How do you get your People to Implement the Strategy and Change?
Businesses today face change on all fronts – economic, regulatory, competitive, customer, and access to resources. Consequently, every company is adjusting its strategy and that implies change. The success of your strategy depends on your people – will they be able to implement the strategy and achieve the goals?
If you are a leader at any level, your people look to you for guidance on what needs to be done, and how. The key requirements of leaders are to:
- Set the strategy
- Communicate the strategy
- Implement the strategy through people
- Get results
Strategy, processes and people, supported by key projects to implement the strategy.
The hard part is getting your people to implement the strategy, and that is where MCE can help you.
A lot of leadership time is spent on steps 1 and 4. Yet, a new strategy will not bring results if leaders cannot invest enough of their effort in communicating the strategy and leading people to implement it. Whether your leadership challenge comes from a strategy adjustment, a new market, or from the need to integrate an acquisition, the same need exists to get people aligned, and the same basic approach is needed to do so.
∧4 Steps to Align your People to Implement the Strategy
Step 1. Put the Customer Value Proposition at the Centre of Everything You Do
Step 2. Enable and Motivate People to Implement the Strategy
Step 3. Plan the Implementation of Strategy
Step 4. Select and Start Projects to Implement the Strategy
∧Step 1. Put the Customer Value Proposition at the Centre of Everything You Do
Strategy is about choosing among alternatives to create a sustainable and differentiated competitive advantage. At the heart of any competitive strategy lies the Customer Value Proposition:
- WHO are your target customers? What market segment do you want to reach?
- WHAT is the Value Proposition you are offering, in the eyes of the customer?
- WHERE are you positioned in relation to competitors, in the eyes of the customer? How does your Value Proposition stand out compared to your Competitors?
Each Value Proposition leads to a different set of processes, metrics, systems and culture. See table below.
How you manage your organization is very different, depending on your Customer Value Proposition. In order to be able to act in a concerted effort to deliver the value proposition, your people need to know what the value proposition is. And they need to know the internal implications of it, to guide their goals, decisions and actions.
To learn more about the Customer Value Proposition and how it works in your market, visit B2B Strategy or Changes in Consumer Markets.
∧Step 2. Enable and Motivate People to Implement the Strategy
The MCE Leadership Model for Implementation of Strategy and Change is an interrelated system of tools and controls. Leaders have several tools and controls to enable and motivate people to implement the strategy. When people get the same message reinforced by all the control points, the strategy gets implemented more easily.
With every change or adjustment in your strategy, your people want to know how it will affect their day-to-day workflow, tasks and responsibilities. The questions below reflect what people think every day on the “shop floor”. Answering these questions is an essential leadership responsibility.
The MCE Leadership Model for Implementation of Strategy and Change
Customer Proposition
The Customer Value Proposition can only be realized if people know and understand what it is, and receive leadership support to deliver on it. Start with a clear customer value proposition for each segment. A good strategy creates growth, is focused, but also remains sensitive to change and is flexible for readjustment.
Strategy Commitment
People need to understand the internal implications of the strategy and how their jobs contribute. They need to be involved and engaged so they can commit to acting in support of it. This requires constant clear and simple communication of the strategy, in clear terms people can relate to.
Performance Metrics
Leaders focus and motivate people through the few essential KPI’s which show whether the strategy is being implemented. Departmental and individual objectives can be cascaded from these KPIs. Companies are paying more attention to customer metrics now that competition has intensified. Rewards tied to behaviours which support the strategy contribute to better implementation.
Processes and Structure
Leaders make sure the cross-functional processes, systems, structures and infrastructures in the company help people to implement strategy rather than work against them. Some processes are over-engineered or bureaucratic, with gaps and overlaps negatively affecting the final output. At other times, no process or accountability exists to support delivery of what a company has promised to its customers.
Behaviour of Leaders
Do you have the managerial and technical capabilities to deliver the customer value proposition? What competencies are needed? Who should be promoted and get ahead in the organization? People need the right skills and attitudes, as well as the authority to make the decisions and act on the strategy. It is leaders’ responsibility to build and develop the team, deal with misaligned or low performers, clear the path for people to decide and act, and keep energy and motivation high.
Culture
Culture is “the way we do things around here”. The values and behaviours of people are based on their perceptions. The culture of the organization is the beginning and the end of strategy implementation. It is both the driver and the outcome of the decisions, activities and behaviours in an organization. It is the culmination of past leadership behaviours, communications, and people policies, and the starting point for what adjustments need to be made in your company to implement your current strategy.
Each value proposition requires a different set of processes, metrics, practices and culture to be achieved successfully.
Consequences of each Customer Value Proposition.
∧Step 3. Plan the Implementation of Strategy
ICT is one of the most strategic processes as it enables everything the organization does to implement strategy. To find out more, please click here.
People implement strategies through a priority set of processes and projects. These require a strategic investment in time and resources to succeed.
