Howdy!

It's your favorite book club bringing you another jam-packed day of fun and growth!

It is Friday, you got lots of stuff😆  to do. And if you're feeling overwhelmed, don't worry - we've got you covered. The estimated read time on this one is only 3 minutes! Grab your coffee, and lets get started.

Today, is all about execution. You know, the only thing that matters. Someone once said, "It doesn't matter how good your idea or (strategy) is if you can't execute."

The Four Hurdles

Let's talk about hurdles to execution. You know, the stuff that stops us from getting stuff done. Their are four key hurdles that been identified in Blue Ocean. They are Cognitive, Limited Resources, Motivation, and Politics. To better understand how to clear the hurdles, we will look at how this guy Bill Bratton (the real life commissioner Gordon) did it with crime and the NYPD.

The NYPD was in a dire situation when Bill Bratton took over as commissioner. NYC was basically just like Gotham City in the Michael Keaton version. The crime was rampant, morale was low, and resources were limited. But, in just two years, Bratton turned the department around and made NYC the safest large city in the U.S. - talk about impressive!

How he did it: Tipping Point Leadership

It's called Tipping Point Leadership, and it's the key to executing your Blue Ocean Strategy with ease. This approach flips conventional wisdom on its head by allowing you to overcome those pesky hurdles cheaply and in record time.

Tipping point leadership is all about concentration, not diffusion. You need to focus on the points of disproportionate influence to break through those hurdles that limit execution.

Cognitive Hurdles

Waking employees up to the need for a strategic shift takes work. People get cozy and comfortable doing the same stuff every day. You need to get people over that hump.

For example, if you're struggling to break through the cognitive hurdle, don't just point to the numbers - make people see the harsh reality firsthand. It's like seeing the icky mold on your shower curtain for the first time - it's shocking, but it makes you take action.

Or, in Bratton’s case he forced all of the NYPD management to ride the subways day and night. They were surrounded by gangs, drugs, aggressive begging, and winos sprawled out on the seats. The subway teetered on the verge of anarchy.

Limited Resources Hurdle

You need to figure out how to do better. Conventional wisdom says, let's add resources to get this done. But it's better if you learn to think like Macgyver.

There are a couple key ideas to learn here: hot spots (low inputs but high potential gain), cold spots (High inputs but low impact), and horse trading (trading resources from one area to another). Before Bratton the NYPD thought that the only way to stop crime on the subways was to have officers ride every line. The NYPD just didn’t have that in the budget so they didn’t really try.

Bratton however looked for the hot spots and the cold spots. He realized that a majority of the subway crimes were happening in just a few places. So instead of spreading the resources that he had too thin. He concentrated them in those areas. This overwhelmed Joker and his minions. They started to see an immediate drop in crime in the entire subway system.

Motivation Hurdle

How do you motivate the masses to take action? For Bratton this involved enacting Operation Kingpins In a Fishbowl. Bratton’s fishbowl was a bi-weekly crime strategy review meeting. Bratton gathered up the 76 precinct heads threw them in the fishbowl and shined a light on all of their actions. Very quickly, folks decided they didn’t want to be at the bottom. This then had a positive ripple effect on all of the precincts.

Political Hurdles

To overcome political hurdles Tipping Point Leaders need to focus on three influencing factors. Leveraging angels, silencing devils, and getting a consigliere (hmmm just like in the Godfather).

Angels are those that have the most to gain from the shift. Devils have the most to lose, and the consigliere is politically adept at navigating all of the landmines in an organization.

When Bratton took over he made sure that he had a consigliere. Bratton appointed John Timoney to be his number two. Timoney was considered a cops cop. He was respected and feared in the NYPD and he had also received over 60 awards. His first job was to help Bratton identify who in top leadership would try to sabotage any changes that Bratton tried to implement.

So there you have it, folks! Tipping Point Leadership is the key to quickly executing your Blue Ocean Strategy. Get ready to knock down those hurdles and get stuff done!

I know we only covered some details in this book. But, we tried to hit on some of the critical frameworks and ideas.

Our goal is to plant little seeds in your head so that someday when you are ready and need it you can dive into the Blue Ocean🌊

If you would like to learn more about the Blue Ocean Strategy, you can check out this Harvard Business Review Article. 

You can also get the book on Amazon

Next week we will tackle, Switch by Chip and Dan Heath. This book once helped me get a job😉

Have a great weekend!

Best,

Camillo

P.S. The only thing better than learning something new is sharing it with others. Share this article and let's learn together.