by Tim Johnson | Jul 16, 2018 | Uncategorized
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!
This is the seventh installment in a blog series that discusses potential pitfalls that could hold you back from being fully successful in your strategic planning efforts. The first was ensuring that you have full leadership support before you begin the strategic planning initiative, the second was generating needed buy-in across the organization, the third was making sure you build that strategy in a way that it can be executed effectively, the fourth was prioritizing to narrow your focus, the fifth was integrating the strategy into how you do business and the sixth was ensuring you have effective execution of the strategy. As I started the first blog of the series, most things that I have been successful at in my life have been because I did it the right way and using the right tools. At the Balanced Scorecard Institute, we have the “Nine-Step Process” to building a strategic management system. We believe in this approach and we have helped hundreds of clients develop comprehensive strategic plans with a management system that enables them to effectively execute strategy. I myself have worked with over 80 organizations and have seen very successful strategic planning efforts and also those that were less so! I wanted to share some observations as to where those that were not as successful went wrong along the way.
The seventh and final pitfall is not communicating the strategy effectively. As we are told with any change management effort: communicate, communicate, communicate! In our balanced scorecard certification courses we love to give the example of a vision as John F. Kennedy announcing in 1962 that by the ended of the decade he wanted the United States as a nation to put a man on the moon. It was a great vision and it really captured the imagination of the nation. Everyone was on board and understood what we were trying to accomplish. And at NASA, it is said that everyone understood how what they did was going to help the agency put a man on the moon. There was effective communication that lead to overwhelming commitment. Not only for those that worked at NASA, but truly by almost the entire country. For effective change management to occur it must be well communicated. People have to understand the “burning platform” behind the reason for change. It must become so personal that they can translate what they do in terms of how it is going to help the organization become successful. It is only when you get this kind of understanding and buy-in that strategy really is let loose throughout the organization.
If this pitfall sounds familiar, contact us. Communication throughout the strategic planning process is critical but it’s especially important before the process begins and after it’s implemented.
This completes this blog series. Again, these are not the only reasons why strategies fail, but just some of the key impediments I have seen that hold organizations back from realizing the many benefits to developing a strategy and a supporting strategic management system.
Missed Part 6 of the blog series? You can read it here.
by Tim Johnson | Jul 9, 2018 | Uncategorized
Executing the strategic initiatives effectively
This is the sixth installment in a blog series that discusses potential pitfalls that could hold you back from being fully successful in your strategic planning efforts. The first was ensuring that you have full leadership support before you begin the strategic planning initiative, the second was generating needed buy-in across the organization, the third was making sure you build that strategy in a way that it can be executed effectively, the fourth was prioritizing to narrow your focus and the fifth was integrating the strategy into how you do business. As I started the first blog of the series, most things that I have been successful at in my life have been because I did it the right way and using the right tools. At the Balanced Scorecard Institute, we have the “Nine-Step Process” to building a strategic management system. We believe in this approach and we have helped hundreds of clients develop comprehensive strategic plans with a management system that enables them to effectively execute strategy. I myself have worked with over 80 organizations and have seen very successful strategic planning efforts and also those that were less so! I wanted to share some observations as to where those that were not as successful went wrong along the way.
The sixth pitfall is in not executing the strategic initiatives effectively. When you boil strategy down, it really ends up being a tool to help you understand what things you need to start doing today to build the organization of the future so it can be successful, given how you assume the world will be different. That said, it is only the accomplishment of these “things” or key initiatives that really makes an organization successful. As such, the successful execution of these initiatives becomes fundamentally important for achieving the vision of the organization. By having a sound project management office (PMO) system with skilled project managers driving the initiatives to execution, you will be setting the course for successful strategy execution. Given that leadership attention to objective measures and their link to key initiatives provides focus and attention needed to implement the plan, the management system must ensure an effective process for measuring and monitoring results and tracking the progress of initiative execution is in place. With an effective system for managing and driving initiatives, the leadership team will have the information it needs to effectively direct the organization’s strategy.
If this pitfall sounds familiar, contact us. We specialize in helping organizations prioritize projects & initiatives. Or check out our Strategic Project Management Course. This program focuses on the project management skills needed to effectively manage strategic initiatives end-to-end.
There is one more blog that will complete this series of potential pitfalls that could hold organizations back from realizing the many benefits to developing a strategy and a supporting strategic management system.
