Flawless Execution
Flawless Execution isn't about perfection. It's about inspiration, disciplined execution and the relentless pursuit of flawless outcomes. We help individuals, teams and organizations aim higher and grow faster with our nationally acclaimed learning experiences and through the techniques used by elite military teams to drive accountability, increase agility and accelerate performance.
The Execution Framework
Volatility. Uncertainty. Complexity. Ambiguity. When you’re battling constant change, simplicity always beats complexity. That’s where we come in. Afterburner’s simple, scalable Flawless ExecutionSM framework helps clients combat complexity in a shared planning and execution model that’s time-tested and proven to break down the barriers that large, diverse teams face — and accelerate results.
Explore the interactive model below to learn how each element of Flawless Execution plays a critical role in helping you achieve performance excellence at the individual, team and organizational level.
Purpose
The pinnacle of our Flawless Execution model, the Purpose area informs all elements of organizational operations and guides decision-making at every level.
Process
This iterative approach to daily operations and strategic execution creates a shared mental model that breaks down silos and communication barriers with simple, scalable processes. It brings day-to-day structure and discipline and ultimately means the difference between success and failure.
Platform
This area of the model is the base of your organization. It's the structure that allows for day-to-day operations, and its health is the biggest determinant in achieving Flawless Execution.
- Purpose
- Platform
- Process
- High-Definition Destination
- Strategy
- Leader's Intent
- The Flawless Execution Cycle
- Standards
- Training
- People
Purpose
The pinnacle of our Flawless Execution model, the Purpose area informs all elements of organizational operations and guides decision-making at every level.
Platform
This area of the model is the base of your organization. It's the structure that allows for day-to-day operations, and its health is the biggest determinant in achieving Flawless Execution.
Process
This iterative approach to daily operations and strategic execution creates a shared mental model that breaks down silos and communication barriers with simple, scalable processes. It brings day-to-day structure and discipline and ultimately means the difference between success and failure.
High-Definition Destination
The first step to winning is describing what victory looks like. Flawless Execution designs the future by establishing a picture of success and how it’s measured.
What is a High-Definition Destination (HDD)?
The HDD trades the ambiguity of traditional mission statements for a clear, compelling description of what the organization wants to be at a future date. Developing an HDD is an organization’s way of designing the future, an intentional means of long-range planning that serves as a guide for future actions and decision-making.
Building an HDD
HDD begins with a collaborative Situational Awareness exercise that helps leaders consider the many trends and threats in internal and external environments in order to increase the collective Situational Awareness and identify eminent challenges and opportunities. With this knowledge, leaders define or redefine a clear statement of the organization’s identity, purpose and principles. With shared Situational Awareness, leaders describe their organizations’s future in multiple key areas that come together to create a balanced, holistic and highly-defined future state – the design for the organization.
Strategy
The HDD determines what success looks like, and the Strategy determines how to achieve it.
Strategies for a Complex World
Flawless Execution’s approach to developing strategy focuses upon leveraging the complexity of your environment. As the highest level of planning, strategic organizational planning is effects-based — focusing less on the “how” and more on the “what.”
When leaders develop a strategy from Situational Awareness and effects-based thinking that targets Critical Leverage Points (CLPs), the strategy acquires greater agility, and therefore a greater chance of success in today’s tumultuous market.
TeamStorming
Strategy development with Flawless Execution leverages a powerful proprietary process called TeamStorming. This unique process enables teams to tap into the best ideas and turn them into actionable plans — all while empowering and engaging those who carry out those plans with both accountability and autonomy.
Leader's Intent
Having a strategy is one thing; executing it is something entirely different. High-performing organizations find the balance between setting strategic direction and allowing practical execution through decentralized decision-making empowered by Leader’s intent.
The use of collaborative planning and TeamStorming techniques at the strategic and operational levels of an organization cascades the intent of leadership and communicates that intent through the organization rapidly and effectively.
The Key to Organizational Alignment
Decentralized decision-making empowered by Leader’s Intent is the key to organizational alignment — and ultimately to effective execution of the overarching strategy. Everyone in the organization — from the front line to the C-suite — knows how their actions directly support the HDD.
Flawless Execution is a “fractal” planning tool, meaning that when used enterprise-wide, it ensures day-to-day operations are intentionally built to support high-level strategy and the HDD. Leader’s Intent means that an organization can say, with 100% confidence, that every team is executing toward those goals.
The Flawless Execution Cycle
The process portion of the model is the Flawless Execution Cycle, an iterative approach to daily operations and strategic execution aimed at creating a shared mental model that breaks down silos and communication barriers with simple, scalable process.
