To start a new year, I’d like to look again at what I believe is the most important thing in business… doing the right things right.
And on the first day of January, I’d like to focus your attention on HOW to do the thing right…
I run a strategy day for SMU for various corporate clients… in the morning we discuss what we need to do… the “what” of strategy development. People are interested and engaged. It’s even fun. In the afternoon, we move from strategy development to strategy implementation. It has not been so well received. Why? Because implementing things, through people, is tough really tough.
A huge problem i see in business today is converting that great idea or the fleeting opportunity into a completed project that delivers what it was supposed to. It seems to be the biggest source of frustration I deal with when talking with executives.
In an article in the Harvard Business Review, author Peter Bregman discusses how to align everyone in the organization so each member of the team is laser focused on performing their role.
Bridging the Knowing – Doing gap
Delivering on strategy is a challenge, which is why so many strategic plans end up as shelf decorations.
As I work with Executives on discussing and formulating strategy, we work on creating a “HOW”… the critical idea to make a difference in their business. And then we work towards implementing the strategy using their current capabilities or identifying what capabilities they may need in the future. Typically this involved meetings, and discussions, and inevitably powerpoint presentations, and more discussions, in small groups and in big groups. But “Talking” about strategy, Bregman says it’s not enough.
“Strategy development and communication are about knowing something, [while] strategy execution is about doing something. And the gap between what you know and what you do is often huge. Add in the necessity of having everyone acting in alignment with each other, and it gets even huger.”
Even at organizations that appear to be well run, people are often working at cross-purposes. It’s easy for employees to stay in their bubbles, working on what they individually deem to be important and that they are incentivised to do. It’s more difficult for people to sacrifice their egos to collaborate effectively.
What’s Most Important?
Bregman describes his solution to strategy execution as creating an alignment process.
That alignment is built around THE strategy or objective that your organization or your team must implement in order to meet most of its goals. To test if something qualifies, he asks the following questions:
- Will this success drive the mission of the larger organization?
- Is this supporting, and supported by, your primary business goals?
- Will achieving it make a statement to the organization about what’s most important?
- Will it lead to the execution of your overall strategy?
If the answers are yes, then the following process can be applied to that project.
A critical element is to narrow the focus to the most important idea within the overall strategy. Don’t attempt to do too many things- this process will not help you. Try to do the most important thing and once achieved go onto the next most important thing. The learnings from a strategic project can then be applied to other projects, so that the entire organization learns how to succeed through implementing a key task.
What behaviours support action
Having identified and been crystal clear about describing the most important strategy. You then need to also be crystal clear about the behaviours that will support the achievement of this strategy. And the behaviours that will inhibit or prevent achievement.
Identify the Highest-Impact People
If this is a key project, then the people who are most essential to driving its success need to be identified and assigned to the strategy implementation team. In the author’s words, “…you want to focus your efforts and resources on the people who will have the most impact on the strategy… those whose roles were core to the project, have organisational authority, and who were highly networked.” So all those with formal and informal influence on the ability of a project to succeed.
Determine What They Should Focus On- the LEVERS
Senior leadership needs to help the team determine:
- What is the Key contribution an individual must make to move the strategy forward
- What is their Pivotal strength that will allow them to make their key contribution
- Whats the Derailing Behaviour, the thing that, if the person improves, will most improve their ability to make their key contribution.
Strategy execution needs to be laser-focused. Simplicity requires that we make choices. Then we make that one thing happen.
Hold Laser-Focused Coaching Sessions
Once we have ensured the right people have the right focus, coach them in laser-focused, 30-minute one-on-one sessions. This is the time where you enable your high impact people are coached to focus on making clear headway on their key contribution to the strategy implementation
This is the key activity of this entire process, building on clearly-defined goals and behaviours and deciding what success looks like. Regularly-scheduled coaching sessions should be designed not to correct behaviour, not to find out what was wrong or whom to blame, but to move the project forward. Even high-performers need coaching. They need to know how to handle situations, and they need someone to clear the path for them.
This training focused behaviour that can apply to any project team, strategic or not.
Collect and Share Data
Good coaching is based on facts, not opinions. The facts are binary – something happened, or it didn’t. If it happened, learn what contributed to that. If it didn’t happen, learn what prevented that. Collecting data needs to identify the real obstacles preventing your most valuable people from driving the company’s most important priorities forward. That data then needs to be presented clearly to all involved.
Amplify Performance
Performers get things done. Leaders help performers amplify what they can do to create outsized results. Coaches learn how to pull results out of people beyond what they may have thought possible.
Coaches address the typical challenges people struggle with when executing strategy:
- how to communicate priorities,
- how to deal with someone who is resistant,
- how to influence someone who doesn’t report to you,
- how to say no to distractions,
- and anything else you believe they will benefit from
Your performers want to be developed, one of the key reasons the people you want on your teams stay with you. While these five steps are designed for implementing strategic projects, they can be easily modelled for the entire organization to learn to effectively manage the everyday projects that are the lifeblood of a company.
Using this process, your clarity and alignment behind your strategic focus can do what you need it to do for your organization. A Projects success is the result of clear objectives, management communication, leadership, coaching, organization, and discipline. Investing time and energy into successful projects is key to the success of most organizations translating the perfect plan into moving the business forward.