Red alert! The mysterious divide between Strategy and execution

• Have you seen instances where everyone seemed to be neck deep in work. Burning midnight oil but no one is hitting the targets?
• Have you seen instances when most of the employees got their bonuses but the company did not exceed any targets?
• Have you seen instances where consultants or vendors get paid but sales did not improve?
• Have you seen instances where everyone is busy deciding the dinner menu for a meeting while no one seems to know why they had to sit so late and create strategic plans today?
• Have you seen instances where everyone seems responsible for a project but no one is accountable for the performance??
• Have you seen instances where you are asked to present a strategic plan to the management and you have to dig into your laptop to find what you presented the last time?

If the answer to even one of these questions is “yes”, I am sure you believe either of these two statements about your company :

In relation to the real world, it sounds like :

You decided to make dum aloo for dinner…..? got the perfect recipe from your mom (the expert/know it all).....spent time ordering the best ingredients from Bigbasket (some of the names that you had to google first).... Spent hours prepping the potatoes (because some complex Indian cooking ensures that you suck all the nutrients from the food to make it tasty) …?

But then when it came to the real execution of your plans, you set the entire plan aside, got distracted with watching Suits for the 100th time on Netflix and decided to order from your beloved Zomato (coz you want them to earn even more after the IPO) and Alas!!!!

The 5 star restaurant that claims to sell authentic food is not even close to the authentic dum aloo you were craving.? Trust me … being a kashmiri, the pain is real.?

Moving beyond reliving my nightmare, the point is that High-performing teams, compared to lower-performing teams, spend 54% more time first setting direction, creating a vision that serves as a guiding light for decisions about people, investment and processes.?

Some startling facts are :

A recent survey of more than 400 Global CEOs found that executional excellence was the #1 challenge they faced, coming at the top of some 80 other issues.

In a study of 8,000 managers in more than 250 companies, respondents said they were three times as likely to miss performance commitments due to insufficient support from other units.


Another study of 144 C-level executives found that only 10% said they implemented two-thirds or more of their core strategic initiatives in the year.
        

So, what can be done to bridge this gap ??

1. Not a stand alone activity:?

Strategy is not a standalone activity to achieve the organizational goals. In fact it is all interlinked. Most organizations create strategic plans in isolation every year, overlooking the fact that they have set an organisational VISION and their goals have to be set in alignment with that vision and the strategy has to align with the goals and the organizational VISION.?

2. Not a one time activity:

Strategy is not an activity limited to a week/month/quarter. It has to be imbibed in the organisational culture. If a company wants to have the best customer service, the strategy is not limited to creating the plan to make the customer service department excel at what they do; it is to ensure that everyone in the organization understands that customer service is important and creates actionable activities to enable great customer experience. E.g. digital team, technology team , sales team ; all have to know their respective action items for a great customer service experience.

3. Not a senior management activity:

Creating strategic plans is often limited to senior management. In fact that is how it should be. But breaking down the plans into actionable items and eventually into team KPIs will ensure that everyone knows what to DO to enable the strategy to provide desired results. It involves ownership and accountability from all team members to understand WHY are they doing WHAT they do.?

4. Not a diktat:

Creating strategy is about defining the direction for the team. The team will eventually execute the plans. And if they are not on-board with the broader thought, how will they deliver desired results. It is about engaging everyone in the process and giving precise directions for execution.

Easier said than done, the process of bridging the gap between strategy and execution requires an eye for detail while keeping the big picture in mind.

A step towards that can?be to deploy a task force to create a strong process for the setting up the strategic plans and then deploying project management practices to clearly establish and monitor the execution stages.

If you want to share your thoughts or work on bridging this gap for your organization, please feel free to reach out to me.