Because I make my living as a strategy consultant, I have many opportunities to "talk shop" with others who do strategy. I find it both a great way to learn about some of the interesting things happening in the industry as well as an excellent opportunity to meet new colleagues.
Not long ago one of my colleagues was looking for best practices in strategy management/strategic planning. I realized it was something that might be useful to many of you, so I'm using my response as a blog entry. Here is my response:
In my practice I have found success as I observe the following as “guardrails”. I have two assumptions in my answer:
1) There are two parts to strategy, the development phase and the implementation
(which includes management) phase.
2) Between the two phases there is an implementation dip - a term from Kotter,
among others. (This is a great topic for another blog post).
These are the “guardrails” as I facilitate strategy development in an organization. I consider these to be "Best Practices". They're important because they were all learned (or in some cases reinforced) the hard way.
• Strategy development is best done through facilitation. I am fortunate to work with a team who are all experienced facilitators, knowledgeable about group dynamics, adept at managing them and familiar with stages of team development.
• The development phase sets the stage for implementation and management. In this stage it is critical to keep the strategic communicators informed (vs. involved) so that they can begin identifying stakeholders and crafting key messages. It is important that facilitators work hand in glove with strategic communicators during this phase, back briefing them regularly.
• Development is best done by those closest to the work (usually mid-management) and validated through input from the senior leadership. There is a “science” to choosing the development team, and wisdom in selecting participants in this can go a long way toward winning over Late Adopters (See Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation) in the Implementation Phase.
• The implementation phase must include (at a minimum) both a strategic communications plan and a change management plan based on the completed strategy.
• The Strategic Management Meeting (SMM) is vital to the implementation phase of the strategy. Strategic Management Meetings need to take place at a minimum of quarterly and progress against the strategy is the sole focus of this meeting. I use a dashboard (an Excel based visibility tool) to assist clients in setting the strategic agenda for this meeting. The agenda is composed of no more than 4 items (1) under-performing elements of the strategy and (2) initiatives related to the strategy. Initiatives are usually processes (internal) identified during the development phase that do not currently exist.
• Performance Metrics for the strategy are key to objective, fact based decision making for senior leaders. These are what is displayed on the strategy dashboard, a key tool for senior leadership to manage the strategy.
I’ll make the same offer to you that I made to my colleague: I am free (I’ll even buy coffee if you're in the vicinity of the nation's capital!) to talk with you at length if you’d like more information about this development framework, performance metrics or guiding senior leaders as they select the development team and manage the strategy. The value for you is that strategy developed in this way provides a virtual “map” of your organization's white space. The value for me is I get to "talk shop", which for a certified strategy geek like me is all the incentive I need.
