Stuck on the Page
Why strategy has a habit of staying in the land of theory, not of the living
I was looking at some past work yesterday and was struck by two things. First, the slides were pretty damn good. Easy to follow, well-designed, smart writing. The path from observations to insights built to a definitive “so what”, and the strategic conclusion made sense. Good to know I can make slides.
It was the second realization, however, that caught my breath. This work – for a Fortune 500 leader in their field at a time when they desperately needed to pivot, double down on their brand, and shift into a new gear – didn’t make a damn bit of difference. It was – like so much of the work that consultants, agencies and business coaches deliver – little more than thinking on a page. In the land of the living, breathing, work-doing people who make up the modern company, this work was zombie strategy.
This is not a slam of the thinking itself. Thinking on the page (and the thinking behind it) is important. Nor are we saying that way in which that thinking is delivered is wrong. A much as we chide them, slides are important. But unless we work hard to go beyond the document in which the ideas are captured and escape out into the organization, then this type of strategy will never be worth the megabytes it takes up.
In general, there are five common reasons good strategy gets stuck on the page.
There are a million reasons strategies fail. But, these five show up time and time again.
So, what’s to be done?
The good news is that each of the reasons strategy tends to get stuck on the page has a solution that isn’t overwhelming. But they do require real commitment from leaders if we’re to consistently turn strategy into action.
It’s no one’s job to take it beyond the page. → Make it someone’s job. When establishing the initial team structure to develop a new strategy, don’t ignore making it someone’s job to put it into action. Don’t make it everyone’s job, either. One individual, owning responsibility for taking strategy beyond the page and into the organization will ensure that this very important ball does not get dropped. Why one person? Because if it’s one person’s job and only one person’s job, it will be crystal clear if the job is actually getting done. Side note: it’s usually best that this responsibility not be taken by the most senior team member involved. This requires accountability and nothing kills that conversation like having to tell the boss they’re wrong.
Strategy – Not Action – was the Objective. → Start with Actions. The easiest way to get to where you want to be is to make sure you know where you want to be. When it comes to strategic initiatives, that means a clear sense of the actions you want to achieve. If you can wrangle a good project manager onto the team, you’ll be a step closer to mitigating the risk of not having a set of clear actions and outcomes set at the start. If one of the goals is to drive change and action the strategy, then make that a key criteria. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200 without it. If you start with actions, you’ll end with actions.
The Right Strategy Solving the Wrong Problem. → Get to know the Problem First. Part of this issue comes from the team being too removed from what’s happening on the ground, in the field, on the factory floor. The solution is to spend enough time really examining the problem. Whether its customer visits, listening sessions with teams, or testing out prototypes, understanding the multidimensionality of the problem, the root causes, and the real needs is a great place to start.
It’s Ignorable. → Weave it into Everything. The solution to a strategy that gets ignored is to make it something that cannot be ignored. You can build it into performance goals, you can make it something that is openly shared throughout the organization, you can talk about it in town halls. But whatever you do, the more you can make it accessible, personal and actionable, the more likely it will come to be.
It’s too much. → One In, One Out. For every thing that we ask teams or individuals or entire organizations to take on, we need to take something off of their plate. Unless we can somehow free up resources, time, thinking space by allowing our people the freedom to change, they’ll never have the ability to do so. That’s why applying the One In, One Out rule to strategy can be so helpful. It’s simple, really. And if teams are able to have a real say in what they leave aside, how they achieve those strategic goals, then you’ll have an even better chance of your strategy being not just adopted but embraced.
While it’s true that strategy can sometimes feel like a lot of movement, not all of it in the right direction, by taking some key steps early on and throughout the strategic development process you can have a better chance of great thinking jumping off the page. Because if strategy can’t be turned into action, what’s the point?
What are some of the reasons you’ve found strategy to get stuck on the page?
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