Implementing Your Strategic Direction

Most strategies fail not because of lack of planning but typically because of lack of execution. In my experience there are four things that need to happen in order for strategy to be successfully implemented in any organization. I created the Strategic Quadrant to show the different components, the four components, of successful strategic implementation and success for organizations. If you can imagine four squares, and if you can see the process visually, you can see that there are four different areas.

1. You must get consensus from the stakeholders into the strategic direction.

I have a client right now, a CEO who is very much a driver personality and when he believes something needs to happen he wants to just barrel through and make it happen. I have been working with him on developing and creating more consensus because once you have everyone on side it is easy to go to the next step which is getting everyone to commit to the execution or to the follow-through. The consensus piece is important because if just one or two people are on board and let’s say two or three people aren’t you are actually going to have them subconsciously sabotage the direction of where you are going with the strategy. It is really important.

One of the things that I do with my CEO groups and clients is facilitate strategic discussion in the forum of a leadership retreat and this is a great way of building consensus, getting the group together, presenting the strategic direction ideas, gathering input, gaining consensus, and then moving on to step two.

2. Commitment to execution.

As I said when I started, most strategies fail because of lack of execution. Why is that? Well, oftentimes because the individuals that have been assigned tasks or have been given pieces of accountability to the strategic direction perhaps haven’t had clarity around why they are doing what they are doing. Oftentimes when new strategies are being implemented there is lack of communication and with that lack of communication people are not sure if they should go ahead and take action on their part and so commitment to execution is a crucial piece. In other words, at this stage you are just simply asking everyone to agree that they will follow through with their action items. The third piece really makes sure that they do and that is the accountability piece.

3. Accountability.

Now, in accountability the project leader or the strategic direction stakeholder is manage the process and to make sure that measurements are achieved.

When everyone knows in advance that they are going to be held accountable for their piece, typically execution is inherent. It happens.

What typically happens when execution is not happening is that there is a lack of communication, there is a lack of clarity around what is to be done and there has been no reward or recognition for the milestones that are reached- this is an important component of number three. In order to ensure people are accountable you want to recognize and reward for the milestones reached and the achievements that have been made to move forward.

I have a visual in my mind right now of a thermometer and for those of you who have raised funds for nonprofits or philanthropy, I have been involved in the United Way in the past and we used to have these thermometers and so every time you would reach a milestone of monies raised you would show that thermometer raising to the next level to the next level until you reached the goal of filling the thermometer and the money that you were raising. It is very similar with reward and recognition. There needs to be some sort of visual stimulation that lets everyone know we are on track. Everyone is contributing. Here is what Bob has done to move the strategy forward. Here is what Sue has done to move the strategy forward. And you want to have some celebrations in there along the way as well so that everyone feels good about the movement towards the new strategy.

The other thing I have witnessed and seen in the clients that I have worked with is the focus goes away or people lose steam because of the lack of reward and recognition as progress is being made.

4. Adaptation.

We all know that things change and in today’s environment things are changing very rapidly and so being able to be organic, adaptable, and flexible with things that will come at us while implementing the strategic direction.

So a great example of that again is a client of mine who their strategic direction recently that I helped them clarify and facilitate was acquisition. They are ready to now look at acquiring other companies to bring into their organization. They were looking at a particular organization and it didn’t follow through and it failed and so rather than them think, “Okay, we are not going to acquire any more,” we had already built in a sort of an unforeseen incident piece to the strategy which was if this acquisition fails what is our backup plan? What is our next plan? So rather than be stunted and go, “Okay, well we are stuck now for a few months because we don’t know what our next step is,” they immediately were able to pivot and go for the second acquisition that was on their list.

In conclusion want to be adaptable, you want to be flexible, and you need to make sure that everyone on the team is committed to being adaptable and flexible.

There will be people who are going to be committed to driving the strategy forward and there are going to be others who are going to be reluctant and that is simply based on different personalities but also different perceptions on what the strategy needs to be. That is why the communication piece is so crucial throughout all four pieces.

So take a look at the strategic quadrant and if you require further information or questions reach out to me at www.cherylcran.com. I look forward to connecting with you.