The Strategy House is valuable for planning the implementation of strategy. It provides a summary of your implementation plan and key projects plan on one page. This way, your people can understand it and manage by it. The Strategy House can drive all activity in the company, if it is regularly monitored and updated to make sure the strategy is on track.
The Strategy House is valuable for planning the implementation of strategy.
Make Sure Processes and Metrics Support Strategy
Processes should help smooth strategy implementation, not create an obstacle. But often, legacy processes and metrics from past strategies persist. This encourages people to behave in ways that are different to what the current strategy requires.
What gets measured gets managed. If you are not selective about what you measure, you can spend a lot of management time on metrics which are interesting but tell you nothing about whether you are actually achieving your strategic objectives.
Setting only a few, tightly aligned metrics helps you stay on course. These are cascaded into department and individual scorecards, as well as performance evaluation and reward criteria. To participate in strategy implementation planning, managers at all levels need to understand what strategy is and how it works.
Strategy is not just for senior managers. Middle managers may also take part in a strategy planning exercise, to bring front-line knowledge to the table, and to play an active role in shaping and implementing the final plan.
Managers at all levels need to understand their company’s strategy so they can implement it. They translate corporate strategy into a supporting plan for their area. Therefore, they need strategy understanding and decision-making tools. They also need to be able to communicate their plans and ideas to senior management in a way that shows value creation, backed up by solid business thinking. Managers sometimes focus on technical details rather than business issues or they promote ideas that are not properly thought through.
∧Step 4. Select and Start Projects to Implement the Strategy
Managing strategy implementation through a portfolio of projects is critical for making your strategy a reality. Projects can proliferate and go in every direction. This takes attention and resources away from the projects that most directly impact implementation of strategy.
For more about the aspects of project management and control, as well as managing a programme of projects, please click here.
∧Talk to MCE about Implementation of Strategy
MCE Senior Associates have 20+ years of senior management experience. They have led strategy implementation and change themselves many times. They can help your management team with leadership and strategy implementation issues, not just from theory but from what works in real life, in different contexts. We can work with your organization flexibly at all levels, helping to align different departments and divisions to your corporate strategy.
Individual managers may benefit from planning their strategy implementation, and improving their leadership skills, in a public workshop setting. Interacting with a small group of peers from different industries and companies, they will benefit from challenge and feedback.
Our Senior Associates apply their expertise to your situation in a variety of ways, including:
Open Enrolment Workshops for Individual Managers
Every business professional—and every business—is dealing with constant change and long-term uncertainty. Having robust skills in multiple areas reduces uncertainty and opens up a whole new world of possibilities for success. That’s why thousands of people have turned to MCE for professional development that moves their skills to a higher level—fast. MCE’s development programs focus on personal relevance—how YOU benefit. Guided by expert course leaders, you will learn new skills with a small group of peers from various industries and a diversity of cultures. You will be ready to integrate new knowledge and ideas the very next day.
Click on each workshop title below to see detailed information about the workshop.
Implementation and Change
Processes & Metrics for Senior Managers
Strategy Skills for Middle Managers
Develop your ability to meet tomorrow’s challenges and adapt successfully to changing conditions.
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In-Company Leadership and Management Development Workshops
Customized to Your Specific Needs. Talented managers and leaders in key roles make all the difference in taking smart decisions and leading strategy implementation to success. Identifying talent potential and developing that talent to take on greater responsibilities is crucial for ensuring leadership succession as the older generation retires. MCE can help you with talent assessment, pipeline planning, and tailoring career path plans to achieve your future senior management needs.
Your future leaders need to understand your business, the broader business environment, how to make strategic business decisions, and how to lead and manage people in complex organizations. They need a cross-functional understanding of how the organization works together to get things done. We can customize a programme to run exclusively in your company for your future senior managers.
Increase the ability of your managers and leaders to meet tomorrow's challenges and adapt successfully to changing conditions.
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Business Coaching and Mentoring
MCE senior associates provide flexible one-on-one mentoring and coaching to key people in your organization at middle or senior levels. MCE associates mentor and guide based on their own business experience. This can be on a particular business issue or project, or for general career development. It could be about filling a knowledge gap in a specific area in preparation for taking on a more senior role.
Move your career to a new level with an MCE Mentor or Business Coach.
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Advice on Organizational Development and Talent Management
Your people are your most expensive asset. Success depends on making sure this asset is productive. An important part of this is developing your people in the competencies related your your strategy. MCE can work with you flexibly and in a variety of formats. Management Centre Europe can help you custom-design a development curriculum for the individual managers in your leadership pipeline.
For management learning and management academies, MCE can help you lay the foundation and get started. We can help you decide what your curriculum should be in support of your strategy and learning and development needs. We can also supply content for your curriculum. For corporate universities and management academies that are commercializing their programmes for an external market, MCE can help you with strategy, business model, curriculum planning, content and launch.
Talk to MCE about developing talent for productivity, engagement and the leadership pipeline.
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