It's Not What You Say...it's What You Do: How Following Through At Every Level Can Make Or Break Your Company

An indispensable management guide to making sure that the long-term strategies and day-to-day goals a company sets are successfully executed, written by the coauthor of the national bestseller "It's Not the Big That Eat the Small . . . It's the Fast That Eat the Slow,"
Good managers at every level recognize the importance of strategic planning and setting concrete goals for their employees. But even the best among them often fail to implement and support the crucial processes that turn well-laid plans into visible successes. Studies show that over the last fifty years, a whopping 83 percent of corporate slowdowns were attributable not to outside economic forces but to the lack of vigilant follow-through within the company itself.
In "It's Not What You Say...It's What You Do," Laurence Haughton identifies the missteps that allow initiatives to fall through the cracks and explains how to close the gap between what a company sets out to do and what actually happens. Drawing on interviews with top-level executives from such companies as IKEA, the" Wall Street Journal," Charles Schwab, Time Warner, Watson Wyatt, Pella Corp., and scores of others both large and small, he presents the essential strategies for ensuring the success of innovations and change, including:
- Get more "buy-in" from employees on new initiatives
- Balance control with coordination to make your team more effective
- Make sure that expectations are crystal clear
- Maintain a sense of urgency and momentum on a daily basis
Filled with real-life examples of how effective follow-through stems the waste of resources, improves productivity, and prevents costly mistakes, "It's Not What You Say...It'sWhat You Do" gives managers up and down the corporation or company the tools they need to eliminate failure resulting from lack of follow-through and achieve their goals.