Why Strategic Plans Fail to Get Executed

The majority of strategic failures can be attributed to poor execution by leaders, rather than a lack of intelligence or foresight. In order to transform the strategic plan into actionable steps, it is crucial for teams to understand the roadblocks that may arise and have practical tools to overcome them. By doing so, they can be more efficient and effective in achieving their goals, turning their plans into reality.

Roadblock 1: Lack of Structure

A successful organization depends on having a solid structure and competent individuals in place. Referencing Jim Collins' book, "Good to Great," he likens the CEO's role to a bus driver who must determine the destination, the means to reach it, and the passengers joining the journey. Interestingly, he emphasizes prioritizing the "who" over the "what," which entails selecting the right team members before defining the destination.

This approach allows for easier adaptation in a constantly evolving business landscape. Regrettably, many organizations find it challenging to decide who should be on the team and who should not. Consequently, leaders often attempt to force an outdated organizational structure and existing personnel into a current strategic plan.

Achieving efficient strategic plan execution demands a substantial amount of leadership capital. This vital asset stems from having well-defined roles and responsibilities, coupled with employees who embody the company's values and can excel in their positions. Specifically, these individuals need to comprehend their role, be eager to perform, and possess a natural talent for their job.

Solution: Establishing an Effective Accountability Chart

An accountability chart serves as a valuable tool for establishing an efficient organizational structure, addressing people-related issues that can hinder success. Unlike a typical org chart, an accountability chart focuses on the primary business functions and delineates the top five responsibilities for each leadership role within those functions. This process should continue until all roles supporting the functions are identified, ensuring the right people occupy the right positions.

To be considered suitable for a role, a person must fulfill two criteria: adhering to the organization's core values, and possessing the understanding, inclination, and natural abilities to perform the job effectively.

Leadership must resist the temptation to bypass this process by assigning individuals to roles based on performance alone or a person's popularity within the organization. The former might not reflect the organizational values, while the latter may not have the aptitude for the role. Each of these shortcuts can obstruct the organization's success and the execution of its strategic plan.

An accountability chart, when utilized correctly, can promote effective resource allocation, stakeholder management, skill alignment, and support for various responsibilities. It can empower managers to address any discrepancies and cultivate an environment where responsibilities align with company objectives. By doing so, organizations can accomplish strategic goals and operational success.

Roadblock 2: Overwhelming Ourselves with Excessive Goals

Teams often wrongly estimate the amount they can achieve in a year. This is a common issue, especially among leadership teams with visionary ideas and high risk tolerance. Such teams face two major obstacles when executing their plans. First, their ambitious vision might not match their actual capacity, resulting in a situation where they are spread too thin. Second, they may be tempted to pursue every appealing idea instead of staying focused on the goals, causing further thinning of resources.

The conflicting forces in every organization make it even more challenging to handle multiple objectives. On one hand, there is the "whirlwind" or the daily responsibilities of running the organization, which are always urgent and demanding attention. On the other hand, there are the strategic plans and goals aimed at moving the organization forward. While these goals are important, they usually lack the urgency that whirlwind tasks possess.

Consequently, when strategic objectives compete with the urgent whirlwind activities, the whirlwind inevitably prevails. This situation poses a problem, increases uncertainty, and creates potential risks and pitfalls, ultimately causing delays in achieving the organization's goals.

To address this issue, teams should identify realistic goals that will engage them and foster a sense of accomplishment. By carefully balancing the whirlwind activities with strategic objectives, organizations can maintain focus on their goals, avoid spreading themselves too thin, and minimize the risks associated with taking on too much at once.

Solution: Concentrate on the Top 2-3 Priorities

To ensure successful strategy execution and promote growth, it's crucial to have your team concentrate on the most vital 2-3 objectives that align with your vision. Determine the primary area your team needs to enhance to achieve this vision and focus on winning the most critical battles first.

