Move

About the Author

Patty Azzarello is the CEO and founder of Azzarello Group, Inc. With more than twenty-five years of experience, she is renowned for her practical, experience-based approach to business transformation. She is the bestselling author of Rise: 3 Practical Steps for Advancing Your Career, Standing Out as a Leader, and Liking Your Life. Azzarello's expertise lies in uncovering what makes organizations tick and enabling them to create more value. Her book, MOVE: How Decisive Leaders Execute Strategy Despite Obstacles, Setbacks, & Stalls, provides a comprehensive guide to ensuring that change strategies succeed.

Main Idea

MOVE offers a systematic approach to executing strategy and leading organizational change. Patty Azzarello emphasizes the importance of maintaining momentum and focus through the challenging middle phase of any transformation. Her methodology, encapsulated in the MOVE model, includes four key elements: Middle, Organization, Valor, and Everyone. This model helps leaders keep their teams engaged and resilient, ensuring successful strategy implementation despite obstacles.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. M = The Middle
3. O = Organization
4. V = Valor
5. E = Everyone

Introduction

At the heart of every execution problem is the lack of people doing what is needed to move the business forward. Leaders must keep strategic changes alive and progressing without constant intervention. The MOVE model provides a framework for sustaining momentum and engagement throughout the organization, preventing the typical stalls that occur in the middle of initiatives.

M = The Middle

Where Transformation Happens or Gets Stuck

The Middle is the long, often difficult phase where the real work of transformation occurs. Many initiatives lose momentum here because there is no clear plan. Azzarello emphasizes the need for concrete outcomes, timing and momentum, control points, and resource reality to navigate this phase successfully.

• Concrete Outcomes: Define specific tasks and measures to achieve goals.
• Timing and Momentum: Establish midterm checkpoints and deliverables.
• Control Points: Use meaningful measures that predict desired outcomes.
• Resource Reality: Ensure resources are allocated to support new initiatives.

The Middle is the longest and most challenging part of any transformation. It's where enthusiasm can wane, obstacles emerge, and the risk of reverting to old habits is high. Azzarello emphasizes that leaders must actively manage this phase to maintain momentum and drive progress.

One common pitfall in the Middle is the tendency to list end goals without a concrete plan for achieving them. While end goals are inspiring, they don't provide the specific actions needed to move forward. Azzarello advises leaders to focus on defining clear, actionable steps that will lead to the desired outcomes.

"Your job in making the strategy come true does not stop after you announce it." - Patty Azzarello

Leaders must stay involved in defining outcomes, measuring progress, and holding people accountable. This involves recognizing when the team is engaged in unproductive situation conversations and redirecting the focus to concrete outcomes. By asking, "What would it look like if it were working?" leaders can help their teams define specific actions and build a clear action plan.