Narrator: Imagine being at the top of your game, the undisputed king of an entire industry. This was Kodak in the 20th century. The company was a titan of efficiency, perfecting the chemistry, manufacturing, and distribution of photographic film with unparalleled skill. They were masters at doing things right. In 1975, one of their own engineers, Steven Sasson, invented something revolutionary: the first digital camera. But instead of seizing the future, Kodak’s leadership buried it. They feared this new technology would destroy their profitable film business. For decades, they continued to perfect their film processes, becoming more and more efficient at producing a product the world was about to leave behind. They were efficiently climbing the wrong mountain, and by 2012, the company that had once defined photography filed for bankruptcy.

This catastrophic failure to distinguish between being busy and being effective is the central puzzle explored in Laura Stack’s book, Doing the Right Things Right. Stack argues that in the modern world, success is not just about optimizing our tasks; it’s about ensuring we are working on the right tasks in the first place. The book provides a clear framework for leaders at every level to navigate the critical intersection of effectiveness and efficiency.

Narrator: The foundational principle of the book is a concept famously articulated by management guru Peter Drucker: "Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things." Laura Stack builds her entire philosophy on this crucial distinction. Efficiency is about process—completing a task with the minimum amount of time, effort, and resources. It’s about speed and optimization. Effectiveness, on the other hand, is about outcome—choosing and achieving the goals that truly matter and align with a larger strategy.

The cautionary tale of Kodak serves as a stark reminder of what happens when efficiency is prioritized at the expense of effectiveness. The company was incredibly efficient at producing film, but it failed to be effective in adapting to the digital revolution, which was the "right thing" for its long-term survival. Their efficiency became irrelevant as the market shifted beneath their feet.

In stark contrast stands the story of the Apollo 13 mission. When an oxygen tank exploded, crippling the spacecraft, the mission was no longer about an efficient trip to the moon. The single, overriding goal became effectiveness: getting the astronauts home alive. The teams at NASA Mission Control didn't have time for perfectly optimized processes. They had to improvise, innovate, and focus only on the most critical tasks. They famously jury-rigged a carbon dioxide filter using parts from the command module—a solution that was anything but elegant or efficient, but it was supremely effective. It saved the astronauts' lives. Stack uses this dichotomy to argue that while both are important, effectiveness must always come first. There is, as Drucker said, "nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."

Narrator: To put the principle of effectiveness into practice, Stack introduces the 3T Leadership Model. This framework organizes a leader's responsibilities into three distinct but interconnected roles: Strategic Thinking, Team Focus, and Tactical Work.

Strategic Thinking involves the high-level planning and vision required to set the correct course. This is where leaders define goals, embrace innovation, communicate the mission, and make decisive choices about the direction of the organization or project.

Team Focus centers on the people. It’s about cultivating a productive and open culture, building a results-oriented team, harnessing the creativity and loyalty of its members, and emphasizing a spirit of continuous improvement. This is the engine of execution.

Tactical Work is the hands-on execution. It involves focusing on high-impact activities, mastering workflows and data, maximizing speed and flexibility, and, crucially, sustaining one’s own physical and mental health to maintain performance.

Stack observes that the amount of time a leader spends on each of the 3Ts changes as they advance. An individual contributor or a frontline manager will spend most of their time on Tactical Work. A director’s time is primarily dedicated to Team Focus. And a C-suite executive should be spending the majority of their time on Strategic Thinking. This model provides a practical lens for leaders to assess how they spend their time and whether their focus aligns with their role.

Narrator: In the realm of Strategic Thinking, one of the greatest dangers is indecision. The fear of making a mistake can lead to "analysis paralysis," where endless deliberation prevents any forward motion. Stack argues that this is often more damaging than making a wrong decision, because a wrong turn can be corrected, but standing still leads nowhere.

A vivid example of this is the infamous story of the video game Duke Nukem Forever. After a wildly successful predecessor in the 1990s, the development of the sequel fell into a twelve-year-long "development hell." The team at 3D Realms was caught in a cycle of indecision, constantly restarting the project to incorporate newer game engines and changing design ideas. They were so focused on creating the "perfect" game that they failed to make the hard decisions needed to finish any game. After burning through tens of millions of dollars, the project was abandoned by its original studio. When it was finally completed and released by another company in 2011, it was a critical and commercial failure. The project died not from one bad decision, but from a thousand non-decisions. Stack uses such examples to drive home the point that in business, execution and results are what matter, and execution requires a decision to be made and acted upon.

Narrator: For the Team Focus component of the 3T model, Stack emphasizes that true performance is about substance, not style. A team’s productivity should be measured by its results, not by how busy its members appear to be. This requires leaders to trust and empower their people.

A classic story illustrates this point perfectly. Henry Ford once hired an efficiency expert to tour his factory and root out unproductive employees. The expert came to Ford’s office, pointing out a man he’d seen leaning back in his chair with his feet on his desk. He recommended Ford fire the man immediately for wasting company time. Ford replied that the man was a thinker, and the last time he had his feet on the desk, he came up with an idea that saved the company millions of dollars.

This anecdote captures the essence of focusing on results over appearances. Stack argues that modern leaders must move beyond being mere bosses and become facilitators. This means giving employees autonomy, like at CSS Farms, where farm managers are trusted to run their operations independently with minimal corporate oversight. It also means providing the training and tools necessary for success. By fostering a culture of trust and empowerment, leaders unlock the discretionary effort and loyalty that drive a truly results-oriented team.

Narrator: The final "T," Tactical Work, is about the intelligent application of effort. This begins with understanding the true value of time and focusing on high-impact activities. Stack warns against the trap of "false economy," where saving money costs a more valuable resource. For example, an executive might choose a hotel that is a 15-minute walk from a convention center to save the company $50 a night. However, if that executive's time is valued at hundreds of dollars per hour, the 30 minutes spent walking each day results in a significant net loss for the company. This is being efficient with money but ineffective with time.

Furthermore, Stack argues that tactical excellence is not just about work; it’s about sustaining the worker. She stresses the importance of personal health—sleep, diet, exercise, and mental acuity—as the foundation of productivity. Mike Howard, a Chief Security Officer at Microsoft, is quoted as saying he invests the first hour of every day in exercise because "a healthy body equates also to a healthy mind." This isn't a distraction from work; it's an essential input for high performance. Sustaining one's physical and mental health is not a luxury but a core tactical responsibility for any effective executive.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from Doing the Right Things Right is the profound shift in mindset from a focus on activity to a focus on impact. In a world obsessed with life hacks and productivity tools, Laura Stack reminds us that the ultimate measure of our work is not how many tasks we cross off our list, but whether those tasks were the right ones to begin with. The book reframes productivity not as a measure of effort, but as a measure of strategic execution, powerfully echoing Peter Drucker’s timeless wisdom: "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."

The book's most challenging idea is that true progress sometimes requires us to stop, or even go backward. In our relentless drive for forward momentum, the most courageous and effective action can be to admit we are on the wrong road, turn around, and find the right one. The ultimate question the book leaves us with is not "How can I do this faster?" but the much more critical question we must ask ourselves every day: "Is this the right thing to be doing?"