Why your strategy is failing and how to fix it

Many of us have the wrong idea about strategy. We think it's about workshops and documents and then struggle to understand why everyone's still doing what they've always done.

Strategy is something people do, not something people have

Strategy is not a document. It's not a list of actions or projects, a bullshit report generator, or a management tool.

Strategy is about defining:

• Direction (Where we're heading - and why)
• Difference (What we'll do - and won't do)
• Decision criteria - (How we will make choices)

Strategy aims to generate a pattern of decision-making and resource allocation that will move us closer to our goals. When it's clear, and the right building blocks are in place, our strategy tells us how to prioritise our efforts and channel our energy.

When we make choices that align, magic happens: everything we do points toward the same goal, and we start to get there step by step.

Good strategy is executed through a system of rules and behaviours led by committed people who understand the big picture. Those people should be our organisational leaders.

They look at the policies, processes, systems and relationships that govern the organisation, sector, or industry they're in and ask, "How can we make it easier to do the right thing?"

Why strategy fails

Most failed strategies are one of four things: a failure to choose, align, communicate, or embed.

A failure to choose

We talk about what we want to do or change, but we're afraid to stop doing other things, just in case. We prop up a parallel system, keeping our existing work alive, just in case we're wrong or not good enough. This creates confusion amongst our teams and customers and keeps us too busy to progress in the new direction, practically guaranteeing our worst fears: that we can't change for the better.

A failure to align

We ask things of people that aren't possible by building and maintaining complicated risk-based systems and processes that get in the way. Bureaucracy and broken systems stifle collaboration, change, and innovation as we spend too much energy controlling what we don't want to make any progress on what we do want.

A failure to communicate

We spend hours or days around a whiteboard, knotting our thoughts, and walk out of the room with six different versions of where we're going and why. We create corporate collateral that further obfuscates our ideas and sends conflicting messages to staff daily by asking them to do things that do not resemble our most important goals.

A failure to embed

Before our strategy has a chance to bed in, we get nervous and start dismantling and tweaking. Mistrust in our abilities stems from ourselves or our decision-makers. It creates a culture of nervousness and constant change, leaving us frazzled and torn in multiple directions, always second-guessing the next big thing.

Many failures combine the above factors, tied together by an unwillingness to commit long enough to see results. Genuine strategic positions are a 10+ year game, and building the system to make them possible takes time and effort. Changing a strategy document isn't hard, but realigning a complex web of organisational activities to generate results is. 

Take your time or waste your time

Changing the kind of work we do and how we do it and executing the necessary transitions in systems, capabilities, and resources is hard and doesn't happen quickly. Building a distinct niche in the market, hiring and training the right people, building core capabilities, and bringing that clarity into our marketing, communication, and positioning doesn't happen overnight.

When we try to change our strategy every few months, we wind up with a tangled mess of being overwhelmed and overworked, which amounts to nothing more than being busy.

The result is nothing but waste: wasted money, wasted effort and wasted relationships.

How to succeed with strategy

When reflecting on the success or failure of your current strategy, consider the following four key elements:

Clarity

• Is it abundantly clear where you're going, why you're going there, and how you'll get there?
• Have you considered your options and explained why you're not pursuing alternatives?
• Does your collateral and leadership communication make the above obvious?
• Have you considered key questions about your strategy and what your responses will be?

Coherence

• What will you need to do more to make your strategy a reality?
• What will you need to do less of or do differently?
• Do people understand how they should use the strategy in their daily work?
• What internal systems should be adjusted to change this?

Capability

• What funding, resources, and capabilities will be required to achieve your goals?
• Do you have the skills, abilities, and support for this direction?
• Have you got the mandate and influence to implement?
• Do your leaders and teams understand how to use strategy to make decisions?

Commitment

• Are all of your leaders on board with the intended direction?
• Have you considered when it might be difficult to defend or adhere to your strategy and how you will manage that?
• What is your plan for communicating the new direction at the appropriate level to key staff?
• What are the key programmes and workstreams you will need to get behind for your strategy to take flight?

Make it simple

When in doubt, stop tweaking. Instead of dreaming up flashy new objectives or trendy new infographics, spend more energy clarifying what you're already trying to do and aligning your work.

You probably already know what should happen; you're afraid to put a stake in the ground and risk failing.

Five things to do now

Are you struggling with your new strategy? Here are five key things you can do now to increase your odds of success.

1. Eliminate the work programmes you've put lots of energy into that are tangential to your most important goals.

2. Dismantle those complex, risk-averse procurement, performance and evaluation frameworks and redesign for simplicity.

3. Have open conversations about what needs to shift with your leadership team and staff.

4. Challenge each piece of busywork and ask if it needs to happen or can be made easier.

5. Draw a one-page diagram of your organisation if you were starting from scratch, using only your big goals as a guide.

Be bold, keep it simple, and stay the course. You've got this.