Strategy execution is the process of taking your plans for future growth and turning them into business outcomes. Achieving consistent results through strategy can take some time — due to project dependencies, market changes, and internal resources — meaning organizations often don’t truly understand the value of effective strategy execution.
When creating a strategy, there’s a myriad of things to consider: time and resource allocation, priorities, costs… And that’s not including any unexpected hurdles along the way. This means that, often, organizations abandon strategy plans (or have to make major changes) midway through the process which can hinder progress and impact outcomes.
Frequently there is a gap between strategy creation and execution, owing to not properly understanding the scope or scale of the strategy, failing to track projects, or misalignments in resources. This leads to organizations not achieving business goals, unable to rectify operational issues that prevent you from realizing your full potential. All too often organizations overestimate the strength of their plans and underestimate the discipline required to execute them consistently.
Effective strategy execution is, sadly, not an overnight process. It comprises a strong internal foundation (that welcomes strategy with open arms), agility, commitment, and drive.
Why is effective strategy execution important?
While this could be stating the obvious, effective strategy execution is how you are able to deliver tangible, successful, business outcomes. It ensures your people, processes, and resources are aligned to help you achieve your desired goals.
Strategy execution should be seen as a continuous process. It begins with clearly defined objectives and priorities, and progresses by undertaking specific activities that are regularly reviewed, in line with metrics for success, to understand how things are moving along. This continuous loop of execution, measurement, and adaptation is what keeps your strategy on track.
Focusing on how you execute your strategy will enable you to:
- Adapt quicker to changing market conditions, especially when compared to using a static execution method. Frequent execution reviews allow you to identify and resolve issues sooner, minimizing their impact
- Improve team performance thanks to better alignment and visibility. Creating buy-in for your strategy will bring better outputs as individuals understand their role in the overarching process
- Close the gap between the creation and execution process. Having a strong understanding of where you currently are, and where you need to be, helps to progress strategic initiatives and deliver value — more on this in a moment!
Creating a strategy plan is only a small part of the process. It’s all about how you deliver on that plan, take blockers in your stride, and execute the strategy to bring results. Clear KPIs, OKRs, or your preferred metrics for success, provide the insight needed to keep efforts both focused and accountable.
The gap between creation and execution
Difficulties in successfully executing a strategy usually appear when there is a gap between the creation and execution process. Your plans look complete, you’ve thought of all the key parts and areas of focus, but you’re struggling to deliver on what you’ve promised. This is the exact point at which your execution stalls. Not because your plans were wrong, but because they weren’t translated into executable, trackable work.
There are a few common issues that organizations experience in strategy execution — understanding these, and how to resolve them, is critical to closing the creation and execution gap.
Misaligned priorities
Despite priorities being agreed and defined, what is important for one department might not be for another. This means teams will likely invest more time and focus on their own specific goals, taking attention away from the strategy and limiting its progress.
There are various methods you can use to cascade your strategy across the business which improve internal buy-in and ensure everyone is working from the same page. Approaches such as OKRs or Balanced Scorecard help translate high-level goals into clear, aligned objectives at every level across the organization.
Lack of accountability
Actions and activities all need ownership. Without someone accountable, or responsible, for their part in strategy execution, progress can (very easily) slip. Visible ownership of strategy components, combined with regular progress review meetings, will drive outcomes and keep the strategy moving in the right direction.
Unidentified blockers
Taking a plan from paper to action can surface issues that weren’t previously considered. Your written strategy likely looks perfect, but hasn’t accounted for factors that are either in or out of your control.
When it comes to executing your strategy, you might identify additional areas for improvement — such as lack of internal resources or slow approval processes — or experience external market shifts that mean you need to pivot.
If blockers aren’t highlighted quickly, they can impact strategic outputs and cause the whole process to lose momentum and force you to move your focus elsewhere. Try to plan for contingency within your strategy to improve strategic agility. Most importantly, put in place a consistent review cadence and escalation process so blockers are surfaced and resolved sooner.
Data overwhelm
Using data to drive decision-making can quickly become overwhelming if there is too much data to review. This is often apparent in organizations that aren’t using a streamlined process for data gathering, or for tracking progress.
Data can quickly become outdated and could cause some poorly informed decisions to be made. This is especially important as it can slow down the execution process by not correctly tracking progress or working from incorrect figures that don’t accurately represent where you are. Ensure that everyone is working from the most current version of data, and only the most important metrics are getting the most attention.
Resource constraints
Resource constraints typically fall into three categories: time, budget, and people. During the strategy creation process, it’s important you truly understand what you are capable of achieving before committing to it — and your execution failing. Be realistic about what is feasible with your current resources, and encourage open communication so that plans accurately reflect your current position.
Consider how much additional work your strategy will create vs current workload and actual capacity, and use this when defining your priorities. Teams being spread too thin will only slow you down.
Next steps
Creating a strategy is only the starting point. Execution is where you deliver real value. Effective strategy execution is what brings your plans to life, where you align people and priorities, and adapt quickly when conditions change. Closing the gap between creation and execution is critical as it gives the focus you need to make tangible change in your organization.
Execution should be viewed as a continuous cycle, where you’re always looking for ways to improve or optimize your operations, and learning from the entire process. The most successful strategy implementations are when strategy becomes part of your internal culture, and not just an annual exercise. This is what turns intent into outcomes.
