If “the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do,” as Michael Porter famously said in a seminal HBR article, then the essence of execution is truly not doing it. That sounds simple, but it’s surprisingly hard for organizations to kill existing initiatives, even when they don’t align with new strategies. Instead, leaders keep layering on initiatives, which can lead to severe overload at levels below the executive team.
IMD Professor Michael D. Watkins, along with Rose Hollister, recently carried out research for the article, Too Many Projects. Their research indicated the seven causes of initiative overload, as well as provided a step-by-step process to guide leaders.
In this new IMD Research and Knowledge video series, IMD faculty explore the surprising results from recently-published influential, research-based articles, and spell out the main learning points for business leaders.
If you think your organization is taking on too many initiatives and suffering as a result, you are almost certainly right.
