Key Questions For Strategy Deployment

Strategy is not about doing the important things but rather the process of choosing, the responsibility of leaders to grasp the situation and decide the plan forward.  I always tell others that strategy deployment is a focusing mechanism. This is about sharpening your focus by selecting the vital few breakthrough objectives.

The strategy deployment process identifies and concentrates resources on the vital few stretch achievements that support the vision. It separates those performance issues that require dramatic improvement from the many incremental improvements that can achieved at the local level. All the changes that the leadership believes to be incremental are skimmed out of the strategic plan and addressed through quality in daily work. The remaining category of contribution – the vital few breakthrough achievements – becomes the heart of the strategy deployment process.

Asking intelligent questions is critical for executives who are responsible for making decisions and setting corporate strategy. Below are a series of questions that you can use that evaluate strategy comprehensively.

Breakthrough Objectives Questions

• Can the “Breakthrough Objective” be measured?
• Do “Breakthrough Objectives” clearly tie to your Strategic Plan Objectives?
• Is the advantage unique enough to distinguish ourselves from competition?
• Do the breakthrough objectives clearly indicate how we consider winning 3-5 years down the line?
• Have you stretched your target past the 3-5 year outlook that would be considered breakthrough performance?
• Has the team reached consensus that these are the critical few breakthroughs that will lead to competitive advantage?

Annual Objective Questions

• Can the “Annual Objectives” be measured?
• Do “Annual Objectives” clearly tie to your breakthroughs?
• Is the advantage unique enough to distinguish ourselves from competition?
• Is the “Annual Objective” stretched to carve out a good chunk of the breakthrough objective where it would be considered a healthy challenge for the organization?
• Can actions realistically be taken within a 1 year time frame in order to achieve the result (assess time to implement plus pull through results)?
• Has the team reached consensus that these are the critical few “ Annual Objectives” that will lead to competitive advantage?

Improvement Priorities Questions

• Can the “Improvement Priority” be measured?
• Do “Improvement Priorities” clearly tie to your “Annual Objectives” ?
• Is the “Improvement Priority” specific to a business value stream and what action will be taken to deliver a result?
• Is the action to be taken a new approach or the same as current operations? (If it is the latter, you may need to dive deeper into what you will do differently or better)
• Can actions be taken within a 1 year time frame in order to achieve this Improvement priority (implementation time + results achieved)?
• Does the improvement priority have potential to become a standard part of the business? (i.e. Daily Management)
• Has the team reached consensus that these are the critical few “ Improvement Priorities” that will lead to competitive advantage?

Targets to Improve Questions

• Can the “Targets to Improve” realistically impact
• Improvement Priorities
• Annual Objective
• Breakthrough Objective – if achieved with long term sustainment
• Are the “Targets to Improve” SMART?
• Are there both leading and lagging indicators?
• Can the “Targets to Improve” be measured and maintained routinely to meet our monthly cadence review?
• Has the team reached consensus that these are the critical few “Targets to Improve” that will lead to a competitive advantage?

By posing the right questions, you can help assure the best outcomes for your organization.

If I had to take one lesson from my business experience it is without focus you are lost.  Infinity is not available to us in this life.  Time and money are limited and as such we must utilize these limited resources effectively.  I can see no way to achieve our objectives other than to utilize discretion, prioritization and selection.  For after all, some things are simply more critical and more important.