Is It Your Plan or Your Execution? | Peer Effect Post Bag

A founder writes in feeling off track and wants to know if the problem is his plan or his execution. James Johnson and Freddie Birley don't let him off with "it's both."

They walk through how to tell which one is actually broken, why most "plans" fail the moment someone asks how often you're checking against them, and why the instinct that got you through Seed can be the exact thing working against you at Series A. Stick around for the rocks-and-sand analogy, which might explain more about your last quarter than you'd like.

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Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Peer Effect Post Bag. I'm James Johnson joined by Freddie Burley. We ask for your questions and Freddie and I are going to tackle them together. These aren't theoretical case studies, it's the stuff keeping you up at 2 a.m. Let's get answering. Welcome to the Pure Effect Postbag. I'm James Johnson. And I'm Freddie Burley. So, Freddie, what have you been up to this week?

SPEAKER_02 0:23

So this week I've I've been traveling a lot and spent a couple of days in Montreal at a company off site and then a couple of days in Sicily at a sort of retreat mini festival, um, doing a breathwork session. And both were just incredible experiences and really, really great crowds and I mean beautiful places to be as well. Um, and I was doing breath work at both at both places and just was reminded of like how it's such a simple breath. Have you done breath work?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Not to the extent that you have, no.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Okay, okay. So I I do rebirthing breath work, which is essentially conscious connected breath, but I'm always reminded of the like just how wild the experience is. And it can be very physical as a session, it can be very emotional, it can be almost spiritual and kind of transcendental. And just listening to people's stories and experiences of breathing in that way for an hour. I'm I've obviously trained and been doing it for years, but I'm I'm still always kind of awestruck by how healing and inspiring and like just stretches our imagination of what our bodies and minds are capable of. I just love it when you find a practice that you're not like taking drugs or taking it's no substance impacting. It's literally your breath that puts you in this completely altered state of consciousness. So that was very inspiring this week.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

And what what what what sort of the key elements of breath of work for people that don't know what it is?

SPEAKER_02 1:48

So there are tons of different kind of patterns and ways of breathing intentionally. The the version I do is called conscious connected breath, and it's basically breathing in and out through your nose in a cycle. So normally we pause in between our inhale and our exhale. But breathing in this way helps you get into a very like almost like that liminal space that people go to in meditation. Frankly, I could never get to a meditation. My mind was always so busy, and I just ended up going through kind of to-do lists in my mind and like having one eye open was like, What's this gonna be over? Someone tap me up a bench.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Um that sounds like every yoga class ever been in.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Literally. But breath work just like took me somewhere else really quickly and helped me feel hyper present, hyper aware of my body, much clearer about my goals. I mean, I could talk about it for hours, but it's I'd really um encourage people to check it out. Even if you're just like highly first time I went, I was highly skeptical and just like, what on earth is breath work? We breathe all day. Why would I need to go breathe? And it was epic. So would we invite people to go and experiment?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

So, question for this week. Um, we've got a question from Mike. I'm feeling off track. Is it my plan or my execution? 10 marks discuss.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

I might need 20 for this one. Like I mean, I think this is a question that comes up so often. It's like, what's going on? It's not going right. Is it that I've got the wrong I'm on the wrong plan or is it the wrong execution? And I think as with most answers, it tends to be a bit of both. Yeah. But I think maybe helpful to explore like how you can tell where it's where it is. Because I think some founders are really good at one side or the other, is my experience. Like they tend more towards planning or they tend more towards execution. And I think if you know yourself as a founder, that's a really good place to start. It's like, am I sort of just get it done or am I naturally let's have a think? And I think you're naturally thinking, you're probably your plan, it's probably not your plan. And if I'm just gonna get it done, it's probably not your execution. Although that does change your scale and it's kind of kind of executing through people rather than doing it yourself. So I mean that's a topic we've covered before. But I think if you if you look at it and going, if it is the plan, I think there's two elements to it. So one is like, is the plan simple enough? Like is it is it explicit? So I've got a plan. It's like that's more of an intention. It's kind of like there's a strategy, there's a there's a there's maybe an endpoint, there's no real timing to it. So it's it's not really a plan. Yeah. Um, so you can't hold yourself accountable against it. You can't sort of allocate your time against it, and you doesn't really seek you can't just check am I on course against it. So I think that's quite an important point. Like, do you you say you have a plan, but do you? And then it's like if you do have it, how often are you checking your own against it? Because there's definitely a sense of like, oh, I've I've done the planning and then I'll come back to at the end of the quarter and I've kind of in the quarter I've been kind of doing stuff, but it's actually not linked to my plan.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