Missed Part 5 of the blog series? You can read it here. You can read Part 7 here.
by Tim Johnson | Jun 27, 2018 | Uncategorized
Integrating into how you do business
This is the fifth installment in a blog series that discusses potential pitfalls that could hold you back from being fully successful in your strategic planning efforts. The first was ensuring that you have full leadership support before you begin the strategic planning initiative, the second was generating needed buy-in across the organization, the third was making sure you build that strategy in a way that it can be executed effectively and the fourth was prioritizing to narrow your focus and bite off what you can chew. As I started the first blog of the series, most things that I have been successful at in my life have been because I did it the right way and using the right tools. At the Balanced Scorecard Institute, we have the “Nine-Step Process” to building a strategic management system. We believe in this approach and we have helped hundreds of clients develop comprehensive strategic plans with a management system that enables them to effectively execute strategy. I myself have worked with over 80 organizations and have seen very successful strategic planning efforts and also those that were less so! I wanted to share some observations as to where those that were not as successful went wrong along the way.
The fifth pitfall is not integrating the strategy into how you do business. I was once at an organization conducting interviews in preparation of facilitating strategic planning and made a startling observation. My first day onsite I noticed one of those old metal filing cabinets, and on top was a plant that was kind of wilted and maybe overwatered. There were leaves fallen all around and the plant was sitting on a thick document to keep it from rusting out that filing cabinet. For some reason I went over and lifted the plant and found that the organization’s previous strategic plan was the filing cabinet protector! I took a picture of this phenomenon and then made sure to open up the strategic planning session by displaying that picture. I told them if this is what we are going to do with the strategy we are about to develop, then let’s just all go home now! Of course, they got the message, but the point is that if you are going to go through the effort then really make the strategy you develop a part of how you do business. Budgets should be aligned accordingly (not putting funding against the strategy is obviously a huge impediment!), rewards and incentives should be aligned, training should be built in to support future skill requirements, IT priorities should reflect desire future capability development to name just a few integration points. To truly make strategy work, it must be integrated across the breadth of the entire organization.
If this pitfall sounds familiar, contact us. Organizations have leveraged BSI’s expertise for many years by bringing us onsite to facilitate strategic actions to improve performance, build strategic management systems, provide on-site technical support, and coach leaders and managers how to execute strategy and create high performance organization.
Over the next few blogs we will explore two additional potential pitfalls I have seen that hold organizations back from realizing the many benefits to developing a strategy and a supporting strategic management system.
Missed Part 4 of the blog series? You can read it here. Read Part 6 here.
by Tim Johnson | Jun 20, 2018 | Uncategorized
Prioritizing – Biting off what you can chew!
This is the fourth installment in a blog series that discusses potential pitfalls that could hold you back from being fully successful in your strategic planning efforts. The first was ensuring that you have full leadership support before you begin the strategic planning initiative, the second was generating needed buy-in across the organization and the third was making sure you build that strategy in a way that it can be executed effectively. As I started the first blog of the series, most things that I have been successful at in my life have been because I did it the right way and using the right tools. At the Balanced Scorecard Institute, we have the “Nine-Step Process” to building a strategic management system. We believe in this approach and we have helped hundreds of clients develop comprehensive strategic plans with a management system that enables them to effectively execute strategy. I myself have worked with over 80 organizations and have seen very successful strategic planning efforts and also those that were less so! I wanted to share some observations as to where those that were not as successful went wrong along the way.
The fourth pitfall is not prioritizing—biting off more than you can chew! The Japanese have something called “Hoshin Planning.” The idea is that they go through a very rigorous strategic planning effort to find a handful things that they need to accomplish to be successful. And then everyone gets on board and they execute those critical few strategies across the organization. It provides focus. Not that I am advocating that you find just a couple strategic priorities to focus on strategically, but the point is that there is a limit to the amount of resources available to focus on strategic transformation. People have day jobs that are mostly about driving the organization operationally. They each do not have 16 hours of work day to get everything done that you would like! So instead of identifying 50 initiatives to accomplish, identify first what resources you have year-over-year and then build a roadmap on when initiatives will be executed that is going to guide your efforts. Like climbing a mountain, we first have to understand what we need to do to get to “base camp 1” and then from there to the next succession of base camps until we are at the top of the mountain! By spreading the organization to thin you run the risk of doing a lot of things, but not getting anything done!
If this pitfall sounds familiar, then you might be interested in our Balanced Scorecard Professional Certification workshop which gives practitioners the tools and skills they need to help prioritize in tough economic times.
Over the next few blogs we will explore three additional potential pitfalls I have seen that hold organizations back from realizing the many benefits to developing a strategy and a supporting strategic management system.
