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Another Business Framework From Harvard Nerds and Who’s The Decider?

“I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I’m the decider, and I decide what is best.” - George Bush

I don’t know what’s more frustrating people who can’t decide or people who don’t allow the right people to decide or people who don’t listen to the right inputs when deciding?

Too often companies overrely on structural reorganization for strategic execution. Solid structure is important for a business. But a beautifully drawn org chart isn’t going to make a company sucessful.

The framework that I found to be very useful and scales very well is from a bunch of McKinsey type Harvard nerds (read: probably smarter than any of us). The framework has four levers that they believe will lead to sucessful strategic execution; Decision Rights, Communication, Structure and Motivation.

Decision Rights is about clearly defining who gets to decide what and who is accountable for what. Communication lever is making sure the right people get the right information. Nobody can make good decisions without good information. Without these two execution in strategy fails. Motivation is making sure people are incentivive correctly (example: bonuses or not getting fired).

I think the framework holds very well. Although, you can argue it does not factor in the relation of employees to the company’s vision, values and culture enough.

“If you ask for loyalty, you owe them integrity and honesty in return.” - General Zinni

Without a culture of trust and commitment, you won’t have people go above and beyond what’s expected at work; you can’t expect them to stay loyal and not take on other opportunities when it comes around either. A culture of asshole-ness can never sustain and succeed in the long term. In the long run, people will refuse to do business with them.