Planning is one thing, but how do you make sure your plan gets implemented? There’s a secret to executing strategy. It’s not magic, and it’s not hope. If you’re anything like me, no matter how many times you’ve called the psychic hotline, or begged the universe to accomplish your strategic initiatives, you’ve noticed that something is missing.

Well, don’t be sad. Erica has come through yet again with a fantastic, concise whiteboard video that will show you how to get your strategy done. No more guessing what will work, no more pointing fingers when your objectives fall flat- this video will give you the tools to quit relying on the plan (or the universe) alone to accomplish your vision.

Thanks for watching and as always, feedback and questions are encouraged.

So, why do so many people try so hard to manage themselves and still fall short? Most people want to perform. They want to accomplish great things, but never seem to catch up on everything they are given to do in the course of a day. How many times have you said to yourself, “it’s five o’clock and my to-do list is bigger than it was when I got here at eight?”

For most of us, it’s a matter of overhauling our personal performance management systems, and finding a way to avoid the following five traps that so often trip us up:

Failure to see the big picture

Your performance management system should have a reason behind it. If you’re reading this, chances are that your current system, if you have one, isn’t working to some degree, and this is the most common reason. Instead of just jumping into your mountain of tasks, stop first and ask yourself”why am I doing all of these things?”

There must be a reason why you work. The answer for you may be (more…)

• Lack of ownership: The most common reason a plan fails is lack of ownership. If people don’t have a stake and responsibility in the plan, it’ll be business as usual for all but a frustrated few.
• Lack of communication: The plan doesn’t get communicated to employees, and they don’t understand how they contribute.
• Getting mired in the day-to-day: Owners and managers, consumed by daily operating problems, lose sight of long-term goals.
• Out of the ordinary: The plan is treated as something separate and removed from the management process.
• An overwhelming plan: The goals and actions generated in the strategic planning session are too numerous because the team failed to make tough choices to eliminate non-critical actions. Employees don’t know where to begin.
• A meaningless plan: The vision, mission, and value statements are viewed as fluff and not supported by actions or don’t have employee buy-in.
• Annual strategy: Strategy is only discussed at yearly weekend retreats.
• Not considering implementation: Implementation isn’t discussed in the strategic planning process. The planning document is seen as an end in itself.
• No progress report: There’s no method to track progress, and the plan only measures what’s easy, not what’s important. No one feels any forward momentum.
• No accountability: Accountability and high visibility help drive change. This means that each measure, objective, data source, and initiative must have an owner.
• Lack of empowerment: Although accountability may provide strong motivation for improving performance, employees must also have the authority, responsibility, and tools necessary to impact relevant measures. Otherwise, they may resist involvement and ownership. It’s easier to avoid pitfalls when they’re clearly identified. Now that you know what they are, you’re more likely to jump right over them!

Want more? Hit up our article on Strategic Implementation.

But what do you do about the unexpected? What if your employees find a different solution to a problem, or a more efficient way of doing things that what you planned?

Unexpected Shortcuts People Find on their Own

One thing that we have to be aware of in business is the development of Desire Paths. Desire paths are a landscaping term for the trails people wear away in the grass when they take shortcuts.

Recently, I’ve seen articles about universities and other campus-type environments where desire paths have been taken into account when they were planned. Rather than building rigid walkways and setting up fences to keep people off the grass, they intentionally omit paved routes, allowing people to create desire paths. Only then do they actually pave the paths, giving the campus a more organic look and efficient layout.

What Does that Mean for Business?

Once you’ve laid out your plan, your people may find alternate ways of implementing - shortcuts you didn’t anticipate. After the amount of work that we put into building a plan, we may be tempted to insist that people “stay off the grass,” but these desire paths could lead to even greater efficiency and better problem-solving than the processes we originally decided on.

Since employees handle the implementation of your plan, they’re the best source for finding out how it’s going. Make sure you’re getting feedback and watching for desire paths- you may be pleasantly surprised!

If you have any stories of desire paths that appeared in your implementation process, let us know!

Found via Fritinancy. Image from Kake Pugh.

Running a Strategy Review

Again, the key to keeping your focus on strategy all year is to separate the content of your strategy meetings and your operational review meetings. What many times begin as strategy-focused meetings usually atrophy throughout the year into sessions focused on putting out day-to-day fires, and we don’t want that.