So one is like, do you have do you actually have a plan? And secondly, is it visible for you? Are you checking against it? How often are you checking in against it? Are you allocating your time by what's in it? Yeah, are you just in responsive mode? And then if it's execution, it sort of picks up from the end of that, I think, and goes, if you are acting in responsive mode rather than being intentional, that is that is gonna be a big issue because you have no real shot at following your plan because you're really just responding to what your team want, what your clients want, what your investors want, driven by urgency rather than importance.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

And then that can lead to a bit of frustration and procrastination, and then you kind of get you get further, even further away from your plan. Then as your plan becomes a subconscious block, you're like, oh, I'm never gonna achieve that now. I'm already behind against it. I don't even want to think about it. But it's still sitting there, it's kind of like you're failing right now. Like it's not you're not looking at it, but it's there, it's the back of your head. Yeah, and it can lead to this kind of procrastination freeze state. And so I'm sure I'm interested to see what you think around this when founders come to you. But I find that when I when I speak to founders, that just checking in on the plan is helpful. Say, do you have it? Let's just let's just refresh it, let's just go, let's put something simple in place that you can start getting moving again, like the small steps, because actually once you get momentum, it's much easier. And sometimes there is a bit of accountability around that. And like coaching is not so much about accountability, but sometimes checking in for a period can be quite helpful. Um, particularly if you've fallen out of the habit of it.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

No, I totally, totally agree. And I I think, I mean, I think you've summarized it so well. I don't even know what I'd honestly add to what you shared with the. I actually had a session this morning around this feeling off track theme, but uh, and it was at it's like a combination of the two. I also completely agree that people tend to lean more to one. They're often either like heavy leaning into planning or heavy leaning into execution. But often I find like with the plan, it's just not specific enough, is often the major flaw. It's just not specific, it's not clear, it's not time-bound, the actions aren't tangible. So, so then making the kind of courageous execution steps, not just like going round in a circle of like revolving. I think about it like evolution. So often with plans, it's like what you said is it important or is it urgent? Important things are often stretches, and so they're often novel, and especially as you're scaling, they can be scary. Um, and you haven't done it before, and you feel like you're failing a lot when you're doing novel things. And so it can be kind of safe to stay in execution revolving, but not really moving and progressing forwards, and that's so dangerous. So, yeah, specificity of plan and then time boxed. And I love the analogy of the idea of the um when we think about important versus urgent, um, and like having a jar. And if you imagine around your jar you've got rocks and you've got pebbles and you've got sand, and the most important things deserve your best energy. And I generally say, like, put them in first. So you put the big rocks in and then the pebbles, which are the kind of medium important, and then the sand kind of just scatters through, which is all the random stuff. What most humans end up doing because it makes us feel safe and comfortable, is you put the sand in first, then you put the pebbles in. Then you're trying to put the rocks in at the end of the day when they don't even fit in the jar, and it's all just, and you're like, oh, well, I'll do those rocks tomorrow, and then tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. So I think often it's a combination of the two, and people are feeling off track and like seeking clarity, taking a step back, and then making sure that you've planned the important, non-urgent things at first thing. Like, what's that expression? Like, eat the frog first. I still don't really fully know what that means, but like do the hard thing first. Um, and and then like exactly as you say, you get momentum, and then that momentum builds your hope again and your confidence and your courage and the flywheel, the flywheel continues.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

So that eat the frog does come from. It is, it is I get like spoiling a frog. Because then it kind of does it, but that's more gradual. So it's that's a whole different analogy.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

But who's I don't want to be doing either?

SPEAKER_02 8:43

I don't want to eat frogs, I want to bottom.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

I'm gonna stop the day and I'm gonna have a frog. That's and then breath even before I do my breath work, I'm gonna eat a frog.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Yeah, I I do think around this though, it is worth knowing yourself. I think you can use a coach to balance you on either one of these.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

What I found though, the clarity part is the most helpful. I think most founders are very resourceful human beings that once they're clear and they remove any of the burdens that are preventing them from doing what's important. And sometimes the things that are preventing them from like being on track are like they're not delegating effectively. They're not, they haven't got like the right team to support them. So it's often all the things that are preventing them from focusing on what's most important that there's psychological blocks on, or they just haven't taken the time to take a step back and figure out how to piece it all together and then and then move forwards.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Yeah, I think when you're saying I don't have time to plan, that is a time when you most need to find time to plan. It's like you're kind of like just frozen in this in the doing and just taking that step back in new perspective and just resetting because often often there is a fundamental cause to quite a few things. And if you can identify that and you can solve that, it's an unblock. So you're not like scurrying around dealing with the symptoms, you can really deal with the root cause. 100%. With the founders you are, do you do you find it's they are more execution focused normally or more planning focused?

