Defining Strategy Roles & Responsibilities

As a LinkedIn Editorial Top Voice, thought leader, author, educator, strategy facilitator, and training practitioner, I write a weekly article that benefits existing or emerging leaders who want to improve their organizations significantly.

Clarifying Expectations

Leadership should develop an organizational strategy that includes a whole-system stakeholder perspective. To best utilize everyone's time in this strategy development, a project plan to define all parties' roles and responsibilities must be developed. Everyone can then put in the prep work to ensure that they come to the process fully prepared to contribute to increasing the impact of the result of a transformative strategy.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." — Benjamin Franklin

Establishing Clear Boundaries

Benjamin Franklin, one of our American founding fathers, had great advice on preparing well before beginning a project. A robust strategy team with clearly defined roles and responsibilities enhances the potential for the most effective and efficient project outcome. There should be clear objectives that include:

• A scope statement that provides a statement of work (SOW).
• A project charter that expands on the SOW with additional pertinent details authorizes the strategy project leader to initiate and lead the project. The project charter should be regularly reviewed to avoid the potential for scope creep.
• Establishing project priorities defines the budget, performance expectations, and schedule within the quality expectations. There should be a process for assessing the priorities of project trade-offs that optimizes the criteria for accepting, constraining, or enhancing them.
• A work breakdown structure (WBS) will include a hierarchical outline and relationships to the final project deliverables, and it is best suited to achieving tangible outcomes.
• The WBS must be integrated with the organizational breakdown (OBS) to provide a framework for summarizing organizational work unit performance, identifying responsible business units or teams, and tying the groups to cost control accounts.
• Gantt charts should be developed to define all of the WBS's levels and elements and establish the levels and components, organizational elements, work packages, and budget and cost information. The Gantt charts should be consolidated at all project levels.
• A responsibility matrix will summarize the tasks to be accomplished and the sole individual responsible for each task in the WBS. The matrix will list all tasks, participants, and the interfaces between business units, provide a means for everyone to view and accept their assignments, and clarify their levels of authority.
• There should also be a change order process to address requests to revise or expand the project scope.

The team should regularly review these details to ensure the project meets the defined expectations. The team composition should provide balance, perspective, and senior leadership involvement, which an outside facilitator may enhance. The team should have clear objectives with a team leader, subject matter experts, data analysts, and a communication champion.

Key Takeaways

Leadership should develop an organizational strategy that includes a whole-system stakeholder perspective. A robust strategy team with clearly defined roles and responsibilities enhances the potential for the most effective and efficient project outcome. The team composition should provide balance, perspective, and senior leadership involvement, which an outside facilitator may enhance.

First Step

Before you begin your subsequent strategy development, you should work through the list above. The process should involve reaching out and working with those who will participate to secure their commitment before the plan is developed. The greater the upfront commitment to developing the roles and responsibilities, the greater the likelihood of a robust strategy development outcome.

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Additional Information

To learn more about our work or read more blog posts, visit emmanuelstratgicsustainability.com .

I encourage you to read my book Humanist Manufacturing: A Humanitarian Approach to Excellence in High-Impact Plant Operations . The paperback and eBook versions are now available at Amazon and many other booksellers. You can also watch the Humanist Manufacturing Book Launch video to gain additional insight into the humanist manufacturing framework.

If you like what you have read, I invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn . I am honored and humbled for this recognition as a LinkedIn Editorial Top Voice, an invitation-only group featuring senior-level experts and leaders. Less than 0.5% of LinkedIn members receive this invitation, which is 1 billion LinkedIn members.

Feel free to call me at 734-664-9076 if you need help with the manufacturing support services of training and facilitation in change leadership, strategy, tactical planning, and change management.

See my virtual TEDx videos at Reinventing the Prison Industrial Complex and Humanist Manufacturing .

Humanist Manufacturing Course

My humanist manufacturing book describes my approach to human-centered leadership. To explore my humanist manufacturing framework, I encourage you to sign on to the free course below:

• Humanist Manufacturing Overview (Free) - The course introduces the humanist manufacturing framework. Some warm-up questions help students determine if they need to change their approach to manufacturing leadership. It introduces the humanist commitments that are the foundation for the framework and evidence of the need to alter the typical approach to manufacturing. There is also an introduction of six additional courses that guide the student through implementing each phase of the humanist manufacturing framework.

The leader should begin by developing a communication plan to keep all organizational stakeholders informed about the actions taken to develop the organization's strategy. The reality of working to optimize the opportunities for a collection of diverse stakeholders is a complex task. Using social intelligence will enhance the development of a strategic plan in collaboration with company stakeholders.

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