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Turning Strategy Into Results Dr. Bill Casey Wendi Peck. Executive Leadership Group, Inc. Danny Gilbert Self-made billionaire
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Turning Strategy Into Results Dr. Bill Casey Wendi Peck ExecutiveLeadershipGroup, Inc.
Danny Gilbert Self-made billionaire “We have a saying in our companies that ‘innovation is rewarded, but execution is worshipped.’ A great idea is just the first step. The real talent is bringing that idea to life with great execution.” Admiral Mike Mullen CNO “It is time to execute.”
A Think-Do Chasm Exists Executethe strategy THINK ofa strategy
Fortunately, you don’t have to re-inventanything; there is a time-tested approach • Private & Military entities who have benefited from this approach: • Sybase • Molson-Coors • SPL Worldgroup • Seagate • Citicorp • Qwest • Great West Life • US Coast Guard • US Navy: • SUBFOR • Navy Medicine • NETWARCOM • Deep Blue • SPAWAR
1 Focus 3 Accountability 2 Alignment Adopt this 3-part formula to cut through the Fog of Turning Strategy into Results . . . and give leaders a way to steer their organizations
Course Objectives : You’ll be able to • Translate strategy into measurable effects/results • Express effects-sans-side effects as Whole Goals • Create an effects-based strategy with Force Field Analysis • Use Whole Goals to execute strategy, using them as a a basis for: • Focus • Alignment • Accountability In short, you should leave with the basic know-how to develop and execute astrategy that is scalable to almost any size organization or initiative.
Principles and Methods We’ll explore this formula for success in two ways: • Principles (for thinking) • Methods (for doing) However, there will be about 60 – 90 minutes of ground school before weget to take flight.
Use three elements to turn strategy into results 1 Focus 3 Accountability 2 Alignment Let’s start with some important principles on creating FOCUS. . .
A results-focus promotes innovation "Great leaders never tell people how to do their jobs. Great leaders tell people what to do and establish a framework within which it must be done. Then they let people on the front lines, who know best, figure out how to get it done."~ General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
FIRST ask: What’s really, really the point? ONLY THEN ask: How will I know when I succeed? What happens if you ask the second(metrics) question FIRST?
Those first two questions help you figure this out When you lead an initiative or execute a strategy, it’s good to know what “good” looks like . . . GOOD CHEAP FAST
“Good” comes in 4 flavors Successful Results DisputableSuccess IndisputableSuccess Successful Efforts
We’ll focus on indisputable results Successful Results Our focus Because the “indisputable result” is a smart way to write effects IndisputableSuccess And I ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEEit will make YOU strategically smarter
“Indisputable” means we can ALL agree on whether or not success has occurred, which is why we measure. “Who are you gonna believe: me, or your own eyes?” How will we know we’ve achieved objectives such as “Win the War on terrorism” or, “Achieve transformation”?
IfThere’s Room For Interpretation . . . Execution will: • Take longer than it should, • Cost more than it should, and • Produce unpredictable, and often undesired results Oh, and frustrate a lot of people in the process! I THINK I know what they mean. Sort of.
Are These Indisputable? 1. Defeat violent extremism as a threat to our way of life as a free and open society, 2. Create a global environment inhospitable to violent extremists and all who support them From the National Military Strategic Plan for the War on Terrorism
Target Metric Communicating Indisputable Results Means combining the Metric and the Target Decrease Lost Underway Days by at least 25%.
It is easier to focus on indisputable results when they are stated simply In our personal lives, we would never think this way: Outcome: Metric: Target: “Make a good living” “Dollars/year” “100,000” Instead, we’d simply say: “Make a $100,000 per year.”
You already know how to answer the question: How will we know? Twenty bucks says you’ll fail. Imagine that you’re betting on your own success.
