The Seven Systems of Metronomics - The Execution System

In my recent article The Strategy System, I outlined the steps you need to take to formulate and refine your company’s strategy. Here, I’ll take you through the next system in the “Seven Systems of Metronomics”: The Execution System. This system is what gets us to where we need to be, day by day, week by week, month by month, quarter by quarter and year by year. So we need to define our plan for the year (our 1HAG including Targets and Priorities) and our plans for each quarter (quarter by quarter, our QHAGS including Targets and Priorities).?

The Execution System needs to be in place to ensure that there are clear accountabilities for what needs to be achieved to bring the company’s strategy to life as we know that strategy without execution is just a dream.

The execution system has three parts:

• Metrics
• Priorities
• Meeting and Communication Rhythms

Metrics

Metrics are the things that the business needs to measure to check the business is on course. They are numerical values that are used to measure progress towards achieving the organisation’s goals. They are the indicators of success, are leading or lagging and they should be closely monitored (every day) to ensure that the organisation is on track. Things that are measured frequently tend to move in the right direction. Metrics can include financial measures such as “number of sales” or? “$ profit”, as well as non-financial measures such as customer satisfaction and employee engagement.

Whilst most businesses have a bunch of lagging metrics (they are historical and tell the story of what HAS HAPPENED in the business) we also try to define la set leading indicators or metrics. These leading metrics give us an indication of what WILL HAPPEN in the business, they are future looking rather than historical.

We try to identify 7 - 12 metrics at the company level and yes, there will no doubt be many more at the functional level. There are some that are measured in pretty much every company.

• Revenue
• Expenses
• Cash
• Sales (# or orders or sales $s)

And we often see several others from a list like:

• ARR or MRR
• Number of Customers
• Number of Key/Core Customers (or %age of Core Customers)
• Number of New Customers (this Q)
• NPS Score or CSAT
• eNPS Score?
• Retention (or Churn)

Different types of businesses will have different sets fo numbers but they are often similar within specific industries. Key to getting the right set of metrics is knowing very clearly what is the one metric that drives growth in the business, this is often your X in your “Profit / x”.

Here is an example of Annual and Quarterly Metrics taken from the One Page Strategic Plan (OPSP) for “Humble Pies”, the fictional business I use to illustrate my articles. This image is taken from Metronome Growth Systems, the software platform I use with my clients to manage our Compound Growth System work.

Priorities

Priorities are the areas of focus for the organisation (over a year, quarter or month). They are the 2 - 5 most important projects, programs, tasks or initiatives that the organisation needs to focus on in order to achieve its short, medium and long term goals.?

Making sure that everyone is focused on a small number of priorities creates clarity and focus throughout the teams. 2 - 5 seems to be the right number, if you have more than 5 you really will struggle to complete them, there isn’t enough focus for the teams to progress each initiative in it’s own right. Whilst there should be 2 - 5 priorities for the year and each quarter you need to be really clear on which one is #1. The number 1 priority is the one that all other priorities get sacrified for if there is a risk that the #1 priority might not get completed. This creates cohesion in teams as everyone swings behind the #1 thing. As Steven Covey said “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”!

We set Annual priorities at the start of the year. These are chunky, big complex initiatives that will take the focus of many of the leadership team over most of the year. We review these at least every quarter and every month.

Every quarter we set quarterly priorities for the next 13 weeks. These are smaller initiatives that may be a “chunk” of an annual priority or they be distinctly separate. The key thing is that this should be something that can be completed in 13 weeks or less. If it can’t, chunk it down further so that we have a clear finish line within the quarter.?

Here is an example of Annual and Quarterly Priorities taken from the One Page Strategic Plan (OPSP) for “Humble Pies”, the fictional business I use to illustrate my articles.

How do we ensure that we execute on our Quarterly Priorities? Well we use a technique called “Sprint Lanes” to track our progress week on week over the quarter. Sprintlanes bring to the fore the key activities we need to be completing and the numbers we need to be hitting each week. Having them laid out visually creates a quarterly scoreboard that creates positive competition between the leadership team. Let’s face it, most of us are competitive, put a score up on the wall and it is human nature to try to beat it!

You can find an article on how to build sprintlanes here.

Meeting Rhythms?

I have previously written articles on the Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Quarterly meetings so I will provide a short summary on how to run each meeting and why they're so important.?

Daily Huddles?

While many of my clients resist the idea of a daily huddle, I believe that it is the easiest and quickest way to improve organisational performance. Your team spends 7-15 minutes each day to get a grip on what is happening that day, how everyone is tracking and where people may be stuck. I encourage teams to follow a simple agenda to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to discuss but also stay on track. This agenda is: Good News, Metrics Review, #1 Thing You Have to Get Done, Stucks and Actions.

Weekly Meeting

The weekly meeting is a short 1 - 2 hour meeting that focuses the team on the key priority(ies) and allows the team to collaborate on one or two main topics that need to be addressed. The whole point of this meeting is to focus on the key priorities and issues that will impact you in the short term. The weekly meeting agenda should cover: Good News, Review Quarterly Priorities, Customer and Employee Feedback, 1-2 Things, Review WWW and One Phrase Close. You can find the full article on weekly meetings here.

Monthly Meeting

Monthly meetings are an opportunity for the leadership team to learn and solve, learning more about specific aspects of their business and solving specific tactical problems. These meetings can run between 3 hours to all day depending on the size of your management team and how far along the “Strategic Execution” process the business is. Your monthly meeting agenda should look like this: Good News, Validate the Quarterly Plan then Review Progress on Quarterly Targets and Priorities, Top 3, Dynamic, Action Items, and One Phrase Close. To ensure your execution works well it is important that your monthly meetings run effectively and efficiently.?You can find the full article on monthly meetings here.

Quarterly Meetings?

Quarterly meetings signal the start and the end of each 13 week race and they provide leadership teams with the opportunity to review how the last quarter went, refine strategy and set the quarterly targets and priorities for the next quarter. These quarterly meetings are often held at the end of each quarter. The key thing is to have quarterly meetings finished by the second week of the quarter or your 13 week race just became a 10 week race and you'll be on the backfoot for the rest of the quarter. At this meeting the agenda will be longer: Good News, Cohesive Question, Functional Review, Culture/Strategy Review, Review the 1HAG, Review the Previous Quarterly Targets and Priorities, Set the Next Quarterly Targets and Priorities, Finalise Outcome, One Phrase Close. You can find the full article on Quarterly Meetings here.

Annual Meeting

The annual planning meeting is a full two day session for the entire leadership team. This meeting defines and refines strategy and sets the plan for the next year and first quarter’s priorities and metrics. It is a deep dive on the organisation's strategy and a chance for the leadership team to refresh and realign to the core values, purpose and BHAG. If you need help running your annual planning session, give me a shout at [email protected].

Next Article

In my next article, I'll be diving deep into the Cash System, the next system in the Metronomics Growth System. We'll take a look at cash from the perspective of the Leadership Team, not from a financial or CFO perspective. Cash is everyone's business as without cash, the business has no options and no oxygen for Growth.