The Strategy Execution Alignment Skills Bridge

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1 WHITE PAPER The Strategy Execution Alignment Skills Bridge Summary Strategy making and execution are essential to organisational success. However, many organisations are continuously challenged with bridging the gap between the two. Over the years, research has shown a good deal of time and resources are spent building strategies. Too often though, when strategies are translated into project-based work the projects, programmes and portfolio efforts that enable forward momentum there is a break down, resulting in failure to achieve the organisation s strategy. What can be done to improve strategy execution alignment in order to better support the achievement of organisational strategies? A key opportunity lies in empowering and upskilling the teams and leaders responsible for the execution of your project-based work. United Kingdom (0) info@strategyex.co.uk Sweden United Arab Emirates (0) (0) info@strategyex.se info@strategyex.ae Germany (0) info@strategyex.de

2 The Strategy Execution Alignment Skills Bridge Upskilling vs. Hiring New Talent According to a recent Strategy Execution Project Manager Salary and Talent study, 83% of project organisations reported that they were understaffed and 44% of the open positions were for senior project professionals. 1 This number will continue to rise as demand for talent in the marketplace continues to increase. Add talent challenges to external factors such as increased regulation and compliance, emerging technologies, rising globalisation, as well as the constant acceleration of business and the case for increased investment in talent management practically writes itself. We know from research and experience that organisations actively working to develop and retain their talent maintain significant competitive advantages. Bridging the Strategy Execution Gap Successfully aligning and executing project-based work requires a strong mix of skills. Skills, or the lack thereof, directly impact the ability to execute projects and realise your strategies. What happens when organisations fail at this critical phase of strategy execution alignment? Loss of revenue Loss of market share Decrease in shareholder value Misaligned organisational structure Decrease in competitive advantage Slow to market with innovative solutions Inability to move from reaction to pro-action 2

3 If successful strategy execution alignment is seen as a roadway that enables two-way flow between strategy making and strategy execution, it becomes easier to talk about the knowledge and skills required to improve organisational performance by strengthening strategy execution alignment. BRIDGING THE GAP In order to bridge the gaps and create alignment, leaders need to evaluate teams across a range of technical and relational skills that support strong strategy execution alignment. If you think of strategy execution as the roadway on a bridge, which enables seamless two-way flow of information between strategy and the required technical and relational skills as the pillars that support the roadway, you can more easily plot the various knowledge and skills required for your success. From there, it is much easier to look at where your organisation and your people need to improve in order to achieve a higher state of strategy execution alignment. 3

4 At Strategy Execution, we first break the skills into two pillars: Technical skills: the ability to perform a specific job function or task, such as: document a plan as part of a project or programme management role. Relational skills: how people interact with and analyse information, as well as personal relationships, such as: strategic thinking and change management approaches used to lead a project or programme s execution. The two skill pillars can further be broken down into foundation, mechanics and advanced. This provides a structure to help an organisation begin to answer a range of questions, including: Are there gaps on the technical side project performance, budget management, or governance issues for example? Are there gaps on the relational side effective communication, situational analysis or customer satisfaction? Is the challenge simply having a good mix of team members who demonstrate strong technical as well as relational skills? Where should you invest for the greatest and fastest impact? Recognising the required technical and relational skills as the pillars that support the roadway allows you to do more than identify where the gaps are. It helps facilitate determinations around the skill gaps that should be prioritised for investment. 4

5 In other words, using a bridge as a metaphor makes it easier to look at where your organisation and your people need to improve in order to achieve a higher state of strategy execution alignment. What If Your Strategy Had Context? A key benefit of having team members with a strong balance of skills is their ability to see, understand and communicate the context of the strategies driving their project-based work, as well as the organisation s strategic intent. And, importantly, how the two fit together. To be successful, your strategy needs to be developed and managed based on an ever-changing environment. This means your workforce needs to make decisions and take actions Does your team have the knowledge and skills to not just answer the hard questions, but also develop solutions to overcome the challenges they represent? Internal forces: Where is your organisation strong? Where will it benefit the most from efforts to strengthen weakness? Do you have the resources to execute strategy? Does your culture support your strategy? Is your strategy understood at all levels internally? Does your team have the appropriate skills to execute strategy? Do you have the right metrics in place to measure success? Have you anticipated any unknown internal factors (changes in staffing, structure, financials, customer base, etc.)? External forces: Have you anticipated any unknown external factors (changes in economy, regulations, cost of materials, competition, etc.)? Does your strategy recognise current and future trends? Is your competitive intelligence-gathering sufficient? And is it filtered down to everyone who needs it? Are you prepared for economic changes? Are you prepared for regulatory changes that might impact business, your industry or your customer s industries? based on situational context while still being able to drill down and get the work accomplished. How skilled is your current workforce at navigating through the challenges and barriers created by internal and external forces that affect performance and outcomes? Can they answer the hard questions? Can they help chart a critical path to success? Combine the right skills with context and your people will gain a more holistic perspective to strategy making, strategy execution and alignment. This fresh perspective will help make your organisation s execution more adaptive and successful. 5

6 What If All of Your People Thought Like You? Like Leaders? Today s business climate requires project-based work to be executed with more coordination and agility than ever before. People at all levels of the organisation are being asked to take on more leadership and decision making responsibilities. Enabling your people through the development of their relational skill-set enables them to fulfill this leadership need. What if your organisation was able to build and enable decision-makers who understand and can execute with appropriate risk? What if your people had the right skills to make improved decisions? What if your teams weren t afraid to make a mistake? What if they could apply lessons learned for rapid insights that improve results? What if your people had robust relational skills that allowed them to persuasively communicate needs, ideas and recommendations up, down and across? Enabling leadership at all levels drives innovation, breaks down barriers and enables your organisation to proactively identify and resolve issues that can impact successful achievement of your strategic objectives. It also helps to make your organisation more versatile and dexterous. 6

7 Strategy Execution Can Help Strategy Execution cultivates the knowledge and skills your workforce needs to close the strategy execution gap and operate effectively in the world of project-based work. We are more than a training company, we are a performance education company that focuses on developing peoples abilities to get their work done while expanding their tolerance for ambiguity, growing their ability to balance rigour and discipline with agility and increasing their capacity to zoom in and zoom out as necessary to make the most informed decisions at any given time. References 1. Study: PMI Pulse of the Profession: The High Cost of Low Performance, February 2014 GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS 4301 North Fairfax Drive Suite 700 Arlington, VA 22203, USA EMEA 7 Bishopsgate London, EC2N 3AR, UK +44 (0) APAC 111 Somerset Road #10-06 TripleOne Somerset Singapore TwentyEighty Strategy Execution, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All references to Strategy Execution are to TwentyEighty Strategy Execution (UK) Ltd, a company registered under the laws of England and Wales 7