Making Strategy Happen
Developing a strategy to achieve something massive is not the hard part – it is deploying it through a team, a community or a very large organisation.
Strategic Deployment means the implementation of everything necessary to allow a new strategy to take hold – systems, processes, behaviours, cultures, perspectives, tools and techniques. Far more than a traditional implementation plan, it brings in the disciplines of project management, internal marketing, stakeholder analysis, cultural assessment and process management – and may well require the inclusion of deep technical or product expertise.
Leadership is fundamental to performing strategic deployment properly, but the results are well worth the effort and give the type of results that top flight organizations achieve on a regular basis. A proven way of getting members of a group totally engaged with the mission is to include them directly in the strategy. Great idea for a keynote address!
Organizations that deploy strategy successfully use more than just good management tools. They consider strategy in everything they do, and their staff are able to do the same. How?
Success deploying strategy derives from careful planning and execution of objectives systemically. In simple terms, every objective is broken down to be relevant to any person at any level in the organisation. It sounds straight forward, yet it is rarely done. And it takes leadership in abundance. Martin describes some of the ways organisations deploy strategy and with some humorous examples, explains why some of these methods are flawed.
Martin describes how strategy can be deployed down an organization with clarity and focus, using examples the delegates are familiar with.
In fact when done well, strategy deployment is levelled down and then back up the organization to ensure everyone is in alignment. While taking the objectives down each level, action plans are created to achieve the objectives in terms that are relevant to each individual. The leaders cement the change in by messaging and personal involvement. It results in true organisational focus, separating the few essential activities from the many trivial activities we allow to clutter our days.