While it might seem counterproductive to narrow down your goals, this disciplined approach actually leads to quicker progress and eliminates unnecessary effort and frustration. By emphasizing commitment and flexibility, teams can adapt and make adjustments as they work toward these essential targets.

Overcoming Barrier 3: Fostering a Constructive Accountability Culture

Implementing a culture of accountability might be challenging for leaders, as they may fear appearing too strict, demanding, or as though they're stripping employees of their humanity. However, holding employees responsible for their actions is crucial in any organization. People naturally seek acknowledgment for their achievements, and clearly defining success criteria can help employees identify areas for improvement and also celebrate their victories. Establishing a positive accountability culture positively influences employee behavior, encourages buy-in from team members, and ultimately enhances overall performance.

Solution: Keep Score

To ensure success and accountability, it's crucial to track and measure the right aspects of your strategic plans. Leaders often struggle with choosing the appropriate metrics, as they tend to focus on lag measures, which are outcome-based. However, these measures do not provide opportunities for influencing outcomes and only highlight problems after they surface. The key is to strike a balance between lead and lag measures.

Create a scorecard to monitor progress on your goals by differentiating between lead and lag measures. Lag measures indicate the outcomes you wish to achieve, and lead measures point towards the factors that drive these outcomes. Since lead measures can predict success and be influenced by the team, they are vital for tracking in your scorecard.

Your scorecard should feature 5-15 measures and set targets for each. Review this scorecard weekly to assess your progress and identify any potential concerns before they escalate. Presenting your organization's performance with clear, data-driven information mitigates the influence of subjectivity, personal opinions, and egos on decision-making.

Keeping track of these metrics and regularly reviewing them not only brings clarity to your strategic planning process but also promotes change and improvement. By employing this approach, you can maintain a clear and confident path towards achieving your goals, with a measurable and data-driven support system.

Roadblock 4: Leadership Team Grasps Their Responsibilities, Yet Strategic Goals Remain Unaccomplished

Due to a lack of time and opportunity for focusing on the bigger picture, daily problem-solving tasks can swiftly overshadow a team's capacity for executing strategic priorities. These priorities typically demand collaboration from various business functions, which adds to the challenge of allotting sufficient time to synchronize efforts and tackle any obstacles.

Regular checkpoints serve as an efficient way to keep the team on track, overcoming the natural tendency to procrastinate. Not only do these meetings instill personal accountability, they also offer a setting where barriers can be addressed and collaborative efforts coordinated, ultimately helping with the implementation of strategic initiatives and achievement of key objectives.

Solution: Conduct Regular Weekly Meetings

Holding weekly meetings within the leadership team plays a vital role in driving the progress of strategic priorities. These meetings create opportunities for essential discussions, enabling the exchange of knowledge, and maintaining alignment across the team. Contrary to the belief that adding more meetings is counterproductive, a well-structured weekly meeting can be a valuable time management tool, ensuring productive communication and encouraging personal accountability.

Consistency is critical when conducting these meetings. Always set a fixed time and location for each session, ensure a punctual start and finish, and follow a uniform agenda. Focus primarily on strategic priorities, evaluating if they are progressing as planned or if any obstacles have arisen. Assign responsibilities to team members to support the priorities, and take necessary steps to clear any barriers.

Incorporate the following elements to make these weekly meetings effective:

• Clear communication: Establish open channels of communication to share updates, best practices, and any concerns related to strategic priorities.
• Monitoring progress: Keep track of each priority's status, identifying potential bottlenecks and addressing them proactively.
• Facilitators: Assign a team member to oversee every meeting, ensuring each session stays on track and within the allocated time.
• Problem-solving: Utilize these meetings to engage the team in collective problem-solving and decision-making processes.

While executing strategic plans can be a challenging endeavor due to the numerous people and initiatives involved, there are various systems and tools available today to assist in successful implementation. However, always remember that a system's effectiveness lies in the hands of those operating it. Ultimately, the key to success is strong leadership and a collaborative approach to overcoming challenges together.