MyStrategicPlan | Strategy Development & Execution Software » Implementation

Putting Your Strategic Plan To Work With Implementation

shannon — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:42:11 +0000

Implementing your strategic plan is as important, or even more important, than your strategy. It is the critical actions that move a strategic plan from a document that sits on the shelf to actions that drive business growth. The sad reality is that the majority of companies who have strategic plans fail to implement. Don’t be part of the majority!

According to a Fortune cover story, nine out of ten organizations fail to implement their strategic plan for the following reasons:

60% of organizations do not link strategy to budgeting
75% of organizations do not link employee incentives to strategy
86% of business owners and managers spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy
95% of a typical workforce does not understand their organization’s strategy

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 does not guarantee that the desired performance will be reached any more than having a roadmap guarantees the traveler will arrive at the desired destination. However, the more complete and purposeful the implementation, the more successful the company will be in the marketplace.

Implementation is the process that turns strategies and plans into actions in order to accomplish strategic objectives and goals. Whereas the strategic plan addresses the what and why of activities, implementation addresses the who, where, when, and how. It is believed that implementation is as important, or even more important, than strategy. The fact is that both are critical to success. In fact, companies can gain competitive advantage through implementation if done effectively.

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Keeping Your Team Improving (Part 3 of 3)

Vanessa Lindeberg — Sat, 28 May 2011 21:09:05 +0000

This is part 3 of a 3 part series from our MyStrategicPlan Strategy Huddle held on May 25, 2011.

Elsa Ozuna-Richards, Account Executive, is our speaker for this segment of the Strategy Huddle. Elsa brings her expertise in strategy and health care to present examples of how to use Continuous Quality Improvement with strategic planning to motivate your team to keep improving.

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10 Way to Keep Your Strategic Plan from Hitting the Shelf

shannon — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:25:49 +0000

More often than not, life and day-to-day operations take over a well-intentioned strategic plan implementation. If the strategic plan in one more thing everyone has to do, it begins to feel like a burden instead of being exciting. By embedding your strategic planning into daily operations, completing items on your strategic plan becomes natural instead of something extra or something you pull off the bookshelf and review only when you happen to remembers it’s there. Here are ten quick ways to keep your strategic plan from landing on the shelf and collecting dust.

Getting Everyone Involved from the Start: Make your organization’s plan everyone’s plan.
Deleting the Fluff: Less is more!
Appointing a Strategic Engineer: Appoint someone to be the go-to person for the strategic plan.
Creating a Strategic Plan Poster: By putting your strategic plan on one huge page, you keep your strategic plan from even touching the shelf.
Hooking Achievement into Incentives: By paying for performance, you elevate the importance of your strategic plan.
Using a KISS: When all else fails–Keep It Simple, Stupid. For your strategic plan to be implemented, everyone in your organization has to understand it.
Holding a Monthly Strategy Meeting: Replace one of your regularly scheduled staff meeting with a strategy meeting.
Using a Scorecard: Use a scorecard to keep everyone in the loop. A scorecard provides a quick snapshot of who’s contributing and who isn’t.
Leading by Example: Be a purposeful leader and your people will follow. There’s no better way to keep your plan alive than through your leadership.
Celebrating Your Success–Whenever You Feel Like It: Too often you’re so focused on tomorrow’s tasks that you forget to recognize today’s successes. Don’t wait until the end of the year to recognize achievement. Celebrate small successes along the way!

For more information on implementing your strategic plan and keeping it from hitting the shelf, check out Strategic Planning for Dummies!

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Execution: Review progress, establish schedule, setting up business rules, & strategy review meetings (60 mins)

Vanessa Lindeberg — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:59:57 +0000

So you have a plan. Now what? Effective execution is the name of the game in 2011. With most organization needing to drive results with less resources, successfully executing your strategy becomes critical to any organization’s growth and sustainability. In this February 2011 recorded webinar, you will learn how to move from having a “life-less” strategic plan to one that is truly living and breathing.

