Bridging the Great Strategy and Execution Divide
Things went slightly wrong in general management when, in the process of making business more professional, strategy and execution got separated completely.
To be clear, developing strategy as a practice was great. (Thank you, Michael Porter.) Thinking through what a business should focus on and how; analysing competitors, markets and internal strength, setting objectives and priorities are critical for any business that expands beyond 5 people.
The mistake was separating this process from the everyday of doing and operating a business. The mistake was treating strategy as a privilege that belongs to top management only and shutting out those on the ground who have to make things happen. The mistake is treating strategy as a fancy deck that gets forgotten after the presentation.
Not communicating properly and clearly in all directions, down AND up, what the company is focusing on and where its true weaknesses lie has been the mistake.
Whether decision-making is centralised up top or distributed throughout the organisation, listening to all voices is critical.
The worst strategies look great on paper but are un-executable on the ground. They are out of touch with what can be done on the shop floor, in the factory, or in a meeting with a client. It is partly about culture, sure, but it is also about all the little problems employees face that are never heard about in the ivory tower.
If you listen to the best CEOs they ALL spend time on the shop floor, the factory floor, or in an office-based knowledge business walking around and talking to people at all levels. These are critical activities of good CEOs. It is not about not trusting people reporting to you – and if you foster trust and psychological safety, most big problems should find their way to you.
But the small ones won’t. Those little things that can be worked around and get used to, those that seem irrelevant in the grand scheme of things and in relation to all the big things that need to be spent on. It is often these seemingly small things that derail Strategy.
Perhaps the existing layout of your store doesn’t allow for certain placements or shop assistant behaviours that the top strategy assumed. Or the spoken or unspoken incentive systems in place in fact prohibit any reasonable employee from behaving the way you assume they should under the new strategy.
Some of these small but critical failure points won’t make it to the top because mid-managers won’t even think they are relevant. You have to go out, and with your new strategy in mind appraise current issues and uncover potential obstacles.
Naturally, CEOs have enough on their plates and cannot visit every operational site all the time. But even a few, regular visits, especially in the run-up to finalising new plans, can help unearth problems that would derail your grand strategy.
In general, when drawing up strategy, it is good to have in the room people who will have to execute it. For example, a representative of a certain operational unit who isn’t a top manager but is actively involved in the task. And I am not talking about committees, led by someone who didn’t get a proper promotion or a top manager who is always loud and drowns out other voices. The whole idea is to unearth obstacles. It is important to hear it from the horse’s mouth.
As long as it is not a performative exercise, it is also a good idea for all top managers to spend some time ‘on the shop floor’ regularly. Naturally, they are all busy too, but this should help their ability to solve problems on the ground, allocate resources where they are needed most, and formulate effective strategies. Or swiftly sign the request for those tiny screws that keep that machine working.
What I am advocating for is not a revolution, but better connections across the business and more regular direct experience of the front end. Better organisational intelligence, if you like. (Not spying, rather like emotional intelligence for organisations.) Less territorial conflicts, more cooperation, less bureaucratic layers, and more effective middle management that gets respect. Better escalation of critical problems on the ground. Ambitious strategies that can actually be executed.
So go on, to ‘the shop floor’ we go!