At StrategyWorks we craft strategy in teams – from ideas to delivery

Rally your team around a clear strategy and plan
Engage your people in delivery
Turn your strategy into money

Disruption really is the new normal. Swift, wide-ranging and deep-rooted upheaval is commonplace. The strategy and plan you created last year may already be obsolete.

Effective organisations operate against an explicit strategy. The best teams continuously collect and orientate themselves against information from the environment. Everyone knows the strategy. Everyone in the team contributes and commits to, and reports on a clear plan of action.  Everyone’s daily work is directed towards achieving the strategy.  The team regularly reviews the relevance of their strategy in the changing environment.

This is obvious – but it’s not that simple

Setting strategy is messy.   Your role as leader is to pilot your team through the strategic discourse.

Dialogue in teams is often a waste of time. Do you hear any of the following comments about your strategy process?

• “We want to set strategy but we don’t really know what is going on around us.  We don’t have enough information.”
• “I talk but no-one listens. All the usual people are too busy pushing their pet ideas.”
• “We all avoid conflict. Raising difficult issues is seriously career-limiting around here.”
• “We talk a big, bold change. But ultimately nothing happens.”
• “We are just not wired for this strategy business.”

Often the tools used to support the strategy discourse are just inadequate. Some of the favourite tools have been shown to be of little value, and may indeed provide misleading results. SWOT is a good example.  Teams seldom know their real weaknesses. Few teams have a process to collect information to understand threats. And strengths in one arena do not always translate into opportunities in another.  SWOT is a good way to summarise the output of tough discourse rather than an agenda structure.

The best tools require learning but few teams have the patience with the confusion involved in grappling with new ideas.

Executing strategy requires discipline.  Each person, each day, working to achieve a particular strategic goal.  When your strategy involves large-scale change people in your teams will find all manner of reasons to not work towards it.

It is not surprising therefore that most strategies fail. Even smart strategies fail.  Most strategy failure is through lack of execution.  People revert to what they were doing before the strategy was set.

But there is a way to get it right

There are excellent tools to support strategic discourse.  Researchers continue to improve strategic tools. Experienced practitioners provide practical feedback to improve how these tools may be used in real situations.

Wouldn’t you like access to:

• Processes to collect, collate and understand information from your environment.
• Methods to frame information to provide insight.
• Approaches to engage the team in effective discourse.
• Models to define, translate and execute strategy.
• Techniques for people in your teams to confront each other on emotionally charged topics.
• Tools to clarify plans so that everyone knows the few goals on which the team will focus.
• Processes to successfully execute plans, with short-term feedback on progress.
• Methods and tools to deal with the inevitable yet unexpected obstacles to delivery.

Well that’s what I do

Leaders find me when they are ready to act. They have had enough of false starts, inadequate implementation and lost opportunities. Sometimes they are discouraged or under threat. Always they are ready to find a better way.

When our work is done together, you and your team are clear on your plan. You are executing your plan. Every week you can point to progress. You are dealing with those inevitable yet unexpected obstacles in the process of delivery. You and your teams are delivering.

What can you do?

If this describes your current situation or your desire for change, please read the notes below that describe the five key areas in which I work guide organisations. You can also download the e-book I have written on change which offers a different perspective to pull all of these areas together. You can also look through some of the articles in my blog.