Whilst my peers often move on to their next strategic role in a rhythmic manner, I have tended to spend more time in strategic roles or adjacent roles within the same markets or segments, largely due to how I view “strategy” and my bias for action. A snippet from a previous articles makes this view clearer:

“… my definition then of strategy is our ability to project ourselves in the future and to think and act on ways to shape that future. If asked to boil it to its simplistic form it is “ making a choice and enacting the implications to the choice made”. The later needing emphasis and a watchful eye as regardless of what is in the power point presentation or strategy document or what was declared in a town hall session; what is implemented in realty is eventually “the strategy”. This states that a true strategist is one that moves their ideas into action.”

That pretty much captures why I’ve always wanted to see the plans built with care and effort eventually translated into action. My career choices has been a blend of strategy, operations and hybrid positions, driven by a craving to develop new ideas as well as bring them to life operationally. A stamp of “approval” from corporate leaders on a proposal isn’t enough for me. I’ve always felt the need to see things through to the point where the rhythm of combined activities moves the organization closer to its goal. This approach has shaped my career, allowing me to learn far more than if I were simply a “theorist” jumping to the next puzzle ... I wish to believe that it made my experience richer as I attempt to gain the skills of a “visionary operator”.

In my view, the goal of any strategist is to make sure that the plan “sticks and lands”, it is critical to gain strategic momentum in any plan. My definition of strategic momentum is the moment when operational execution reflects decisions, tactical actions, refinements and resource allocations that reinforces your “core strategies and priorities” in the plan developed.

 With these battle scars, please allow me to share a couple of the things I’ve learned in moving plans into action and eventually gaining “strategic momentum”. At a minimum the tips may help you in “turn-over stages” with your execution team. 

8 TIPS ON STRATEGIC MOMENTUM:

1.     DO “THE WORK” AT DEVELOPMENT STAGE

There are no short cuts especially at the strategic planning stage. There’s a quote that goes “Plans are nothing but Planning is everything”. This highlights the fact that no plan is perfect to the detail and should be malleable to a degree but there is significant merit in the process. Going through the planning process is mandatory as it is through the process that:

·       insights are surfaced

·       common understanding of context amongst members are attained

·       agreement on the true business questions to focus on

·       interdependencies and constraints identified

·       point of views and stakeholders (external and internal) mapped

·       priorities, trade-offs, red-line are defined

·       More importantly; if the process is done right each member of the organization would have a shared sense of fate … which to me is the starting point for meaningful discussions within the organization.

These benefits will be crucial when plans are eventually exposed to the realities of execution and the dynamics of the market. They are building blocks to lean on when leaders try to move everyone and hold everyone across the line of “implementing”. If you start strong and stay truthful, you’ll get most of the “required levers to move the corporate gears”.

2.     KNOW AND FOCUS ON YOUR LEVERAGE POINTS

Now that you’ve developed the strategic plan, it is wise to understand and appreciate that not all components of the plan would yield the same result and nor would they come to fruition within the same time period. The principle that not everything is exactly “equal in importance and impact” applies also to the strategic imperatives that complete a plan. Each imperative of the plan would have a specific time and rhythm when it’s importance becomes critical to the traction and trajectory of the over-all plan. There would be an “evolving hierarchy of importance” in each component over time. Let us call these selected strategic imperatives of greater importance as “leverage points”. Leverage points that eventually move the organization forward at an exact time point in the plans time horizon. These leverage points are “core to the plan” at that moment. We used these leverage points to shift and push “corporate inertia” on things that could demonstrate the soundness of the over-all plan developed. 

The famous Archimedes line – “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” – that said, knowing where to place the fulcrum is equally crucial. The effectiveness of leverage is not only in the effort, resources and leadership airtime applied but strategically choosing where it should be applied and when.  

Having an appreciation of this evolving hierarchy and rhythm within the over-all plan enables leaders and strategist to focus energies on what matters at that specific period as well as flexibility in refining each imperative as the organization learns from executing the plan. This flexibility counters tendencies to take an “all-or-nothing” stance.  Avoid treating the plan on paper dogmatically and touting action on “all the imperatives” on Day One - Remember there is a specific “time” for everything.

Based on this theme, I recommend 3 sub-steps:

·       Lock in on your imperatives that are “Core to the Strategic Plan”. Push yourselves to find that hierarchy of importance.

·       Break your imperatives and cluster them across a structured timeline with identified milestones. There is an ebb and flow to the importance of each imperative hence other parts of the broader plan would come in at its appropriate milestone.

·       Identify key operators in the system. Key operators are leaders, advocates and doers that have accountability and direct impact on the activities connected to the specific imperative moreover they act as “connectors” to the rest of the organization. Note the activities may be anchored to a department or geography or a customer group but rather than chasing everyone best to find the “linchpin”. At times the operator may not be only the person that holds the formal corporate job title, you need to dive deeper that just going over the organizational chart and surface how “things truly get done in the field”.   

