Our survey shows gaps in strategy deployment

The results of our latest poll are in, and it reveals that a third of our respondents do not know their employer's strategy and therefore are unsure of how they are supposed to contribute towards it.??This is no surprise to us: it's consistent with our consulting experience in organisations across many sectors.?

Why does it matter?

Every manager and employee makes?decisions?- every day.??Some very small, some very significant.??They commit time and money to the work that they perceive to be the priority.??If those priorities are not aligned to that of the business, there is a good chance that some of that?effort is misplaced.

Whilst?trust?in your people to know what they should do is admirable,?it rarely leads to the desired outcomes.??It's not enough to tell a taxi driver to take you home – they need to know the destination!

Employees who feel that they do not know the company strategy, and more importantly how they contribute to it, are?unlikely to be motivated to see the business succeed.??Engaged workforces usually have a sense of being intricately woven into the success of their employers.??This is almost impossible if they don’t understand what that success looks like.

How does it happen?

There are a number of reasons why companies fail to deploy their strategies effectively and efficiently:

Non-existent or poorly defined strategy?-??Obviously there needs to be a well defined strategy to align with, in a format that people can understand!??They also need to be credible - over-optimistic strategies hatched in the boardroom without the input of those who will implement are unlikely to fully delivered.

Failure to deploy?- Keeping the strategy in the boardroom will not help deliver the required outcomes.??It's not just about communicating the strategy once or twice and hoping it sticks.??Deployment usually fails because either the mechanisms to ensure consistency don't exist, or layers of management dilute or filter the message.

Misaligned rewards?- Sometimes reward mechanisms can be at odds with the stated business priorities.??For example, a common failure is the use of incentives to reward top line growth.??Whilst there is value in increasing turnover, if this is at the expense of margin, quality, safety or reputation the results can be disastrous to the long term viability of the business.??When reward is misaligned to strategy, the latter normally fails to win the motivational competition!

Getting it right

Organisations that successfully define, communicate and deploy their strategy are much more likely to deliver profitable, sustainable growth.??We've identified five key elements required to successfully deliver an operational business strategy:

1. Shared Vision?– created with input from across the organisation to define the desired end state, with clear measures of success.
2. Actionable strategies?– programmes, projects and other initiatives that will deliver the desired future state, with clear defined accountability.
3. Aligned Objectives?– processes and tools to ensure teams and individuals have objectives defined that support the strategy.
4. Performance Management – frameworks to ensure that the day to day actions of all employees are in line with objectives (and behavioural standards).
5. Reward and (more importantly) Recognition?– reinforcing the message and direction.

Protean?are experts in all aspects of Strategy Deployment, which lies at the core of our?operational maturity model. We help businesses to deliver their vision, using proven tools and methodologies.

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Phil Chater

Managing Partner. July 2023

Want to know more? Contact us at?https://protean-ml.com/contact/?for an informal chat about how we can assist you today.

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