How can you move a strategic plan forward without the mundane review of each KPI and action step? What fresh approaches exist to review strategy implementation progress and potential revisions as we proceed?
A Brainzooming blog subscriber posed these questions. We talked live and shared background and ideas. She originally found her way to the Brainzooming website on a search to make their original strategy planning process fun, lively, and productive.
Her organization, four months into its current strategic plan, needs to step up progress monitoring. So far, they’ve been distracted and haven’t spent much time formally tracking the strategy plan’s implementation. She wants to bring productivity and a breath of fresh air to the leadership team’s upcoming strategy review.
I spelled out a framework built around four different types of meetings that address strategy implementation progress. For each meeting, I suggested varied approaches to guide and enliven the meetings.
1) Project Management
Objective: Track important tasks and implementation progress.
Run by: Project Manager or the Strategy Office
Ideas to Improve These Meetings:
- Provide a report out framework for participants that guides participants in their updates. Coach individuals on what to cover in updates to maximize their value for others.
- Time individual updates to keep the pace moving.
- Have the group vote on the most valuable report outs; this showcases participants who are creating the greatest value for others in their update approaches.
2) Exception Management
Objective: Focus on variances from expectations, addressing the reasons and next steps.
Run by: Strategy Office, Executive Sponsors
Ideas to Improve These Meetings:
- Set standards for identifying what receives focus and what doesn’t.
- Rely on a dashboard or background reporting for updates on items within standard performance.
- Consider engaging frameworks to stimulate discussions. You can ask everyone to share one of each of these: Surprising Successes, New Roadblocks, and Potential Watch Outs.
3) Strategic Direction Check-ins
Objective: Gauging strategy implementation relative to progress on major initiatives that will determine plan success.
Run by: Strategic Planning Leader, Executive Team
Ideas to Improve these Meetings:
- Return to the big strategy question: What are we trying to achieve? This focuses people on the overall picture.
- Introduce time for What Should We Change? This becomes an opportunity to revisit the direction. It's best to solicit this input upfront and discuss themes during updated meetings.
- If you don’t have it already, move toward a whole-brain metrics tracking system to showcase both quantitative and qualitative indicators.
- Use an engaging reporting structure to fits this meeting. Have everyone share Stories, Glories (wins), and Gories (problems).
- If things are seriously off in the plan’s direction and/or implementation, incorporate both facts and emotion as a pre-cursor to revisiting the direction.
4) Engagement-building for the Plan
Objective: Focus on successes, challenges that have been overcome, and motivating to stay engaged in the plan.
Run by: Top Leadership, Strategy Leader, Communications
Ideas to Improve these Meetings:
- Abandon a checklist format completely. Solicit themes, stories, and motivational experiences related to the plan’s ongoing implementation.
- Executives and staff can lose track of what’s been accomplished. Frequently revisit accomplishments to keep interest and momentum going for the strategy.
- This type of meeting takes longer to develop. Solicit the input well in advance. Involve communicators who can develop multi-media formats to engage and motivate the team.
Yes, it’s possible to bring fun and productivity to strategy implementation reporting. That’s why it’s a big part of the Brainzooming Simple Strategy online course. A strategy is only as successful as its results! - Mike Brown
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