Strategy execution does not mean sticking to the plan
I have been working for over 20 years with leaders, teams, and organizations on strategy execution. I have seen many companies struggle to make their strategy work in practice and failing to improve their performance. This is not surprising when we look at how the strategy process has evolved over recent decades:
But why does this matter? Why should you or your organization be concerned about getting it right? It’s easy to think that if we just do our best and try hard enough then everything will turn out fine in the end – but that rarely happens as there are always challenges along the way which require flexibility of thought and action.
The other problem is that most people who are responsible for delivering on a specific part of an overall business plan often don’t fully understand what they need to do next because they haven’t been involved earlier enough into its creation process (for example: sales managers might not know how much revenue they need each month). This means that they won’t know what resources (including people) are required until later down the line – which leads into another challenge: finding qualified candidates quickly enough without losing money on training costs etcetera.”
There is a tendency to be overly confident in the plan and then not being flexible enough when the situation changes, and it always does!
The problem with most plans is that they include many assumptions about what will happen. Even the best-laid plans can go wrong when an unexpected event occurs, or when your competitors or customers do something unexpected. The best way to deal with this is to be flexible and adapt your plan accordingly as you learn more information.
It is an old saying that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.
You have probably heard this saying before. It comes from a military context, where it means that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. In other words, it is important to be flexible and adaptable when faced with unexpected circumstances in the field.
The lesson here is not simply that “no plan survives contact with reality.” Rather, it’s more like: “Don’t get too attached to any specific course of action—there may be better ways forward than you (or your predecessors) could have imagined.”
If we can learn anything from history and current events, it’s that no one has ever managed their business perfectly from start to finish without mistakes or missteps along the way. And even if we could predict everything that was going to happen 100% accurately every time we made decisions about our products or services or customers… well then maybe being humans would have become obsolete by now!
More and more organizations are getting better at linking execution to strategic goals, but still more than 25% of executives I work with tell me that they don’t know if their organization is executing on strategy or not.
Most organizations have a general idea of what their strategic objectives are, but many struggle to link those objectives to specific results.
Execution is a critical factor in strategy success—it’s one thing to develop an idea and another to get it executed. Executing a strategy means delivering on the promise of the strategic plan (or goal), which requires an understanding of how each person in your organization contributes towards achieving that end result.
The most common problem is that too many teams stick to the original plan even when the context or situation has changed dramatically.
Why do we do this? We tend to get attached to the plan, and we don’t want to give up on all the work we have put into the plan. It’s easy to see what went wrong, but it’s not so easy for people to change their plans in a timely fashion and make adjustments for new information or circumstances that arise over time.
The best teams are able to adapt quickly as they learn more about their customers’ needs and behavior patterns, which changes rapidly in today’s digital world of constant innovation.
This happens because people have a tendency to get attached to the plan and can’t let go of it even if it is clear that it won’t work anymore.
This happens because people have a tendency to get attached to the plan and can’t let go of it even if it is clear that it won’t work anymore.
They may not admit that the plan was wrong or consider any other options because they want to prove that they can make the plan work.
They also don’t want to let go of the time and effort they put into creating this original idea which was meant to be successful.
This is strategic stagnation and there are ways to tackle it successfully.
When you’re working on a strategy, there are two common ways it can go wrong: failure to execute and strategic stagnation. The latter is more insidious because it stems from attachment to the original plan, which makes it difficult to adapt as circumstances change.
So how do you avoid getting stuck? One way is to create checkpoints throughout the process where you stop and assess what’s happening. These should be opportunities for reassessing priorities and making course corrections if necessary—not just another step in your plan! Planning should always be an iterative process that allows for constant reevaluation of where you are in relation to your goals, not just a linear path towards achieving them
If all else fails, don’t worry too much about taking a few steps back so that you can move forward again
One way is to create checkpoints along the way so that you can stop, assess what has happened and what needs to change before you move on again.
Checkpoints can be a really effective way to review progress, identify problems and make changes. They should be regular, frequent and not too long apart.
One way to do this is by creating checkpoints along the way so that you can stop, assess what has happened and what needs to change before you move on again.
If you do this regularly it’s much easier to change plans when needed, even if you realize that you will have to take a few steps back in order to move forward again.
The most important thing is to have a plan. But if you do this regularly it’s much easier to change plans when needed, even if you realize that you will have to take a few steps back in order to move forward again.
If your goal is an annual one and your strategy execution is based on monthly checkpoints, then at the end of each month you will be able to assess what worked and what did not work during this period and make any necessary adjustments as well as develop new initiatives based on these results.
The best plans change over time – here’s how to get comfortable with constant adaptation
This is important to understand because the best plans change over time. In fact, one of the most important aspects of strategy execution is its ability to adapt, which means that a good plan will be flexible and allow for adjustments on the fly.
In order to keep your strategy moving forward, you need a process in place that can help you make those changes as necessary. If you don’t have this kind of process in place, things will fall apart quickly—and while they may not fall apart completely (because you’ve done some good work so far), they will experience delays and setbacks that could’ve been avoided with proper planning and execution from day one.
