Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.
Why is it that so many CEOs get frustrated with their organization’s apparent inability to execute strategic initiatives? What does it take to turn strategies into operational reality? What role do projects play in this effort? What is often missing when strategic initiatives fall short of their targets?
For me, strategic initiative management (SIM) provides a framework for resolving the issues and frustrations that many organizational leaders experience. Like OPM (organizational project management), SIM focuses on how the PMO can deliver project-related strategic initiatives to the organization in a consistent and sustainable way.
Instead of trudging through the academic and technical definitions of SIM, this article will take a more nuts-and-bolts approach by exploring what is lacking in when strategic initiatives fail. What I am going to share with you comes from my personal experiences, learnings and reflections over my career that, to-date, spans 40-plus years.
Believe it or not, one of the blessings of growing old is the transformation of learning and knowledge into insight and wisdom (at least for those who made it part of their life’s strategic initiatives to become a student of human nature, organizational change and leadership). One of the things I have learned is that it is often easier to discover what is needed by identifying what is missing or lacking in a process, framework or structure instead of trying to conceptualize improvements from scratch. It just seems more consistent with human nature.
In understanding what causes pain/failure, we can begin to shape a framework for ensuring that each pain point is resolved appropriately. In terms of managing strategic initiatives, I have identified the following areas that contribute to the failure:
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Each of these areas will be explored, with guidance given for how to remedy them.
Lack of Cross-Functional Approach
It’s hard to believe that the majority of organizations follow a silo approach to executing their business plans (the place where strategic initiatives should be found). The process goes something like this:
The flaw with this approach is that the business unit plans are never aligned to each other and thus the seeds for failure are baked into everything that follows. In fact, it is not uncommon for the plans of one unit to be in conflict with those of another unit. There is no alignment at all.
A better approach would be to identify strategic initiatives and the organization’s goals to achieving those initiatives—and then take a cross-functional approach to building plans to achieve each initiative. This way, business units work together to develop a plan that directly and explicitly supports the strategic initiatives of the organization—including how these units will engage with each other throughout the effort.
The roles each business unit will play can still drive its silo’s budget, goals and objectives. They are simply driven by total alignment approach.
Many of these strategic initiatives will be accomplished through projects, and this is where the PMO joins the planning effort. If you only take one thing away from this article, this is that thing. Change the way the business plan is developed.
Lack of Context
When it comes to getting people to understand any set of strategies, goals and objectives, context is everything. All too often, the communication of strategic direction lacks context that can be easily digested and understood by those who will be tasked to achieve them. It is critical that all strategic initiatives contain reasons for its need and answer the question of why it is important. The why often becomes a rallying point for buy-in, not just compliance to an effort.
Lack of Meaningful Operational Measurements and Advanced Planning
Perhaps one of the biggest “lackings” in turning strategic initiatives into operational reality is the failure of management to translate the goals and objectives of those initiatives into meaningful operational terms.
Typically, goals and objectives are stated in nebulous, intellectualized and abstract terms, making it very difficult for the rank and file to understand and embrace them. Part of the cross-functional collaboration process identified above is to translate the initiative into operationally measurable outcomes to be achieved, ones that can easily be compared to current outcomes being produced.
These measurements should not be stated in terms of percentages but in actual units. For example, if part of the strategic initiative’s goals is to become the industry leader within three years, that goal needs to be translated into terms that answer questions like…
Once answered, these types of questions provide a framework for engaging the organization to better understand what issues and challenges exist that would impede achievement. This in turns shines a light on the business infrastructures, business processes, systems, etc. that will need to be changed if the objectives are to be realized.
Accordingly, this knowledge provides the input required to understand the true investments (time, people, monies, etc.) needed to realize success. With all this information in hand, projects and programs can be developed that are perfectly aligned with the strategic initiative.
Next to the first “lacking,” this comes next in importance.
Lack of Continuous Executive Engagement and Visibility
Okay, you have woven cross-functional collaboration into the business planning process; you have built context into each initiative; you have properly defined operationally measureable objectives; you have identified the programs and projects that need to be pursued. Is success a sure thing?
