The Art of Action How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results

by Bungay, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9781857885590
• ISBN10: 1857885597
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-04
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey

Summary

öWhat Do You Want Me to Do?ö

Author Biography

Stephen Bungay is a Director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre in London and teaches on several executive programmes at Ashridge Business School. Educated at Oxford and the University of Tubingen, he worked in the London and Munich offices of Boston Consulting Group for 17 years and also ran a division of an insurance company. He now works as an independent consultant, teacher and speaker. An acclaimed military historian, he has published various books, including a new edition of The Most Dangerous Enemy: An Illustrated History of the Battle of Britain and Alamein. He is a frequent contributor to television programmes, appearing on Channel 4, Channel 5, BBC2, BBC4, the History Channel, TV New Zealand and National Geographic.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
The Problem
What Do You Want Me to Do?	p. 1
An unanswered question	p. 1
An undiagnosed disease	p. 6
Getting things done	p. 13
Legacy thinking	p. 15
The discipline of execution	p. 19
A route map	p. 24
The Cause
The Three Gaps	p. 26
Clausewitz and friction	p. 26
Friction and nonlinearity	p. 33
The three gaps	p. 42
Quick recap	p. 52
Elements of a Solution
Directed Opportunism	p. 54
Culture change	p. 54
Helmuth von Moltke and Auftragstaktik	p. 57
From Auftragstaktik to mission command	p. 76
From mission command to directed opportunism	p. 83
Quick recap	p. 88
The Knowledge Gap
What and Why	p. 90
Von Moltke on strategy	p. 90
Strategy, planning, and preparing	p. 98
Intent and main effort	p. 110
Quick recap	p. 121
The Alignment Gap
Briefing and Backbriefing	p. 123
Von Moltke writes a directive	p. 123
Tracy's dilemma	p. 132
Structuring the organization	p. 142
The story of Joe	p. 149
Strategy briefing and backbriefing	p. 163
Quick recap	p. 175
The Effects Gap
Independent Thinking Obedience	p. 177
Building the organization	p. 177
Developing people	p. 181
Drivers of behavior	p. 191
Aligning processes	p. 198
Keeping score	p. 204
Quick recap	p. 214
Leadership That Works
From Common Sense to Common Practice	p. 216
The three levels	p. 216
Strategy, tactics, and execution	p. 222
The executive's trinity	p. 227
Impact	p. 233
Conclusion	p. 238
Appendix: On Strategy, 1871	p. 245
A Template for Strategy Briefing	p. 249
Notes	p. 251
Bibliography	p. 275
Index	p. 279
Acknowledgments	p. 287
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