By Stephen A. Rutan

Sometimes the biggest challenge in the strategic planning process has nothing to do with developing great strategy. Rather, the biggest challenge occurs in the effort to implement that strategy. One of the important keys to successful implementation is making sure that operations are aligned with the chosen strategy. In this article, we will explore some of the critical elements required for this alignment to take place.

Communication Comes First

Who really makes the business go? When it comes to implementing the company strategy, whose responsibility is it to translate the plan into action? Senior management cannot possibly execute all of the elements of acting upon the strategy in the daily operation of the business. We rely on all of the employees in the organization to understand the strategy and know how their job contributes to the accomplishment of company goals. To develop this understanding in the minds of all employees, management's communication of the strategy is absolutely critical.

We used to play a game in elementary school. On rainy days, when playing outside was not an option and the gym was already committed to other activities, we would sometimes play a game in the classroom called "Follow the Blind Leader". One student (the leader) would turn his back to the blackboard and be given a simple, stick-figure illustration. Three other students would go to the board, broken piece of white chalk in hand, and prepare to draw. The leader's task was to describe how to draw the figure, using simple geometric instructions, without telling what the object was and, since his back was turned, without any in-process feedback as to whether his instructions were being followed correctly. The rest of the class would enjoy the three (often ridiculous) chalk drawings that gradually materialized on the board. When the leader was confident that he had finished his instructions, he would turn around and examine the results of his leadership.

As you can imagine, even though the instructions were very clear and precise in the mind of the leader, the results on the board rarely resembled the desired finished product. And so it is with business. When communication is not carefully crafted, persistently and consistently delivered, and when management does not carefully monitor the activity caused by that communication, the results are often a far cry from the leader's vision.

Apply this line of thinking to the way you communicate strategy to your operations. Assuming that you and your management team have expended significant time and resources on developing an appropriate and successful strategy for your business, do you also invest an adequate amount of time and energy in communicating your strategy to the troops? As a leader of the business, one of the most effective ways you can leverage your time and influence is to be prepared at every opportunity to reinforce the understanding of the company strategy.

In general, your employees know how to execute their routine activities. You do not need to spend your time as a company leader instructing them how to carry out the primary tasks of their department. They live their job descriptions everyday. A clear understanding of the overall company strategy, however, can provide them with the motivation to perform their regular tasks in an extraordinary way, to strive for ways to improve processes, to further reinforce the company message in the way they relate to their co-workers. So, how can you improve your effectiveness in communicating the company vision?

One way is to have 3 different, polished presentations of the company strategy at your disposal at all times:

1. A 10-30 second "pep talk" message that you can deliver every time you interact with employees. Make this your mantra. Repeat the message to the point that employees will see you approaching and say, "Here comes Steve. I'll bet you five bucks he's going to mention Competitive Cost of Quality!"
2. A 3-5 minute discussion of the details of the business vision that are the basis for the focused pep talk. Use this for those encounters when you have a little more time, combined with the motivated attention of the individual(s) you are addressing.
3. A 10-20 minute exploration of the strategy, touching on market and competitive information, the company's competencies and strategic focus, the specific plans for strategy implementation, etc. You will find this presentation helpful for either formal group information sessions and/or one-on-one conferences with direct reports.

Work on these presentations! Do not assume that, because you participated in the company planning meetings, that you can deliver the message clearly and concisely. Infuse all of these presentations with the same key phrases. The communications should be crafted with a common, consistent vocabulary specific to your company's strategy. Repetition of the message is critical if it is to become a regular part of your employees' vocabulary and practice.

Naturally, each of these presentations of company strategy will find their appropriate time and place. That's the whole point. Simply put, as a leader of the business, you must be prepared to lead! The opportunity can arise at any time, so you should be ready to administer a healthy dose of corporate strategy communication whenever the situation calls for it.

Alignment of Resources

Once you feel that you are effectively communicating the plan throughout the organization, the next critical step in achieving alignment between strategy and operations involves making sure that the organization has enough resources to get the job done.

Basic resources the organization needs to perform their routine activities should already be in place. Here, we are more concerned about the resources needed to implement those parts of the strategy that target change. The change initiatives need to be translated into a series of specific, tactical objectives for which the team can develop solid action plans, assemble resources and make things happen.

Please note here, that figuring out what to do is not usually the problem. In most cases, once the team has decided on the strategies to pursue, generating specific objectives that the team believes will help move the company along the right course and direction is easy – sometimes too easy! The challenge is almost always one of setting appropriate limits, maintaining focus and prioritizing the many ideas that the management team has for making progress.

So how do you judge whether you have the right alignment of resources for the implementation of the strategic elements of your plan? Begin by assessing the scope and ambitiousness of your current strategic plan. You need to look at 3 critical aspects of the implementation scheme that you have in place:

1. How ambitious is your agenda? What is the total workload?
2. What is the amount and timing of the financial capital requirements of each objective?
3. What is the scope of the human capital required to accomplish the objectives?

Are your objectives somewhat closely aligned with your existing core businesses or have you teed up an aggressive agenda for breaking the mold and embarking on several first-time ventures? Objectives that are tied to the activities of your existing core businesses can be less burdensome to implement. There will still be a lot of work required to make these objectives happen, but, due to compatibility with ongoing business, they are likely to be easier to conceptualize and execute. It can seem like less of a departure from the urgency of the daily grind. If a task lies within the "comfort zone", it is more likely to be embraced by the team and more easily implemented.

