Execution... the second in a series of thoughts.

Before we get to those three words I should say sorry* because I can guess you may be hoping for a nice, neat, reproducible process to optimize your execution; unfortunately we need a to build a solid foundation first. 

And now for the three words you have been waiting for...

OWNERSHIP (very important)

Ownership is defined as the act, state, or right of possessing something and regarding optimizing execution identifying an owner is imperative, and (I need to stress this) there can only be one. The committee is the death of effective execution. A single owner — this is key! 

A single owner:

• Clarifies who is responsible for the expected result(s) and it is important to use a person's name (not a function). There may not be an "i" in Team but there sure is an "i" in Optimized Execution.
• Optimizes communication with regard to a single voice involving progress, issues, and identifies the go to person for answers.
• Establishes a champion for teams and resources to rally behind.
• Reduces the personal agendas to one. 
• Establishes the owner of the "czar card".**

LEADERSHIP  (table stakes important) —

There are a litany of leadership definitions and volumes on the subject, so let's work with this definition for the sake of argument — Leadership has been described as a process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. 

A few comments with regard to effective execution:

• It is imperative that a leader picks the appropriate "Owner"; aligning the task with the needed skill sets and maturity. If you don't have trust*** in the person, don't give them ownership.
• The Leader should clarify the most effective way to "manage up to them" when issues and roadblocks need to be addressed.
• If you are a leader that has a propensity to micromanage please just stop it — it is annoying and a big waster of time. See comments on trust above.
• The owner needs to be very good at leading without a title because more often than not they will be moving up, down and laterally through the organization. The book The leader who had no title by Robin Sharma is a must read.

THE STRAW-MAN or Straw-man proposal (Most important) —

A straw-man proposal is a "brain stormed" simple draft proposal intended to generate discussion and leadership approval . 

• Best developed by the Owner with a small group (i.e. at least one other person), the Straw-man is used as a sounding board to pressure test your proposal. Experience has shown me PowerPoint**** is a good communication vehicle, and you should:

                                      use strong action statements

                                      use high level process maps

                                      identify foreseeable challenges

                                      identify resource requirements 

                                      identify timeframes. 

         (work to present this within the first week; the sleepless nights are worth it down the road)

• Review the straw-man with the Leader, key stakeholders, and anyone you feel may be a resource down the road (all in the same room) — the objective of this meeting is to review your thinking so that everyone in the room will "sorta remember the meeting" three weeks later. Have any red flags called out for discussion and most importantly have the leader confirm that "directionally" he or she is comfortable with what they see (and by extension support the detail of the execution). 
• The scope and latitude in which the "owner" can operate and where he or she can have to go within the organization to get it done is defined. This gives the owner the answer when someone asks, "Why are you at this meeting?"
• The straw-man becomes the primary communication tool to inform, identify needed resources, re-enforce directional frame work, and prevent scope creep (which is another execution killer).

This triad of Ownership, Leadership and The Straw-Man is imperative for effective execution, particularly if the organization is large (where even the simplest act of communication can be a challenge... let alone working through multiple agendas and business perspectives). 

I would never suggest this as a silver bullet but I will say it has allowed me to be effective more often than not.

And if it's just you — the discussions are very easy between the Leader and the Owner but I still suggest you use THE STRAW-MAN as you will get your plan down on paper (and we know how important that is). 

iamgpe

PS: Next time we will talk about the fun that can be had with process maps.

* I'm Canadian so we always say sorry — more often than not though, it is analogous to the word "um" and not an actual apology.

**  A leader I very much admired introduced me to the czar trump card a long time ago . There was a long ongoing discussion where he stepped in and finally said, "I rarely exercise the czar card but I am going to throw it and we are going to do it this way...". He was the owner after all and responsible in the end. (For those who don't play cards, a trump card wins over all other cards).

*** The definition of trust is belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, et cetera. 

**** I will admit I am partial to PowerPoint and have made thousands of presentations — I recommend it for a number of reasons 1) lends itself very well to presenting, which you will have to do anyway 2) forces you to be crisp and concise (whereas with Word you end up with a white paper) and 3) as the project continues the presentations can build upon themselves saving you time.