Editor's Note: Several of you asked me to again address the barriers that prevent companies from moving forward and accomplishing real results. I hope you find this helpful in making some fundamental changes. - dpm]
It's September. Your plans for 2023 should be well on their way. Many organizations are beginning the process to think and plan strategies for 2023 and beyond.
What about your organization? Has your company been floating up with the rising tide that floats all boats? What will happen when the tide changes? Ask yourself a few questions:
- Does your company's planning process ever yield real results?
- Do you go through a long, tedious process year after year that you and your managers dread?
- Are there barriers in your organization that now protect the status quo and prevent you from moving forward?
Perhaps the approach is flawed!
Years of either poor planning or no planning have created unintended consequences for many organizations. These organizations unintentionally have created barriers that prevent them from developing and executing a meaningful plan. It could be because of a history of unreasonable expectations and unachievable goals, a history of abandoned projects, or a lack of internal knowledge and understanding about customers, competitors, and the market.
Barriers to Planning Success
- History of only partially developing plans
- History of unreasonable expectations and unachievable goals
- Lack of internal understanding about customers, competitors, and the market
In addition to barriers to planning, company teams have a lack of confidence and skepticism about their ability to execute plans. This could come from a company history of abandoning projects, a history of unclear objectives and metrics, too many strategies and plans, a history of poor communication, a history of poor delegation and leadership, gaps in management capability, or a lack of true accountability.
Barriers to Execution Success
- Gaps in management depth
- History of abandoning projects
- History of lack of openness and poor communications
- History of poor delegation and leadership development
- Lack of true accountability
Organizations that have barriers to planning and execution have one characteristic in common: there is little or no connection between the plans they create and management behavior around execution. Most management teams quickly get swept away with the urgency of the day-to-day business and the plan is forgotten.
So what can you do to change this counterproductive cycle? Try a better approach!
Consider the following before you start:
- Fix the barriers
- Examine past strategic planning and execution efforts
- Identify the organizational barriers to success - Develop plans to fix these barriers
- Use a new and flexible approach to strategic planning
- Less is more - Better to have three strategies with great focus than seven with poor focus
- Realistic and achievable - Unachievable goals end in frustration and abandonment
- Validate plans with the market - make certain you understand how customers and competitors will react to your plans
- Use a better approach to action plans
- Break into small bites with near-term actions - build momentum by getting some early successes
- Create 90-day action plans, recheck, and re-evaluate
- Make Action Plans Clear and Understandable - to everyone in the organization
- Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
- Make sure plans and metrics are aligned up and down the organization
- Measure and Track
- Metrics - develop quantifiable measurements of progress
- Track the progress- regular monitoring and adjustment
- Adjust and Recalibrate
Understanding the barriers to planning and execution is critical. Companies that have addressed the barriers are amazed at how much more their management teams are engaged and how the process energizes the entire organization. CEOs of companies with years of poor planning and execution history find that their organizations are far more capable than they ever imagined of achieving superior results.
The Mead Consulting Group has helped many companies identify and overcome the barriers to successful planning and execution. Our process is simple and effective at uncovering the key obstacles and barriers and developing recommendations for improvement. If you would like to have a conversation about this, Contact Dave Mead at (303)660-8135 or meaddp@meadconsultinggroup.com.