So how do you run a strategy review? We’ve come up with a model, based on our experience and some of the info in the HBR article I mentioned in the last post. The main idea of the meeting is to monitor progress of the company from a strategic level and make sure that objectives are on track. This model is for a medium to large-sized company (one large enough to have a strategy officer) but could easily be scaled down to meet the needs of smaller organizations.

Purpose

• Hold leaders accountable for strategic initiatives
• Deeply investigate the strategic status of one initiative
• Focus on whether strategy implementation is on track, where problems are occurring in the implementation, why they’re happening, what actions will correct them, and who will have responsibility for achieving the targets
• Except in unusual circumstances, do not use the meeting to alter or adapt the strategy

Attendees:

• Senior Management Team
• Strategic Initiative Owners
• Functional and Planning Specialists
• Business Unit Heads
• Strategy Manager

Prep

• Strategy Reports: Prepared by Strategy Manager and broken up by strategic initiatives. Each should contain:
• Initiative Strategy Map
• Objectives & Targets: color coded by status (on schedule, behind but not needing attention, off track and requiring attention)
• If an item is off track and requiring attention, the report should include a short comment from the item’s owner explaining the performance gap and what actions are being taken or proposed to address them
• Everyone in attendance should read the report and be ready to discuss

Meeting Overview

• Status Review: Strategy manager reviews status reports
• Strategy Overview: CEO presents a quick review of color-coded strategy map, offering perspective on the business
• Review Strategy Map
• Highlight Key Issues
• Review Initiatives
• Review Measures
• Note Accomplishments (*don’t forget)
• Initiative Audit: Focus on one (or at most two) strategic initiative(s) in depth
• Initiative Assessments: Quick overviews from leaders of each strategic initiative
• Hot Topic: Allow for one operational or strategic “Hot Topic” outside the initiative
• Meeting Review: CEO summarizes the results of the meeting
• Action Log: Review new actions and responsibilities

Right-click and save the following link to download a PDF version of the strategy meeting model along with agenda.

Does that sound like you?

There’s something at work that puts business owners in this situation the world over- so don’t worry- you’re not alone. It’s a law. A law that answers why, after you’ve put so much thought and effort into charting the course, you nearly always manage to find your organization struggling to stay on track.

Good news: once you understand the law, then you can break it.

The phenomenon in question is called Gresham’s Law. Basically, it means that in many cases “bad” will drive out “good.” Originally, it was meant to explain why, in terms of currency, coins that are devalued (by defacing them or their issuer actually lowering their value) actually out circulate “good money.” The reason, as stated by the law, is that you hold on to the good money and freely give up the bad. Eventually, all everyone walks around with is bad money.

Gresham’s law also explains why so many people buy “Lemons” from used car dealers. Dealers discount lemons because they want to get rid of their worst deals quickly, and buyers feel better about paying a lower price for a lemon than a higher price for a car that might turn out to be one. So, the lemons flow through the used car lots, driving out the better vehicles in circulation.

How does this law affect you?

In the beginning of the year, your strategy meetings are focused on the long-term. Your company has just created or revised your strategic plan, set goals and objectives, and have assigned responsibility for completing them. Things are good.

But as the year progresses, instead of dealing with the long term strategy, you begin to talk about operational issues. Pressure to meet quarterly targets, problems with production, staffing issues or other fires can pop up in discussion more and more often, until they have driven out your long term strategy from the meetings altogether.

What begin the year as strategy meetings become operational meetings.

So how do you fix the problem?

You need two meetings. Strategy meetings should be focused on the long term, and operational meetings should be focused on the short. Both are important- just because you need to maintain your focus on strategy doesn’t mean those fires no longer need your attention. But both meetings require different focuses, different attendances and can be held at different frequencies.

Next post, we’ll cover the two different meetings in more detail, but in the meantime, for more detail on Gresham’s law you can hit up Wikipedia.

Link: “Harvard Business Review, January 2008: Mastering the Management System” (subscription required)

If your meetings are boring, spice them up a bit. Ask each employee to report on one or two accomplishments. Limit everyone’s report to one minute (have someone keep time). For people who are having an issue or problem where they need help, ask them to list it on the board. Spend 10 to 15 minutes as a group working to solve the issue. Remember, the issues need to be related to the strategic plan; otherwise, they should be discussed at another time. Don’t let the meetings run over; keep them to a set time.

