Implementing Strategy, One Day at a Time

Recently, I had lunch with another member of the "Free Agent Nation", the growing army of independent professional service providers. There are over 35 million of us nationwide, now. We spent a little time building rapport and getting to know each other better and we discussed business models and swapped examples of what we do and how we do it, in an effort to discover how we might be able to help each other.

One of the observations that came from our conversation, was how many people we both talk to, that often fail to make the link between business strategy and daily activity. She works with senior teams on developing and implementing strategy and I do one on one coaching with many people in similar roles. Many executives spend a large portion of their day on either operational issues or on things that have little lasting value for the organization, at least within the priorities set by those same leaders.

Dozens of books are written every year on these topics, yet it still keeps happening. I think two of the main culprits include inertia and attention. On the one hand, virtually every strategy level person today, was an operations person a month ago or a decade ago and it is easy to continue doing what you enjoy doing and what comes easy to you. On the other hand, your day is spent working with and talking with folks who have operational concerns and their own tactical priorities and they continually demand your attention.

The list of any day's activity includes dozens of interactions in meetings, conversation in the hallway or on the phone as will as high-tech communication that is all important, yet not strategy driven. So, at the end of the day you have worked very hard, have made significant progress on many fronts, yet not spent a single second on your top strategic priorities. Days become months, which become quarters, which become fiscal years. Pretty soon, this year's "Bold New Initiative" becomes next year's #1 priority!

If this sounds familiar and you would have listened in on our conversation, you would have learned that you are not alone. So, senior leader, how do you break the cycle? Obviously, new habits are in order. You remember habits, don't you? Habits are the behavior patterns that save you hundreds of decisions and act as big time savers every day. The bad news is, they also make it easy to keep moving in a familiar direction along a familiar path even when that familiar path no longer takes you where you need to go.

In exchange, try posting your top strategic priorities where you will see them on a daily basis. It is okay for others to see them, too. We don't want them to be secrets, you know. You could pick one each day when you are putting together your to-do list, and decide upon an activity that will move that one forward that day. How about selling, not just announcing those priorities to your team, so that everyone knows what is most important every day? Another idea is setting weekly schedules based on a percentage of time that you (and others) will spend on each of a short list of strategic priorities that week, moving those ideas forward a little at a time.

While coming up with strategy may seem like rocket science or fortune telling, implementation is not. It is moving a few key priorities forward a little at a time. This is where operations experience comes in handy; how can you break those big, dreamy ideas into doable parts. One task at a time, one day at a time. You just have to get them on the schedule in the first place.

Understanding strategic priorities and finding a way to make progress on them on a daily, consistent basis; that is what strategic leaders do.

Gary_Minor

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