Execution is Key to Results

There's no amount of marketing budgets or number of social media networks you can throw at a product if what you're doing is executed poorly.

Does the product need to be remarkable or at least needed in the first place? Tom Fishburne nails it in this post about urban spam - the definition of what is remarkable is a moving bar.

What is a surprise and delight today, will be just another campaign tomorrow.

The brain loves novelty, but it gets used to things quickly - and even faster when it is stimulated with increased frequency, intensity, and duration.

Times Square anyone? After a few minutes, it all blends in and, especially if you have something to accomplish, you tune it out. The noisier, actually the easier to tune out.

You need to question whether something is worth doing if you cannot be remarkable at it, as Tom puts it. There's a learning in there - social media must be hands on because what is remarkable changes constantly and you cannot automate understanding the context. I don't care how good you are - things are just moving too fast.

Sure, you can automate the invitation, and to a certain degree some of the service, but you cannot automate the experience. And that without you is a guessing game - are you interrupting? Does anyone care about your carefully planned launch? Is there attention left in this conversation? Who is connecting the dots?

Even when you're a known entity, there are moments when people just aren't ready to welcome you into their lives. 

Execution is key to results, and execution is hard for a variety of reasons. Not last among which is that we seek to have something be repeatable to create a process around it so we can deliver. And repeatable, once everyone's experienced it, becomes routine - what you expect - and ceases to be remarkable or memorable. 

So what's the solution? 

While we think about it, here are some ideas to get you started thinking about execution:

1. start loving the moment or part in the process where you go from conceptualizing what to do to actually doing it. That helps in moving from the strategy to the implementation phase more quickly.
2. love the work itself or you won't be able to transmit the enthusiasm for it and people will notice it's not there. Joy is important for execution, believe it or not.
3. simplify everything you can so that when complications arise, as they often do, you'll be able to deal with them. If you get bogged down in the process, you will have less energy to work on delivering.
4. stop trying to go for perfect, having a few wrinkles on the onset will actually give you a faster correction curve. For some items, like this "pure sex" Ferrari P4/5 built by Pininfarina, it may be a good idea to prototype some before you are a Pininfarina yourself.
5. ask lots of questions, and be ready to learn about the answers without stopping from being inquisitive (but also without driving anyone crazy with "why" "why" "why"). I call it asking intelligent questions - those that move the conversation forward and are direct.
   
6. change direction early, if you see it's a dead end or not working out, instead of throwing good energy after a bad course. Sometimes the hardest part may be "not doing" or doing something else. Driven people tend to want to push through even when there is evidence they should ease off the gas pedal.
7. fail spectacularly, don't almost make it quietly. This reminds me of that guy who takes a tumble and gets up on his feet with a "ta-da!" at the end.

What else? What inspires or prompts you to action? What do you do when you experience a resistance to moving from talking to doing?

Without execution, we would not have the experience of the Ferrari P4/5 built by Pininfarina - and that would be a real shame. "Between the idea and the reality falls the shadow." [T S Eliot]

Comments

[Luis Sandoval]

It's habit for us to be natural planners. Unfortunately, planning will only take you so far. We often tell people to stop the planning and just do. We get so caught up that movement never happens, no trial and error, no real learning is being done because we're so caught up in the details.

As creators of a product, a service, on online content, we can plan all we want, but ultimately we need to be confident in what we do and exhibit it so that our audience seems it and responds accordingly.

My inspiration is drawn from my peers. I surround myself with people I enjoy, people I look up to, and their success drives me to one day achieve the same level of success for what I do best.

When roadblocks pop up along the way, I call on these friends to help me circumvent the hiccup, I draw inspiration from industry related magazines and even sites such as this one where people are united as a community helping one another out.

Just my two cents, but thanks for posting up another great post. We definitely don't want to be caught in the shadow between.

[Rod Gillies]

Your ideas list reminded me of the "Cult of Done" stuff that was circulating a couple of months ago.

I sent a version of that out to my colleagues as a bit of joke, but we've since kind of adopted the manifesto as our guiding principles.

Planning good stuff means nothing if you don't actually do it.

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. Done is the engine of more.

Personally, I love number 12. It's almost poetry.

[John Cass]

On point 4, many technology marketers are using the device of beta.

Google uses beta to launch new services, get feedback and develop an idea over time.

I believe testing an idea out to see if it works is also a strategy often used by Amazon.com.

Valeria, what have you done recently that was a test, and how did that marketing test work out?

[CASUDI]

"Vision without implementation is hallucination"

My partner James has been using this as his mantra recently, and as the beginning of discussion with several design clients.

This is one of your best posts (& illustrations) and so excellent comments.

Thanks to all.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Luis - planning is comfortable, doing is risky so they are bound to feel very differently. I rely on my peers and professionals I respect, too. Also, I volunteer to mentor for others. In both situations, I train to look at problem solving through a different lens (1) that of a mentor who experienced things differently and knows me; (2) that of someone who relies on me for advice without necessarily knowing all my history. Sometimes no history helps looks at things from a fresh perspective. When someone knows me, they keep in mind my triggers on execution.

