Summary: It's Not What You Say...It's What You Do - Laurence Haughton: How Following Through at Every Level Can Make or Break Your Company

This work offers a summary of the book “IT’S NOT WHAT YOU SAY...IT’S WHAT YOU DO: How Following Through at Every Level Can Make or Break Your Company” by Laurence Haughton.

Laurence Haughton looks at the credibility gap between what companies say and what they do, and explains the damage that is done when they don’t follow through – and it’s been shown that they fail in this about 50% of the time. He suggests persuasively that your company will prosper if you close that gap: studies have shown that over the last fifty years, 83% of all corporate slowdowns were attributable not to external economic forces but to the lack of follow-through within the organisation.

Therefore, he gives a practical and application route map to doing what you say. Vague expectations should be eliminated in favour of concrete goals at every level of the company. Make absolutely sure that everyone knows their role and future direction, even if that means explaining ideas several times in different ways. Always hire for attitude, rather than experience, and choose your project managers very carefully. Make the execution team the one that everyone wants to be in and respect people enough to explain your reasoning behind your decisions.

In short, everyone in your company needs to be pulling in the right direction, with the right goals and the right attitude. Haughton explains very clearly and logically how to do that.