The Leaders Perspective to Implementing Strategy –People
This is blog examins the role leaders must play to successfully implement strategy. We have learned from various researches over the last eight years that as many as 90 per cent of strategies fail to deliver. Leaders must be as responsible for overseeing the execution of the strategy as they are for crafting the strategy. Research from Bridges Business Consultancy Int, a specialist in strategy implementation, identified eight areas successful companies focus when implementing their strategy – People, Biz Case, Communicate, Measure, Culture, Process, Reinforce and Review. In this series of articles we will examine the leader’s role in each of these areas.
People
Leaders are responsible for crafting strategy and overseeing its implementation but it is the staff members who must take the right actions and behaviors every day to make the strategy come alive. Too often leaders delegate the implementation and don’t follow through and as a result the implementation fails. Leaders must adopt a different attitude and a different approach towards implementation. If nine out of ten implementations fail then there must be some serious flaws in the current thinking and models. I would like to address what leaders must do different.
1. Leaders must see the staff members as the “Strategy Customer”. When implementing strategy leaders are selling the strategy to their staff members and they are the ones who must buy it (buy-in). This is a paradigm shift for many leaders. In most implementations leaders delegate the responsibility to their staff members without proper support, encouragement and the appropriate tools and techniques. Leaders then sit back and expect the implementation to be effectively carried out!
Leaders must adopt the same mindset for rolling out the strategy to the organization as they would, for example, in launching a new product to customers. When they take the time to show their staff members the respect, staff members take the time to do the same. In other words treat staff members with the same respect you treat customers.
When leaders work with their staff members in implementation, the same way you work with customers launching a product you positively change the way you view your people and as a result your staff members more readily adopt the strategy and resist it less.
2. Despite popular belief, most people do not resist change – when it is communicated correctly. For years we have churned along with the notion that when organizations are making large changes, most people resist. It could be from a fear of losing responsibility or stepping into the unknown or trying new things and, as such, we have crafted strategy implementation and people policies based on wrong assumptions.
Contrary to popular belief, our research in Bridges, over eight years, tells us that when it comes to implementation in an organization, most people do not resist it if the new strategy is presented and communicated correctly. They generally respond in one of three ways – indifference, resistance, or support. 20 per cent is resistance, 60 per cent is indifference and 20 per cent is support.
Implementing strategy is difficult. The odds are stacked against us before you even start. We need to make it as easy as possible for the organization to succeed. The 20 per cent who support the implementation come on board more readily than the others. Many of them recognize the need for change without being told the reasons. They see the benefits and immediately start to take action. They create early successes and provide success stories to share.
Key learning for leaders is that they must support the staff members who support the implementation and that is the top 20 per cent.
3. The launch of a new strategy means that you are asking staff members to do things differently. It is a leader’s responsibility to identify any new skills, knowledge or attitude staff members may need and then to provide specific training.
Leaders are responsible for reviewing the new strategy and identifying gaps that must be filled to ensure they are setting the staff members up for success. This may involve for example, on the job training, workshop training, computer based learning and/or coaching.
Leaders have been failing for too long to execute the strategy they create. The failure rate has gone unchecked for too long and it is time for leaders to change the way they view implementation.
This is blog examins the role leaders must play to successfully implement strategy. We have learned from various researches over the last eight years that as many as 90 per cent of strategies fail to deliver. Leaders must be as responsible for overseeing the execution of the strategy as they are for crafting the strategy. Research from Bridges Business Consultancy Int, a specialist in strategy implementation, identified eight areas successful companies focus when implementing their strategy – People, Biz Case, Communicate, Measure, Culture, Process, Reinforce and Review. In this series of articles we will examine the leader’s role in each of these areas.
People
Leaders are responsible for crafting strategy and overseeing its implementation but it is the staff members who must take the right actions and behaviors every day to make the strategy come alive. Too often leaders delegate the implementation and don’t follow through and as a result the implementation fails. Leaders must adopt a different attitude and a different approach towards implementation. If nine out of ten implementations fail then there must be some serious flaws in the current thinking and models. I would like to address what leaders must do different.
1. Leaders must see the staff members as the “Strategy Customer”. When implementing strategy leaders are selling the strategy to their staff members and they are the ones who must buy it (buy-in). This is a paradigm shift for many leaders. In most implementations leaders delegate the responsibility to their staff members without proper support, encouragement and the appropriate tools and techniques. Leaders then sit back and expect the implementation to be effectively carried out!
Leaders must adopt the same mindset for rolling out the strategy to the organization as they would, for example, in launching a new product to customers. When they take the time to show their staff members the respect, staff members take the time to do the same. In other words treat staff members with the same respect you treat customers.
When leaders work with their staff members in implementation, the same way you work with customers launching a product you positively change the way you view your people and as a result your staff members more readily adopt the strategy and resist it less.
2. Despite popular belief, most people do not resist change – when it is communicated correctly. For years we have churned along with the notion that when organizations are making large changes, most people resist. It could be from a fear of losing responsibility or stepping into the unknown or trying new things and, as such, we have crafted strategy implementation and people policies based on wrong assumptions.
Contrary to popular belief, our research in Bridges, over eight years, tells us that when it comes to implementation in an organization, most people do not resist it if the new strategy is presented and communicated correctly. They generally respond in one of three ways – indifference, resistance, or support. 20 per cent is resistance, 60 per cent is indifference and 20 per cent is support.
Implementing strategy is difficult. The odds are stacked against us before you even start. We need to make it as easy as possible for the organization to succeed. The 20 per cent who support the implementation come on board more readily than the others. Many of them recognize the need for change without being told the reasons. They see the benefits and immediately start to take action. They create early successes and provide success stories to share.
Key learning for leaders is that they must support the staff members who support the implementation and that is the top 20 per cent.
3. The launch of a new strategy means that you are asking staff members to do things differently. It is a leader’s responsibility to identify any new skills, knowledge or attitude staff members may need and then to provide specific training.
Leaders are responsible for reviewing the new strategy and identifying gaps that must be filled to ensure they are setting the staff members up for success. This may involve for example, on the job training, workshop training, computer based learning and/or coaching.
Leaders have been failing for too long to execute the strategy they create. The failure rate has gone unchecked for too long and it is time for leaders to change the way they view implementation.
