Look Into the Future STRATEGY

New Business as Usual

LIVE IT.

DEGREE OF SUPPORT
Integrating Embedded Experience

Internalizing

Applying

Acquiring
BELIEVE IT.
Learning

Accepting

Understanding

HEAR IT.
Awareness Communicating

TIME

Are you responsible

for executing strategy?
Top 8 Tactics for Getting 1. CO-CREATE 2. INVEST IN ACTIVATION 3. EMPATHIZE 4. VISUALIZE

Strategy Right People Support What They Create A Message Sent Is Not a Why Does Each Audience Make It So Clear You Can
From the start, include key influencers and executives in the Message Received Want To Change? Point At It Somewhere
strategy creation process, even if only for periodic reviews and The biggest failure is assuming employees will just snap to a new When designing communications about the strategy, it’s critical A strategy isn’t clear until you can draw it on a napkin, or better
$38 billion dollars – that’s billion with a feedback. Even better if you can include a broader group plan once they hear it. That’s not how we’re wired — humans are that you empathize with your employees and put yourself in their yet, up on a wall. Challenge your team to visualize your strategy,
“B” — are spent annually on pure strategy during the brainstorming & ideation phases, so new ideas can inherently skeptical, and need to not only hear new information shoes. Bob’s been doing his job the same way for years — what’s and then put it on a wall where everyone can see it, engage with
bubble to the top. When people see their own fingerprints in multiple times, but be convinced that it’s correct, and in their it going to take to get him to do something different on Monday it, discuss it, and be imprinted by it.
consulting with management consulting the plan, they are much more likely to both support it and interest, in order to start changing behavior. morning?
firms.(1) The world’s largest companies promote it to others. Visualizing your strategy creates a common map for everyone to
We call this moving people up the “Activation Curve”, which Key questions that you need to answer for Bob: What’s in it for follow, gives your team a script to describe it to others, and helps
spend some multiple of that internally, Co-creation practices help to crowd-source knowledge, promotes an activation plan that creates multiple touch points so me? Why is this better than the way we did it before? How will people understand where they fit into the plan and how they can
when you count the hours committed by accelerate plan adoption, and build ambassadors throughout that employees hear it, believe it, and eventually live it. you remove the risk for me and support me along the way if I start make an impact?
key personnel in the annual strategic the process. doing things differently?

planning process. And yet it’s reported

that 90% of corporate strategies fail.
STRATEGY
That’s right, 90% of that investment is PROGRAM
VISION MISSION
wasted (2), churned without results to show.

Most internal strategists and their

consulting advisors do a great job
understanding where their company
should go, and devising potentially
effective strategies to get there. Where 5. SYSTEMIZE 6. ENGAGE EMPLOYEES 7. EMBED IT IN YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL DNA 8. MAKE IT AGILE
they fail is follow-through — investing in
Not An Island, A Chain Make It Fun Everywhere They Are, You Are No Plan Survives First Contact
what it takes to actually activate their
A strategy will fail if it’s not linked to your other core processes Employees are overwhelmed by information. If you want to We always chart a straight path to our destination, but we will
strategy. They’ve shared the strategy with in a meaningful way. It’s not an island; it’s a critical link in the engage them, you need to try new and different techniques,
For change to take hold, you must embrace the mechanisms that
inevitably be blown off course from time to time by internal,
already exist in your culture in order to change it. Where do people
the company in the newsletter, by email, chain of how your business operates. and I dare say, make it fun. People learn by understanding gather? How do they communicate, both officially and unofficially? external, and unforeseen circumstances. Anticipate this and build
and in the All-hands meeting, but they’ve As a check, ensure that your strategy clearly links to and
information, rehearsing activities that apply that information, How does your company show up in their lives? it into the activation program, so your organization can learn and
getting feedback and repeating. adapt faster.
failed to understand that a message sent complements your vision and mission for the company. Be Find those flagpoles, sign-posts and meeting places that exist in
does not equal a message received. sure your budget ties directly to the initiatives and support Broadcasting a 100-page PowerPoint Deck isn’t going to your company, and hang your key messages – even in bite-sized Best practices here include the creation of feedback loops for
required to deliver the strategy. Be sure your performance activate your strategy — that’s one-way communication. chunks, where they are likely to become part of the day-to-day. employees to share their experiences and solutions, chunking up
management system holds executives accountable for the Make it omni- directional, by engaging employees in workshops, Everything from break-room signage to lunch-room table tents to initiatives into short sprints so progress can be made consistently
What’s the formula for successfully initiatives, goals and impact outlined in the strategy. In short, if simulations, role playing, even game-playing. Strategy games company swag can reinforce key messages, and help embed them and iteratively, and building “after action reviews” into each stage
activating your strategy, and even you can’t draw a straight line between all of these operational in small teams is a great way for teams to rehearse and see the in the DNA. of an initiative so the team can share, learn, and adapt in real-
systems, go back to the drawing board before you deploy it. impact of a good strategy in a safe, risk-free environment, then time. In addition to making the organization more proactive and
accelerating your organization’s results? go forward confidently. adaptive, each step forward removes skepticism and increases
Consider building these eight tactics into momentum among the team.
your strategy activation plan:

XPLANE is a consultancy that helps large

I’d like to challenge strategy leaders to build strategy activation into their strategy investment from the start. Investing 10-15% as much to activate a organizations engage, align, and activate
CITATIONS: strategy as it costs to develop it is easy math, when you consider the cost of a 90% risk of failure otherwise. A strategy will only succeed if your team all its employees. We’d be thrilled to hear
1) [Link], The Global Consulting Market sees the same destination, believes in the plan, and starts rowing the boat in the same direction, together. from you:
2) Robert Kaplan & David Norton, The Balanced Scorecard store@[Link]
[Link]