You may be surprised at the enthusiasm and effectiveness of this type of meeting. People like to talk about strategy. It’s exciting! It’s also exciting to accomplish important initiatives.

Monthly strategy meetings don’t need to take a lot of time –
30 to 60 minutes should suffice. But it is important that key team members
report on their progress towards the goals they are responsible for - including
reporting on metrics in the scorecard they have been assigned. By using the
measurements already established, it’s easy to make course corrections if
necessary. Restricting the meeting to this reporting on measurements can help
you stay on task and keep the meeting with 30 minutes, but if you can commit to
a full hour, the meeting agenda should also include some time devoted to
working on one specific topic or on one of the quarter’s priorities where
decisions need to be made. Once agreed upon, this topic should be developed to
conclusion.

Consider these additional tips for making your monthly
strategy meetings more effective:

• Schedule the monthly strategy meetings on the same day and time each month in order to encourage making strategy a habit
• Invite individuals or heads of departments. Their presence creates visibility and recognition for the people getting things done.
• Make the meeting mandatory – no exceptions. This is 30-60 minutes time well spent
• Start and end on time and stay on task with an agenda.

Holding
meetings helps focus your goals on accomplishing top priorities and
accelerating growth of the organization. Although the meeting structure is
relatively simple, it does require a high degree of discipline. Facilitation of
monthly strategy meetings is key to implementing your strategic plan and making
strategy a habit for everyone involved.

A strategic plan provides a business with the roadmap it needs to pursue a specific strategic direction and set of performance goals, deliver customer value, and be successful. However, this is just a plan; it doesn’t guarantee that the desired performance is reached any more than having a roadmap guarantees the traveler arrives at the desired destination. Remarkably, the majority of companies who have strategic plans fail to implement them. In fact, according to a Fortune cover story in 1999, nine out of ten organizations fail to implement their strategic plan.

We believe the new execution module helps you plan more effectively and use your time more efficiently to make more informed decisions with features like at-a-glance tracking that identifies goals and action items as completed, pending or overdue. But we encourage you not to overlook the components necessary for supporting a successful implementation. Consider these five key elements:

1. People – Make sure you surround yourself with the right people on board with the right competencies and skills to support your plan.
2. Resources – You’ll need sufficient funds and enough time to support implementation. True costs can include a realistic time commitment from your staff  to achieve a goal, a clear identification of expenses associated, or unexpected cost overruns by a vendor. Be prepared as well that employees will need enough time to implement what may be additional activities that they aren’t currently performing.
3. Structure – Be sure to set your structure of management, appropriate lines of authority, and clear lines of communication with your employees. A plan administrator and regular strategy meetings are two of the easiest ways to put a structure in place.
4. Systems – Both management and technology systems help track the progress of the plan and make it faster to adapt to changes. Be sure to include milestones with achievements and specified time frames as part of you plan.
5. Culture – Create an environment that connects your employees to the organization’s mission and that makes them feel comfortable. You can reinforce the importance of focusing on strategy and vision by rewarding success. There should be some creative positive and negative consequences for achieving or not achieving the strategy so people make it a priority.

Execution is
the process that turns strategies and plans into actions in order to accomplish
strategic objectives and goals. Execution of your plan, ideas, strategy, or
project is arguably as important, or even more important, than your strategy.
Ruthless commitment to executing critical actions moves anything from words on
a piece of paper to actions that drive business growth. Sadly, the majority of
companies do a miserable job at execution. An article in Fortune some
years ago highlighted that nine out of ten organizations failed in the area of
execution for the following reasons:

• 60 percent of organizations don’t link strategy to budgeting
• 75 percent of organizations don’t link employee incentives to
       strategy
• 86 percent of business owners and managers spend less than one hour
       per month discussing strategy
• 95 percent of a typical workforce doesn’t understand their
       organization’s strategy.

A plan, any kind of
plan, provides a leader with the roadmap it needs to pursue a specific
strategic direction and set of performance goals, deliver customer value, and
be successful. However, this is just a plan; it doesn’t guarantee that the
desired performance is reached any more than having a roadmap guarantees the
traveler arrives at the desired destination.

Here are four
different areas that will help you execute anything flawlessly:

# 1: Getting set up for success Before you start the execution process,
evaluate your plan for action and implementation. Identify the specific issues
and choices your strategic plan should address. A plan is only as good as the
information on which it’s based.

