The Strategy Implementation Challenge

Summary

This video discusses the growing gap in strategy implementation skills among leaders, highlighting how despite understanding strategy, they often fail in execution. Based on over 20 years of research, it reveals that leaders tend to repeat past mistakes and lack the discipline to implement change effectively. Successful implementation requires consistent action, much like daily training for a marathon. The video also emphasizes the importance of clearly defining and communicating strategy to employees and using frameworks like the Implementation Compass to guide organizations toward success.

Takeaways

• 😀 Leaders today need both strategic planning and the ability to implement it effectively. However, the failure rate of strategy implementation is rising, not decreasing.
• 😀 Strategy implementation is a relatively new subject in business, and many current leaders were taught how to plan, not how to implement those plans.
• 😀 Many business leaders have not been taught strategy implementation in their education, leading to a significant skills gap in organizations.
• 😀 A major reason for the high failure rate in strategy implementation is that leaders tend to repeat past mistakes without making necessary changes to their approach.
• 😀 The definition of insanity, as Albert Einstein said, is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. Leaders should learn from past failures and apply those lessons to new strategies.
• 😀 At the initial stage of implementing a new strategy, leaders should understand why past implementations failed and use those insights to ensure success in the new plan.
• 😀 Organizations often lack the required discipline for successful implementation, meaning employees must hear the message of a new strategy consistently and be supported to take the right actions.
• 😀 Successful strategy implementation is similar to training for a marathon or going to the gym: it requires daily discipline, not just sporadic effort.
• 😀 Strategy involves making choices, and implementation is about executing the right actions consistently to add value, while stopping actions that do not contribute to success.
• 😀 A significant issue is that only 5% of employees can define their organization's strategy, which hinders their ability to take the right actions and implement it effectively.
• 😀 The puzzle about birds on a fence illustrates that leaders often know what needs to be done, but fail to take the right actions, leading to poor strategy implementation despite their good intentions.

Q & A

What is the main reason for the increasing rate of strategy implementation failures?

The increasing rate of strategy implementation failures can be attributed to the lack of training in strategy implementation. While leaders are often trained in strategy formulation, they are not adequately trained in how to implement it.

Why is strategy implementation considered a relatively new subject in business?

Strategy implementation is considered a relatively new subject because most business degree courses focus on strategy planning, and very few, if any, offer courses on strategy implementation, leading to a gap in skills.

What is the 'strategy implementation skills gap' and how does it affect businesses?

The 'strategy implementation skills gap' refers to the lack of necessary skills among leaders to effectively implement strategies. This gap contributes to over two-thirds of strategy implementations failing.

How do leaders repeatedly make past mistakes in strategy implementation despite knowing the high failure rates?

Leaders tend to repeat past mistakes because they continue to use the same methods from previous attempts without making any adjustments or learning from their failures. This behavior aligns with the definition of insanity, as famously described by Einstein.

What is a good practice for leaders when implementing a new strategy?

A good practice for leaders is to first identify why previous implementations failed and apply those lessons to the new implementation to increase the chances of success.

What is meant by 'discipline' in the context of strategy implementation?

In the context of strategy implementation, 'discipline' refers to the consistent and focused effort required to ensure that employees are continuously supported and encouraged to adopt new actions that align with the new strategy.

How is strategy implementation similar to training for a marathon or gym fitness?

Like training for a marathon or getting fit in the gym, strategy implementation requires regular, daily action rather than sporadic efforts. It is about building consistent habits and routines to achieve the desired results.

What is 'purposeful abandonment,' and why is it important in strategy implementation?

Purposeful abandonment, as taught by Peter Drucker, refers to identifying and stopping actions that are not contributing to the success of the new strategy. This is important because it frees up resources and time for more valuable activities that align with the new strategy.

What percentage of employees can define their organization's strategy, and why is this problematic?

Only 5% of employees can define their organization's strategy, which is problematic because if employees don't understand the strategy, they cannot take the right actions to support its implementation.

What lesson can be drawn from the puzzle about the birds sitting on a fence?

The lesson from the puzzle is that discussing and deciding on the strategy repeatedly is not enough to implement it. Like the birds, despite deciding to leave, they never took action, which parallels the failure of leaders to implement the strategy despite talking about it.