The 3 Ws

Every project or activity at the workplace can be made a relatively easy task if the team is made to understand, articulate and help answer the "3 Ws". The 3 Ws are - "What needs to be done?", "Who will do it?" and "When will it get done?"

Look at a typical work plan either for a project, a release, or even a office move. There are tasks created in order to accomplish a goal. This is the answer to "What needs to be done?". We assign these tasks to someone. This is the answer to "Who will do it?". Then lastly we assign a timeline. This is the answer to "When will it get done"?

I see this happening on so many projects worldwide - these three questions are always looked at however they are not looked at simultaneously, in one meeting or in one workshop. This is what typically happens - a work session is held and the tasks identified (What needs to be done) and sometime later the plan is put together (When will this get done) and then the owners for these tasks are located (Who will do it). During all of this activity, the timeline gets squeezed, therefore the owners are not ready (The Who part is unanswered) and therefore some shortcuts are made (What needs to be done). This results in a perfect spaghetti of mis-matched tasks.

In order to have a perfect execution of a plan - I strongly recommend in looking at all these "W's" together. This not only brings forward all known risks and issues, it also helps get the team a head-start on the end-to-end vision.

The next time around, when you are making a strategic or a tactical plan, would you keep it high-level or go down to the details of the 3 W's because the devil is in the details? Think about it.

How resilient are you?

A typical work day for all of us involves working various issues - business, personnel, technical, financial and so on. We work those issues to the best of our ability and move on. We feel good about those resolved issues at the end of the day.

However, sometimes we hit a bump. One of the issue does not get resolved, gets into a legal mess, the press is involved and life becomes a nightmare.

This is where a true leader stands out and shows the true leadership qualities. How quickly a leader recovers from this mess and goes back to "another work day" mode shows strength in character and spirit. The leader's recover means the recovery of the team he / she is leading.

So how do you as a executive leader reach that point where you hit a huge-huge-huge issue and recover very quickly? I see that leaders usually are in a pattern of "Tell me what to do" or "Tell me what are my options" which basically puts them into a analysis-paralysis mode. Leaders, in my opinion, have two major knowledge streams - experience and on-the-job-education. They need to rely on both of these, solicit inputs and then go with their gut feel. As Jack Welch said - "Straight from the gut"

Leaders need to show and articulate their recovery plan and start working towards that very very quickly. Of course, there might need to be modifications to the plans as we move on however the plan needs to be published for all to see and comment. Leaders need to show how quickly they can lead their teams and companies to recover. Sometimes, the recover plan calls for hard and painful decisions. Remember what Lou Gerstner did to IBM? Made some hard and tough decisions, published his recover plan and executed to the plan. The result - a new and improved IBM cam out to play in the IT arena.

So, the next time a major issue hits you, are you going to ponder and ponder and think "Why Me?" or are you going to learn something from that and put a recover plan and recover and show how resilient are you. Think about it.