Getting the Right Things Done: A Leader's Guide to Planning and Execution

I have applied the forms, principles and tools described in this book and they work great. The key, as expressed in the book, is to get the whole leadership team involved.

This book teaches a practical, step by step way to define and deploy operations strategy. It is very easy to follow the logic presented in this book and easy to apply. At the same timeit is really useful, at any type of operation independent of its complexity or size.

I really enjoyed this book not as a read, but as a workbook tool to use with a management team as we added discipline to our planning process. We had good rhythm, but this help us be much more scientific in our approach. It has help us avoid just grabbing at the urgent items. We went Chapter by Chapter, week by week to prepare for our next quarterly planning efforts.

After reading this book I got a lot of great ideas to plan next year's goals & also improve my overall department's effectiveness.

Pascal Dennis covers the basics of strategy deployment extremely well. He explains the concepts, methods and tactics used by Toyota to maximize improvement. His extremely practical description of strategies "as stories that engage" and his clear explanations of similar concepts make the complex subject matter accessible to everyone. The book is easy to read and the words he uses are very effective. For example, when he explains how "translation" makes strategies "real" to employees at every level of an organization or when he describes the "Catchball" process as a "scrubbing" process where teams "toss ideas back and forth" to create plans that are realistic and acheivable. Mr. Dennis is a former Toyota employee and accomplished author. I find his advice highly credible and recommended his book.

In "Getting the Right Things Done" Pascal Dennis offers an introduction to Strategy Deployment (Hoshin Kanri). The book is written as a "novel" with plenty of information sidebars. It is clear and easy to read (a feature of Mr Dennis' books) - a brilliant introduction for the beginner. What is more, the book is packed with example "A3" strategy and action plans to give you a real feel for the system (with blank copies available to download). Interestingly, and in contrast to a number of lean consultants I know, Dennis suggests leaving organising into Value Streams until after the framework of Strategy Deployment is successfully implemented. This is to get people used to the PDCA structure before the upheaval of reorganisation, I guess. Not a bad approach, though, to my mind, Value Stream mapping and other tools will also provide lots of valuable input to the Strategy Deployment process, even if people aren't yet formally grouped into Value Streams. Nevertheless, this book provides the ideal introduction to Hoshin Kanri in a clear, straightforward and readable manner. It is suitable for beginners at all levels in the organisation.