SPEAKER_02 10:04

I'd say they're skewed more to execution than planning. And then once they get their plan down, it's like such a relief. And they're like, oh clarity, simplicity, this can like the math starts to math, you know?

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

So I'd say generally more skewed towards execution. And then the plan and the clarity gives them a real sense of like control and focus and energy. Cause it's like, oh, I'm two feet in again. You're not spending time and energy worrying about where am I going and what is this leading to. And when I'm am I focusing on the right thing or is that the right thing? And and then exactly as you said, kind of responding to all the requests of other people and not discerning and kind of leading. And um, how about for you?

SPEAKER_01 10:45

When you said that, because it's the same for me, definitely. I I think I work better with founders at least with that leading to execution. But I was wondering whether there's almost a self-selection of to get through the survival phase of the early stage. I mean, we both work like sort of series A to get to that stage, you probably had to execute your way to it. Yeah. You don't you don't really get through the survival stage through planning. Planning. No. It's more just throwing as much stuff against the walls as you possibly can and just try and survive it.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Yeah, yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Which then paradoxically can cause problems in the scaling phase when you're leaning too much into execution and not enough into planning and being intentional and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Yeah, it's a really great point. And it's that phrase of like what got us here doesn't get us there, and how you kind of let go of behaviours that served you well in the past, but then in order to progress into where you're going and what the company needs and how you kind of scale yourself and your leadership style ahead of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

But I do think in in this kind of scaling phase, you almost the opposite the number of options can be overwhelming. Like it's in some ways it's quite simple in the survival phase, but at this stage, you've got a bigger team, you've got a bigger budget, you've got the appearance that you could do anything, which can also be quite overwhelming.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

That's so true. It's so interesting. I think a lot of the founders I've worked with see it almost the opposite way, and that the early stages were more confusing because there's like the existentialism of like, will we find product market fit in this time? And that's so uncertain in a way. And obviously, your controllables are experimentation, testing for resonance, getting feedback, like there's there's lots of things that are in your control, but actually like finding resonance and finding that product market fit moment. Whereas once you once you have product market fit and it becomes almost like the physics of business in a way. It's like you just need like the right talent with the right resources to execute in the right way. And then it becomes more of a switch from creativity of product market fit into almost like creativity of people. And how do I make sure that people are focusing on the right thing at the right time? But and then I guess new problem, like new, new phase, new problems.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

It's also it's the discipline to staying true to that. Yeah. So I almost feel like you kind of you you go you go wide in survival phase and you kind of figure out something that's gonna get you there, and you kind of narrow it down a bit. Yeah. And in that second phase, you kind of get all those people, yeah, all these like, oh, we can experiment with these new growth drivers and this. It's kind of like you've got a management team in place. So something like this goes so wide again. And then you've got to kind of gotta narrow it down again and go, okay, well, there's gotta we've got to we've got to pick some parts here. Like, and I think simplifying it again is quite a key part of this phase. So sometimes people, I don't mean you. I find people come to me beginning before they start that second phase and go, I'm I've completed phase one, I'm not quite sure what to do in phase two. Yeah. But I also get people coming like midway through that phase and going, okay, I've tried quite a lot of stuff now. It's not working as effectively as I want to, and I'm feeling a bit stuck. Like, how do I simplify this and like get it right back on track?

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Yeah, so true.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Well, what's your what's your what's your takeaway from this?

SPEAKER_02 13:42

I think the main takeaway is like often it's a combination of the two. Like, is it my plan? Is it my execution? I often find that starting with the plan, then working backwards into execution. And then like life gives you the feedback you need because you'll play once you're executing and you'll notice what you're avoiding and what you're leaning into, and then how you move from avoidance into embracing it. And also just that it's complicated and you're, as I found, you're just managing so many different things, but the awareness of like, I'm off track. How do I get like the right support, the right resources, have the right conversations to help me get back on track and then lean into it? Um, those would be my main takeaways.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Well, that's it for another week. Um, thanks for listening with us. Remember to hit subscribe, and we will see you next week.