One of the toughest challenges any organization faces is moving their strategy from theory into action.
Often this challenge pops up because the people that are and have been responsible for the development of the strategy are far removed from the teams and people that are in charge of implementing the strategy.
This challenge comes up in most organizations that are silo’d, but it happens a lot almost everywhere.
The big leap in performance for many companies comes when they find the fortitude that is necessary to make the move from thinking to doing.
Here are a few tips that can help you make that move:
1. Don’t just create the strategy at the executive, big picture level:
You have to have buy in and input from the people delivering the strategy or you are destined to be a great theoretical document that has absolutely no impact.
How do you do that?
You begin by looking at your strategy from the implementation level.
In too many cases, executives and leaders are insulated from some of the real, on the ground challenges that their front line employees are dealing with and this leads them to make decisions and push ideas that aren’t consistent with the reality that is actually occurring in the field.
So make sure you get feedback and input from the field level people.
When I worked with the Experience Music Project we had a committee that focused on implementing things at a personal level that led to many innovations and improvement in the overall customer experience.
Depending on the nature of your organization, you could create a board or committee that focuses on how you are building a strategy and how you are going to make that strategy deliverable.
2. Set your team and organization measurable goals and outcomes:
One way that many strategies fail is by the organization being unclear about what success is going to look like.
This is more common than you think.
To overcome this obstacle, begin by thinking about where you want to be when you have achieved your goals.
What will success look like?
Then state that in clear terms that everyone that is responsible for the delivery of the strategy can understand and communicate.
3. Ask yourself, “Why?”
Another key to successfully moving strategy from concept to action is that you need to understand why you are doing what you are doing.
In too many cases, the why that is driving any initiative is unclear or uncertain.
That’s too bad because having a good grasp on the why of the actions can be a defining moment for your organization and create the kind of shared commitments that will deliver outstanding results.
So you need to make the jump and ask why the strategy is being reconfigured?
Why you are doing this now?
Why what you were doing wasn’t working?
And, the list of whys can go on and on.
The key is to uncover the real motivation.
If you put these 3 concepts in practice, your organization will likely have a much better chance of taking action on your strategy.