Execution is key to achievement of goals and objectives

One of the challenges given by the 8th Habit is being able to share the lessons learned from Stephen Covey with the intent of enlightening others in the process. I started with this last 2005 and have done a series of blog post at that time. One of the lessons learned I shared then was the 4 Disciplines of Execution as experienced with one of my consulting projects at that time where the lack of clear vision and goals badly affects the potential success of a project.

I saw this interesting video of Stephen Covey online. Those who have a copy of the 8th Habit book may have seen this video already in the CD that comes along with it.

In gist, Covey shared his observations such as:

  • Too often, teams are not familiar with the goals and objectives of the organization. Everyone is running on different directions instead of working together on the same goal.
  • Failure of achieving goals is often caused by poor execution. Not enough time is spent on most important goals.
  • Most can’t identify important goals although the leaders maybe aware of it.
  • Sometimes team members are not passionate about the goal. Perhaps due to lack of ownership. No involvement, no commitment.
    • Some don’t understand what to do to achieve the goal.
  • Only when goals and objectives are clearly communicated can team members understand and contribute effectively towards its achievement.

More often than not, the best way to attain something that you haven’t succeeded before is to start doing things you’ve never done that way before.