"Don't fall short of your goals and discover how to address the SEVEN killers of successful strategy implementation"
Why is it that so many businesses fail to achieve their full potential? Our experience and, indeed, recent research for a book on eleven high performing Australian companies entitled 'The First Eleven' (by Huddard, Samuel, Heap and Cocks) shows that efficient and effective implementation of strategies leads to outstanding long term business performance.
Given that an organisation has a business plan and has developed the strategies to achieve the agreed objectives, there needs to be a desire to effectively and efficiently implement key activities. However, typically there are seven killers of successful strategy implementation:
1. Management inattention - Management develops the strategy but does not allocate adequate resources and processes, and does not follow up on progress.
2. A lack of documented processes - Management fails to document the processes to show how tasks need to be carried out.
3. Inadequate communication - Management often fail to clearly communicate what is to be achieved and what is required of staff. This can mean that staff do not understand the benefits of change and consequently can resist change. In addition, without a regular communication with management staff often stumble at various roadblocks and progress halts until advice is eventually obtained.
4. Poor project management skills - Essential tasks need to be broken down into a series of related projects with specific timelines.
5. A lack of performance goals and measures - Often there are inadequate means of measuring progress, and one cannot judge whether tactics need to changed to deliver the desired outcome.
6. Internal resource conflicts - Staff get diverted onto other activities, due to staff shortages and urgent requirements within the business. In addition, delays can occur when staff members do not work harmoniously together on a series of tasks.
7. A lack of skilled staff - Staff may not be trained and / or skilled in actually carrying out the implementation.
High performing businesses do implement their strategies well by addressing each of the above seven killers of successful implementation.
Achieving the desired goals will only be accomplished through careful planning, thoughtful strategy development, enthusiastic implementation and appropriate measurement.
Best Practice Consulting assists many businesses with success strategy implementation. If you would like your strategies to be implemented more effectively talk to one of our business coaches so that you can reach your goals faster.