#2: Coach for performance Act like a coach and use the plan as your
framework to guide your team to high performance.

#3: Commit to effective meetings. Schedule regular meetings to report on
plan or project status. This is critical to making the numbers and achieving
company strategic goals.

#4: Hold everyone accountable – including
yourself
Accountability is key to successful execution — hands down. If you and your
team don’t have to report to anyone on your progress, the plan may find itself
further and further down your to-do list or at the bottom of your stacks of
paper.

You don’t need to
have perfected these, but just make sure that you’ve given all the areas equal
consideration. You don’t want to look back six months from now, and wish you
had identified some big issues that are now threatening your success. If you’ve
identified some red flags, assess if they’re huge obstacles or small ones. If
they’re big, get them out of the way before you execute, even if it means
pushing your timeline out for awhile.

1. Get ready and organized: Identify specific issues and choices the process should address.

• Determine organizational readiness
• Create the planning committee
• Identify the information which must be collected to help make sound decisions

2. Articulate the mission and vision: Owners/managers clarify why the organization exists and what the end game is.

• Determine its primary business and organizational purpose
• Identify the corporate values
• Create an image of what success would look like

3. Review strategic position: Gather up to date information to develop an understanding of the critical issues. Information should include:

• Internal strengths and weaknesses
• External opportunities and threats through a competitive analysis
• Market opportunities through customer surveys
• Synthesize into a SWOT

4. Agree on Priorities: Identify the broad approaches for addressing critical issues

• Solidifying the organization’s competitive advantage
• Determine long-term goals/objectives
• Select strategies for customer segments
• Establish SMART short-term goals/objectives and the results to be achieved
• Draft this year’s action items

5. Organize the plan: Put the pieces together into one coherent document with the following reports:

• Complete Strategic Plan - for reference
• One-Page Strategic Plan - for communicating

6. Roll out the plan: Communicate the plan across the organization:

• Everyone in the organization has received a copy of the plan in some form (printed, emailed, posted on a wall in the break room)
• Identify the strategic plan leader
• Provide budgetary and resource support

7. Identify next actions: Make the plan tangible to each member of the team by clearly identifying what he/she is responsible for:

• Scorecard - for measuring
• Action Sheets - for executing

8. Hold everyone accountable: Monitor your plan by reporting performance metrics on a monthly or quarterly basis.

• Identify the source of each metric associated with measurable goals
• Set up systematic process for monthly or quarterly reporting
• Communicate to each responsible person when Nd how to report on their goals
• Hold monthly or quarterly strategy meetings
• Regularly monitor, evaluate, and adapt

This should help you develop your plan and keep that plan on track. For additional reading on developing and implementing your strategic plan check out Strategic Planning For Dummies by Erica Olsen.

Business Strategy Execution: 4 Reasons Why Your Company’s Strategy Isn’t Working

It’s November now, and high time to take a look at your progress
relative to your goals for 2006. How are you doing? On a scale of 1-10,
how satisfied are you with your results? Have you taken the action that
you committed to do? Have you discovered unexpected obstacles or delays
in the results that you expected?

Yes, the holidays are coming.
I often hear that as a reason why things start to slow down or activity
shuts down entirely once November rolls around. “Nobody wants to talk
about new initiatives right now,” or “Everyone is taking the weeks of
vacation they didn’t have time to take earlier in the year.” Or, if you
live in an outdoorsy spot like my area of Pennsylvania, “It’s
buck/doe/turkey/small game/flying squirrel/one-eyed blue coyote season.”

If
you choose to do so you have the opportunity to sprint for a few weeks
to end your 2006 on an up note and set the stage for an outstanding
first quarter of 2007. There ARE prospective clients out there who want
to do the same thing, and you can help them. It might even be to their
advantage from a tax perspective to work with you (translation: pay for
your services) before their next accounting year begins.

How
will 2007 be different from 2006 in terms of your performance? What
will you do differently? Will the appearance of your business change?
Will you continue to pursue your same line of strategic action? Have
you updated your strategic plan, or developed a formalized plan of
action for the first time? How do you intend to attain and sustain the
laser focus that will catapult you to the next level of success? Even
if you’re satisfied or downright thrilled with this year’s results,
what do you want to do to sharpen the saw to prepare yourself for
achieving even better results?