Summary: Key Principles • Focus on Results (aka Effects) – Not Activities • First ask: What’s The Point? • Then ask: How will I know I’ve succeeded? • The answer to the second question must be answered in indisputable language to avoid misinterpretation • Indisputable results must include both the metric and the target to be achieved • Indisputable results must be defined UP FRONT • Indisputable results are the foundation for achieving the focus, alignment and accountability required for successful execution
Now Let’s Explore One Method For Applying These Principles
Whole Goals are an exquisite method for depicting indisputable results. Whole Goals
1 Focus Whole 3 Accountability Goals 2 Alignment Whole Goals are the “hub” of this success formula
½ ½ Whole Goals are exceptionally robust because of their two parts
Here’s what I want to achieve. The first half states the result you want ½ “Result”
And, here’s what I really don’t want along the way. The second half bans the side-effects you don’t want “Restrictions” ½
Here’s the indisputableresult I want . . . ½ Prescribe results; proscribe side-effects Result Bind thesecommitmentstogether intoa single, Whole Goal . . . but without these side-effects! ½ Restrictions
Some indisputable results • Increase the skill fit between all billets and all employees (civilian and military) to at least 90%. • Ensure that at least 60% of the fleet is C1 or C2. • Decrease customer wait time by 40% for high priority (c3/c4) CASREP parts. • 100% theater ASW Commanders agree or strongly agree that, “The IUSS community provides information that is accurate, actionable, and timely.” [quarterly, 5-second survey] • Increase the breadth and depth of commanders’ use of IO as reflected in incorporation of IO in deliberate & crisis action planning, exercises, and current operations as indicated by achieving > X on our IO maturity model.[“maturity model,” “behaviorally anchored rating scale,” some “measures of effectiveness”]
What’s the right strategic level? • Increase company share price by > X% • Increase the company’s profit > X% • Increase the company’s revenue > X% • Increase sales of VAD by > X% • Increase add-on sales of VAD by > X% • > 90% service reps can answer at least 19 out of 20 questions on VAD • > 90% of service reps sent to VAD sales training
2nd Half of aWhole Goal: Conquer the Dark Side Q: How do we achieve The Point, while protecting what’s precious? A: We use restrictions.
Indisputable ResultCross the finish line, then (typically) keep going The Finish Line RestrictionsStay within them Restrictions state the co-LATERAL damage you won’t allow Result + Restrictions = Whole Goal
Use restrictions to protect what’s precious while pursuing your goals Non-violence wasn’t his dream. It was the restriction he placed on achieving his dream.
Restrictions can help promote collaborative behaviors Or . . . at least they can muzzle a lot of uncollaborative behaviors
The difference between resultsand restrictions “Drive Warfighter Medical Readiness” Owner: VADM Arthur, Navy Surgeon General Indisputable Result At least 90% of all Sailors & Marines are Operationally Medically Ready. Restrictions At least 75% of all Sailors and Marines are Class 1
Ending point: • Indisputable result • Sustain, retain, attract, and develop a qualified/certified, diverse workforce to meet mission requirements as measured by ratings from recipient organizations, achieving ratings of “meet requirements” or “exceed requirements” for personnel within the information domain. • Restrictions • Cannot receive ratings of “fails to meet requirements” from any customer. • Ensure billets are coded/characterized correctly to meet actual requirements. Here’s a before & after example(From the Navy’s Network Warfare Command) Workforce example Starting point: “Develop a cadre of cyber-warriors.”
Restrictions help manage some risks You will have risks of collateral damage and risks of failure. Restrictions help you manage the first kind.
Restrictions vs. Constraints: Same thing? Constraints Restrictions
Use these criteria for restrictions Measurable and verifiable (yeah, you’ve got to track restrictions, too) Not objectives-in-disguise Keep your list of restrictions short
Simple Whole Goals add a beautiful simplicityto clarifying and communicating direction because they combine the ideas of desired effects, objectives, measures of effectiveness, and collateral damage.
Summary: Effective GoalsThe mechanism for applying the success principles • Goals should reflect the appropriate strategic level for the role trying to achieve them • Indisputable Results (expressed as measurable goals) are the centerpiece for achieving successful strategy or initiative execution • Goals should prescribe indisputable results whileproscribing collateral damage. • We like Whole Goals because they: • Articulate indisputable results/effects • Include critical restrictions that help prevent unintended negative consequences • Simplify communication and create greater focus by integrating desired effects, objectives, and MOE’s into one place
Whole Goals Alignment Use Whole Goalsto help achieve 1 Focus 3 Accountability 2 Alignment
So What Are We Trying to Align Anyway? Personality types? Philosophies? Intentions? Motivation? The stars?
What We MUST Align: • Strategies to ultimate desired effects/results • Individual performance to these strategies • Interdependent roles to each other • Performance consequences (such as pay) to the achievement of desired results (more to come on accountability later) Good News: Whole Goals will help you with all of these Whole Goal
Start by aligning strategy to results Strategy is your theory about how to step from the present to a specific, desired future
Strategies Must Be Clear, Too Unfortunately, most strategies get expressed as “fuzzy” concepts that can also be interpreted in many ways. “We will lead with innovation!” “We will adopt a fast-follower strategy.” “We will shed non-essential activities and stick to our knitting.”
Solution: State strategies as subordinate, indisputable results that prove you have successfully implemented your strategy “We need to reduce flag involvement, and do better at standardizing and consolidating.”
Whole Goal Goals to the rescue! Use Whole Goals To clearly express strategy as Results in cause and effect fashion