Ensure individual commitment to be ready to implement your strategy successfully
Tom Bloemers
Transformation Partner | Executive Energy Coach | Project Leadership Trainer | Board Director
Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left?
Most respondents say ‘one’. The answer, though, is ‘five’ because there is a huge gap between deciding to jump off and actually doing it.
Sometimes Boards and the organizations they oversee have intentions rather than commitments. They announce that they are going to jump off the log, but somehow things get in the way of the actual leaping.
Why jump?
Actually jumping off (realizing projects successfully) is critical, because ~70 percent of strategies fail to deliver.
One of the explanations is that only 1 out of 7 employees know their organization's most important goal, and only ~50% are passionate about them. Moreover, only ~15% know very clearly what action to take to realize the strategy.
?How can somebody actively help in realizing a strategy if they don't know what the strategy is, if they are not passionate about it, and if they don't know what to do differently?
??As a result, people miss commitment to action.
In terms of definitions :
Intention - forms an idea or goal to achieve.
Decision - to pursue the goal, following option analysis.
Communication - consisting of top-down cascading of the strategic 'why' and objectives, and two-way dialogue so everybody understands and knows what to do and why this is important.
Commitment - individual decisions to dedicate themselves and contribute to the course of action with willingness to invest time, effort and resources to it, and sacrifice other things.
Action - individuals putting decisions and commitment into practice by contributing to strategy realization.
Review - checking that actions are delivering the desired results, holding people and teams accountable to their commitments, and adjusting as needed.
??Commitment is the link between Strategy and Implementation.
??Taking the leap to individual action in alignment with strategy, makes strategy execution and projects successful.
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Alignment is not sufficient
Poor alignment of the organization's processes, structures and systems to the new strategic direction are often cited as one of the causes of not achieving strategic success.
??Alignment with strategy is important but not sufficient to execute strategies successfully.
Milvio D and Stephen Jenner state that strategy alignment means nothing . Rather it is strategy contributions that really matter.
Strategic contribution?? the part played or the individual new and differentiating actions taken by a person or team in bringing about a newly desired result.
The contribution needs to transform, grow, alter, improve or stop an activity to move the organization forward.
In contrast, strategy alignment is limited to:
?Striving for performance, within a restricted framework,
?Arrangement in a straight line or into correct relative positions,
?Being a tool to help in prioritizing, but it is not the goal on its own,
?Blind acceptance, instead of weighing and ranking according to importance,
?Talking about and believing in the strategy, but not actually doing much about it,
?Ticking-off an externally imposed goal for official appearance, but without substantive action to back it up,
?Acceptance but not internalization, leaving room to escape or change decisions in private, but not in public,
?Accepting vertical cascading of strategy, but not doing the work for effective horizonal cross-functional or cross-business alignment
?'Good enough' thinking, instead of focusing on which measurable improvements (benefits) would demonstrate strategic progress, and
?Copying and integrating corporate strategic language, without doing hard thinking on why and how it should change team or individual strategies.?
To highlight the difference between alignment or interest and commitment, Ken Blanchard said, “when you’re interested in doing something, you only do it when it's convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses; only results”.
We also all know the phrase 'the pig is committed in making breakfast, while the chicken is involved'. Alignment, like involvement, is not sufficient.
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Commitment is about individual accountability
Through commitment, individuals take a personal decisions to dedicate themselves and contribute to the course of action with willingness to invest time, effort and resources to it, and sacrifice other things.
As a result of commitment, the strategic decisions are rarely criticized anymore, because there is full buy-in and internalization.
??Commitment is therefore individually based and bottom-up and emphasizes collaboration and learning, on how to make a useful contribution.
Commitment also increases flexibility to change course and discover other avenues when needed, as individuals and teams have intrinsically understood their own role and responsibilities and have space and trust to make the right choices. They are empowered to be agile and do more than follow a predetermined road map.
Often, commitment is easier to gain when the organization is in jeopardy and its very survival rests on finding a new and creative strategy. It’s much harder to secure commitment when the status quo remains acceptable or even desirable. The urgent will always drive out the important. Organizations risk slipping back into managing for short-term productivity, rather than shaping the long-term future.?
To maintain commitment, it is therefore critical for the Board and Senior Management to continuously engage on the strategic ‘journey’ through compelling and relentless communication.
??Review ensures commitment doesn't become a loose promise, as it holds people accountable. It is therefore critical that the Board challenges the CEO and organization to regularly review and report on strategic performance.
Readiness to implement
"A CEO asked each of her five direct reports how prepared their part of the organization was to implement a new strategy. Each said, ‘We’re 90 percent prepared.’ Initially the CEO felt happy, believing the organization was, overall, 90 percent ready.?
But the chair of the board pointed out that strategy is about cohesion and the inter-relationships between the parts of the organization involved. If five functions are each 90 percent ready, cumulatively the organization is only 59 percent prepared".
??So ask the right questions to your CEO and her/his teams, including:
?How well is your strategy known and understood?
?Are people passionate about the strategy?
?To what extent do people grasp their own role and responsibility in contributing to its realization?
?Have non-aligned activities been reduced or eliminated?
?How prepared is your organization to deliver its strategy?
?To what extent are individuals in your teams committed to the strategy?
A focus on commitment creates a sustainable culture for success.
??Commitment and individual responsibility gives strategy its punch.
?Make obtaining commitment an integral part of developing and deploying your strategy.
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Further resources:
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