An impressive 70% of companies with a formal strategic planning and execution process in place report outperforming their peers.
Having a strategic plan is one thing. Putting it into action is another. Let’s break down both steps:
What is Strategic Planning?
Strategic planning is the process of establishing and documenting the direction of your organization – where you are today and where you’re going over the long term. It is an ongoing process that can be done in-house or with the help of outside consultants.
A strong plan:
- Aligns the people in your organization around purpose, mission, vision, and values.
- Sets your long-term goals and how you’ll reach them.
- Rallies around a vision that stands the test of time.
- Includes broad internal involvement.
- Specifies near-term actions.
- Defines regular measures of progress at all levels of the organization.
What is Strategic Execution?
Strategic execution is the formal process for making good on your strategic plan. Only about half of organizations have a formal strategic execution process. But of those that do have a formal strategic execution process, 70% report outperforming their peers.
Strategic execution is the result of thousands of decisions made daily by individuals acting on the information they have available.
The best strategic execution processes:
- Include broad internal involvement and reach into how work actually gets done.
- Defines everyone’s roles and responsibilities, as well as measurable outcomes for their work that link to the organization’s success.
- Takes into account that people are a limited resource, and measures available capacity.
- Aligns individual self-interest with strategic goals (as in, it benefits and delights the employee to do the work required to reach company goals).
Why do Companies Fail at Execution?
Employees at three out of every five companies rate their organization weak at execution. After the buzz of planning settles down, many teams fall into routines that include ad hoc tasks or admin items that are not directly tied to company success. If there is not a daily reminder or insight into the plan, employees will just work on what is right in front of them, or what is on fire, versus what counts long term.
Failure to work on the right things is also an indication that employees do NOT know what the priorities are based on the long term plan. Less than 10% of employees report that they understand their company’s strategy.
And as a result, 60-80% of companies fall far short of the targets set in their strategic plan.
How can Strategypoint Help?
Strategypoint builds on decades of expertise to offer best-in-class processes for strategic execution. Users at every level of your organization have better access to strategic information, real-time measurements of success, and strategic alignment to the actual work getting done. In a nutshell, the solution SHOWS everyone the plan, it’s goals, and how to execute (work) on the plan.
When the plan is front-and-center, and the work is clearly defined, everyone can execute on the plan.