Listeners will learn:

How to effectively review your progress and track your key performance indicators
Establish an execution schedule with correct frequency, tools and reports to support the process
Set up business rules to help your team easily follow the process
How to run great monthly strategy review meetings

Download PDF (slide deck)

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Running an Effective Quarterly Business Review (60 mins)

Ryan Olsen — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:37:39 +0000

Watch a recorded video of the latest Strategy Huddle and then sign-up to attend the next huddle! The purpose of the huddle is to answer real world questions, handle high-level strategy issues, and share best practices on strategy, execution and planning. The topics of focus were:

Strategy Stat: 7 people in a decision-making group
Topic/Question: Running an Effective Quarterly Business Review – So you have a plan, now what? One of the biggest challenges organizations have is putting a plan into action – moving from the off-site to monthly decision making throughout the year. A visible sign of a plan that is being executed is hold monthly or quarterly business review or, as we call them, Strategy Review Meetings.

“Must Dos” before thinking about instituting Strategy Review Meetings
Identifying attendees, handouts, and frequency
Two different agendas and styles to run your meeting
Tips on how to facilitate a strategic, not tactical, conversation

Download PDF

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MyStrategicPlan New Features: The Dash, Reports, Virtual Strategy Guide (50 mins)

Vanessa Lindeberg — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:04:31 +0000

In this special webinar you will learn from Erica Olsen, COO and Co-Founder of M3Planning, how to get the most out of our MyStrategicPlan web-base software for strategic planning. She will discuss:

How to look like a hero with The Dash
How to get the most out of MSP Reports
Our best kept secret coming to your inbox: A Virtual Strategy Guide
How to tap into the wisdom of the crowd with the Strategy Community
How to take control of the communication to your team

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Leadership and Strategy: Pitfalls in the Strategy Leader Role (20 mins)

Vanessa Lindeberg — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:09:38 +0000

This is part of our Strategy Huddle series from July 2010, Leadership and Strategy.

This month we answered a of question from a client:

I am new to the “strategy leader” role in our mid-sized company. What are two pitfalls that I need to watch out for?

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Running Mid-Year Reviews: Important points to be considered (13 mins)

Vanessa Lindeberg — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:09:16 +0000

This is part of the July 2010 Strategy Huddle series, Running Mid-Year Reviews.

Important points to be considered when planning and holding a mid-year review:

Ensure your plan cascades correctly to allow for effective reporting
Clarify your plan structure, accountability and systems that support running a mid-year review
Give your managers/directors talking points
Require a specific reporting mechanism

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What Matters Most to Strategy Execution (5 mins)

Kristin Larsen — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:57:58 +0000

Need help identifying what matters most in strategy execution? In this presentation, we answer your real world questions about high-level strategy issues, and share best practices. This video was produced from a Strategy Huddle webinar held on June 23, 2010. If you enjoy this video, signup to attend the next huddle and submit your questions!

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Topic/Question: Creating Useful Measures for Execution
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Topic/Question: Case Study: How to Change your Business Model

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Optimize Strategic Execution with Effective Reviews

Kristin Larsen — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:10:08 +0000

There’s been much chatter about the ability of Strategic Plans to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Setting up solid execution review sessions with a consistent reporting structure is the very best thing you can do to keep your plan adaptive. Keeping these sessions on target is paramount. So much so, that it should be considered a golden rule to never skip a planned review session. Strategic plan survival requires timely and valid information. So, unless you manage by osmosis, reviews are your mechanism and the guiding force of your plan over time.

Starting at the team member level, key staff should update the weekly actions they are responsible for. Department leaders should then organize a monthly meeting with all key staff to review department-owned goals and performance metrics. This is also the time to brainstorm, discuss and take action on tactical or operational issues that might be clogging progress.

At the department level, a collective meeting each month is required for the senior management team to report on department-owned goals and performance measurements, with an emphasis on what your organization’s key performance indicators are telling you. This is where goal status and realized performance have an opportunity to be analyzed and learned from. As a result, recognition for achievements and cooperation can be deemed appropriate or the need for corrective actions can come to light.

Then gather your entire leadership team for an intensive review of the top, pre-defined strategic issues quarterly. These two questions will help you determine the context of the issue: 1) Is the issue a technical problem in implementing the operational structure? (i.e. Are the reports not working out? Is the scheduling not conducive to department workflows?) 2) Are there problems with incentive alignment or the culture? (And if so, how can you best address the expectations for change to be managed?)

For any of these meetings, be it at the team member review or the senior management session, you should standardize the preparation needed and the report structure. For many organizations, this represents a significant time drain if not appropriately planned. Nip this in the bud and come up with a format that clearly communicates goal/action, and performance measurement. Focus on the tasks at hand, clearly and effectively, and you’ll find yourself moving toward the broad improvement themes contained within your Strategic Plan.

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