Military Beginnings, Business Application
The four-part Flawless Execution Cycle finds its origin in the zero-tolerance-for-error world of military aviation. The proprietary process leverages the connectedness of the modern organization in order to drive collaboration and accelerate learning at a time when the ability to do so is imperative to success.
Flawless Execution brings structure and discipline to the day-to-day process that ultimately make the difference between success and failure.
Plan
The Six Steps of Mission Planning
The six steps of mission planning is a common structure that’s applied strategically and tactically. This process leverages Situational Awareness, team member insight, lessons learned and contingency planning for more effective plans and improved execution.
- State the mission objective
- Identify threats
- Identify resources
- Evaluate lessons learned
- Develop a course of action with individual accountability
- Plan for contingencies
Brief
BRIEF the Mission
Pre-execution team briefs serve as a transition between the planning and execution phases, allowing teams to confirm alignment around plans and clarify remaining questions. In Flawless Execution, team leaders follow the B.R.I.E.F. acronym to conduct effective briefs.
- Brief the scenario
- Restate the mission objective
- Identify top threats and resources
- Execute the final plan
- Find flexibility and create contingencies
Execute
Execute the Mission
Flawless Execution provides expertise in several methods to improve execution and manage performance-draining Task Saturation. We use:
- Execution rhythm
- X-Gap Meetings
- Six Fundamental Keys to Successful Execution — L.O.C.K.E.D on Teams
- Checklists
- Cross-checks and Task Shedding
- Mutual Support — The Wingman Concept
Debrief
STEALTH Debriefing
One of the most powerful tools in the Flawless Execution Cycle is the S.T.E.A.L.T.H. Debriefing model. The continuous improvement and performance acceleration achieved through proper debriefing is essential to developing a culture of learning in today’s organizations.
- Set the time
- Tone — Nameless and rankless
- Execution — Analyze the execution towards the objective
- Analyze the execution and identify root causes
- Lessons learned — Develop actionable lessons
- Transfer lessons learned — Save and transmit throughout the organization
- High note — Recap results in a positive manner
Standards
Making Operation Excellence a Standard
The foundation of executing as a team lies in well-written and well-communicated standards. Standards provide a common set of principles and expectations that keep the organization on track and provide guidance when a plan breaks down.
Standards equate to scalability, allowing businesses to quickly scale the desired behaviors that support achieving organizational initiatives. Flawless Execution provides step-by-step processes and techniques to cultivate the necessary behaviors to transform your organization’s culture into one that’s focused on meeting and exceeding company goals.
Training
Constant training and less-formal learning activities are a necessity in complex, turbulent environments. Most, if not all, of your training should be aligned with the High-Definition Destination and the supporting strategies in order to affect the environments you operate within.
Our training curriculums employ Demo-Do training techniques. This means the training first explains what must be learned, the learning must be demonstrated and finally, the learner must perform the learning. All the practical skills required to master Flawless Execution follow a Demo-Do method.
People
The Agents of Successful Execution
High-performing teams are greater than the sum of their parts. From the individuals who bring experience and diverse perspectives to the strategic and tactical efforts, the people are the backbone of any company. Leading team members of all backgrounds and experiences to work together as one cohesive team aligned around a shared objective is the fundamental component in achieving organizational excellence. The principles of Flawless Execution directly support this ability.
High-Definition Destination
The first step to winning is describing what victory looks like. Flawless Execution designs the future by establishing a picture of success and how it’s measured.
What is a High-Definition Destination (HDD)?
The HDD trades the ambiguity of traditional mission statements for a clear, compelling description of what the organization wants to be at a future date. Developing an HDD is an organization’s way of designing the future, an intentional means of long-range planning that serves as a guide for future actions and decision-making.
Building an HDD
HDD begins with a collaborative Situational Awareness exercise that helps leaders consider the many trends and threats in internal and external environments in order to increase the collective Situational Awareness and identify eminent challenges and opportunities. With this knowledge, leaders define or redefine a clear statement of the organization’s identity, purpose and principles. With shared Situational Awareness, leaders describe their organizations’s future in multiple key areas that come together to create a balanced, holistic and highly-defined future state – the design for the organization.
Strategy
The HDD determines what success looks like, and the Strategy determines how to achieve it.
Strategies for a Complex World
Flawless Execution’s approach to developing strategy focuses upon leveraging the complexity of your environment. As the highest level of planning, strategic organizational planning is effects-based — focusing less on the “how” and more on the “what.”
When leaders develop a strategy from Situational Awareness and effects-based thinking that targets Critical Leverage Points (CLPs), the strategy acquires greater agility, and therefore a greater chance of success in today’s tumultuous market.
TeamStorming
Strategy development with Flawless Execution leverages a powerful proprietary process called TeamStorming. This unique process enables teams to tap into the best ideas and turn them into actionable plans — all while empowering and engaging those who carry out those plans with both accountability and autonomy.
