I overheard that quote during a recent family gathering as a spirited game of tag had broken out. I had observed one of the children losing interest and had coached one of the older players to balance the ratio of winning and losing a bit to keep his siblings in the game.
I suggested it might be too hard for the little ones…and that was his response.
My competitive little friend had hit on a key truth:
Games worth playing are hard. But with the right approach and effort, they become winnable.
It immediately sent my mind spinning in regards to the work I do helping strategic leaders get their projects over the finish line. My role in these projects is to help clients make a conscious choice regarding their implementation strategy. Many teams work hard on the strategy, and then call in the op’s team to put it into place. But industry stats are very clear: this approach leads to missed opportunities 70% of the time.
As we step through the process to create an implementation strategy, we unpack the reason why 70 percent of these projects don’t hit their targets. The reason that these issues recur is that every firm has hidden deceleration points that lead to friction and a loss of momentum.
Once momentum ebbs, the team loses spirit and internal resources lose their focus, alignment and motivation to go above and beyond.
How do you know if your project is wavering on momentum? The earliest symptom is missing an early deadline. Teams will be reluctant to state directly what happened, but with thoughtful probing, you’ll hear things like “other priorities” or “shared resources weren’t available.” The root of these two responses is that for whatever reason, the project has been subtly demoted on the priority list.
Once identified, this is where the savvy leader goes to work, helping the team gather its business case with such clarity that it can stand up to internal priority scrutiny. We use our approach to design an implementation path that fits the firm’s strengths in business ops, talent, and process.
Of course, if the results of the business case snapshot aren’t positive, then this allows the group to modify the initiative of move on.
As we begin working on a client project, one of the first tasks we need to complete is an outline of the current situation. As we unpack the “as is” snapshot for the first time and place it relative to the work to be completed, I almost always hear something to the effect of, “that’s going to be a big lift.”
We then go to work using the framework to rebuild the project into a leveraged, aligned, and investable entity. It’s through this process that I can see shoulders start to relax as leaders realize that what we’ve done will make the implementation “hard” but doable.
The work includes a diagnostic that allows focusing on a very short list of priority items. We use three key drivers and nine accelerators that provide a rich opportunity to regain momentum and focus. When this first phase is complete, we design an implementation plan that focuses on the knowledge, skills, and habits it takes to move the group forward.
This work is of course scalable, and firms that make the investment continue to see paybacks as team members take it back to their functional groups and eventually become part of new teams. For an example of what this breaks into at the next level, see the article here.
You Deserve More
Note to leaders and their sponsors: executing strategy is hard enough as it is.
You shouldn’t need to invent a process or use a one-size-fits-all approach while working out an implementation plan. My goal is to use the framework and the patterns I’ve observed in dozens of projects to help you structure a project in a way that gets you the results you are forecasting.
If you’d like to talk more, feel free to put a call on the books using this link. If I can help it will become quickly obvious, and if not, I likely know another resource who is a better match.
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