7/29/2014 Strategy implementation case study

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"I am tired of being
the only one driving
the strategy!
STRATEGY
IMPLEMENTATION.
CASE STUDY:
The organizational problem.
The CEO was disappointed. He'd spent months with his executive team
developing a new organizational strategy. He'd then spent weeks flying
around the country on a road show to communicate the new strategy. He
set up a number of projects to implement the strategy. Strategic objectives
were put into each of his executives KPAs.
But now 6 months later, he felt quite
frustrated. When he spoke to people
who were not his direct reports, they
were saying that they needed
direction! They were confused by the
many projects that were being
implemented. As they focused on one project, they forgot about the
strategy, the company values and other projects. Work was being
duplicated. His people were confused. Different projects were working at
cross purposes to one another. His people simply could not see how
everything fitted together.
The CEO felt quite alone in driving the corporate strategy. He wished that
his team would:
Realize that they were in it together. That they needed to work
together as a united team, rather than in separate silos - often
Change Designs
My Organization

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Contents
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The organizational problem.
The strategy implementation intervention the CEO wanted.
The thinking behind the design of the strategy implementation
workshop.
The constraints I needed to work within.
The tools I decided to use in the two-day workshop.
The workshop design.
How I used The Change Puzzle Kit: Day 1.
How I used The Winning the Game of Change Kit: Day 2.
The end result.
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working at cross purposes to one another.
Take responsibility for playing a leadership role in driving the
implementation of the strategy. Many of them thought that it was
enough that he, the CEO had communicated the strategy and created
projects. They then left it up to their people to flesh out what
needed to be done to implement the strategy - without providing
direction to their own teams.
The strategy implementation intervention the
CEO wanted.
The CEO wanted to hold a 2 day strategy implementation workshop for his
executive team and their direct reports. He wanted the workshop objective
to be: "To help his team to develop a coordinated strategy implementation
plan." He was quite adamant that he didn't want another theoretical talk
shop. He wanted his team to develop a practical and detailed plan for
implementing the strategy. One that was simple and clear. One they would
take ownership of - as a team. One that would excite them. One they could
use to provide direction throughout the organization. And one that he could
use to measure their progress.
The thinking behind the design of the
strategy implementation workshop.
I needed an intervention that would help his executive and management
team to:
Understand why most companies strategies don't get implemented,
and recognize what they needed to do as leaders, to ensure their
strategies worked.
Help them to see their projects, their company strategy, their values,
and the work each division did, in a holistic way. This would require a
tool that used a combination of systems thinking and visual thinking.
Help them to understand the few areas they would need to focus on,
in an integrated way, as a leadership team. This was -if they were to
implement their strategy successfully, in a way that also encouraged
their people to behave according to their values.
Help them to develop a detailed, comprehensive implementation
strategy - which detailed
What specific interventions they would need to lead.
Who would need to play what role.
What barriers they may need to overcome.
How they would measure progress.
How they would sustain momentum - so their people would
keep going until they achieved success.
The constraints I needed to work within.
The CEO wanted to achieve all of this in a 2 day workshop.
There would be 23 people attending the workshop.
The tools I decided to use in the two-day
workshop.
1. The first tool I used was The Change Puzzle Kit
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This helped the group use systems thinking to see how their projects,
strategy, values, divisional objectives, KPAs, and other leadership elements,
fitted together into one integrated picture of the organization. They could
then determine what they needed to work on, to implement their strategy.
I had one kit for each group of 8 delegates. Each kit consists of:
Two laminated charts. (A1 size).
The first chart is called The
Organization Of Today. The second
chart is called The Ideal
Organization Of The Future. Each
chart provides both a holistic visual
picture of the whole organization,
plus more detailed elements within
the organization.
A set of water soluble pens which
allows the delegates to write directly onto the laminated charts. The
charts can be wiped clean and used again.
A box of clue cards to help the groups analyse 20 organizational
elements from a systems thinking perspective, as they complete their
charts.
2. The second tool I used was an implementation planning tool
called "Winning the Game of Change."
This kit, in the form of a game, helped the
group to develop a detailed strategy
implementation plan for the entire
organization. It contains:
1 laminated chart - with 8 tasks
that leaders need to complete in
order to develop an implementation
plan.
A set of clue cards containing examples of best practices for
completing each leadership task.
The workshop design.
This is the process I followed:
To get people thinking outside of their normal silos or divisions, I
divided the larger group into 3 groups of 8 delegates per group. These
groups were mixed so that people of different functions worked
together in each group.
Each group had their own Change Puzzle Kit and Winning the
Game of Change Kit to work with.
I used this diagram to explain the process we would be following
which was:
We would take a 'systems thinking' photograph of organization
as it is today - To do this we would use The Organization of
Today charts and cards.
We would do a right brained exercise to look at what the
organization would be like, if it were achieving all the benefits
from having implemented its strategy successfully.
We would translate that right brain 'vision of the future' back
into left brained, systems thinking. We would look at the
The systems thinking
tool I chose for this
strategy
implementation
planning workshop
was "The Change Puzzle
Kit."
The tool I used to
develop a strategy
implementation plan
was "Winning the Game of
Change."
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elements that would need to be in place for that vision to
work. To do this we would use 'The Ideal Organization Of
The Future charts and cards.
We would then compare what came out of our two charts.
From this, we would choose a few core changes. Changes that
move us towards the future vision we wanted.
We would then use the Winning the Game of Change Kits to
develop a detailed implementation plan. This included:
Who would need to play what role.
A detailed implementation plan. What would be done.
How. When.
A training plan.
A way to check progress.
A way to identify and remove barriers.
A way to reinforce the behaviors we needed to
implement our strategy successfully.
How I used The Change Puzzle Kit: Day 1.

