Strategy Execution Traps

The conclusions of one of the most influential business books ever written are now questionable. A recent review by the International Academy of Management entitled, Good to Great, or just Good?, submits that there is no evidence to suggest applying Jim Collins’ five principles from his best selling “Good to Great” will lead to anything other than average results.

It’s not surprising. We naturally seek sure-fire remedies for what ails our enterprises. In any area of management, companies risk falling prey to common traps induced by incomplete and hypothetical ideas and methods that simply will not work in the context of your organization. It boils down to what I call the traps of “management malpractice.”

Here’s a quick primer for understanding nine strategy execution “malpractice traps” and some of their potential antidotes.

1. Let’s get real about organizational science
In The Halo Effect, author Phil Rosenzweig illustrates that we can get trapped by the illusion of organizational physics. The reality is that very few things both within and outside of a business is certain. Managers simply cannot reliably predict or reproduce steps that make companies succeed because the precision of science does not apply. The proof? Those 2,000+ new business books published every year offering the latest and greatest insights (including mine!)

To make things worse, the subject of strategy execution is no simple practice or one-size fits all solution. It requires an integrated view of multiple organizational skills. It is about knowing a little about a lot of areas such strategic planning, performance management, organizational development, social behavioral sciences, culture, operations management, enterprise risk management, continuous improvement, portfolio management, and project planning… just to name a few.

Antidote: Teach your staff how to think systemically and use career job rotations to develop these skills internally over-time especially for your high potential managers and leaders.

2. If you can’t name it, you can’t have it
One of the primary traps with strategy execution is confusing activity with accomplishment. Determining strategic results means identifying your desired outcomes. If you can’t clearly describe what success looks like and envision it, it probably won’t materialize. A strategic outcome describes what experience, value or benefits customers are ultimately seeking. Be careful not to confuse outcomes with outputs. (A catchy advertisement is an output, while the real outcome desired is increased sales.) The clarity of your outcomes precedes the ability to pursue any sense of strategic alignment.

Antidote: By defining customer and organizational outcomes from the beginning, you can better define your project’s success criteria and prioritize your work to execute strategy. You can then teach your employees how to make better trade-off decisions about what activities actually create value for your customer and the enterprise both in the short and long-term.

3. Organizational performance depends on many variables
Business advisors commonly attempt to link organizational performance issues to a single variable. The trap is thinking correlation is causality. Too often we pinpoint leadership as the root cause of poor execution, rather than realizing that success is usually about how all the organization’s interdependent systems, communication processes and information are working together at the interfaces between functions.

Antidote: Train your managers to use system-thinking tools such as strategy execution maps to clarify the interactions of variables and capabilities that drive the results you are getting today and also want in the future.

4. You get what you focus on
If you want to know whether you’re executing strategy effectively, you need tangible measurements to tell you whether you’re meeting your strategic goals or business unit objectives and how. That involves translating your strategy into language and performance expectations that people can act upon. Beware the trap of assuming you’re driving the car in the right direction when you’re only looking through the rear view mirror of lagging financial indicators. You have to have an effective management dashboard of the right leading indicators.

Antidote: Put strategy execution objectives in place on the initiatives you expect to cause performance changes. This will force you to define leading indicators that show your managers how you are making progress during the implementation process of the key strategic initiatives.

5. Get clarity on decision rights
A major 2008 study on the top organizational traits that lead to better corporate performance over time revealed that the number one ranked trait was: everyone has a good idea about the decisions or actions for which he or she is responsible for. The trap is presuming that everyone understands the decision-making processes of your enterprise by using an organizational chart to communicate authority. The key is to design a strategy execution process that clarifies the core decision roles and individual decision rights so it’s easier for people to get work done, especially when working on cross-functional projects.

Antidote: Define the decision rights and roles for every employee engaged in strategy execution, especially the management teams that are planning and implementing the strategic plans and projects of the organization.

6. Knowing is not doing
Knowledge is power, but many companies suffer from the malady of knowing too much and doing too little – what authors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton call “The Knowing-Doing Gap.” This trap springs from common human habits: letting talk and planning substitute for action, and allowing negative or abstract “smart talk” to create inertia and confusion.

Antidote: You need people that can facilitate the planning and management of the execution of any strategic or business unit plan, with positive, clear and straightforward communication and a bias towards action; clear thought precedes effective action.

7. You are perfectly aligned to get the results you are getting today
The philosophy of continuous improvement is essential to ensuring you get the alignment you need to get your desired results. Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The trap is for leaders not to take continuous improvement philosophy seriously. It could arguably be the best competitive weapon you have. Just ask Toyota.

Antidote: Update your execution planning processes and practices for better alignment and different results. But give up the need to find perfect alignment. It is a myth! Pursue small incremental changes to adapt to changing needs and fix what’s not working.

8. Your strategy execution process is non-negotiable
To manage strategy execution as a discipline, you need to start with standardizing a working framework. An effective framework combines process plus rules of engagement. It should provide definitions and practices that unify groups using principles for getting work done specific to your culture. Edward Deming eloquently explained this trap: “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you probably don’t know what you’re doing.”

Antidote: Initiate a mini-project that establishes a guiding organizational execution framework or process model that helps organize strategy implementation problem-solving and faster decision-making!

9. Flow, recognition, and a sense of belonging are natural states
People really get engaged when they have a sense of personal purpose, are recognized for work they do and their demonstrated strengths, and feel a sense of belonging. These natural states boost engagement to help create a potential 2X level of productivity. The trap is believing that this engagement can be achieved without an individual’s connection to both their personal purpose and the mission of the organization.

Antidote: Do you have a sense of belonging and personal flow? If not, get a professional coach to help you find it. Do you recognize your employees for their unique contribution to the company and understand what “lights their fire”? If not, start right away!

Remember, while there are plenty of management practice prescriptions, there really are no magic pills or silver bullets. Organizational leadership is challenging and exciting work…just watch out for the traps!

By William Malek