The Unsung Heroes of Strategy Execution and Capability Transformation

Often, a new strategy or transformation program is announced with great fanfare, accompanied by big budgets and teams of consultants to assist with implementation. Other times, organisational capabilities are built and transformed with a small budget uplift for targeted external assistance and primarily business-as-usual (BAU) resourcing, powered by support from a small coalition of unsung heroes who are determined to make things happen.

Reflecting on a transformation that I have been leading over the last 18 months, it is in the second category: low budget and being delivered as a combination of formal projects and BAU activity, by a group of unsung heroes. Almost imperceptibly, the foundations are being built in terms of modernising the technology infrastructure to make it more scalable and responsive to change, improving timeliness and accessibility of information that drives critical decisions, and lowering the cost structure to allow for growth. Importantly, this transformation is also helping build the people and culture capabilities for broader digital transformation, such as data-centricity, formal Agile project management with close business-IT-vendor partnering, and supporting grass-roots innovation.

Almost imperceptibly, the foundations are being built in terms of modern technology infrastructure, information access, cost structure, and the people and culture capabilities required for broader digital transformation.

It began with a one-day visioning session, some 16 months ago, conducted with a group of some 20 of our senior managers and executives. Having come up with many ideas for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of caring for our patients and residents, there was a collective realisation by the end of the day that the organisation did not have the underlying people, process, or technology capabilities to achieve the vision. With relatively low capabilities across all the areas required for success, in truth it was difficult to even work out where to start.

But as I conducted more and more conversations with various stakeholders, a roadmap emerged, focusing on fixing the worst of existing problems as first priority. My team dug deep, clearing a big backlog of undelivered development requests while doing their day-to-day support tasks. We conducted extensive "renovations" of the current technology platform to fix operational problems. As day-to-day operational delivery improved, we started to win back long-lost trust and credibility with our internal customers, albeit some more quickly than others.

As the broader strategy began to take shape, and the high-level next steps were officially endorsed by group executives, I garnered broad in-principle support from internal customers and my management, but the most pivotal supporter and believer turned out to be someone I didn't expect: the leader of an influential area that was under-served by my team. With her support, the first project got off the ground - the one charged with building the foundation for the new strategy.

The next unsung hero in my story is a highly capable program manager who knows how to drive change, engage stakeholders and be resilient in the face of obstacles: whether in the form of convoluted bureaucratic processes, or executives who needed to be gently nudged towards Agile decision-making. Most importantly, she is someone who cares about sustainable capability building for the organisation, and not just about delivering a project. She planned training and cross-skilling for my BAU team (as the people who have to make it work and keep it working every day), and is engaging with a broad range of stakeholders/users in the business to pave the way for adoption.  

Last but not least, there is our external provider, a small but rapidly growing specialist firm that has been walking alongside us, sharing kudos and opportunities but we also went through a period of uncertainty together - a "valley of darkness". The term "strategic partner" is bandied around a lot, but this is a firm that has so far lived up to the name.

And there you have it: a group of executives and managers involved in visioning and conversations which helped me define the strategy execution roadmap, many of whom are now my partners, supporters and sounding board. A BAU team that worked extra hard and won back trust and credibility from our internal customers - and will be needed to make it work and keep it working. A pivotal supporter and believer who got our first project off the ground. My management who acted as our sponsors. The program manager who is helping us drive and sustain change. A strategic partner firm that is living up to its name. And the many others who continue to contribute their time and talents to this venture. The story is not as straightforward to tell as the other way to implement strategy or deliver transformation - the big fanfare, the big budget, the big consulting teams. However, the quiet capability building, delivered by unsung heroes aligned to a shared vision, is the more effective and sustainable way of executing strategy and driving transformation. Without naming names, I thank all my unsung heroes for your continued support. The journey has only just begun.

Stephanie Owen currently heads up IT strategy, architecture, risk, cybersecurity, data governance and analytics at St Vincent’s Health Australia, the third largest privately-owned healthcare organisation in Australia operating 2 major multi-campus public hospitals, 10 private hospitals, and 20 aged care facilities in three states. St Vincent's is also a leader in Australian medical research, operating the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Garvan Institute, and St Vincent's Medical Research Institute.

The opinions expressed are Stephanie’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of St Vincent’s Health Australia.

(c) 2019