6-Step Guide to Strategic Implementation

What exactly is Strategy Execution?

Strategy implementation is the process of ensuring that a strategy plan is carried out. It entails transforming a company’s strategic plan’s high-level aims and objectives into particular activities and initiatives that may be carried out by personnel at all levels of the organisation.

Because 9 out of 10 organisations fail to implement their strategies, you can’t just write a strategic plan and put it on the shelf—you must have a sound strategy implementation process in place to make it a reality.

You will turn your static, inactive plan into a live, dynamic, and effective strategy implementation with our six-step strategy implementation approach. To have a better grasp of the Implementation factors that affect your strategy, read this article.

Strategy Implementation Process in Six Steps

A strategic analysis and strategy creation phase should precede the execution process. Following the identification of your company problem and plan for addressing it, you should take the following important actions to put your strategy into action:

Choose your strategy framework.
Develop your strategy.
Define projects and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Generate a strategic rhythm.
Report on strategy implementation
Align performance to strategy.

Here is our 6-step strategy implementation process guidance to guarantee your new strategy progresses from a blueprint to strategic implementation.

Step 1: Choose your strategy framework.

The strategy should be integrated into everything an organisation does.

It must be ingrained in the organization’s and its employees’ DNA. However, if you don’t make an effort to expressly point it out, you won’t obtain the attention or traction you require.

Begin with a simple framework that develops a strategic language that everyone knows and supports. When someone asks, “How are our strategic objectives going?” everyone must be on the same page on what that implies.

At Golden Gate Properties, for example, we utilise the following “strategy house” to define the many parts of our approach:
In our How to Write a Strategic Plan Guide, we lead you through this technique.
It provides a concise manner to discuss strategy implementation while avoiding the use of superfluous jargon.

We purposefully included simply a vision statement rather than the more popular “vision and mission” combination since we discovered that consumers struggle to comprehend the distinction between the two.

Consider adopting a strategic planning framework, such as the Balanced Scorecard, to provide depth to your approach.

Regardless of the strategic framework you adopt, simplicity should be your first focus. This test is passed by all of the frameworks in our guide.

Step 2: Build your plan and set clear goals 

The next phase in our strategy implementation process is to begin developing your road map to success.

Now that you’ve established your framework, you may go on to develop your strategic strategy. We’ve created a detailed tutorial on how to design a strategic plan, so we won’t go into it here.

But, assuming you’re utilising a structure similar to the one described above, here’s how we’d approach developing your implementation plan with your key stakeholders:

1. Gather your management team: Gather your organization’s leaders (founders, CEO, directors, etc.) to agree on your vision. You may accomplish this in a single workshop but keep them engaged with it on a regular basis. Make sure they read this article to keep everyone on the same page.‍

2. Define values: During the same session, write out the organization’s values. They’re critical for your company’s culture, so read this article to make the process run more smoothly.
3. Align on strategic priorities: Finally (same workshop), jot down 3 or 4 Strategic Focus Areas that the team believes must be addressed in order to achieve the goal.
4. Collaborate on objectives with your teams: Return your basic structure to your team(s) and ask them to separately contribute suggestions for strategic goals and objectives under each Focus Area. They must be included in the planning process and given a voice. This will ensure buy-in and motivation to put your company goals into action.

Tip: You might want to assign one Focus Area to each member of your leadership team and have them lead the charge for getting that Focus Area fleshed out. This is a great way to ensure buy-in to the final product of your strategic plan.

Recommended read: The Right Way To Set Team Goals

• 5. Make a final check: Once you’ve fleshed out the strategic objectives, get back together as a group and ask yourself a series of hard questions:

• ‍If we deliver each of these strategic objectives under a given Focus Area, will we have nailed that Focus Area?
• If we deliver all of our Focus Areas, will we reach our vision?
• Will our values help or hinder us along the way?

Step 3: Define KPIs and projects

It is now time to address the foundation of our strategy house: projects and key performance indicators (KPIs).

This is part of the strategy implementation process, in which senior management should empower individuals throughout the organisation to develop their own initiatives and key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge success.

Step 3 of our strategy implementation process guide is to identify your KPIs and build successful projects. You’ll need concrete activities (projects) as well as a mechanism to track progress towards your strategic goals (KPIs).

