 100-year-old tradition of technological innovation, Ingersoll Rand enables companies and their customers to create progress.

Ingersoll-Rand plc is a global diversified industrial company founded in 1871. The Ingersoll Rand name came into use in 1905 through the combination of Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company and Rand Drill Company. Ingersoll-Rand was replaced by Quanta Services in June 2009 on the S&P 500 index. However, Ingersoll-Rand is currently listed on the S&P 500 index (as one of only fifteen companies incorporated outside the U.S.) as it replaced Pactiv in November 2010. It’s corporate headquarters are in the Airside Business Park in Swords, Fingal, County Dublin & Ireland.

Working on WHATs and HOWs will help us to focus on requirements of a new or existing scenarios and challenges in any paradigm. Execution is a systematic process of rigor with a bed of roses