avoid priority proliferation

To avoid priority proliferation, managers can inject discipline into the prioritization process by making choices more explicitly and systematically. At Diageo Ireland, for instance, issues are triaged into one of three categories: soft opportunities or threats, which receive ongoing monitoring but no action; hard opportunities or threats, which require immediate action and become a priority within the company; and nonissues, which are dropped from the agenda. Teams can also adopt a small set of simple rules to guide the prioritization process. Consider All America Latina Logistica S.A., which began life as a privatized branch of Brazil’s freight railway. The new company had only $15 million for capital spending to offset decades of underinvestment. So, to select from among countless capital budgeting proposals, management adopted a set of simple rules, such as “eliminate bottlenecks to growing revenues,” “lowest up-front cash beats highest net present value” and “reuse of existing resources beats acquiring new.”

Donald N. Sull

"Closing the Gap Between Strategy and Execution," MIT Sloan Management Review. July 1, 2007

the operating plan

The strategy process defines where a business wants to go, and the people process defines who's going to get it there. The operating plan provides the path for those people. It breaks long-term output into short-term targets. Meeting those here-and-now targets forces decisions to be made and integrated across the organization, both initially and in response to changes in business conditions. It puts reality behind the numbers. The operating plan is not budgeting for "We did better than last year." Such budgeting looks into the rearview mirror to set its goals; an operating plan looks forward to the hows.

Ram Charan 

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan with Charles Burck. 2002. Crown Business, NY, NY. p. 226, 227

change happens

In any business environment, change happens.

Let’s rephrase: In any business environment, change should happen. It shows you're committed to the kind of growth and evolution it takes to stay modern, relevant, and competitive.

Countless factors make change inevitable. Think of technological advancements, globalization, cultural shifts, and shifting economies. And since nobody's corporate goals include falling behind or growing stale, embracing change is a must.

But what kind of change are we talking about here? Change can include things like:

• Introducing new software or updating marketing practices
• Updated business processes
• A full-on restructuring
• Leadership changes
• Updated thinking
• Budget constraints
• Shifts in strategy

These all fall under the umbrella of organizational change. If you’re already on board with shaking things up, you’re ahead of the game. And you're not alone.

According to Gartner, 99% of all organizations have undergone a major organizational change in the last three years. But big or small, change doesn't happen naturally. Therefore, effective change requires a clear action plan.

Emily Smith

"7 Organizational Change Management Frameworks That Stick," Remesh Blog. October 10, 2021

managing vs. leading

Companies manage complexity first by planning and budgeting-setting targets or goals for the future (typically for the next month or year),establishing detailed steps for achieving those targets, and then allocating resources to accomplish those plans. By contrast, leading an organization to constructive change begins by setting a direction - developing a vision ofthe future (often the distant future) along with strategies for producing the changes needed to achieve that vision.

Management develops the capacity to achieve its plan by organizing and staffing-creating an organizational structure and set of jobs for accomplishing plan requirements, staffing the jobs with qualified individuals, communicating the plan to those people, delegating responsibility for carrying out the plan, and devising systems to monitor implementation. The equivalent leadership activity, however, is aligning people. This means communicating the new direction to those who can create coalitions that understand the vision and are committed to its achievement.

Finally, management ensures plan accomplishment by controlling and problem solving – monitoring results versus the plan in some detail, both formally and informally, by means of reports, meetings, and other tools; identifying deviations; and then planning and organizing to solve the problems. But for leadership, achieving a vision requires motivating and inspiring – keeping people moving in the right direction, despite major obstacles to change, by appealing to basic but often untapped human needs, values, and emotions.

John P. Kotter
“What Leaders Really Do.” Harvard Business Review. 1990.