Hardwiring durable practices to deliver ongoing results
Ever wonder why some initiatives continue to make a long-term difference and others seem to fade out?
Whether you are starting a new company or program or leading a large enterprise toward a new strategic vision, investing time upfront in how to maximize the likelihood that the positive impacts of your strategic plan are sustained can make a big difference in the long-term success of your endeavor.
Achieving initial, near-term gains following implementation of your strategy is a strong start but what happens over time when you have moved on to your next project or the initial glamor and enthusiasm that made the effort a success has begun to wear off? There are many ways to answer this question and I have outlined 5 of my personal favorite “go-to” tips when building sustainable strategy.
What Is Sustainable Strategic Transformation?
There are three key components I think of when building sustainable strategic transformation:
- A thoughtful strategy positions you, your program, or your company for ongoing competitive success.
- An effective implementation plan that you can nimbly adapt to withstand constantly shifting environmental variables is critical for realizing near-term results.
- A transformation plan enables a team, department, or company to evolve and operate in a manner that sustains and builds on initial strategic gains over the longer-term.
Why Does Sustainable Strategic Transformation matter?
It is not uncommon to see organizations “rinse, wash, and repeat” strategies over and over.
As results are achieved, teams typically move on to the next priority with little maintenance of the previous initiative. Inevitably, the same old challenges re-emerge and teams start the process over. Not only does this vicious cycle of constantly reinventing the wheel result in avoidable consumption of valuable resources, it can damage the morale and engagement of your staff.
5 Essential Tips for Building Sustainable Strategic Transformation
If creating sustained change is important to your type of work, establishing the discipline to anticipate and think beyond the post-implementation near-term is a good habit to adopt.
When creating your strategic plan, address the question of sustained transformation by including space for characterizing internal organizational challenges and threats to the long-term impact of your efforts. (The first two tips below are more technical and the latter three are more relational.)
1. Anticipate Post-Implementation Needs
Before implementing initiatives to support your strategy, prepare and plan for the following post-implementation phases:
- Stabilization
If implementation is putting your best foot forward, stabilization is making sure you do not trip or fall down with your first steps. As an example, well-run information technology (IT) implementations typically anticipate a period immediately post-implementation during which urgent, unanticipated challenges are addressed in a timely fashion. This usually takes the form of a “command center” of dedicated individuals who track and trend issues that arise from the implementation period and ensure expedient resolution. These command centers eventually transition into standard, daily operations once certain metrics have been met (such as no more emergent, high impact issues). - Maintenance & Optimization
Stabilization focuses on taking initial steps. Maintenance and optimization is when you begin to hit your stride. As the dust settles and the new normal stabilizes, you and your team will need to be prepared for maintaining gains and managing iterative improvements. This is a time for addressing more aspirational objectives and enhancements related to your plan that were not critical for the initial launch. - Adaptative Transformation
No environment remains static for long and if your strategy is going to yield sustainable results, you must have the capacity to adapt and adjust to new competitive threats and opportunities. Keeping track of implemented strategies linked with key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards that are monitored by the appropriate leader or governance body can help you spot performance slippage sooner rather than later. Plus, knowing what strategies are in play can help pinpoint the leader or team responsible for the specific strategic initiative that will help get things back on track including evaluating whether an existing strategy is no longer effective, not being appropriately executed, or requires modification.
2. Create A Durable Operating Model
Operating models are what link strategy to ongoing operations. As you move from initial stabilization into maintenance/optimization and transformation, some key tangible steps you can take to help transition teams to a new, sustainable normal include:
- Organize administrative services into a structure that enables the level of horizontal and vertical integration within the enterprise to achieve efficient and effective coordination and collaboration. This includes (i) functional charts that create greater understanding about which business units are responsible for what aspects of the strategy, (ii) organizational charts that provide clarity on who is accountable to whom, and (iii) governance bodies and procedures for ensuring ongoing achievement of desired objectives and adjudicating challenges as needed. Be prepared to explain in as many ways and times as you can (and engage others to do the same) why you have designed the operating model the way you have.
- Impart fiscal accountability across the entire team. Even the best laid plans and strongest implementations will fail if the financial wherewithal to maintain and build are absent. Being intentional about teaching others how to think about the monetary impacts of their choices and how that impacts the goals of a strategy is critical. Although it should be everyone’s responsibility to ensure financial viability, many do not know how their role can contribute so providing specific projects and helping connect financial concerns to an individual’s personal sense of purpose can be an effective way of cultivating this skill. Ultimately, all team members should be continually thinking about how to achieve the strategic goals in a manner that maintains a highly efficient and sustainable cost structure.
- Hardwire key performance indicators. Incorporating KPIs related to your strategic initiative into business unit and enterprise dashboards helps create visibility and elevate the importance of maintaining gains to support the ongoing success of your business. KPIs at the local level, while important, should directly feed into and connect with those of the entire enterprise so that if performance begins to slip, the impact is identified quickly and the appropriate team is engaged to troubleshoot.
3. Hire (or Delegate) for Fit
Once you have your operating model drafted, you can characterize the technical skills and, just as importantly, the behavioral or “soft” skills necessary for an incumbent to be a successful, contributing member of the team. This encompasses easy-to-understand, accountability-oriented job descriptions; succinct and intuitive candidate screening criteria; effective behavioral interviewing; tailored onboarding; and intentional ongoing cultivation of talent.
Many times, leaders only focus on technical skills and previous work positions when seeking out talent. However, if the candidate is not capable of adapting and contributing to the culture you are building to enable successful execution, you will inevitably be spending more time managing conflict and suboptimal performance rather than achieving your strategic goals.
4. Engage Others
Building a coalition of team members and executive sponsors helps integrate strategic work into everyday priorities so that even if you are no longer involved in an initiative there will be a whole host of others who will continue to carry the mantle. Explaining why the initiative is important, helping others see the connection between the initiative and their personal sense of purpose, and working with them to create their own speaking points to share with others both horizontally and vertically are all important considerations when building a coalition of strategy supporters.
5. Plan Early for Succession
It is never too early to start succession planning. Having a plan for who will take on the responsibility for ensuring that the vision you are pursuing continues after you have moved on can make handing the reins over much smoother for all involved. As you engage stakeholders and build teams, keeping an eye out for those with the potential to take over as a strategy champion will afford you with as much time as possible to help coach them into being ready.
Delegating assignments targeted at helping others exercise underdeveloped skills is a great way to cultivate successors. Also, taking the opinions of team members into account when it comes to what they value in a leader will help you to position a successor in a positive and credible light over time so that when it is time to hand over the reins, there is less cognitive disruption for the team.
Conclusion
Given the amount of work involved in designing and implementing a strategy, it makes sense to build internal controls into your plans that set your strategy up for long-term, sustainable success.
By applying any or all of the tips in this article, you can enhance the likelihood that your hard work and effort will not have been in vain. You have put in the work, make sure you and your company achieve the greatest value!
For questions or to find out how EverSparq can help, contact info@eversparq.com.