3.     PROCESS, SYSTEMS AND GUARD RAILS  

In the rush to demonstrate activity and reap results, organizations at times fail to review processes and systems required to execute the key imperatives or identify currently embedded ones that may hinder execution. Organizations falter at times and skip the much needed assessments, failing to set up or tweak SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), Approval Process and Policies and lines of communication. The current processes and systems in place were built and improved on most likely different set of goals, different groups or different set of actions to deliver on the imperatives at that point in time. If the organization find themselves needing to execute new types of activities or ways of working, there most likely will be a need to set up new systems, processes and policies.

Gaining inertia on “new tactical activities” to drive these imperatives would be hard if the means to drive action across the organization is not in place. This would result into frustrated teams that may doubt the feasibility of the over-all plan. Leaders need to ensure that proper diligence is done. This stage requires “design thinking”. We should all take a cue from Designers and IT practitioners as they are more attuned to identifying critical paths and incorporating “user-friendly work-arounds” in existing systems. A grounded tip would be to run a “test market or beta activity in a smaller scale”, this surfaces “walls and speed bumps” to execution quickly.

4.     DRIVE ACCOUNTABILITY

 One of the straight forward advice that are at times hard to implement is to ensure “accountability”. Best to always defer on caution and never assume that there is clarity especially during the inception stages of the plan. Most folks are aware of their roles and that they are competent but “gaps and grey areas” may likely exist. Key symptoms to watch-out for would be:

·       when the person or group feels no sense of agency and ownership. This occurs when folks feel an inability to act to deliver if they lack empowerment and resource or the processes is stack against action. All of this contribute to a sense of helplessness that eventually leads to “surrender and in-action”.       

·       when there is confusion on roles. This situation is aggravated given the complexity of the initiative as well as organizations being tightly interdependent and matrixed. Corporate folks lean in on workshops populated by jargons/acronyms like RACI and DIR rather than truly wrestling (and putting egos aside) on who is accountable.

·       clarity on the initiatives importance. This goes into buy-in from the person or the group as well as the entire organization on where the set of initiative falls in the corporate agenda, department objectives and individual goals. In the context of all the busyness in the system, conflicting agenda compete on time and resources. Any necessary trade-offs should be surfaced earlier on. This is a fact of life, as long as these trade-offs are communicated earlier then appropriate re-calibration could be done.  

In my view, the best way to nip this problem in the bud is to reflect on this three items prior to any roll-out and openly discussed these with the leaders as well as the teams involved.

5.     TOUGH ASSESSMENT ON CAPABILITIES

Be careful of hubris in assuming that the skills that made the organization successful are the same skill required for the next stage. Ensure that there is time and energy spent in truly assessing capabilities. Entering a new segment of a market, moving to an adjacent market, opening or scaling up in a new channel or even approaching/doing things in a different manner would most likely require new talents or new capabilities. Calling this out, addressing and resourcing this gap should be done early. Timelines should reflect any talent up-skilling or hiring and training needed to serve the execution of the plan. Even in execution a learning curve should always be factored in.   

6.     ENGAGE , COMMUNICATE AND GO BEYOND DASHBOARDS

“Out of sight, out of mind”, is an advertising adage likewise applicable to change management which is what strategist/leaders find themselves doing when moving a new strategy to execution – it is change management. The first organizational cascade is never enough to get traction. This one needs repetition and high-visibility. Monitoring KPI’s remotely also is inadequate.

 It is easy for easy senior leaders and strategist to miss this out in their busy schedules of “fire-fighting” but it is crucial to have a sense of “the strategy coming to life”. There is no better place to go than looking out for those leading indicators and feedback from the frontline. Go beyond dashboards, as the insight surfaces when engaging the people that are closest to the customers and the other stakeholders in the eco-system. If the strategic initiative is that critical to the organization, then you need to carve out time to do this either formally through field works and meetings or informally through surprise visits and personal networks. I would encourage going beyond traditional newsletter communication, town-hall sessions and reviews in head-quarters.

Augment these with:

·       frequent smaller coffee chat and fire-side sessions  

·       develop advocates across departments and grade levels in the organization to keep teams “holding the line”.

·       Go to the fringes and the front-line of where the activity is done.

·       Lead in front and rally the organization through the cadence of activities

7.     PATIENCE AND ACTIVE SHAPING

As shared earlier, Strategic Plans are executed over a longer time horizon through a number of focused initiatives in an organization. Plans are never perfect and are meant to be revisited and refined. The environment is never static nor should be your plans.

 Plans require refinement as more information comes in and as other variable react to what the organization does or on the external situation. Changes may be at tactical level and there might also be recalibrations at a strategic level.

 We however need to be patient. We tend to view causality as immediate, wishing a reaction in metrics with an implementation or a tweak. There are some variable that are responsive and there are other variable that tend to react over accumulated time. Patience however is learned through personal experience … this becomes tricky in any organization as one tries to define patience collectively, this is where leadership steps in.  

 
Hopefully the themes and tips discussed helps to inspire and enlighten you as you all move forward in your careers.