“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results” –Milton Friedman
I read the above quote by Milton Friedman, a 20th Century economist, early this morning. Though the quote focuses mostly on political, social, and economic programs, I found it particularly enlightening from a business and team sense.
Far from supplying a long diatribe of instances where my intentions and results matched or where they were horribly mismatched, I’m mostly interested in the process by which intentions manufacture results. What kinds of practices incubate a great intention and turn that intention into a satisfactory or excellent result? Below are some simple suggestions:
Communicate
Many an initiative has died a slow death without the nourishing oxygen of communication. Countless books, articles, and blogs speak to its importance, and for good reason. In my experience, communicating the intention is only half the battle. The leader must communicate the process or system by which the strategy will be implemented and accounted. Who is responsible for what? How will it be done? This leads to the next ingredient:
Be Accountable
If our intentions our pure, as we all hope they are, then our activities should be just as pure. If a new manager intends to conduct a great performance review of one of her direct reports, she had better follow through and prepare (and then hold) an excellent performance review. If a new coach wants to instill a more disciplined culture into his team, he had better set aside time in practice for drills that create discipline.
Face Reality
When a leader or manager has communicated the strategy and followed through on the implementation activities, he or she has approached the most difficult phase: determine if the plan and actions are working. Facing reality can be fraught with discomfort. Nobody wants to feel or be viewed as a failure. However, if we’re serious about turning our grandiose intentions into great results, we’ve got to be serious about examining the results of our activities and making changes where necessary.
What tools or processes do you use to turn your best intentions into your best results?
Examining Leadership 