Create The ConditionsBusiness Quickie

Overcoming the 7 Choke Points of Strategy

Implementation

Morry Patoka morryp@iquestinc.com iquestinc.com

CreateTheConditions.com

A great strategy unimplemented is as useless as having no strategy.

People develop your strategy.

People execute your strategy.

Strategy is all about your people.

Get this part right.

If your Corporate Strategy is not being effectively implemented it’s because your people either…

1. Don’t know it.

2. Don’t understand it.

3. Don’t agree with it.

4. Don’t feel attached to it.

5. Don’t have a process to improve it.

6. Don’t have a framework to bring it down to a tactical level.

7. Don’t have benchmarks to navigate it.

Avoid the 7 Choke Points!

1 Don’t know it.

How many times have you heard stories of CEO’s, incognito, asking employees what makes their company different and getting wildly different responses, none of which were correct?

It’s not limited to the corporate masses.

It happens at every level.

1

A senior executive approached me to apologize after I revealed the misalignment on their team.

He was embarrassed.

He was pissed off.

He was inspired to explore how the executive team and employees can work together.

He now runs that corporation, by the way.

During my session with the C-Suite of a billion dollar company not one executive could clearly articulate the corporate strategy, and as a group, they did not agree on its fundamentals.

1

Not knowing is a symptomof two endemic problems

Thinking Alone In Your Box + Weak Communications

1 Why it happens:

1. Little or no employee engagement through the process of developing strategy.

2. Entrusting all of your strategic thinking to senior executives without the benefit of “on-the-street-today” experience.

3. Rushing or limiting your strategic development to yearly bursts that don’t allow much time for others to contribute.

4. One-way, linear communications that don’t invite input from your people at all levels.

5. Failing to focus on the basic fundamentals that drive your business.

2 Don’t understand it.

When you do communicate your strategy, are you playing “broken telephone”?

You can’t rely solely on executives to pass it along to managers…

who explain it to supervisors…

who have a staff meeting and later…

get full-timers to explain it to part-timers when they show up for a shift.

2

And don’t expect memos to get across the right depth of understanding

Memos are helpful to share basic information.

You need a little more depth when it comes to communicating your strategy.

2Helping the people in your organization understand your strategy takes a morecomprehensive and disciplined approach.

Target Segments

Workshop Series

Group Presentations

Memo Series Email SeriesIntranet Program

Executives

Managers

Production

Marketing

Etc.

Pre-Launch Program

Launch ProgramReinforcement

Program

Create a marketing plan with lotsof interaction and reinforcement.

3 Don’t agree with it.

No matter what you do,not everyone will agree with your strategy.

That’s okay.As long as you did your pre-launch homework.

3

Get feedback.Just because a few people don’t agree with the

strategy doesn’t make it wrong.

Group Individuals Agree Disagree

Board Sam

Executives Helen

Advisors Joyce

Key Employees Albert

Close Suppliers Vernon

Trusted Customers Rachna

This is a learning and strengthening opportunity!

3Disagreement is your Early Warning System

Use their answers, and yours, to identifyand address potential gaps in either your strategy or your communication.

Now.

Before you go much further.

Ask why they disagree.

Listen carefully to their answers.

Listen even more carefully to your answers!

Can you respond quickly, clearly and convincingly?

Can you support your strategy with evidence?

4 Don’t feel attached to it.

You need more than people’s brains for successful implementation…

You need their hearts

4 To win hearts…

Tasks

Research

Testing

Calibration

Input

Insights

Opinions

Experience

Expertise

Perspective

Facts

Results

Departments

Operations

Finance

Production

Marketing

Sales

Customer Service

Decisions

Strategy Development

Team

enable contribution

4 Creating attachment takes…consistent interaction,persistent effort, andmultiple touch-points

Big Messages Focused Messages Engagement

Communications from Core Team lay the foundation for the corporate strategy, keep employees aware of overall progress, ignites enthusiasm and stimulates feedback

Communications from managers that translate Big Messages for departments and staff

Big Messages:

Collect feedback through online surveys so Core Team can quickly assess and utilize input.

Focused Messages:

Feedback flows up through managers who are better equipped to address specific issues.