You can read Part 5 here. Missed Part 3 of the blog series? You can read it here.
by Tim Johnson | Jun 13, 2018 | Uncategorized
Developing an “executable” strategic plan
This is the third installment in a blog series that discusses potential pitfalls that could hold you back from being fully successful in your strategic planning efforts. The first was ensuring that you have full leadership support before you begin the strategic planning initiative and the second was generating needed buy-in across the organization. As I started the first blog of the series, most things that I have been successful at in my life have been because I did it the right way and using the right tools. At the Balanced Scorecard Institute, we have the “Nine-Step Process” to building a strategic management system. We believe in this approach and we have helped hundreds of clients develop comprehensive strategic plans with a management system that enables them to effectively execute strategy. I myself have worked with over 80 organizations and have seen very successful strategic planning efforts and also those that were less so! I wanted to share some observations as to where those that were not as successful went wrong along the way.
The third pitfall is developing an “executable” strategic plan. For me, this is the most glaring gap I see when reviewing strategic plans. It jumps off the page when the strategy in not built in such a way to support successful execution. There are several key areas that really require doing it the “right way.” The first key element to mention is understanding the key future assumptions that are driving the strategy. Linking the strategy to future assumptions is the only thing that makes “strategic planning strategic!” So many strategies end up sounding like operational plans because they fail to link it to their analysis of the future environment in which the organization will exist. The problem is, if you are not lifting your gaze and scanning the horizon you could be missing out on significant opportunities or worse yet, not seeing impending threats! If we made buggy whips in 1910, and our strategy was all about making better buggy whips, more variety, high quality, faster to market, etc.; we would miss out on the fact that they were building car assembly plants and missing a glaring opportunity to redefine our business. The second major miss is developing “measurable objectives.” These usually start with words like increase, decrease, reduce, etc. These are words that we can measure. Many strategies have initiative words in their objectives like “create,” “develop” and “build.” These identify actions that have a beginning and an end and not necessarily what we can monitor to track our strategic transformation. The last key building block is in linking initiatives to objective targets. I had a client who had an objective to “generate 5 million more customers in 5 years.” A great measurable objective! But when pressed on what initiatives supported the objective, we determined that the ones they had in place were only going to generate 75 thousand new customers. They failed to link what they said they needed to accomplish with the initiatives they identified would get the job done. Bottom line is that if you said that the targets are what you need to achieve, then make sure you are going to do things to reach those targets! If you want a strategy that you can measure, will guide the organization, and is sure to create the success you have identified that you need, then it is important to build it the right way!
If this pitfall sounds familiar, contact us. We have been helping clients for many years, and can help connect the dots and work with you to customize our approach to best meet your needs for future success.
Over the next few blogs we will explore four additional potential pitfalls I have seen that hold organizations back from realizing the many benefits to developing a strategy and a supporting strategic management system.
Missed Part 2 of the blog series? You can read it here. You can read Part 4 here.
by Tim Johnson | Jun 5, 2018 | Uncategorized
Generating Buy-in
This is the second installment in a blog series that discusses potential pitfalls that could hold you back from being fully successful in your strategic planning efforts. The first was ensuring that you have full leadership support before you begin the strategic planning initiative. As I started the first blog of the series, most things that I have been successful at in my life have been because I did it the right way and used the right tools. At the Balanced Scorecard Institute, we have the “Nine-Step Process” to building a strategic management system. We believe in this approach and we have helped hundreds of clients develop comprehensive strategic plans with a management system that enables them to effectively execute strategy. I myself have worked with over 80 organizations and have seen very successful strategic planning efforts and also those that were less so! I wanted to share some observations as to where those that were not as successful went wrong along the way.
The second pitfall I have experienced is people not buying in to the strategy as it is developed. As mentioned in Part 1, too many times I have seen a leader or small cadre of leaders piece together a strategy and then expect everyone to understand it and get on board. This is not what works! People tend to own what they help create. The more people you can involve in creating the strategy, the more people you have who understand it and support it in the halls and by the water coolers.
There are some key places where involving more people is easy to do and very helpful. The first is in generating ideas up front concerning the future environment in which the organization will exist. Externally what are the opportunities that will be available in the future? What are the threats that need to be considered and mitigated? Internally what are the strengths and weaknesses that could have the most strategic impact on our future success? By getting people to provide input you are first informing them on the process and second telling them that their ideas are valued. You can also involve people beyond the leadership team when developing measurable objectives, KPIs and initiatives. You can find people willing to step up and “own” an objective or to lead an initiative. Again, the more people that are involved, the more traction you are creating within the organization to help drive change and execution.
If this pitfall sounds familiar, then you might be interested in our Strategy Execution—Success Through Leadership workshop which addresses major obstacles and challenges faced in strategy efforts, and techniques on how to overcome them or let us facilitate your group to build support for the system.
Over the next few blogs we will explore five additional potential pitfalls I have seen that hold organizations back from realizing the many benefits to developing a strategy and a supporting strategic management system.
You can read Part 3 here. Missed Part 1 of the blog series? You can read it here.
