You see it on the calendar and the theme from the classic shark movie “Jaws” starts playing in the background of your mind.
It’s painful, it’s not optional and it’s not any better in virtual space.
When I describe a group’s strategic programs update meeting in this way, I always get a smile, then a distant stare, and a return to the conversation with a hint of sadness. The hint of sadness is that we know deep down it needs to be better, yet we’re not quite sure how to get there.
It turns out that this pain can be a useful diagnostic.
Pre-COVID, we had these meetings in conference rooms. To keep them contained, they typically occur at some level of abstraction from the details. This meant bullet points and colors (red, yellow, and green, anyone), one-page dashboards, or some version of colored Gantt charts. Now held in a virtual space, we see the slide in the share window, and if we are lucky, half the group has their cameras on and are tuned in.
When we get to the “reds,” we take a deep dive into the why, assign out some actions and dates, and move forward. Over the course of the meeting, action points will multiply like rabbits and already full diaries gain notes 13, 14, and 15 that need to be done ASAP.
If the problem is really acute, you might stand up short daily updates until it’s scoped (and ideally solved). This intense effort removes a lot of oxygen from the room and the impact ripples through the firm like the waves from a rock in the pond (sorry if I’m over-indexing on water analogies).
So What’s Really Happening?
This nearly universal experience has deep roots. Somewhere along the way, a Hobson’s choice was made. The unspoken agreement is that once the strategy is cooked, it’s all task execution from here on out.
But that’s just not right. The fact is, we need to apply the same level of rigor in developing a strategic path of implementation as we do the externally facing strategy.
This missing link is so cooked into the “way things are done” that it’s easy to miss it. Let’s walk through the value chain at a high level to see what happens.
- Step one is developing what I call the client-facing strategy. We typically commission research, collect data and analysis, and carefully synthesize it into a very compelling set of high-level strategic intentions. These plans usually have a great charismatic attractiveness about them, and everyone that reads them gets excited to rally around it and bring it to life.
- Step two is traditionally to define a plan to put in place. Usually, the most gifted project leaders are pulled in and a decomposition process begins – either using an off-the-shelf interactive development tool like AGILE, or a more top-down approach based on waterfall. Plans are produced, actions are generated and we are off to the races.
Then it occurs: the dreaded strategic update meeting. Some items have advanced, but many have gotten stuck and somehow no one is surprised.
What’s missing is an implementation strategy that carries the intention, emotion, and import of the higher-level, externally facing strategy to the runway level reality of your firm.
The Keys to Better Progress Are in the ‘Deets’
The critical piece here is that we have shifted mindset and tool base too quickly from compelling external strategy into tactical plans. For projects that fit our core model and story, this approach works just fine, because everyone gets it (it’s like singing a cover song, we all know the tune).
For more complex projects, we need to have a three-step implementation process – that is use a combination of powerful strategic approaches directed at our internal firm to assure that we have the right people, processes, and technology engaged.
Over a number of projects and clients, I have developed a five-step process I have nicknamed STRIDE. Yep, six letters for a five-step process:
- ST – Strategy and Tactics: The 30,000-foot vision and approach.
- R – The Reality: Where we tease out the “fiction” and generate grounded evidence that the fresh strategy will work.
- I – Integrate: This is the first engagement of the strategy with Ops teams production capability and happens in a limited way to generate insights and learning
- D – Deployment: This is the first “at scale” limited release of the strategy
- E – Extend: This is the full-on production release of the new strategic work to the global firm.
What makes the update meeting scenario so universal, is that by jumping from ST to E, the firm has lost the power of small, powerful wins that happen in the R and I stages. These wins provide the power to overcome that natural resistance that projects encounter as they enter the pre-scale stages later in the process.
For a more detailed summary of the complete STRIDE process, check out this article.
It Starts With One Project
Our experience is that it takes fresh insight and application coaching to get beyond the dreaded update meeting experience. We have pulled together a rich set of tools that can help. If you’d like to talk through how our services might benefit you and your team, please reach out to us via email or use this link to put a date on our calendar.
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