Success isn’t necessarily a
struggle unless you make it so. If you do the same things you’ve always
done you’ll get the same things you’ve always gotten. If you’ve pushed
and pushed to no avail, read the sign on the door. It just might say
“Pull.” Take a look at your history in the bright light of day and see
how your assumptions and habits might have been holding you back until
now. Then change something. There’s no time like the present –
actually, there’s no time BUT the present.

Fall is a perfect time to take stock of your
direction, set goals, and milestones for the coming year. That’s the
time when we have traditionally developed an annual plan in my company.

But this year, during the summer, we conducted a
thorough marketing plan session, so we put off the business plan
process. Whoops!

Without a plan, I feel overwhelmed all the time.
We have a number of decisions to make, and the lack of a clear
strategic plan for the coming year is starting to make a noticeable
difference. We’re experimenting with some new projects, have a real
need to hire additional help, and are launching a number of new
marketing initiatives.

With all this activity, I don’t know where to spend my time or money first. Every day, I consider a different option.

That’s why a plan is so important. One of the
great things about planning is that it is a decision-making process.
You set aside a time to discuss and evaluate exactly which projects and
initiatives are priorities and which are not. It’s liberating.

Here’s a secret: business planning substantially frees you from the feeling of being constantly overwhelmed.

When I mentioned to my staff that it was time
for a planning session, they all said they’d been feeling the exact
same need. So we’ve planned a full strategic annual planning session
the second week of November.

The reality is that business planning —
meaningful business planning — is addictive. Developing an annual
business plan has helped my company grow more than any other single
business activity.

Successful business plan sessions require a number of steps:

•Set a date. At least a few weeks before
your planning session, set aside a specific day or more. If it’s your
first planning session ever, you may need at least a few days,
especially if you have employees. If you work by yourself, perhaps you
can do this in just a half day.

•Set a place. Get out of the office. If
you work at home, get out of your home. Turn off your cellphones. Set
an auto reply on your e-mail. You’ve got to get away from the
day-to-day distractions of your regular business.

•Set an agenda. At least a couple of
weeks before your meeting, start talking about what you want to cover.
Ask employees or your partners for agenda items. Know what topics you
want to cover and decide on about how much time you’ll devote to each
topic. Figure out which areas of your business you want to address —
products/services, marketing, administration, financial management,
employees, etc. Recognize you won’t be able to get to all of them so
make decisions at the time you establish your agenda.

•Do your homework. Some agenda items
require some homework before you can make decisions. For instance, if
one of your agenda items is whether to launch a new marketing campaign,
you’ll want to have some estimates of costs involved.

•Bring your financial records. During
your planning session, you’re going to evaluate what worked and what
hasn’t in the past year. In particular, you’ll want to assess which
activities have been the most successful in terms of profit, not just
income.

Once you’re at your planning session:

•List your goals. In each area you’ve identified, list goals you hope to accomplish in the coming year.

•Get specific. Put details with each
goal, especially numbers. Let’s say one of your goals is to increase
sales. Don’t just say you’d like to double your income. Instead, list
each product or service you offer, and set a goal of a specific number
of customers and income for each.

•Identify actions. Identify the steps
necessary to achieve each specific goal. For instance, if you’ve
decided to increase marketing, list the specific ways you’ll do this,
such as advertising, trade shows, direct mail, etc. Estimate the time
and money each action will take.

•Assign tasks. Determine who will be responsible for carrying out each step.

•Set priorities. Rate highly the things
you must do to survive. Next, choose those activities with the highest
chance of success. Don’t try to do everything; it’s better to eliminate
some goals altogether rather than attempting all partway.

Rhonda Abrams is author of The Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies and
president of The Planning Shop, publishers of books and other tools for
business plans. Register for Rhonda’s free business planning newsletter
at www.PlanningShop.com. For an index of her columns,      click here. Copyright Rhonda Abrams 2006.

Need more guidance? Visit MyStrategicPlan to use our planning tools and software.

The sheer quantity of all this information is unprecedented, but so is the complexity of working with it. Yet, despite its volume and disparate nature, this data is potentially useful to business because the computing power necessary to merge, manage and make sense of it also has been advancing and becoming more affordable…forward-looking companies are positioning themselves ahead of this information curve by moving quickly and down two parallel tracks: increasing the company’s ability to gather and access new forms of data while simultaneously building organizational capability to use that data for insight.

Modified thoughts from Glover Ferguson, Sanjay Mathur and Baiju Shah