Is your strategy getting traction?
Why are so many strategic initiatives so poorly executed? How comes that the new strategy gets announced and within a few weeks the new direction is getting diluted and questioned and a couple weeks later is ending up on the shelf like many other change initiative before?
I discovered a series of levers that do show impact if deployed in a holistic way. The insights gained form successful implementations but also from failed initiatives lead to my three-phase execution approach:
Call Out – Take On – Advance.
What has to happen in each step to get your strategy of the ground:
Call-Out: Leadership teams create a shared view on where they want to take the business – Envision-It. They will be honest where they are today and face the challenges and obstacles – Realize-It. Through hard work leaders will determine how they get from current reality to envisioned status – Bride-It. And they will develop a shared view on the critical few elements they want to focus on first – Spot-It.
Take-On: To break the walls down and get the new direction out there leaders will have to engage people across the organization - Own-It. Owners will create a joint roadmap that describes the deliverables, the team and the deadlines – Plan-It. Though reaching out across the organization independent factors are built in – Connect-It. Dedicated teams start to engage on focused and well planned areas that have the biggest impact – Deliver-It.
Advance: Define success, key metrics, and early indicators – Track-It. Have the owners look at the results and indicators and adjust as needed – Steer-It. Roll up the sleeves, walk the talk and support people execute the new direction – Coach-It. As the top priorities are getting done and first momentum is kicking in start to enlarge the scope and widen the people involved – Scale-It.
This framework will accelerate your strategy execution and will generate the desired momentum. But it will not take away of your role as a leader to model, coach and reinforce the new direction. Leadership remains hard work – but with a higher return.
