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.
Navigating Change
[including toolkit]
Change can be excruciatingly painful.

Understanding the reasons behind some of the bizarre behaviour happening in teams during change can be reassuring. We may kid ourselves that ‘unconscious’ means ‘unimportant’. However nothing could be further from the truth. Unconscious process has the greatest effect on how we behave.
Download the ebook to read about the processes going on under the hood in your team as you implement your strategy.
[optinform]
Define, plan and execute your Strategy
Chart your course – Overcome the obstacles – Achieve your goals
Your team will succeed as they engage with your compelling direction. They will commit themselves as you involve them in the discourse to align their unique competencies to the opportunities in your chosen segment of the market. At StrategyWorks we lead clients through four phases towards achieving your business strategy.
ACCESS A RICH TOOLBOX TO DEFINE AND EXECUTE STRATEGY
Teams are people. People are complex. People in groups get stuck. Access a rich toolbox to support progress in your team.
How we help you succeed.
Group Intervention
As organisations move from hierarchy, command and control to empowerment and self-managed teams they engage in intense conversation. Through this dialogue teams let go of what doesn’t work any more as they face wave after wave of change.
But discussion doesn’t always work. Conversation may be torn by heightened emotions or drowned in stagnant backwaters of defensive behaviour.
Your group can learn effective conversation in which everyone listens with palpable respect and clearly presents their ideas.
Read more about this offer on our facilitation and group coaching page.
Individual Coaching
Even in effective action our thinking can become mired in denial or repetitive patterns. Receiving
focussed attention can bring clarity, highlight choices and stimulate engagement.
Sometimes a clear picture of your current situation is enough. But through coaching you can also
develop and execute a plan of action while keeping in view the big picture of where you are going.
Empowerment is not an easy option. With this solution you can expect support as you take on your
responsibility and authority.
Read more about the energy and enthusiasm released in coaching in our page on individual coaching.
Free Resources
Download articles and templates, for free. In addition to the give-away articles, I write a weekly posting about Business Strategy, Team Leadership and Personal Mastery in my blog.
I also send out each posting as a weekly newsletter. Be sure never to miss a posting by joining the list of subscribers. You can do this by downloading your free e-book on Change in Teams where you will be asked to submit your name and email address.
Online Courses
Coaching in person can be time consuming and expensive. Soon you will be able to access the value of the material covered in individual and group coaching, but in a step-by-step online course. Online courses are intended to cover:
- Personal Mastery
- Team Leadership
- Business Strategy Development
As a participant you will receive course material once a week. Once a month you will be invited to an online conversation to discuss your experience, learnings and difficulties in working with the material.
Watch this space…
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