Strategic Execution
Strategic Execution
Controlling the field and setting the market is the first goal of any strategy. Great power comes from this advantage as it shapes the end state to your favor. However, you must be able to execute to take advantage in the overall outcome.
Napoleon was the analytical commander. He knew his geometry and statistics very well so that he could place his troops in the right position with the highest statistical advantages to win. However, Napoleon’s true effectiveness was in his fluidity to pivot quickly. He had his troops march at 120 paces per minute vice the standard 70 paces per minute. He was the first to the battlefield of his choosing.
We see this played out in board games and competitions all the time. Let’s take chess for example, the ultimate game of strategy. By tradition the White piece always moves first, they initiate and set the tone. There is no wonder then that white holds a 10% advantage of winning over black, 55% to 45%.
Moving to Action
You have made it through the planning stages. You’ve assessed the situation and predicted the future. You developed and tested new ideas. Your planning is now complete, and it is time for action.
Every plan has limitations and planning will only carry you so far into the battle. I’ve seen numerous strategies base their progress on plan completion instead of if their strategy was effective or not. Luckily, you have identified and are tracking the right key performance indicators where you can see if your strategy is moving the needle.
With your finger close to the true status of the strategic performance you are in position to be agile. You are poised to act quickly when data comes in. Modeling action research, you take this strategy as a living experiment where you can tweak where needed. You are also the first person to know when the strategy is a failure and needs to pivot the business completely.
Failing to Commit
The biggest fallacy executives and industry leaders can make is not fully committing to the strategy. An outside observer can determine this within an hour of looking at their P&L (Profits and Loss sheet) to determine what shifted. If there is no shift from pre-strategy to post, no changes have been made nor will any impactful change occur.
Strategy calls for a full implementation. This full implementation demands commitment. That consists of people movement, resource shifting, and rewiring how the organization operates.
If you have committed the right resources to execution you now monitor to ensure progress. Track the major milestones of the action plans and follow up to ensure that they are completed. At this stage, it is simply sound management to ensure that the plan is carried out as intended.
Moving in Alignment
Completion of actions must be managed, but on equal importance the alignment of the organization to the strategy must be managed with equal enthusiasm. Your goal as the leader calls for the organization marching forward to the same beat. During implementation the plan will change. Sometimes slightly and sometimes drastically, but you need to continue to help the workforce pivot to the shared direction.
A hallmark of true expertise and insight is making a complex subject understandable. “Mediocrity and bad strategy is unequivocally complex, a flabby of fluff to mask substance." If what you are selling is fluff no one will buy it.
Once you have your messaging on the strategy refined, you will play the role of the strategic voice piece. You are not working on the plan in most cases but acting as the sounding board to the organization about the change. Excellent leaders will continuously talk about it where the team has no question about what the priority is.
Talk Less and Listen More
At this stage you will talk less than what you should and will be spending most of your time listening. Every time you pass a co-worker you are missing a data point for how the strategy is working. You will want to know what is working and what isn’t. You’ll want to know what you need to change before it gets too late.
Famed management theorist, Peter Senge, believes that learning organizations can learn faster than their competitors. It is hard to argue that point but when conflicting evidence points to plan or strategic flaws, defensiveness is the first to rise. As a leader practice your first response to not defend your choices but to collect impressions. To build an organization of trusted confidants you must have a level of candidness throughout the organization where everyone can speak freely.
Shaping the Field of Play
First to the field can be the difference between winning and losing. Militarily by moving light you accelerate mobility and can move freely behind enemy lines attacking unguarded rear supply troops. As a small business you embody a level of freedom and quick action that big businesses do not. Think of large bureaucratic organizations and how long it takes them to pivot, to turn the ship.
In 1944 Normandy was staged by non-stop bombing of the enemy’s communications, they paralyzed the Nazis from moving reserves to critical areas. Your team can fall prey to attacks and needlessly delay your movements if they do not know what they are supposed to do and where to be. You can kill your brilliant strategy because you failed in getting your team onboard before the attack.
Carl von Clausewitz was the famed Prussian military strategist during the 19th century. The author of the prized strategic military theory book, “On War” von Clausewitz declared that “blood is the price of victory.” To effectively implement your strategy, you will have to sacrifice. You may have to kill pet projects and forgo extraneous opportunities. The price of blood is saying goodbye to those who don’t fit the strategy moving forward.