Implementing Strategy That Sticks
Read time: 4 minutes, 37 seconds
Welcome to Future-state Thinking, my weekly newsletter where I give actionable content, insights and tools for business and personal growth from my experience as an innovator and entrepreneur.
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Reach your future-state by learning today:
- Why implementing strategy is so hard
- Why we need to get better
- How do we do it?
- What you can do today
Hi Reader,
Thanks to one of our Future-state Thinking Newsletter community for requesting more on strategy. So I thought why not jump in with one of the toughest aspects – implementing. If you have a challenge or topic you would like some help with, reply to this email.
We’ve all been there, right? Senior leadership lock themselves away and devise the strategy for the next 1, 3, 5 and 10 years emerging triumphantly with a ‘strategic plan’!
I don’t wish to be unkind to the effort and intent that often goes in to such activity and I admit it’s somewhat hyperbole, but I think there are some fundamental things wrong when only 43% of staff support change initiatives compared with 74% in 2016 (HBR).
This week, I hope to help you with some practical ways of thinking about implementing strategy (change) and how we can make it easier and make it stick.
Let’s dive in!
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Why is implementing strategy so hard?
We Get Stuck
Switching gears from operational to strategic thinking, and then to detailed execution, can be incredibly challenging. It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day operations, making it difficult to focus on the bigger picture.
To overcome this, it’s essential to establish systems and processes that allow you to maintain a strategic perspective while managing operational details.
And, usually leaders are not the right person to be delivering – your team are.
We Work in Silos
Silos within organisations can hinder communication and collaboration, leading to fragmented efforts and inefficiencies.
Breaking down these barriers is crucial for a unified approach to strategy implementation.
In larger organisations, your ‘team’ are the heads of other divisions and it is imperative to remain operating at that senior level to facilitate communication and collaboration amongst business units.
We Go Too Slow or Too Fast
Once strategy has been agreed then it is critical to keep engagement and get momentum.
Set yourself a target of 8 weeks to produce a result from the initiative otherwise people will believe ‘it doesn’t really matter’ and become prone to lethargy.
On the other hand, moving too fast runs the risk of burning people out, effecting wellbeing and trust in the leadership.
Setting the right timeframes becomes a judgement based on the scale of the change, the urgency and the current readiness of your team.
We Are Scared
Fear of failure or change can paralyse efforts to implement new strategies.
Building a culture of trust and encouraging a growth mindset can help mitigate these fears and foster a more proactive approach.
Fear can come in other forms too, such as we don’t want to let people down, ‘what does it mean to me’ such as change to my job or additional workload.
Consider these four factors when leading change:
- Habits – they’ve been working this way forever
- Fears – they don’t like uncertainty and potential loss
- Environment – they’re stopped by the space and context
- Group dynamics – they don’t want to act differently from their peers
Why We Need to Get Better
Sustainable Change
Effective strategy implementation leads to sustainable change, ensuring that improvements and innovations are long-lasting and impactful.
What is common yet doesn’t work is the ‘hero approach’ where leaders or significant players throw all their energy and effort into making things happen.
This is neither fair on others nor sustainable, when the aim is to be able to embed and systematise change.
Confident Leadership
Leaders who excel at implementing strategy inspire confidence within their teams, promoting a culture of trust and resilience.
During change people look for signals of authenticity and belief in the mission.
Without confident leadership change will be undermined and people become fatigued and cynical.
Engaged Teams
When teams are involved in and committed to the strategic process, they become more engaged and motivated, leading to higher productivity and job satisfaction.
The bottom line is that most people want to do great work. They just need to know why change is important.
Deliver Value and Impact
Successful strategy implementation ensures that organisations deliver maximum value and impact to their stakeholders, enhancing overall performance and success.
In my view, there is a social contract to within each sector to deliver less talk and more progress.
How Do We Do It?
Credit to Alicia McKay
Make It Real
To implement strategy effectively, it must be grounded in reality. This means setting clear, achievable goals and aligning them with the organisation’s capabilities and resources.
You’ll go a long way to successful implementation by asking your team ‘what has to be true for this to happen?’ or ‘how would you go about making this happen?’.
Telling people what they need to do, without the benefit of their expertise will create more obstacles and reduce ownership.
Hold People Accountable
Accountability is key to ensuring that everyone is responsible for their part in the strategy. Regular check-ins and performance reviews can help keep teams on track.
But caution. What you measure is critical. For example, if you are asking people to be more collaborative, agile and build relationships you can’t expect to measure on individual deliverables.
A better way to look at it is ‘have they delivered on what you asked?’
Align Your Systems
Systems and processes must be aligned to enable the strategic goals and actions.
This involves integrating strategic objectives into daily operations and ensuring that all parts of the organisation are working towards the same goals.
Basically, the policies and procedures (environment) need to reduce the friction to change by making things easier not more difficult.
Ask yourself ‘how do we create and environment so people can make decisions that align.’
Provide Meaningful Support
Support from leadership and peers is essential for successful strategy implementation. This includes providing the necessary resources, training, and encouragement to help teams succeed.
Without the right support you send the message that ‘this is not important’.
Making it important also will mean that you’ll have to stop some things to do others.
Stop Blaming Culture (Others)
Rather than blaming the organisational culture for failures, focus on creating a system that results in sustainable innovation or strategy.
This involves fostering an environment of trust, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Here is my ‘innovation hierarchy of needs’ showing culture as an output of the elements that enable innovation. Implementing strategy follows a similar concept.
What Can You Do Today
Open-source Your Change Plans
Empower your team members to take initiative and contribute to the strategic goals. This involves giving them the autonomy and resources they need to succeed through asking ‘what do you need?’.
The key factors are:
- Involve your team in decision-making. This results in a 15% increase in change success because the best ideas surface to the top rather than using a top-down approach suppressing ideas.
- Pass implementation planning to your team. This results in a 24% increase in change success because the team often have more visibility and ‘know how’ on matters and it will improve buy-in.
- Regular reflections and conversations. Two-way conversations results in a 32% increase in change success because people feel part of the commitment.
Commit to Timeframes
Set clear deadlines for strategic initiatives and stick to them (no more than 8 weeks showing progress). This creates a sense of urgency and ensures that progress is made consistently.
This way you and your team will be delivering on promises and avoiding undermining trust.
Adjust Your Systems
Regularly review and adjust your systems and processes to ensure they are aligned with your strategic objectives. Continuous improvement helps maintain momentum and adapt to changing conditions.
Your first move could be as simple as asking ‘ what needs to change?’ You’ll likely find people have been waiting for the opportunity to have a voice on what is getting in their way.
Manage Change Fatigue
Keep abreast of how your individual team members are going from a health and wellbeing point of view.
Building periods of proactive rest can help to manage the stress found in change programmes.
A managers role should be one of helping others build resilience for change by identifying strengths and connecting them to colleagues they can learn from.
Here are some useful change models to help you and your team navigate change from a recent post:
That’s all from me today!
Really hope this helps you implement successful strategy.
Catch you next week,
Vaughan
This weeks issue inspired by and credit to Alicia McKay and the HBR article mentioned earlier.
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