The Discipline of Getting Things Done.

Too many leaders fool themselves into thinking their companies are well run. They’re like the parents in Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegon, all of whom think their children are above average. Then the top performers at Lake Wobegon High School arrive at the University of Minnesota or Colgate or Princeton and find out they’re average or even below average. Similarly, when corporate leaders start understanding how the GE’s and Emerson Electrics of this world are run—how superbly they get things done—they discover how far they have to go before they become world class in execution.