9 Quotes by Stephen Bungay

Sins of omission should be regarded as far more serious than sins of commission,

Budgets were originally designed as control mechanisms. As such they are traps …

… organizations are made up of people. If this should seem obvious, the implications of acknowledging it are not.

What cannot be made simple cannot be made clear and what is not clear will not get done.

Understanding gets compliance. Only belief gets commitment.

What matters about creating alignment around a strategy is not the volume of communication, but its quality and precision.

Do not try to predict the effects your actions will have, because you can’t. Instead, encourage people to adapt their actions to realize the overall intention as they observe what is actually happening. Give them boundaries which are broad enough to take decisions for themselves and act on them.

If Clausewitz is right, no one should develop a strategy without taking into account the effects of organizational friction. Yet we continue to be surprised and frustrated when it manifests itself. We tend to think everything has gone wrong when in fact everything has gone normally.

Having worked out what matters most now, pass the message on to others and give them responsibility for carrying out their part in the plan. Keep it simple. Don’t tell people what to do and how to do it. Instead, be as clear as you can about your intentions. Say what you want people to achieve and, above all, tell them why. Then ask them to tell you what they are going to do as a result.