There is a radio station that entered the market as 13th radio station. It went to being number 1 in just 3months. It became a recognizable brand. Obviously their strategic direction was well thought-out and not cooked in some boardroom. Is your strategy workable and well researched before you launch it? Let it be backed up by numbers. Some people still just copy and paste the plan from other institution and expect success. Most of the time this fails to work. Let us focus on localised strategies.
Brands and organisations across the globe always look forward to their new journeys and aspirations. They blow up millions in launches of strategies only for them never to take off. There are many reasons why organisation strategies may never be successful.
A structure can fail a strategy. Strategic directions thrive on effective structures. Does your current structure support the proposed strategic direction? Is your staff structure agile enough to support all objectives? Don’t only develop new organisational goals, taglines, and core values. Redesign the staff structure and processes relevant to your strategic direction. The strategic plan must be linked to all departments of an organisation
How can you have a transformational strategy while maintaining the old complex hierarchy?
Never expect people to implement effectively a strategic direction they don’t understand. The magic of execution of a new strategic direction is simplifying it for all stakeholders. Even when you train staff in the new direction, don’t selectively do it. You may train only senior managers and skeletal staff have totally fail to implement it. Be careful to motivate staff to execute the strategic plan without demotivating others with an organisation.
Organisations forget that strategic direction plans are not going to be implemented by a some random app. It is people to execute it. How are your staff equipped to handle the tasks? If they are equipped, are they empowered to make quick decisions? Is your organisation culture still stuck in bureaucratic and tedious approvals for each step?
Organisation culture is key when implementing strategies. What issues do you value most as an organisation? Do you staff understand the strategic direction ? Are the strategic direction documents available to all staff irrespective of their ranks?
Frequent changes to the strategic plan slow down its implementation. Think about it. You cannot keep changing the strategic direction plan every week. Targets become unrealistic. At least do it after each year till it expires. Ignoring communication function while implementing strategic plan can also cause a setback. Communications is needed to effectively engage all stakeholders on time.
Ivan N Baliboola
PR & organisational diagnosis specialist
nbaliboola@gmail.com