Not yet. To ensure that the efforts don’t lose their focus, executive engagement and visibility is needed. Programs and projects come and go without any real change taking place, so it is not unreasonable for people to be skeptical. But when the CEO and other leadership team members make these programs and projects a regular talking point, when they become visible and committed to the success of the efforts and they continuously connect the dots of what the end goal is, why it is important and how it relates to the programs and projects being pursued, people begin to believe it and engage.
It is imperative that executives take time to drop in on meetings and to reinforce all the whys and wherefores of the initiatives every chance they get. As a CEO mentor of mine once told me, “What gets focused on, reinforced (talked about a lot) and measured gets done.”
Lack of Willingness of Executives to Dive into the Weeds
Sadly, too many executives just get uncomfortable and/or don’t have the patience to engage programs and initiatives at the granular level needed to understand the nuances of directional decisions they are asked to make.
When executives are well informed about programs and projects in terms of the linkage to strategic initiatives, the issues and challenges specific to those programs and issues, and the overall status and progress, their interest speaks volumes about their level of engagement and how important those programs and projects are. When executives are willing to listen to project managers about their efforts and the like (without looking at their mobile device or looking board and disinterested), it encourages and empowers those PMs—and those they shared the positive encounter with—to stay committed to success. Imagine how successful strategic initiatives would be if there was a cultural attitude of “whatever it takes” in play.
Lack of Dedicated, Hands-On PM
One thing that really confounds me is the number of mission-critical projects that don’t have a dedicated project manager in place. By definition, any project that is deemed imperative to the organization achieving its strategic objectives has an ROI that dwarfs the cost of having a full-time, dedicated PM in place.
The utilization of the PM’s time is in material to success. But their oversight, hands-on engagement and professional judgment is critical to success. Having them distracted by other, less important activities is penny wise and pound foolish.
A case in point might illustrate this. When working on a major marketing project, the CEO wanted me on site virtually all the time. They wanted me at their fingertips 24/7 and did not care about any downtime I might have. They perceived the cost of my involvement to be negligible in the scheme of things, while they viewed the cost of their time to be worth in the tens of thousands of dollars an hour. So when he would call, even at 1 a.m. (and he did), he expected me to be available. Project success trumped whether I worked one hour in a day or 15. All that mattered was achieving the project as fast as possible so the benefits could be realized sooner than later.
When the stakes are high and people and money can ensure success, then it is amazing how dedicating people to the effort makes sense to enlightened leaders. So for those mission-critical, huge ROI projects, dedicate people where possible even if they are dedicated for a block of time (weeks, months, etc.).
Lack of Proper Communication and the Right Messengers
It seems that communication plans tend to focus on communications from the PMO/PM to stakeholders. Few of the communication plans that I have seen ever focus on communications from executives to the project team and other stakeholders.
It is important in most projects to show the bi-directional communication expectations for the project and to identify who should deliver those communications. Most of us have heard about shooting the messenger because someone didn’t like the message, but it is also important that a lot of people will shoot the message if they don’t like the messenger.
It is imperative to understand what level of credibility the messenger needs to have in order to be taken seriously by the audience being communicated to. That means the messenger needs to have the background, stature and standing that aligns with the audience. So, rarely should a project manager make a presentation to the executive committee unless they have the presentation skills, image and the like to pull it off.
Likewise, don’t send an executive to deliver messages to development teams if the message deals with technical issues. Human nature tends to subscribe to the concept “like me good, not like me bad,” at least at the sub-conscious and emotional level.
Communications related to strategic initiatives need to be strategically and logistically thought through. I suggest you start the shaping of communications by focusing on the takeaway you would like the audience to realize. I also suggest that the outcome you are hoping to achieve through the communication be acknowledged at the beginning of the document or presentation. If a decision is expected, then lead with what the decision is. If understanding is the end goal, then state what that understanding should be. Again, this goes back to the importance of context.
When assessing how proficient and adept your organization is at managing strategic initiatives, consider scoring the initiative in terms of how many of the “lackings” are in play. My feeling is that if you remove the “lackings” issue, you will find that a level of alignment between strategy and project priorities, resourcing and achievement will be materially improved. In short, you will have made major progress in bridging the gap between strategy and execution.
What are your thoughts? What did you find useful in the article? Did it touch any nerves or create any “Aha!” moments? Your feedback and observations are always greatly appreciated.
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"If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time--a tremendous whack." - Winston Churchill |
