Charlie may argue that his behavior’s not so bad. You give him the evidence: “Okay, I’ve got ten people here who say it is bad. Are they all wrong? You don’t keep them in here on weekends? I’ve got a logbook with dates that says all your people are in here Saturdays and Sundays. I’ve told everybody around here, ‘I don’t want
you in here every Sunday.’ Is that a lie?” “No.” “Well, then your behavior is bad, right?” “Right.” “Now, let’s think about how we’re going to fix it. This isn’t a disaster, but you’ve got to fix it.”

Sometimes people like Charlie do fix it and sometimes they don’t. If they don’t, you’ve got to get rid of them, because ultimately it will affect results. So it isn’t just numbers; it’s behavior.

Education is an important part of expanding people’s capabilities—if it’s handled right. Many companies are almost promiscuous about it, offering cornucopias of generic courses in management or leadership and putting far too many people into them.

In one company I know every bonus-eligible manager went through the executive development program. It was an absolute waste of time for 50 percent of them. You need to make judgments about which people have the potential to get something useful out of a course and what specific things you’re trying to use education to
accomplish, in order to expand the capabilities of the organization.

At Honeywell our learning strategy is based on the kind of organizational capabilities people need. Some of these include tools people have to master—Six Sigma, digitization, managing the flow of materials through a work cell by self-directed teams. Some are broader, having to do with executive development. Here the best learning comes from working on real business problems. We ask people look to at three or four issues facing the company, and we
form them into teams to work on those issues.

Taken from: Execution The discipline of Getting things Done