Strategic planning has long been hailed the business cornerstone for projecting profit and growth. Oftentimes, the strategy, “what”, gets mixed up with the tactics, or the “how”, which leads to failure.
Although almost everyone uses the term strategic planning, it doesn’t make sense. Setting strategy is a clear; however, you shouldn’t be thinking about how to plan when looking to the future. In essence, strategy is the “what” whereas tactics are the “how”. Another way to think about strategy is to think about where you’ll end up. Do not think about how you’ll get there and mix it up with where you should end up!
Planning or tactics relates more to the implementation or the “how”. Where strategy is working on the “right things”, tactics is “doing things right”. Another way to think about this is to determine how to translate the conceptualization of the strategy into operational realities. Thus, do strategies fail in formulation or execution? 90%+ of the time it fails in execution.
Strategy implementation should consider how the organization will have to change and evolve to support the strategy. Do you have the people, skills and capabilities required to meet the strategy? If not, there are many options to evaluate. Are the processes and systems set up to achieve the strategy? It is unlikely. There is always some sort of tweak, upgrade or new process required. Does the culture and communication systems support the strategy? There are countless items to consider to ensure success. I put together my 5P Accelerator (SM) process to bridge the gap and transition between strategy and implementation. If you are interested in learning more about how to leverage it, give me a call.