Building and Implementing a Strategy
Pulling together a strategy around something is a request that we are all likely to be met with at some stage at work. As with the previous piece on ‘being more strategic’, I want to debunk some myths and provide some simple tips around building and implementing a strategy. Whilst for the more senior of you reading this you might feel you have a strong skillset in this area, I am constantly reminded through my work with senior leaders how useful it can be to revisit the basics, particularly in areas where research and thought leadership has developed over the last few years.
Purpose
The first question to look at is the most fundamental: why put a strategy together?
For all the fancy rhetoric around this, ultimately it’s about putting time in up front in order to increase your chances of achieving what you want or need to achieve.
Whether as an individual, team, or organisation, every minute of time you spend on one thing is a minute of time you are not spending on something else. So how do you maximise your chances of spending your time (and resource) on the ‘right’ things.
This is where a strategy can help. A plan that is thought through, that takes into account relevant factors, thereby giving you a better chance of success than you would have otherwise.
Pulling together a strategy forces us to think. It forces us to consider our stakeholders; the landscape; what’s going on; what might change. And, most importantly, it forces us to consider what, actually, are we trying to achieve? And what’s going to give us the best chance of success? And so where should we be focusing our efforts. As one expert in this area once said:
“A company without a strategy is willing to try anything”
How
There are huge numbers of articles, models, and of course experts all focusing on how to pull together a strategy. I have distilled down below some of the key takeaways to help drive success in this area. And, as you will see, this is where the art AND science comes in.
Is there a perfect solution?
No. There are too many variables and uncertainties for a strategy ever to be perfect.
So whilst it’s imperative to do your research (your situation assessment and analysis - usually involving elements such as the use of strategy models, the roll-out of consultations etc), don’t expect that a carefully and beautifully constructed strategy is the answer to all your problems.
Where should I start?
The most important thing to get right is the apex: what is it that you are aiming for with this strategy? What is your overriding objective? When you think you have defined this, ask yourself, why? How does this help? Where does this get me? Keep asking these questions until you are comfortable that you have landed on the right objective.
Be scientific in your process: when formulating your strategy, you are essentially putting together a hypothesis. Like any hypothesis, that then has to be tested. Do this rigorously (feedback/comment/input at this stage, whilst it may be uncomfortable, is invaluable).
What comes next?
You might think the difficulty is in the pulling together of the strategy. Actually it’s more commonly in the execution. I can’t tell you the number of times that I have seen brilliantly crafted strategies not succeeding due to a lack of consistency and discipline in execution.
But it’s not just about good execution; and this is where the monitoring stage is key.
There is always a careful balance that needs to be played between rigidly sticking to the plan, and tweaking and adapting. Provided you have good feedback mechanisms set up, then where results are not as expected, you can distinguish between lack of success due to failure to execute well, and lack of success due to a flawed or no longer relevant plan.
If the latter, don’t throw the baby out of the bathwater. Rigorously interrogate the info and data you are getting back, to try and ascertain what needs to change. Often it is just the tactics rather than the main strategic planks you have identified.
How can I improve the chances of successful execution? (we are talking about organisational strategies in particular here)
It’s important to ensure that your organisation is set up in a way that gives your strategy the best chance of succeeding, rather than acting as a barrier to its success. So is your organisational structure a lever or a barrier? And what about your processes? Do you have the right people in place? Don’t get tripped up on what might be a brilliant strategy by not having the determination and courage to follow through at an organisational level.
It also helps to ensure that the strategy is communicable in a way that it becomes part of the operational language. One brilliant example of this comes from Cranium, the company that manufactures the hit board game Cranium and many other products. Cranium uses the acronym CHIFF to describe its strategic differentiation in the extremely competitive board-game market. It stands for “Clever, High Quality, Innovative, Friendly, Fun.” CHIFF informs decisions across the organization – from branding to package design and the content of individual questions.
Is there one particular format that you would recommend?
Three simple letters: OST. This framework is used extensively throughout business, government, sport and countless other sectors. It is simple and accessible, and helps ensure that you focus on absolutely the right things. In brief, it works as follows. First, define your objective. Harder than it sounds, it’s vital that you get this right. As a very basic example, if I’m going for a job interview, my objective might be the ‘get the job’. But it might also be ‘ascertain if this is the right job for me.’ Two very different objectives, and it’s important that you peel back the layers to really land on the right objective. Use the questions suggested above.
Everything then flows from that objective, with the next stage being the articulation of your strategies, or strategic priorities. These are the planks/themes you need to focus on in order to achieve your objective. By way of example, when Steve Jobs came back to Apple, his objective for the company was ‘survival’. And his strategy was ‘simplification.’ That strategy directed everything they did, from internal structures and processes right through to design. More commonly, there are a small handful of strategies or strategic priorities that you believe will help you achieve your objective. When the pandemic hit, one of my client organisation’s had a clear objective: to come out the other side stronger and better. They had three strategic priorities that sat behind this: look after our stakeholders (people, clients and partners); look for opportunities; and keep on top of the day to day.
The final layer is the tactics that sit beneath the strategies. How you actually and visibly implement the strategy(ies). These can be grouped at a high level, and then detailed out in operational plans. This is where inputs and outputs should be set out, along elements such as key milestones and critical success factors.
Whilst everyone will have their own models and frameworks, I particularly love this as it is as applicable and relevant for deciding how to approach something as common as ‘getting fit’, or ‘how am I going to approach this meeting’ as it is for coming up with an organisational-wide strategy. Which means you can have a lot of practice using it. Which means you build the ability to use it well and effectively.
For more on this or any aspect of leadership, with a healthy dose of mindset, sport, and I hope usefulness thrown in, do feel free to browse through all the articles in the Huddle, or get in touch with me directly on catherine@sportandbeyond.co.uk