Here’s an excerpt from my book, Redefining Operational Excellence: New Strategies for Maximizing Performance and Profits Across the Organization, on some of the key steps to the effective execution of your (or any) strategy.
Aligning your strategy and tactics is important, but you also need to become experts at execution. Executing effectively on your strategy and plan is what differentiates the great organizations from everyone else. Great organizations are able to make things happen quickly and effectively. They are able to turn ideas into commercially viable products. They can turn opportunities into profit increases. They can turn words on paper into results. Mastering strategy execution requires equilibrium among three components: prioritization, accountability and harmonization.
Assigning Priority
An organization needs to be able to prioritize the activities it plans to work on. It needs to know which activities are most crucial to its success so that time and resources are not wasted on tactics that do not add value. Prioritization helps the organization determine who does what and when.
Accountability
Accountability means that an organization is clear on what needs to be measured in order to show success and who is accountable for that success. Employees need to know what results are expected of them so that they can align their actions with those expected results.
Harmony
When key pieces of the activities being performed are aligned to the same goal—the strategy the organization has laid out—that is harmony. Without that alignment, the organization will be moving in several directions at the same time. It’s like an orchestra in which the musicians are each playing different music instead of the same piece.