4 Find your Sparks!

• Get Sparks on side early

• Help them understand the underlying reasons for your strategic direction

• Give them the basis to believe

• Give them tools to communicate

• Keep in close contact

• Demonstrate your appreciation

Opinion leaders command attention from co-workers.

5 Don’t have a process to improve it.

Your strategy is not perfect.

Nothing is

written in stone

Except your

Purpose and Core

Values

5Two major forces will push

your strategy around

One, your world changes.Dramatically.

Two, employees will see things that require change.

Deal with it before it destroys what you’ve built.

Give them a way to do something about it.

5

Ideas

Shaping

Planning

Development

Execution

Evaluation

Learning

Application

strategy

Very Broad

Very Focused

Ideas

Shaping

Planning

Development

Execution

Evaluation

Learning

Application

strategy

Very Broad

Very Focused

Learning and Adapting Process

Don’t have a framework to bring it down to a tactical level.6

Provide guidelines for the journey from corporate strategy to tactical reality

Procedures; reporting.

New metrics; new marketing; new voice mail greeting.

How much time?

Who is responsible?

How does everyone know they’re doing the right things?

6 Strategy means change.

How much change and how your people will react is dependant upon two attributes of your strategy:

1. How different it is; and2. How new it is.

Very Little Change Dramatic Change

Attitude

Deployment

Risk

Complacency

Immediate

Loss of Competitive Advantage

Resistance

Staged

Loss of Stakeholder Confidence

Very Little Change Dramatic Change

Attitude

Deployment

Risk

Complacency

Immediate

Loss of Competitive Advantage

Resistance

Staged

Loss of Stakeholder Confidence

Considerations For Degree of Change

6

Fortify your framework by empowering yourmanagers to work more effectively with their teams.

Guidelines Metrics ExamplesExpectations

Strengthen the framework by creating the channels for ideas to flow up and down

7 Don’t have benchmarks to navigate it.

Implementing strategy takes time and resources.

Keep track so you know what’s going on.

Highlight issues that need to be addressed quickly.

Evaluate internal processes, helping your organization become better, smarter and faster.

7 Establish a small team to formulate the implementation plan and benchmarks

Create a set of measures that…

1. Includes milestones to help everyone from the top down pinpoint progress against expectations;

2. Features simple triggers that trigger action; and

3. Includes learning modules to improve and embed processes.

7The effectiveness of your strategy

implementation is directly related tohow well your strategy is being

adopted by your people

Strategic Development

Implementation in Progress

Fully Implemented

Post Implementation

Schedule

Performance

Feedback

Strategic Development

Implementation in Progress

Fully Implemented

Post Implementation

Schedule

Performance

Feedback

Timeframe for Adoption Measurement

7

For example:

Executives might not consider the Schedule an issue until its six days late.

Managers may score it a negative and have to address it if it’s only one day late.

Adoption of Strategy + -

Schedule

Performance

Feedback

Each organizational group sets Strategy Adoption Scores against their needs.

7 Negative Adoption Scores tell youwhere to look for the problems

you have to address immediately

Negative Where you have to look

Off schedule Plan too aggressiveUnforeseen hurdlesTactical issue – Choke Point 6Benchmark issue – Choke Point 7

Performance below expectations

Forecasting too optimisticImpact of change distractingProcess issue – Choke Point 5Benchmark issue – Choke Point 7

Feedback negative Response to shortcomings of planning and/or forecastingCommunication issue (Choke Points 1 – 4)

1. Engage as many people in the organization as possible to contribute to strategy development, even if its just compiling information.

2. Communicate the direction and reasoning of your strategy in a way that makes sense to each audience.

3. Listen to what’s being said and learn from others in your organization who are responsible for bringing the strategy to life.

4. Help to bring the strategy closer to the minds and hearts of your people by developing a multi-channel, two-way communications program.

5. Provide a simple method to share thinking up and down the organization.

6. Establish a framework that empowers managers and employees to translate the strategy into their workday.

7. Measure what you do, how you do it and be proactive.

Creating The Conditions for Successful Implementation of Strategy

Read the full article atCreateTheConditions.com

A series of short presentations to help inspire thinking and accelerate action

I would really appreciate your feedback.

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If you’d like to learn how to develop the winning strategy by leveraging the collective brainpower of your organization, please visit iquestinc.com.

Morry Patokamorryp@iquestinc.com

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