In the first part of this article, I outlined the first
four essential steps in strategic plan implementation. Part
two begins with the fifth step.
The fifth step in successfully implementing your strategic
plan is to keep the plan extremely visible in all levels of
the organization. This is part of the communication plan.
It is also part of the implementation piece: What does
this look like? If the company has a strategic initiative
for people development, what does that look like? Is it
necessary to put together a team to define what that looks
like?
Every corporate communication vehicle ' newsletters,
department updates, etc ' should be tracking the progress
of the strategic teams to know and report where we are in
this process. Progress reports should be regular and
comprehensive. Expectations also must be clearly and
consistently communicated. Is the strategic goal to achieve
the stated results over a five year period, or is the goal
to be achieved within one year? It is critically important
that everyone within the organization knows exactly what
the goals are and what progress is being made toward
achievement of the goals.
Teams also need to know what is being done by other teams.
Very often an individual or a team will go away to start
working on some kind of strategic initiative, but they do
not let other teams or individuals know what is happening.
In this situation, some of the impact of the strategic plan
is being lost because people do not get to see it in
action. Just as it is important to have the greatest
possible employee involvement in the planning and writing
process, it is critical to ensure the greatest possible
employee involvement in implementing every part of the plan.
The implementation process is a critical time for people to
become involved. If you are familiar with the Change
Agents, Inc. change model, you know that setting the
strategic goal is the first step in making change. The
second step is involvement. So, once again, if it is your
company's strategic plan, you need to involve people in its
implementation. If you try to do it yourself, you will
fail. The same is true of personal strategic plans. If you
try to do it all yourself, you will likely fail. It is hard
to keep the momentum going.
The sixth step in successful strategic plan implementation
is to win buy-in. As you communicate the details and the
intention of the plan and get people involved, you are
actually trying to get people sufficiently involved that
they understand where you are going, what you are trying to
accomplish, and how you plan to reach the stated goals. It
is important to have buy-in from the people you need to
help you achieve your goals. The need for buy-in is equally
important in implementing a personal strategic plan and in
implementing a corporate strategic plan. Whether you need
the support of your family or of every employee of the
company, the key to success is buy-in.
Buy-in is the recognition that your plan makes sense, your
strategies make sense, and that I have an important role to
play in your success. Buy-in is the recognition, "This is
the way we probably should be moving, and this is probably
what will help us get to where we really want to go as a
company or as a family."
The seventh step in successfully implementing your plan is
to facilitate ownership and accountability for
implementation of the strategic plan. As soon as people
begin to buy in, they start looking for ways to become
involved. They will look for pieces of the strategic plan
they can own. This is an important key to success in plan
implementation.
One caution is important: there should be one primary
owner for each strategic initiative who will follow
through, keep it alive and keep things going. Enlisting and
engaging others is part of their leadership role as the
primary owner of the initiative. Having more than one
person accountable, however, usually means you will have no
one accountable for reaching that goal.
Now, if you are working with your personal strategic plan
and it is in your family that buy-in is important, do not
underestimate the value of buy-in from every member of the
family affected by the plan. If, for example, the plan is
that the kids will do the laundry when you are going to
school, you must have buy-in from the kids. Everyone needs
to see "What's in it for me?" Everyone needs to understand
"What's in it for us to all work toward the strategic goal?"
It is only when you win buy-in and ownership that people
begin to understand the value of the plan and why they are
being asked to participate in achieving it. Buy-in allows
the person to say, "Yes, this makes sense to me and I see
my role in the big picture." It is then easier to achieve
the strategic initiative goal. Perhaps the goal is to save
money. My role might be to look for cost savings. Perhaps
the goal is to discover more efficient ways of doing
something. My role might be to be more innovative. The
specific actions resulting from buy-in and ownership depend
on the nature of the specific strategic goal.
As I begin to own my piece of the goal, it is no longer
just the company's plan; it is no longer just mom's or
dad's plan. Now it is my plan and this is my piece of it.
The more specific and concise you can be about your piece
of it, the faster you will begin implementing it.
The eighth step in successful implementation of your
strategic plan is to create energy around the goal. In an
organization, that energy can become infectious because
everybody, again, is looking towards the same goal.
Now, the very basic definition of a team is a group of
people who have common goals and are interdependent. In
other words, they must depend on one another to meet those
goals. The final objective is to have your whole
organization focused towards the same goals; to have that
group of people who all have a common goal, which is to
achieve the strategic goals and the strategic plan. In
order to succeed, they must depend upon one another to
achieve the goals.
Creating an overall team situation can generate tremendous
energy, and that energy creates momentum in the
organization. As long as you keep the focus on the
specific strategic goals, and do not become distracted by
too many other things, people will begin to buy in, they
will start to own their piece of the pie, and that will
create energy. This energy will create the momentum you
need to reach either your company goals or your personal
goals. It sounds simple, and it is. It is not easy because
there are many things to do and there are many things to be
as a leader to live out what is in your strategic plan and
to clearly communicate it throughout the organization. But
this is what leaders do.
Leaders have a vision. They build a small group of people
who share that vision. They have the ability to articulate
that vision and to build buy-in from others. Then they
implement the vision and the small group of people they
have gathered can move mountains and make many, many things
happen in an organization.
Here's to your success in implementing your strategic plans.
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About Gayla Hodges
Gayla Hodges is the President Change Agents, Inc., a
company that specializes in energizing workforces to
achieve strategic goals. She coaches executives and
managers on leading corporate change, facilitating the
development and implementation of organizational
effectiveness strategies. For more information, visit
http://www.changeagentsinc.com or call 623-362-3876.
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