Strategy Execution: Beyond the Plan
Defining an organizational strategy and writing a strategic plan are the easy parts. Analyzing the environment, exploring scenarios, crafting the vision, and setting strategic goals and objectives are critical tasks, but they are only the beginning. The true test of leadership comes in execution when strategy must move off the page and into action without losing momentum.
All too often, when a leadership team turns its attention to making strategy actionable, they launch the plan by assigning functional teams within business or program units to execute the initiatives they have chosen, consider their work done, and declare “mission accomplished.” But that response is often too hasty and ignores important questions. Is the organization design itself ready for the changes needed? Are all the teams aligned behind the plan? At the team level, do those charged with implementation sufficiently understand the rationale and benefits of implementing the initiatives flowing from the strategy? These gaps invariably translate into confusion, frustration, unwanted costs, lost opportunities and, ultimately, failure to execute. When failure in execution occurs, the resulting lost value is significant regardless of sector.
Viewed from a systems perspective, execution begins in Phase V and unfolds through three interconnected tasks. While distinct, these tasks are highly dynamic and reinforce one another.
- Transform the Operating Model
Effective execution starts with the recognition that performance improves only when the organization’s operating model, its functions, processes, technology, and teams are fully aligned with the new strategy. Everyone, from the C-suite to front-line employees to other key stakeholders, must understand how their role and responsibilities contributes to the bigger picture.
Strategy professionals play a key role in translating strategy into organization design, job roles, and professional development plans. Crucially, these considerations should be built into the strategic planning process itself; otherwise, momentum is lost as teams scramble to make operational changes after the fact.
Recommended Practice: As high-level strategic choices are being made, strategy professionals and planning team members should assess the impact of these choices on the current operating model and begin to carefully explore and socialize upcoming changes required.
- Engage and Align Stakeholders
A redesigned operating model is not enough. Leaders must actively build buy-in by fostering collaboration, open communication, and alignment throughout the organization and with other key stakeholders.
By cascading strategic objectives into the organization, leaders create engagement and a clear “line of sight” from strategy to day-to-day work, ensuring cross-functional initiatives have the support they need to succeed. Without this alignment, even the best strategy risks stalling before it gains traction.
Recommended Practice: Remember change is hard. Everyone on the team may not fully understand or even accept the role they are being asked to play. This is a main reason for dealing with execution in three distinct, yet, not easily differentiated tasks: transformation, alignment, and implementation. Each task has its own communication and engagement challenges, all of which center on change and all require active listening and two-way communication.
- Implement with Ongoing Leadership
Execution does not end once the plan is in motion. It requires sustained leadership. Active oversight, strong governance, and thoughtful delegation are essential to keeping execution on track.
Leaders must:
- Stay visible and engaged, balancing accountability with encouragement.
- Establish KPIs directly tied to strategic objectives.
- Ensure strong data governance so that insights remain reliable and actionable.
- Use performance information not only for reporting, but also for real-time learning and adaptation.
- Keep stakeholders engaged in governance as a continuous, organization-wide process.
Ultimately, leadership must set the tone by guiding, monitoring, and refining execution at every stage.
Recommended Practice: Cut before you add. In most cases, strategy professionals add major value when they encourage their team to trim back low-value programs, products, services, or processes so the team can focus on what is most important in terms of executing the strategic plan.
The Main Point
Strategy execution is not a single event but a continuous cycle of transformation, alignment, implementation, and performance management. Success depends on leaders staying engaged, stakeholders remaining aligned, and organizations embracing execution as an adaptive, ongoing discipline, part of an entire strategic management system.
Organizations that thrive are those that know how to move from plan to action without losing momentum, sustaining energy, focus, and performance long after the strategic plan is written.
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