Last week I started my series on Strategy Execution in support of my workshop this Thursday at the CPA Ontario Leadership Conference in Toronto (https://goo.gl/EMCRfN).
I quoted Rob MacLellan, current Chair of YellowPages and Wind Mobile, when asked for the keys to strategy execution:
- Over communicate
- Manage the team
- Find things to measure
If you look at these three points you could very easily type one work across all of them: CULTURE.
Without a culture that supports the execution of your strategic plan, your plan is doomed to fail. As many will tell you, culture trumps strategy. Your culture will control all aspects of the successful, or unsuccessful, outcome of your efforts to realize your vision.
So where does culture start? It is created and defined at the very top. Defined, created, communicated, demonstrated and supported every step of the way.
When we think of a culture supporting strategy execution we could ask ourselves:
- Do we work effectively together to improve our ability to achieve the goals?
- Are we linking all of our key corporate components: people, processes, strategy and the operating plan together for a common goal?
- Are we all in this together?
- Have we empowered our teams to execute on the strategy?
- Are we achieving our goals?
- Are we coaching, mentoring?
- Do we reward performance management?
- Do we pay the consequences? Do we root out the status quo and non-performers?
- Are we living well and having fun?
These are not all but some of the critical components of a culture that can support and drive a vision to the future.
I am really hoping that we can inform and inspire some people in tomorrow’s workshop to take the step beyond just creating a strategic plan and on to an awareness of what it takes to actually execute the plan.
images courtesy https://www.freedigitalphotos.net/
