Move guide
Turn it into action
Your report suggested a move on at least one of these two practices:
- whether strategy becomes action;
- whether the organisation knows and owns the strategy.
This move guide gives every strategic theme an action programme with an owner, milestones and this quarter's deliverable. Then it takes the strategy to the organisation in person.
1. When it applies
Use this move guide if your report placed either practice in the lowest two stages.
| Practice | Where it may sit today | Where this move guide aims |
|---|---|---|
| Whether strategy becomes action | Lagging: "The strategy document and what people actually do each week are unrelated." Basic: "Translation happened once into a plan nobody has opened since." |
Competent: "Strategic priorities appear in team plans and goals with dates and owners." |
| Whether the organisation actually knows and owns the strategy | Lagging: "The strategy was announced once, by email, and never mentioned again." Basic: "The top team knows the strategy; two levels down it is rumour." |
Competent: "The strategy has been communicated in person, in plain language, and people can connect their work to it." |
If both already sit at the middle stage or higher, skip this move guide.
It needs the resourced priorities from making the money and people follow. A programme with no budget behind it stalls.
2. What to do
Four steps. Set them up in one quarter, then run them each quarter.
- Give every strategic theme an action programme: an owner, milestones, and this quarter's deliverable. The translation worksheet does this, and Table A below records it.
- Put the priorities into team plans and goals, with dates and owners. A priority that is in no team's plan is not yet action.
- Take the strategy to the organisation in person, in plain language. Let people question it, and answer the questions. The communication-buy-in worksheet plans the sessions.
- Review the programmes monthly. Each owner reports against this quarter's deliverable.
The two free worksheets do the recording:
- /worksheets/strategy/translation for the action programmes;
- /worksheets/strategy/communication-buy-in for the sessions and the questions.
3. What to produce
One table, plus the two worksheets above.
Table A. The action programme, one row per theme
| Theme | Owner (name) | Milestones, with dates | This quarter's deliverable | In which team plans |
|---|---|---|---|---|
A row with no name in the owner column is a wish list.
4. A worked example
Illustrative. Written for this move guide. It describes no client.
A building services contractor has five regional offices and three strategic themes.
The programmes.
- Each theme got one owner from the leadership team. Each owner wrote milestones to the end of the year, and one deliverable for this quarter.
The team plans.
- The regional managers rewrote their plans. Each now names the theme it serves, with a date and an owner.
The sessions.
- The chief executive and one theme owner visited every office. They spent half of each session on questions.
- Every question went on a list with its answer. The list went to all staff.
One quarter on.
- 3 of 3 themes with an owner and a deliverable
- 5 of 5 offices visited in person
- 40 questions answered and published
On a retake, both practices could be answered at the middle stage.
What it looked like in our work
From our own work. Figures changed.
A large media business ran its transformation as a programme of initiatives. About sixty had a one-page brief, each with the same fields.
- AccountabilityThe workstream, one accountable executive, the status from identified to approved, and the date last updated.
- Target outcomeOne sentence saying what will be true when it is done.
- ContextWhy it is needed, what it needs, and what stays as it is.
- OutcomesWhen it starts and when it is complete.
- Target and phasingThe saving or growth by year, to its full yearly rate.
- Check pointsEach milestone with a no-later-than date. These feed the tracking.
One brief, redrawn with a different initiative and changed figures:
| Field | What it said |
|---|---|
| Target outcome | Bill every customer from one system |
| Context | Two old billing systems must be replaced. The work needs about $0.3m of capital. |
| Outcomes | Work starts in the first month and is complete by the fourth |
| Target and phasing | A saving of about $0.6m a year at the full rate |
| Check points | No later than month one: work started and the plan set. No later than month four: all billing on one system. |
Briefs went to the programme office as drafts, then to the steering committee for endorsement.
The delivery roadmap
Illustrative.
Put every project on one roadmap, by theme, with an owner by job title. It shows what runs at once and what waits.
- 1. Grow the core: new pricing for key accounts (sales director), half-years 1 to 2
- 2. Grow the core: second distribution centre (operations manager), half-years 2 to 4
- 3. New segment: launch the service offer (marketing director), half-years 3 to 5
- 4. Enabler: one customer system (technology manager), half-years 1 to 4
- 5. Enabler: leadership skills (managing director), half-years 2 to 6
The columns are half-years from the start. The numbers on the left are the projects.
Rank the projects
Illustrative.
Place each project by its profit impact and how easy it is to deliver. Start with the top right.
Start with the shaded cells: high or medium impact, and not hard to deliver.
Map who supports it
Illustrative.
Before the sessions, mark how far each leader supports the strategy. Mark the gaps that would stall it, and how often you will meet each leader.
- Chief executive On boardWeekly
- Head of unit A On boardMonthly
- Head of unit B EmergingWeekly
- Head of unit C NeutralWeekly
- Head of unit D EmergingMonthly
- Head of unit E NeutralAs needed
A solid edge is on board. A red dashed edge is a gap to close first. The note says how often to meet.
Spend the most time where support is weakest and the gap matters most.
5. Effort and dependencies
- Theme ownersEach writes one programme and reports on it monthly.
- Chief executiveTakes the strategy to the organisation in person.
- Leadership teamJoins the sessions and answers the questions.
What you need
- The one-page strategy from putting it on one page.
- The resourced priorities from making the money and people follow.
How long
- One quarter to set up. Then each quarter.
What gets in the way
- Timings without owners. We have seen it in our own work. A leisure business's plan gave dates for each action, but no names.
- Announcing instead of answering. Buy-in comes from answering people's questions. A launch with no questions taken builds none.
6. How will you know it worked?
The test is whether people two levels down can connect their work to the strategy. Retake the check after the first quarter. Each of these should be true when you answer:
| Practice | You can answer Competent when | A document alone does not count if |
|---|---|---|
| Whether strategy becomes action | The priorities appear in team plans and goals, with dates and owners. | The programmes exist, but no team plan names them. |
| Whether the organisation knows and owns the strategy | The strategy was explained in person, in plain language, and people can connect their work to it. | It went out by email and nobody asked a question. |
The worked example is illustrative.
Think we've used your work without proper credit? Tell us and we'll fix it.