Pastors

Like the townspeople to the boy who cried "Wolf!" my friends have long grown weary of my raving about "the best book I've ever read." So now I qualify my latest find by saying, "This is the best book I've read since …"

That said, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done (Crown Business/Random House, 2002) is the best (business) book I've read since Good to Great.

For the 15 years I've been in ministry, the leadership buzzword has been "vision." I'd say a lot of us are getting pretty good at painting a picture of a preferable future. It's helping, but we still aren't lighting and salting the world as much as we'd hoped. We usually experience breakdown between the vision we've cast and the results our churches experience.

So what's the answer? According to this book, it's execution. "Strategies most often fail because they aren't executed well… . Either the organizations aren't capable of making them happen, or the leaders of the business misjudge the challenges their companies face ...

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