Leader's Intent
Having a strategy is one thing; executing it is something entirely different. High-performing organizations find the balance between setting strategic direction and allowing practical execution through decentralized decision-making empowered by Leader’s intent.
The use of collaborative planning and TeamStorming techniques at the strategic and operational levels of an organization cascades the intent of leadership and communicates that intent through the organization rapidly and effectively.
The Key to Organizational Alignment
Decentralized decision-making empowered by Leader’s Intent is the key to organizational alignment — and ultimately to effective execution of the overarching strategy. Everyone in the organization — from the front line to the C-suite — knows how their actions directly support the HDD.
Flawless Execution is a “fractal” planning tool, meaning that when used enterprise-wide, it ensures day-to-day operations are intentionally built to support high-level strategy and the HDD. Leader’s Intent means that an organization can say, with 100% confidence, that every team is executing toward those goals.
The Flawless Execution Cycle
Steps
PlanBriefExecuteDebriefWINThe process portion of the model is the Flawless Execution Cycle, an iterative approach to daily operations and strategic execution aimed at creating a shared mental model that breaks down silos and communication barriers with simple, scalable process.
Military Beginnings, Business Application
The four-part Flawless Execution Cycle finds its origin in the zero-tolerance-for-error world of military aviation. The proprietary process leverages the connectedness of the modern organization in order to drive collaboration and accelerate learning at a time when the ability to do so is imperative to success.
Flawless Execution brings structure and discipline to the day-to-day process that ultimately make the difference between success and failure.
Steps
PlanBriefExecuteDebriefWINThe six steps of mission planning is a common structure that’s applied strategically and tactically. This process leverages Situational Awareness, team member insight, lessons learned and contingency planning for more effective plans and improved execution.
- State the mission objective
- Identify threats
- Identify resources
- Evaluate lessons learned
- Develop a course of action with individual accountability
- Plan for contingencies
Steps
PlanBriefExecuteDebriefWINPre-execution team briefs serve as a transition between the planning and execution phases, allowing teams to confirm alignment around plans and clarify remaining questions. In Flawless Execution, team leaders follow the B.R.I.E.F. acronym to conduct effective briefs.
- Brief the scenario
- Restate the mission objective
- Identify top threats and resources
- Execute the final plan
- Find flexibility and create contingencies
Steps
PlanBriefExecuteDebriefWINFlawless Execution provides expertise in several methods to improve execution and manage performance-draining Task Saturation. We use:
- Execution rhythm
- X-Gap Meetings
- Six Fundamental Keys to Successful Execution — L.O.C.K.E.D on Teams
- Checklists
- Cross-checks and Task Shedding
- Mutual Support — The Wingman Concept
Steps
PlanBriefExecuteDebriefWINOne of the most powerful tools in the Flawless Execution Cycle is the S.T.E.A.L.T.H. Debriefing model. The continuous improvement and performance acceleration achieved through proper debriefing is essential to developing a culture of learning in today’s organizations.
- Set the time
- Tone — Nameless and rankless
- Execution — Analyze the execution towards the objective
- Analyze the execution and identify root causes
- Lessons learned — Develop actionable lessons
- Transfer lessons learned — Save and transmit throughout the organization
- High note — Recap results in a positive manner
Standards
Making Operation Excellence a Standard
The foundation of executing as a team lies in well-written and well-communicated standards. Standards provide a common set of principles and expectations that keep the organization on track and provide guidance when a plan breaks down.
Standards equate to scalability, allowing businesses to quickly scale the desired behaviors that support achieving organizational initiatives. Flawless Execution provides step-by-step processes and techniques to cultivate the necessary behaviors to transform your organization’s culture into one that’s focused on meeting and exceeding company goals.
Training
Constant training and less-formal learning activities are a necessity in complex, turbulent environments. Most, if not all, of your training should be aligned with the High-Definition Destination and the supporting strategies in order to affect the environments you operate within.
Our training curriculums employ Demo-Do training techniques. This means the training first explains what must be learned, the learning must be demonstrated and finally, the learner must perform the learning. All the practical skills required to master Flawless Execution follow a Demo-Do method.
People
The Agents of Successful Execution
High-performing teams are greater than the sum of their parts. From the individuals who bring experience and diverse perspectives to the strategic and tactical efforts, the people are the backbone of any company. Leading team members of all backgrounds and experiences to work together as one cohesive team aligned around a shared objective is the fundamental component in achieving organizational excellence. The principles of Flawless Execution directly support this ability.
stronger, more effective leaders who build stronger, more effective teams
We build leaders and teams ready for challenges and poised to win.