Step 1. Provide an overview of the change puzzle
I provided a quick overview of the change puzzle.
Step 2. Analyse the organization of today.
2.1 Instructions:
Each group was given the chart "The Organization Of Today" plus the 20
clue cards about the current organization. They were also given a set of
water soluble pens. They were asked to write on their chart how they saw
the organization as it existed today. They could use the clue cards to help
them. The groups were told that they didn't need to achieve a consensus.
2.2 Activity:
Each group spent about an hour recording their answers. Then instead of
having formal feedback, each group simply read what the other groups had
written on their charts. This was to prevent a very tedious feedback
process - and potential conflict.
2.3 What came out:
The three groups were surprised that their charts looked similar. What came
out clearly was a lack of alignment in the organization. The different
divisions and projects were seen to be pulling in different directions. The
structures and the reward systems encouraged people to behave as they
did in the past. Those who supported the organization's new strategy were
'punished' for doing so.

Step 3. Groups develop a vision of the future.
I used a creative activity from the Create fun and energy section of the
Powerful Facilitation cards. I needed the groups to develop a clear vision
of what their organization would look like, if they had successfully
implemented their strategy, and were achieving the benefits they wanted.
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One executive said. 'I
finally understand
this systems thinking
and alignment stuff.
Everything must
support everything
else.'
As they developed their right brain picture of their organization, the groups
became energized. They started feeling proud about what they could
achieve together. They were amazed that they all had a similar view of the
future.
What was really happening is that the hard work the CEO and his team had
done in developing and communicating the strategy, was now being
recognized and appreciated. The CEO was delighted.
Step 4. Groups complete The Ideal Organization of the Future
charts.
4.1 Instructions and activity
I remixed the groups - to encourage the common focus the group wanted. I
then asked the groups to complete the Ideal Organization of the Future
charts. In doing so, I asked them to think about what would need to be in
place for them to achieve the benefits they wanted to get out of their
strategy. I encouraged them to capture the energizing ideas they'd had in
their right brain exercise onto the 'Ideal organization of the future charts.' I
suggested they also look at the systems thinking questions on their
future clue cardsto ensure they developed an aligned view of their future
organization. I also encouraged them to check that each organizational
element supported every other organizational element.
4.2. What came out
At first the groups were very creative
about what their organization would
look like, if they achieved the benefits
of having implemented their strategy
successfully. Then, as they started
answering the 'systems thinking
questions' and checking that every
element supported every other
element, they started refining their
work. What came out this time, was a
much more focused view of what needed to be in place for their strategy to
be implemented successfully.
Step 5. The groups choose core changes.
We now needed to identify a few core changes, to provide a better focus
for our implementation plan.
Once again I remixed the groups. I asked them to choose 3 changes that
would:
Help them move towards their "The Ideal Organization Of The Future"
charts.
I asked them to record these changes in a 'From' and 'To' table.
The 'From' would be drawn from "The Organization Of Today"
charts.
The 'To' would come from "The Ideal Organization Of The Future"
charts."
The three groups were surprised that they all came out with the same core
changes. This happened because of the systems thinking provided by The
Change Puzzle Kits - and because we kept mixing the groups.
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We ended the first day of the workshop by asking the group what they'd
achieved. What came out was that they were excited by their common
focus, and by the clarity of what they needed to accomplish to successfully
implement their strategy.
How I used The Winning the Game of Change
Kit: Day 2.
The groups were now used to working with one another and doing systems
thinking. I remixed the groups and handed each group a Winning the Game of
Change Kit. I explained how the kit worked, and allowed each group most of
the day, to complete the game.
I didn't need to do more than answer an occasional question or encourage
them to be practical and creative - as most of the guidance came from the
clue cards in the game. The groups got engaged in the game quite quickly.
As they played the game, they wrote their implementation strategies onto
their charts.
About 2 hours before the session was due to end, I asked for a
representative of each group to work with me, so that we could integrate all
3 charts into one integrated implementation plan for the whole organization.
While we did this, the rest of the group had a break. We took about 45
minutes, as most of the groups came up with similar ideas. This was because
of the systems thinking they had done the previous day, and because we
had mixed the groups.
All I had to do then, was read the integrated plan back to the group.
The end result.
The executives and managers were amazed at what they had produced
together. They were delighted at how practical and exciting their plan was.
They had enjoyed working together. They asked to have more sessions like
this in the future. One of them thanked the CEO for the work he'd done on
developing the strategy. He was quite touched by this appreciation. The
leaders left the session excited and motivated - and ready to implement
their plan.
You may also like:
Tools to use to develop a change strategy.
The change puzzle kit A systems thinking and organizational
development diagnostics tool. Diagnose an organization. Understand
the impact of your change on every element of your organization.
Identify what needs to be in place to support your change.
Understand culture. Identify core changes.
Winning the game of change Develop a change management or
organizational development strategy for your organization or project.
Use the 64 cards to choose practical interventions for your strategy.
Tools to use to implement a change strategy.
Magic change toolkit An exciting change management toolkit for
change agents. Filled with recipe cards or activities to manage any
change, reduce resistance and build excitement.

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