It’s time to ship
Strategy is great. I love strategy. I live for strategy. However, without execution strategy is just wishful thinking. A picture of a great product.
Execution is when we go from picture to product and ship it. I think the risk of contracting Paralysis of Analysis for many business owners can be fairly high so a way of getting out of it as early as possible is critical. I have found that these four things help me get out of paralysis and give my strategies life by executing them.
- Be honest with yourself. What are you afraid of? If you understand what your fear is then it becomes possible to confront it, or plan for it.
- Be realistic. Sometimes the strategy you have crafted is nigh impossible to implement. Sometimes it is a great strategy but cannot be implemented using ‘shock and awe’. A phased approach would be better suited. Understanding that your dream execution method for the strategy may not be viable allows you to step back and look at other options of getting the strategy off the ground.
- Be focused. Programmers struggle with this all the time. They start a project by identifying all the requirements, designing the system and going on to build it. Once they get sucked into the nitty grittys of building the system, they get ideas of new features and shiny new bells that they think would be great additions. And now you have scope creep. In order to ship, you need to determine the minimum that needs to happen, focus on it and execute.
- Be consistent in every stage. Once you ship and you have to make improvements, repeat all the above and there’s a good chance you will ship again.
I’m sure there are other tips to executing a strategy or creating an executable strategy, but these four could be a good place to start.
Ready to ship?
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