Have you ever sat in a meeting discussing what to do next and then realized that you keep having the same conversation each year, yet nothing seems to get done? There is a methodology that can ensure things get done. The method employs many tools such as Visioning, Grounding, Gap Analysis, Strategy Maps, Balanced Scorecard, Budget Programming, Organizational Alignment, and Performance Management.
Future State
The process always starts with Visioning. Visioning is a highly futuristic discussion about what you want to be when you grow up. Assemble dreamers and technologists for this exercise, as it is essential to create a vision unconstrained by today's issues. Companies that produce and work towards a solid and succinct vision continuously enhance the organization's value for its shareholders.
Current State
The next step, "grounding," deals with getting back to earth, back to reality. This process step scans your organization by undertaking a situational analysis of your current state. At a high level, it asks what is working well and what is not and ends with analyzing your current financial condition, position, and customer base.
Gap Analysis
Now that you have a vision and are well grounded in your current state of the nation, it is time to determine where the gaps are and itemize them. There will be a list of differences between where you are now and where you want to be. You also need to assess what forces are working for you and what forces are working against you. All of them put together; this becomes the change agenda, a high-level plan for achieving their desired state.
Strategy Map
A strategy map describes how an organization intends to create value for its shareholders. It maps how the company's intangible assets are used to create sustained shareholder value. Innovation, customer service, and support can become highly differentiated as companies seek competitive advantages. The strategy map visually represents how a company's intangible assets (Learning and Growth), through its internal goals and objectives, provide value to customers, creating a sustained financial performance that enhances shareholder value. The strategy map, in this case, emphasizes "what" is vital to the organization and what must be accomplished, when and who is responsible.
Balanced Scorecard
"What gets measured, gets done." Measurements are at the root of motivation and control. The Balanced Scorecard provides a mechanism that uses the Financial, Customer, Internal, and Learning and Growth perspectives that map how strategy is translated into action using lead and lag indicators. Lead indicators are often concerned with 'inputs,' while lag indicators are measurable (observable) 'outcomes.' The logic is that if I get lots of 'leads,' I will achieve my 'lags.' A check is done to ensure current operations and strategic objectives are achieved when developing the balanced scorecard.
Resource Allocation
Wondering why things didn't get done; yes, you had the vision; yes, you are well grounded; yes, you had the strategy; yes, you had the metrics; but no, you did not allocate sufficient resources to execute. It is important to segment and identifies strategic expenses. In the book The Execution Premium (Kaplan, Norton), the concept of "StratEx" is introduced; "Strategic Expense." There is CoS (Cost of Sales), Opex, and CapEx, and now there should be StratEx.
Budgeting
Budget Programming maps the company's one-year financial goals and objectives to important initiatives (strategic and operational), which are actioned by your intangible assets known as employees. By identifying key initiatives, the Capital Expenditure, Operating Expenditure, and Employee Expenditure (Intangible assets), and then labelling these Strategic Expenditures, you set the company's priorities for the long term. Budgets need to identify "' who' needs to do 'what,' to 'whom' by 'when,' and for 'how much.' Budget programming ensures cross-functional organizational alignment of spending, resources, and priorities.
When determining the 'who needs to do what, to whom, by when, and for how much,' it is essential to ensure organizational alignment. The expected outcome is the proper organizational structure with effective and efficient processes operated by knowledgeable and skilled employees (intangible assets).
Once the Budget Programming and the assessment and assignment of all the resources in the organization have been completed, the question is can the budget be rolled up and approved?
Business Performance Management
The most important step in the process is the business performance management aspect of running the company. The tasks, objectives, metrics identified in the budget, balanced scorecard, and strategy map all create a performance management system. In this system, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings complete with agenda and measures are delegated (not abdicated) to management teams and their staff. Reporting processes are put in place that advice management at all levels of the company on how well the strategy is being executed.
Summary
You can see how employing many tools such as Visioning, Grounding, Gap Analysis, Strategy Maps, Balanced Scorecard, Budget Programming, Organizational Alignment, and Performance Management can guide a company's management team to ensure "things get done." Bypassing any of these steps can quickly become a cause for concern since critical information may be missing and weakened by holes in the foundation upon which the plan rests.
All of can get done through a strategic planning engagement and business coaching We provide onsite or online facilitation engagement if you need help putting your strategic plan in place.
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