The revised 10th Anniversary edition of the management classic

'In an innovation-driven industry, achieving 'high alignment and high autonomy' allows everyone to grow to their maximum and achieve the most. Top-down instruction stifles the curiosity, passion and insights of hard-working scientists. However, armed with a clear intent - the 'what' and 'why' - they can be inspired and empowered to bring the 'how' that will achieve the greatest benefits.'
Clive Wood, SVP, Global Discovery Research, Boehringer Ingelheim

'I have never before found a book that provides members of an extended global leadership team with practical dos and don'ts that move the team, key stakeholders and colleagues in larger forums so powerfully. For five years I have taken this book with me on my vacation and I still find new, exciting and mind provoking details about how to lead global companies. I am a truly convinced practitioner.'
Henrik Andersen, Group President and CEO, Vestas Wind Systems A/S

'The Art of Action has proved invaluable in creating a common shared understanding of our direction and undoubtedly helped us navigate the stormy waters of Covid-19. The work we have done on leading through intent gave us clarity, resilience and confidence at a time of unexpected turbulence.'
Ben Bridge, EVP, Global Business, Airbus Helicopters

'I've been applying the principles of The Art of Action since 2013 - a simple, elegant and practical approach to driving alignment and delivering our strategic objectives. Stephen helped us at Shell Energy Retail where we are transforming and growing the business to supply renewable power to households in an extremely competitive environment.'
Colin Crooks, VP Renewables & Energy Solutions Europe, Shell

The Art of Action

How Leaders Close the Gaps Between Plans, Actions and Results

Nicholas Brealey Publishing

Contents

THE PROBLEM

What Do You Want Me to Do?

The intelligence of an organization is never equal to the sum of the intelligence of the people within it

AN UNANSWERED QUESTION

While the gray December rain drizzled down outside, the ground floor of the hotel had all the lights, sounds, and colors of a stage show. A well-known global technology company was holding its annual senior executive conference. The hundred or so top people in the company were listening to their bright, dynamic chief executive give his "state-of-the-nation" address, to be followed by an open question-and-answer session.

The CEO's message was hard, but he was engaging and convincing. The markets were tougher than they had been in decades, new competitors had established themselves, customers were making higher demands, and technological change would require massive expenditure. Nevertheless, there was reason for cautious optimism. A new strategy was in place: a new emphasis on customer service, exploiting leading-edge technology to create a new generation of products, and a series of initiatives around people and culture. The organizational structure had already been changed. The company had a great brand and great people. But – and here he paused – not a lot was happening.

He made his appeal. The company needed pace. Things were changing too slowly. The markets would only wait so long. The strategy had been debated and formulated twelve months before, signed off six months before, communicated internally andexternally – but it was not happening. Sure, there were still open questions; there always would be. Nevertheless, the people in the room could not all meet again in a year's time and be saying the same things. The time for debate was over. It was time for action, to get on and do it. The future was in their hands.

The CEO was impressive. He spoke without notes. He was in command of the issues; his words were fluent, but not facile. He was open about the difficulties and made it clear he was confident but concerned. The applause was genuine. He sipped from his glass of water and moved on to the Q&A session. Be open, please. No holding back, tell it like it is, challenge anything and everything. Let's put things on the table today, not tomorrow.

There were a few questions about what was going to be done about this or that. Then over on the left a woman took the wandering microphone. She was responsible for a sizeable chunk of the business. "I understand the strategy," she said. "I agree with it. I think it's a good one, perhaps the only possible one. We have talked about it a lot and communicated it down the line. There are lots of initiatives. But ..." – here she paused slightly – "what do you want me to do?"

The question was precisely placed at the intersection point between naïvety and sophistication and intoned with a note of plaintive frustration. The smiling nods and approving murmurs from the audience suggested that it would have been unwise to interpret it as naïve; that indeed, she had had the courage to ask the risky question that everyone wanted answered.

The reply was measured, but evinced frustration of its own. As I said, the CEO observed, we do not have all the answers. But surely you don't expect me to tell all of you what to do? This is not a command-and-control organization. You are big boys and girls. I am not running this company, we all are. We have a strategy, we have long-term objectives, we all have budgets. We are running a business and we have a direction. It is for each of us to decide what we have to do in our own area and to get on with it.

This response was not unreasonable. That, surely, is what a modern, devolved structure is all about. The question had not sounded like a request for direction; there seemed to be plenty of that already. Nevertheless, her question remained unanswered. What was missing? In the hotel lobby, in the coffee breaks, over the buffet lunch, and in the bar in the evening I tried to find out. People were more than happy to talk.

The organization was lethargic but also full of frantic activity. People were working so hard that the HR people were seriously worried about issues of work–life balance and potential burnout. However, all this activity was having no discernable effect on the company's performance.

Revenues were falling, margins were eroding, service standards were deteriorating, and, most worrying of all, they were losing share of the already declining market to a confident new competitor. The sagging top line was rendering the burden of fixed costs insupportable. Everybody knew that and everybody knew what it meant: they would not all be there next year. Those who were there would have to work even harder. During the conference they had been canvassed for their views about the issues which needed to be addressed. As a result, more initiatives had been added to the already substantial list of long-term goals, medium-term objectives, and short-term priorities. Someone told me there were 11 of those. In the afternoon it became 17. There was much talk about "having a day job as well as all this."

The situation seemed to be very complex. There was uncertainty about the causal relationships between the mutually reinforcing elements of the doom loop they seemed to be in and therefore what to do about them. Should they cut costs or invest in revenue growth? Or both? There was uncertainty about what really mattered. Was it service or price or was the product suite too old? They needed to improve revenue, margins, and service, but how to do all three at once? Where should they start? Everytime they discussed their problems people came up with new things to do and these were added to the lists.

To resolve the uncertainty, people held meetings to define and analyze what was wrong. The most common outcome of such meetings was the discovery of more problems, which extended the uncertainty. People started their conversations with "the reason this is a problem is ..." In pondering the current state and what should be done, all sorts of subproblems emerged, along with reasons not to do things and why they would not work. Everything they could do would cost too much. There were things they might do but couldn't because they lacked information, be it about external markets or competitors, or internal information such as when a new product would be available. All agreed that they needed to find out more. Doing so took time.

The provocative and risky question from the floor had many echoes. They were all familiar with the strategy – or at least with the themes of the strategy. But nobody knew what they themselves should do. So everyone discussed the generalities of the overall situation and what "the company" ought to do. The most senior people were beginning to lose patience. There was a history of entrepreneurialism, but it was getting them nowhere. In fact, it was making things worse....