Three Cs of
Implementing Strategy
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English: Example of a balanced scorecard strategy map for
a public-sector organization (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ask most organizational leaders about their areas of
focus and you will hear that strategy is among their highest priorities.
Unfortunately, too often leaders pour their energy and resources into
formulating strategy and spend too little time figuring out how to implement
that strategy throughout the organization. Strategies
are frequently created, perhaps not in an ivory tower, but often at a nice
resort or conference center, by a small group of people who have been well fed
and cared for in the process. Those strategies are typically beautiful, and
display particularly well in PowerPoint. (I’ve never seen a strategy fail in
the boardroom.) Unfortunately, most leaders fail—not in the formulation of
strategy, but in its implementation.
To successfully execute an organization’s strategy, it
must be the focus of every person in that organization. It is up to the leaders
to create, monitor, and reward that focus as it is expressed. So how then do
you provide the leadership required to implement strategies in a way that
allows them to come to life in each corner of an organization? I offer that if
you pay attention to the Three Cs of strategy, you will be well on your way to
success in this endeavor.
Clarify your strategy: All too often, strategies are
expressed as high-level statements that resonate with board and executive
levels but fall flat with mid-level and frontline personnel. Unfortunately, if
people don’t understand the strategy, they are unable to connect with it. So
the first step is to clarify your strategy in a way that people in your
organization can rally to support its implementation. Done well, this strategy
will tie together your goals and objectives and clearly explain what you intend
to do. In their book “Top Management Strategy”, Ben Tregoe and John
Zimmerman offer a very useful definition of strategy, calling it, “the
framework which guides those choices that determine the nature and direction of
an organization.” Most importantly, try to stay away from “corporate speak,” or
“bureaucratize,” which Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines calls “difficult
to understand and boring.”
Communicate your strategy: I’ve never encountered an organization
where I heard from people that we communicate too often or with plenty of
clarity. So then, communication is the second C. Powerfully communicating the
essence of your strategy at every level of the organization using multiple
mediums is the key here. (Don’t expect the posters you had made up to do the
job.) Use internal blogs and message boards, brown bag luncheons, podcasts, and
department meetings to communicate what the strategy is and how everybody’s
work is informed by that strategy. Discussions need to occur at each level,
translating the organization’s strategy to understandable and contextualized sound
bites, which connect to the work of individuals. In short, communicating the
strategy provides the “connective tissue” throughout the organization that
helps people understand the big picture.
Cascade your strategy: If strategy is “what” you do then tactics
are “how” you do it. And if you want your strategy implemented well, you need
to cascade it throughout the organization and get to the practical and tactical
components of people’s jobs every day. Ideally, you will involve your managers
in this process, and they will help to translate the elements of the strategy
for your organization to their own functional areas. Doing this allows them to
develop and own the process of cascading the strategy and designing
implementation plans with high likelihood of execution. Cascading strategy is
the proverbial rubber hitting the road. The bulk of the work in implementing
strategy is done at this stage. It is the team meetings, the one-on-one
coaching, the process improvements, the customer meetings, and the responses to
the market that, in alignment with an organization’s strategy, can make a
tremendous difference for an organization.
The pace of business shows no signs of slowing down and
the competition in any sector isn’t getting easier. But effectively implementing
strategy can be a source of competitive advantage. Try these Three Cs and see
if they help. Leaders
from Fortune 500 companies to small not-for-profits must be armed with the
ability to effectively implement the strategies of their organization, all
while juggling 100s of emails and voice mails, and addressing the exigencies of
the day. Because implementing strategy is not additive work for the leader. It
is, in fact, their pivotal job.
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