Leadership Wise

CHAPTER 6Making the Most of Execution

When I was a kid, there was a cartoon on TV called “Pinky and the Brain.” The Brain and Pinky are both genetically enhanced mice who live together in a lab. The Brain is a genius who is determined to “take over the world!” He comes up with perfect plans for doing this, everything from controlling tornados to turning himself into Mousezilla. But the Brain's plans always fail in execution, usually because his sidekick Pinky is a bumbling idiot. This piece of execution, that The Brain doesn't have much to work with except a fool of a sidekick, is usually not considered in The Brain's plans. It's a clear picture of the “best laid plans of mice and mice” not necessarily resulting in success.

Have you ever heard the phrase “execution over strategy?” The idea is simple: those who do well outperform those who plan well. A mediocre strategy with excellent execution can beat a great strategy with subpar execution. This idea is about hustle: “putting in the work” as they say.

I don't think this sentiment is wrong! I will say that it's a far better adage in industries where strategies can be easily evolved and “two way doors” are plentiful. After all, if you can't change course often, then as Yogi Berra said, “If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.” It's almost like in the case of strategy versus execution (honestly, a false dichotomy), “It depends!” Someone should write a book about that.

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