@Rod - somehow I had missed the manifesto. Thank you so much for sharing it here. Love #5, 10 and 12.

@John - indeed, as human beings we could say we're always in beta. Testing, measuring/getting feedback and refining is a great way of getting things done and learning. Creating and curating the Fast Company social network was a long beta; this blog is always in beta; every single one of my talks is different and in beta; the Twitter account I started for our customer community at user group conferences is a beta (they're not on Twitter, yet en masse :); our expanded PR programs through content marketing are tests. They all work out differently. I learned that you need to be attuned to not just what you're trying to accomplish, but the unintended consequences - they are opportunities to explore new direction. It's more the art than the science in marketing, actually. If you know what you're looking for in those cases, you won't see what you did not expect. Thank you for the question.

@CASUDI - visualization is a very powerful tool for people - the brain cannot tell the difference between visualized and realized. So in a way you could say it's a prototype or beta of the actual thing. You still need the doing for the rest of you/us to touch the results.

[Stuart Foster]

I think that failing spectacularly is more responsible for the things I know today then my personal successes. I fail and I fail a lot. But I always try and learn something from said failure.

I think you could essentially define "experience" as having failed more times. Execution is SO huge though.

[Jeff Hurt]

I try to focus on how I will feel once I have executed the project, especially when things have become routine. I know that feeling is much more exhilarating than starting or planning the project. When I focus on how I will feel after it's done, then I get motivated to execute it. Otherwise, I may dread starting that project.

When I give presentations I focus on the audience, the learner with the goal of helping them have their own "Aha!" moment. The content of the presentation might be old to me or feel routine yet it could be very new to the audience, the attendee, the learner. When I shift my goal from my presentation to their learning experience, my experience also becomes richer.

As for failing spectacularly. I try to focus on the learning aspect of everything I do. It makes failing forward a true learning experience and valuable in every way. I'd prefer to take big risks and fail than not at all.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Stuart - they most certainly are the times you remember more vividly, aren't they? I'm with you on that one. My mentor always told me, doing your best is not good enough, getting it done is...

@Jeff - great tip, thank you. I also like the special touch you added here about giving presentations and focusing on the audience. It is a bit harder when you're staring at a darkened room, but the trick is to find those people who give you non verbal cues, and focus on them, taking turns to make sure you're covering the room. Amen on the risk taking.

[Sarah Montague]

I find that execution falls flat when people let obstacles get in the way and give up,"Well, we can do that because..." I like to flip it around and think "what if we could do it, what would that look like? So what are other solutions?" Sometimes execution fails because frankly some people are afraid of a little hard work. By the way, I found out today that I am going to @marketingprofs event in Boston. Really looking forward to it. I hope to say hello to you and meet in person.
@sarahmontague

[John Cass]

Valeria,

Your response reminds me of the dirty little secret of social media. These tools are all for learning. For example, my blog is really a learning tool, I'm curious about a new topic, I investigate the issues, develop knowledge, and write up a post. Through the process of research I teach myself about a topic but also help the community. While in the process of using these tools we learn something about how a new social media tool can be used.

[Brian DR1665]

Didn't Yoda say, "Do, or do not. There is no try?" If you're hesitant or afraid to act on instinct, then you stand a chance of missing out on great things.

The "Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina" pictured above is a good example. Pininfarina designers approached James Glickenhaus to see if he'd be interested in commissioning a one-off vehicle. (Glickenhaus has a few rare Italian cars.)

They didn't know if he would accept or what he would want them to build, but in the end, the result was the P4/5 pictured above. Inspired by the "P" cars from the 50s and 60s, this completely one-off car was based upon a the top-of-the-line Enzo at the time. It's faster, more powerful, and more efficient than the Enzo.

When it was delivered at Pebble Beach in August of the 2006, despite being a one-of-a-kind vehicle which was based on a modern Ferrari looking like a vintage model redone for the 21st century, Ferrari Chairman, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said the car deserved to be badged a Ferrari.

Granted, Pininfarina and Ferrari have been working together for decades, but that the one-off car made for one person turned out so good that Ferrari acknowledged it and considered it one of their own. That's pretty cool.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@John - it doesn't stop at learning, though. It's really about doing and doing better. I can tell you that using what I've learned by participating and building community, I was able to achieve results in public relations on the magnitude of 226% greater engagement - which also brings in more leads. The learning that happens here definitely needs to be translated and applied to specific circumstances and context for it to work. Good come back. Thank you for helping me think through this.

@Brian - passion for and design of excellence stand out. Plus they will often result in something unique and very different. Thank you for sharing the background story. Isn't it fascinating how there often is a great story behind a success? Someone stepped up to the plate and decided they were going to do something not done before and they stood by it, believed in it enough to make it a reality.