KPIs
KPIs are one of the most ancient management instruments. They’re popular for a reason: they work. They keep you and your team members on track and focused on the end goal.

They must serve as your guideposts for putting the plan into action. Here are some pointers to help you come up with your own:

Keep it simple: Don’t try to come up with complicated ratios that only a few people comprehend. Make them easy to understand and applicable to everyone in the organisation.

Choose at least one key performance indicator (KPI) for each of your strategic goals: In general, 1-3 KPIs should be assigned to each aim. Too many KPIs can confuse and dilute attention. However, the precise number will be determined by the objective’s intricacy and available resources. If a target is exceptionally complicated, more KPIs may be required to effectively monitor progress.
Make it simple for them to be measured quickly: Hundreds of metrics are tracked by each unit and function in their own set of preferred tools and apps in large organisations. Bring them all together so you can gain real-time information.
Don’t make it all about the money: Profit and sales may be your ultimate goal, but KPIs should be the driving force behind those goals—measuring the outcomes alone adds little value.

Here’s an example of a focus area, its linked strategic objectives, and the KPIs assigned to it:

Operational Excellence is the focus area.

Strategic goal: Within the following year, reduce waste in the production process by 15%.

KPIs:

The percentage of faulty goods or materials wasted throughout the production process is referred to as the scrap rate.
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE): This metric determines the overall efficiency of manufacturing equipment.
Cycle time: The amount of time it takes to finish one unit of manufacture.

Finally, you must update the status of your KPIs at least once every month, otherwise, you risk losing sight of them. Spend time today, as part of your strategy planning process, determining how to acquire the statistics and data you require.

Projects

Projects are particular activities and actions that will assist the organisation in achieving its strategic goals. Here are some actions to take in the strategy implementation process to develop excellent projects:

Ascertain that your initiatives are in line with your overall business plan.
Prioritise the initiatives that will have the most effect, and develop SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) project objectives.
You should have a complete project plan for each project that includes dates, milestones, and important stakeholders.
Assign teams with the necessary skills and knowledge to carry out the project, monitor progress, and make adjustments as needed.
Hold a retrospective meeting once the project is completed. Evaluate the results, identify accomplishments and areas for improvement, and utilise this information to guide future decisions.

Step 4: Deal with business-as-usual

In Step 4 of our plan implementation guide, you will overcome business-as-usual.

The irony of strategy execution is that everyone recognises its importance, but it is frequently the first item to be neglected when things go bad.

People are so preoccupied with the day-to-day that they don’t have time to think about the big-picture issues that will keep the organisation going ahead. One of the most typical reasons methods fail is that they quickly become self-fulfilling.

Here are some pointers to break the cycle:

Meet often to discuss progress: We recommend quarterly evaluations for higher-level targets but monthly is a good place to start until things settle in.
Determine who will be in attendance: At the very least, you’ll need the leadership team—but you’ll also need to include the rest of the organisation. The more people participate in the broader strategy, the more ownership they feel.
Keep an eye on the clock: Set a deadline for yourself and stick to it. Set aside 10 minutes (or as many as you need) for the “next steps.” It is pointless to review progress without considering future steps. Determine the meeting arrangement ahead of time: What metrics will you go over? How long will this last? Which reports are going to be used? This is covered in further detail in Step 5.

Step 5: Implement consistent & simple strategy reports

Step 5 of our strategy implementation process guide focuses on strategy reporting.

Once you’ve implemented your strategy, it’s critical to assess and change it on a regular basis to ensure it’s still on track to fulfil your business objectives. This is where strategy reports are useful.

You’ll want to pick a consistent manner of reporting the status of your plan implementation now that your meetings are in place. The following should be the primary goals of this report:

Consistency
Set a regular review plan for your strategy reports. This might be weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on what works best for your company. Before the meeting(s), everyone should know what to expect and what they need to update.

Simplicity
The progress report should include an overview of how the approach is doing. Determine the essential indicators that are most relevant to your company and concentrate on them while evaluating reports and dashboards.

Accountability
Ensure that the report contains the names of the goal’s owners (accountability) as well as the names of the persons who are completing tasks (recognition).