Objectives that involve augmentation of the business outside of your current core businesses are likely to be more resource intensive. The higher-level demands of new product introductions, initializing relationships with new customer groups or making acquisitions place a huge burden on the entire organization. Even if senior management is primarily responsible for some of the objectives, the organization can suffer if those same managers are not available to address daily issues. If your total strategy implementation agenda is heavily laden with new business experiments and exceeds your resource availability, make a realistic evaluation of the resources required to cover each objective and be prepared to choose.

The financial capital and human capital resource questions have always been important factors in determining what you can afford to do. Most companies have budgeting systems for analyzing and approving the capital requirements of the plan. Always make sure that there are sufficient financial resources available before initiating the implementation of your strategies.

The bigger challenge is assessing whether you have the human capital (time). Most people are just not comfortable quantifying the time it will take to get things done. This precious commodity should be analyzed and allocated with as much rigor as the annual financial budget. More strategic plans falter due to lack of careful consideration of the management time required than for lack of financial resources.

Look at the size and scope of your organization. Are you large enough that your senior managers are true executive decision makers and delegators or are they still spending a lot of their time "doing" the work? What is the balance of the time they spend working "on" vs. "in" the business?

Consider both the time available to your senior management team and your bench strength beyond senior management. Have you taken the time to prepare your organization to share the workload of major strategic projects? You can complete a more ambitious slate of objectives if senior managers can direct the projects and delegate much of the legwork to individuals in their organization.

The important thing is that you do not bite off more than you can chew. In almost all instances, it is better to complete a few key projects and reap the rewards than it is to start many projects and bring none of them to the point of payback. Once you have considered the resource load suggested by your implementation plan and the resource capacity of the entire operation, make the choices necessary to ensure that you will see some benefits in a reasonable amount of time.

Buy-In

Clear communication of the strategy and adequate resources for implementation are essential components for a successful plan, but you will never get very far without the commitment of the team. Start at the top and develop buy-in at successive levels of the organization. Understand that developing buy-in is a slightly different prospect depending on the organizational level with which you are dealing.

At the senior management level, achieve buy-in by having the managers actively participate in the development of the strategic plan. If you create the plan in an ivory tower and then serve it on a silver platter, it is unlikely that they will enthusiastically support the plan.

Your senior staff are your most sophisticated business managers and, in most cases, large stakeholders in the strategic direction of the business. Their accomplishments and their egos have placed them in positions in which they are accustomed to DEFINING direction. They will develop commitment because they have been party to all of the discussions, discoveries and soul-searching decisions that constitute the plan. Support this by having a strategic planning team culture that works toward a consensus-based understanding of the plan.

Unanimous and harmonious agreement with all aspects of the plan is not necessary for commitment. In his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni states, "In the context of a team, commitment is a function of two things: clarity and buy-in. Great teams make clear and timely decisions and move forward with complete buy-in from every member of the team, even those who voted against the decision. They leave meetings confident that no one on the team is quietly harboring doubts about whether to support the actions agreed on."

Individuals in mid-level management are less likely to be engaged in the actual development of the strategy. They may be fully aware of the details behind the business strategy, but they still EXPECT direction from their managers. Provide this to them and engage them in the implementation of the strategic objectives, perhaps by tying their performance evaluation based on the success of the objectives.

At the lower levels of the organization, most employees DEPEND on direction from the management team. Their commitment will be driven by the example provided by their immediate managers and their peers. Provide them with the information they need so that they can see the connection between their daily activities and the accomplishment of the company strategy and tactical implementation. Set department level goals that support the implementation.

At all levels of the organization, proactively develop buy-in and monitor compliance. Do not let lack of understanding and individuals' differences of opinion interfere with the smooth implementation of the plan. Make sure that everyone is committed to achieving the objectives.

Culture of Discipline

Finally, develop a culture of discipline throughout the organization. Look at your track record for making things happen. Who are the leaders in the organization when it comes to accomplishing desired results? What are the ways that you as a manager can encourage the operations employees to willingly accept the demands of accountability? How do you develop a culture of discipline that stands the test of time?

First, keep things simple. Jim Collins in his best-selling book Good to Great states that, "One of the dominant themes from our research is that breakthrough results come about by a series of good decisions, diligently executed and accumulated one on top of another."

It is not necessary to define success for each objective in terms of a huge home run for the business. It is important to nurture a pattern of success: set objectives, take action, check results, and modify your approach. You must make believers of everyone in your organization – believers in your ability to set targets and stay the course even under rough seas.

Of course, given a clear target, appropriate resources and the time to perform, most employees are capable of accomplishing great things, but, unfortunately, the real world intrudes! The biggest obstacle to performing against the strategic objectives is what Stephen Covey calls the "Tyranny of the Urgent" – the urgent and important things that drive us into "fire-fighting mode" on any given workday. You must make it clear to your team that, as an executive leader of the business, you will work with them to find the time to work on the less urgent, but critically important projects defined by your strategic plan. Lead them, over time, to have confidence in their ability to achieve great things.

Put performance measures in place that not only measure company performance, but also measure the effectiveness of individuals and whether they get things done. Train people to be successful project managers. Do not throw them the ball until they have not learned how to catch. Give more responsibility and visibility to those individuals that make things happen. Eventually, the most effective employees will get the message and become the critical mass that you need to build the culture of discipline.

The Four Elements of Alignment

In assessing whether you have alignment between Operations and Strategy, always check for the following four elements:

1. Clear and consistent communication of strategy
2. Alignment of resources
3. Commitment of all employees
4. Culture of discipline

With all of these elements in place, alignment between operations and strategy will yield superior performance for the business.

Steve Rutan is a consultant with the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, Inc. He can be reached via e-mail at

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