Executing a strategic vision is a lot like taking a vacation. It’s one thing to get online and do your research; plotting routes, looking up flights, even choosing restaurants to eat in. It’s another thing to turn your dream vacation into reality. Plenty of people love to spend their afternoons fanaticizing and planning trips—but there are very few people who can see their plans through to implementation.
Driving implementation is difficult for individuals, but it’s even tougher for organizations. Creating a strategy often feels like doing the work. It’s an action item with a clear-cut deliverable. When you’re holding that completed strategy document in your hand, it’s easy to believe the work is finished. Implementation, however, is much more complex. It requires dozens, sometimes hundreds of steps executed across many teams. Even worse, many of these items on their own tend to be fairly run-of-the-mill and unimpressive. Nothing that’s going to get anybody noticed by their bosses. But when all of these actions are brought together—under the guidance of a well-crafted strategy—they have the potential to unlock growth, enhance competitiveness, and drive organizational success.
In our 40+ years helping organizations create meaningful change, we’ve seen first-hand how difficult it is to move beyond strategy. From aligning goals and fostering collaboration to empowering teams and embracing agility, each facet plays a crucial role in transforming strategic visions into operational realities. Through a comprehensive understanding of these principles and a commitment to their application, your business can navigate the complexities of execution with confidence and ensure that your strategy not only endures, but thrives.
Here is our ultimate guide to the art (and science) of effective strategy implementation:
Prepare for the way for implementation:
Successful implementation has to start with a solid foundation. This isn’t a build-the-plane-as-you-fly-it scenario. Before you start communicating new expectations for your teams’ performance, make sure you have these in place to show your teams they will be supported through the change:
Vision: Ensure that the company’s vision, mission, and strategic objectives are clearly defined and communicated throughout the organization. Every employee should understand how their work will contribute to the overall strategy.
Alignment: Align individual and departmental goals with the overarching strategic objectives of the company. This ensures that everyone is working towards the same outcomes.
Investment: Provide the necessary resources, technology, and infrastructure to support the implementation of the strategy. This may include investing in new tools, systems, or training programs to enhance capabilities and efficiency.
Drive implementation at every level:
While your strategy may have been developed by a hand-picked group, implementation is all hands on deck. For your implementation to work, you have to treat every step—and every team member—as an equally important part of the change. These three mindsets are key to keeping your teams aligned at every level and motivated to move forward:
Empowerment: Empower employees at all levels to make decisions and take ownership of their work. Encourage innovation and creativity by providing autonomy within clear boundaries.
Accountability: Assign clear accountability and responsibility for each aspect of the strategy’s implementation. Restructure teams or create new roles to ensure there are dedicated resources focused on execution.
Agility: Adopt an agile and adaptive approach to strategy implementation. Break down large initiatives into smaller, manageable tasks or projects that can be executed in iterative cycles. Regular reviews and adjustments should be made based on feedback and changing market conditions.
Support the implementation:
Implementation is all about follow through. If you get halfway through the change, but suddenly deprioritize it for other things, you may as well not have started at all. To ensure your organization has the staying power to see it through to the end, keep these top of mind:
Change Management: Implement effective change management processes to help employees adapt to new ways of working. Provide training and support to ensure that everyone has the skills and knowledge required to execute the strategy successfully.
Improvement: Establish mechanisms for gathering feedback and measuring progress towards strategic goals. Use this information to identify areas for improvement and make adjustments as needed.
Commitment: Ensure that senior leadership is fully committed to the strategy and actively supports its implementation. Leaders should lead by example, demonstrating the behaviors and values that are aligned with the strategic objectives. Celebrate milestones and successes along the way to keep employees motivated and engaged. Similarly, encourage a culture of learning from failures and using them as opportunities for growth and improvement.
Benefits to Bridging the Gap
Bridging the gap from strategy to implementation has major financial, cultural, and organizational benefits. Successful strategy implementation often leads to reduced costs due to streamlined processes, optimized resource allocation, and enhanced efficiency. The focus on empowerment and autonomy improves the work culture for employees at every level. When every member of your team feels like an active participant in the growth of the business, they report greater job satisfaction. This satisfaction ultimately leads to greater compliance with strategy implementation steps, which creates a self-feeding cycle of efficiency and agility. All these factors combine to create improved profitability, and employee and customer retention.
But remember, maintaining a culture of implementation is an ongoing process. It requires sustained attention and investment from leadership to keep the boots-on-the-ground motivated, informed, and empowered. Build a culture of learning and improvement. Celebrate successes, and leveraging failures as opportunities for growth. By following these principles, you can transform your strategic visions into operational realities, and position your organization for long-term success.
If you’re ready to take your strategies to the next level and create a culture of implementation, we’d be happy to chat. Just shoot an email to our Principal Steve Frank at [email protected] and we’ll get back to you ASAP.