Conclusions
Your subsequent actions. Your strategy. What steps will be taken to achieve the intended results? The strategy report should include not just an overview of how the strategy appears currently, but also how it has evolved through time. To ensure momentum is maintained, offer a comparative period or graphs/charts that illustrate improvement over time.

Strategy reports will assist you in identifying trends and patterns in your data. Are there any areas where you routinely outperform expectations? Is there anywhere where you routinely fall short? Use this data to make educated judgements on how to modify your plan.

Remember that changing your plan does not imply abandoning it totally. It simply means making modifications and tweaks to ensure you stay on track and meet your objectives. A tiny modification may often make a tremendous impact on your outcomes, so don’t be hesitant to make changes as you go.

Step 6: Link performance management with strategic management 

The first five phases of our process guide to strategy implementation, linking performance evaluations to strategy, are the very foundations to ensure that you have success adopting and executing your plan.

Organisations that genuinely flourish, however, are those that have woven strategy implementation into the fabric of their existence. Making a formal relationship between strategic management and performance assessments is a good place to start.

Nothing demonstrates the importance of strategy more than when it affects performance assessments and, perhaps, reward and pay. Here are a few examples:

Create a strategic management system that incorporates these performance evaluation ties into its HR operations.
Even if you do traditional performance evaluations, you may still make a point of recognising individuals who embrace strategy execution in their job and can demonstrate how they’ve contributed.

Encourage your managers to hold frequent strategy meetings with their teams. Consider developing a 1:1 template for managers to utilise that illustrates how an individual’s goals relate to the plan.
Make your plan known to your team. A typical problem that hampers good plan implementation is a lack of communication. People will forget your approach if you simply convey it in PowerPoint. Allowing your employees to access the strategy at their leisure will help them align with it.

Key Components To Support Successful Strategy Implementation

A well-written implementation plan is insufficient to ensure successful strategy execution. A number of critical components are required to ensure effective plan implementation in an organisation. Here are some reasons why you should pay attention:

Strategic Alignment

Ensure that the strategy is consistent with the organization’s broader vision and mission, as well as its basic values. It is critical to maintain clarity and unity at all levels of the organisation.

Accountabiliity

Individuals or teams within the organisation should be given ownership of certain tasks and duties, and they should be held accountable for accomplishing their goals. This will foster team ownership, dedication, and a feeling of duty.

Resource Distribution

Ensure that the required resources, including financial, human, and technological resources, are allocated to support the strategy’s execution. Without the proper resources, your strategy is nothing more than a sheet of paper.

Performance evaluation

To track progress, you should have a transparent performance measuring system in place. In this manner, you can quickly identify any areas that are failing and take remedial action before they have an impact on your overall goals. Monitor and report on these data on a regular basis to measure your success and alter your plan as needed.

Organisational design

Create an organisational structure that will aid in the implementation of your plan. To reduce misunderstanding and maximise efficiency, clearly identify roles, responsibilities, and decision-making procedures.

Systems

Effective systems, which include processes, procedures, and tools, may assist in ensuring that resources are distributed correctly and that performance is successfully monitored and assessed. Use the correct systems to simplify and streamline your procedures.

Remember that a well-written implementation strategy is only the first step. Pay attention to these crucial components to ensure successful strategy implementation.

Benefits of a well-executed strategy implementation 

Here are some of the key advantages of an effective strategy implementation process:

• Increased revenue: When everyone in the organization is working toward the same objectives, it becomes easier to identify and pursue new growth opportunities.
• Improved operational efficiency: When your team understands their roles and responsibilities and is working toward common goals, they’re better able to collaborate and optimize their workflows. This means smoother sailing and less hiccups along the way.
• Better decision-making: With a solid strategy in place, leaders can use it as a guidepost when making important decisions, ensuring they stay aligned with the organization’s overall goals and objectives. No more flailing around in the dark!
• Increased employee satisfaction: By involving employees in the strategy development process and regularly communicating progress updates, organizations can foster a sense of ownership and accountability among their teams. Happy employees = happy workplace.
• Enhanced reputation: When a business delivers on promises and consistently exceeds customer expectations, it establishes itself as a leader in its industry and builds a loyal customer base.
• Faster adaptability: By regularly reviewing and updating the strategy, organizations can stay ahead of the curve and be better positioned to pivot in response to new challenges or opportunities. Flexibility is key!