EMPLOYEE IDEAS, NOT STRATEGIC OFFSITES, GENERATE GREAT STRATEGIES
“In the crosshairs" is a term that means focus or center of attention. In our organizations, the focus or center of our attention should be our strategies. The questions then become how do we develop great strategies and how do we make them the center of our attention? The key is to Align the strategies to the Design!
This IS NOT about what your strategy should be. You will have to figure that out based on many factors including your industry, business model and competitive edge. This IS about helping you think through a strategic process that creates the following outcomes.
Your strategies are:
1) aligned and focused on the key fundamental design components that drive your success;
2) comprehensive since they were developed with significant input from all levels of the organization (i.e. ownership) and
3) simply worded so all levels of the organization can understand and apply (i.e. engage in the execution).
Before you gather for your offsite to do SWOT analyses, environmental scans etc., I strongly suggest you have a clear and concise strategic process that everyone can understand. Let's walk through the steps!
I. Explain the Process
The strategic planning process should not be a secret. Share it with the organization so they can engage in the process. The key here is to be as transparent as you can, communicate the timeline and explain where and when input is needed. This process should be communicated to the organization before you start anything. Depending on company size, this can be done in a conference room, in a town hall meeting, via road shows to different locations or recorded and posted on your intranet. Whatever works best for your organization. The explanation should include:
Why is strategic planning important?
What are the Design components for our organization?
What is the timeline from beginning to end?
Why we need your input?
When we need your input?
How to give us your input?
When we will compile and review the input?
When we will share, at a high level, the input received?
How will the strategic leadership team take that input and determine the strategies?
When will we communicate the strategies and discuss them with you?
What is our involvement in executing the strategies?
By clearly communicating the process, everyone is informed and accountability has been established based on the published timeline.
II. Set the DESIGN Filter
In other words, does the strategy:
support the mission?
move us closer to our vision?
have complete leadership support?
leverage our competitive edge?
support the culture we want to build and maintain?
Any strategy that is up for discussion needs to pass through this filter first before moving on to deeper evaluation. In other words, the bulleted questions above are the screening questions that need to be answered before even considering the idea. This Design filter should be communicated to all employees when the process (Step I) is explained. It should be used as their filter when generating their own input.
III. Gather Ideas
All too often, the executive team heads out of town on a weekend retreat to "develop strategy." Can this group, in a vacuum, generate new ideas and come up with great strategies? Sure! Might they also have "blindspots" or unknown issues/opportunities when developing strategies? Absolutely!
We’ve been in management consulting for over 20 years and we are still amazed at how many organizations don't ask their employees for ideas to plug into the strategic planning process. The best ideas come from the people doing the work so why not get ideas from everyone or at least give them a chance to share thoughts and ideas. Seems pretty straightforward to us!
IV. Compile and Group Information
Use technology to gather and organize data (work smarter, not harder). Have people enter thoughts/ideas using internet data gathering services (e.g Survey Monkey) and force attribute assignment to each comment. For example, attributes could be strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (standard SWOT) or others like people, innovation, culture, process and structure. You pick the attributes that work best for you.
Once the open comment time has expired per the timeline, you can consolidate the information by attribute for review by the strategic leadership team.
V. Run Through the Design Filter
Remove the comments that don't meet the Design filter requirements and group the input. Stay disciplined and committed to your Design. This should be a spirited discussion in your team meetings!
VI. Evaluate Ideas
As a strategic leadership team, work through the ideas and thoughts and start to prioritize them according to impact to the business, ease and cost of implementation, etc. This should be a spirited discussion as well!
VII. Determine Key Strategies
My challenge for you in determining your key strategies is to limit the number of key strategies and make them easy to understand. This can be very hard but it's critical for implementation success.
Focus Through Simplicity
Have you ever sat through a strategy session presentation that was over an hour long with over more than 50 PowerPoint slides explaining the strategy? I have and it is brutal! I have also left those sessions more confused about our strategies than I was before the meeting. How's that for clarity?!
As organizations and individuals, we tend to be outstanding at making simple things complex (the 50 slide strategy deck) but we struggle at making the complex simple. We overthink things and sometimes feel that strategies need to be complex to justify our position and pay.
I believe we need to take the opposite approach. I encourage you to have the discipline to focus on only 3-5 key strategic initiatives a year using simple, clear and concise wording. This will do two things:
Simplicity allows ALL employees to understand and which makes it easier from them to apply.
Force the organization to prioritize and focus on the "critical few" vs. the "trivial many."
Challenge your strategic leadership team to really focus on simplifying strategies.
VIII. Communicate Throughout the Organization
Once completed, it's critical that you not only communicate the key strategies but also be transparent as to why other potential strategies may not have made the final cut. Be open to any and all questions from your employees and be transparent with your answers. Employees can see right through rehearsed answers with flowery wording. Be authentic and genuine. Remember, you need employees to buy in to the strategic approach so answering tough questions engages them in the process and increases the likelihood of them supporting the strategic direction.
IX. Create Execution Road Map
Much like explaining the strategic planning process, the strategic leadership team should create a road map for executing the strategy, explain it to employees and then ask employees how to execute it. The WHY and WHAT are no longer up for discussion, only the HOW. The organization engaged in a thorough process of developing the why and what and decisions have been made. We now need a plan to execute.
X. Go Do It!
You plan the work and then you work the plan. My hope is that your strategic planning process has now set you up for a higher likelihood of success in execution.
Strategy development does not have to be complex. Work hard at keeping it simple by following a process that Aligns to your Design!