Agile Strategy Execution: Revolutionizing the How!
Leaders of most firms today are painfully aware of how difficult it is to execute strategies effectively in their organizations. Industry research has well documented this reality, with the success needle barely moving over the past 20 years.
This framework is composed of Six Dimensions and two enabling Influencing Factors,
“Agile Strategy Execution™ is an invaluable resource highlighting the role of process in strategy delivery. The guidance, tools and approaches are presented in a simple and intuitive way, making them readily usable to bring strategy to life and ensure critical cultural engagement, alignment, accountability and responsiveness that ultimately delivers the results.” -Craig Shields Senior Director, Global Ops Strategy, Abbott
Agile Strategy: Dimensions
Detailed Plans and Metrics - Develop & translate breakthrough org. goals, objectives & strategies into area, team & individual plans & associated metrics.
Align and Link - Align & link objectives, goals, projects, programs, tactics & process improvement efforts, both vertically & cross- functionally.
Real-Time Updates - Institutionalize a transparent Single Source of Truth (online) for collaboration, engagement & reporting. Drive real-time plan updates based on day to day triggers, ensuring prioritized & scheduled work.
Innovation Bets - Identify & execute small opportunities to study, pilot or test new innovations, reflecting current market conditions or new technologies.
Refresh/Transform - Reassess core business assumptions, updating strategic plans & tactics, reviewing priorities, linkages/alignment & pivot as needed.
Vertical Divider
INFLUENCING FACTORS
Culture - Assess formal vs. informal, and preached vs. practiced corporate culture. Leaders use their culture as an enabling driver for managing change or initiate processes to drive needed culture change.
Connected Governance™ - Use leading edge digitization to link leadership practices, employee engagement mechanisms & collaboration processes.
Agile Strategy Execution: The Framework
Agile Strategy Execution: The Components
Translate organizational S.M.A.R.T goals, objectives& strategies into specific functional area operating plans with associated Key Performance Indicators.
Convert execution priorities into breakthrough or run the business projects/programs with specific dates, outcomes, status indicators, documents & metrics .
Communicate through the organization using a systematic & disciplined approach (i.e. Hoshin, OKR's, internal collaboration sites).
Cascade, align and link goals, strategies, and operating plans both vertically and cross-functionally, real-time.
Active "catch ball" engagement to drive progress and actions at all organization levels.
Processes can include OKR's, Hoshin Kanri, OGSM.
Enable a transparent digital ‘single source of truth’ for all plan reporting.
Lead real-time plan updates based on day-to-day triggers, ensuring properly prioritized and scheduled work.
Best Practices include digitizing updates and cross functional collaboration using software applications.
Formal functional/cross-functional collaboration meetings accessing real-time status updates, dashboards and scorecards to drive ‘in the moment’ decision making.
Best Practices: ban inform only update meetings, utilize digital processes for updates, & on-line collaboration, use OODA Loops, PDCA, etc. for driving problem resolution.
Assess newly emerging trends/opportunities to place small bets or conduct deep dives.
Initiate small actions to study, pilot or test a new or different approach. Make adjustments/pivot current initiative backlog as necessary.
Best practices: quarterly management meetings, online collaboration for strategy re-assessment, course corrections through agile systems thinking, decision making & execution "pivots".
Formal, periodic pre-budget cycle reassessment of all core business assumptions, outside-in and inside-out business, market and competitive trends.
Updating/pivoting or revision of strategic/operating plans, priorities, linkages or alignment up/down the organization with all cross-functional team members.
Best Practices: Market watch tools ( SWOT), prioritization and decision matrices (QFD, Pugh) for backlog assessments, priorities & decisions.
Executing mechanisms to assess & exploit a firm’s formal vs informal, & preached vs practiced culture.
Initiating a process to drive any needed culture changes so that employees are actively engaged & buy in to the organization and team brand.