Improving Strategy Delivery – you have to think BIG

Session presented 12th April

Strategy development and delivery is not perfect in many organisations. Why is this?

At two recent workshops, we asked "What reasons have you encountered for why strategies have not been delivered successfully?" - we have collated around 150 points from current practitioners.

It is almost as if some of us expect strategy delivery to happen just by magic.

It would be easy to suggest that more effective strategy delivery could simply be found with better project management, improved change capability, a PMO, some shiny software. But strategy delivery spans the whole organisation and many disciplines, not just some as delivery pulls on the same resources (people, money, leadership) as busienss as usual. The answer lies in Integrated Governance. So where can I look for guidance?

Recent blogs on the topic have included:

- Thinking BIG to improve strategy delivery

- Strategy - “It’s just impossible to steer"

- Keep pulling on the cape or don some brave pants?

- The REAL Iron triangle

- Do some of us expect strategy delivery to happen by magic?

- Dress our emperors appropriately

David and Martin ran this agenda:

Establish the case – strategy delivery is not perfect
Brainstorm audience experience of strategy delivery pains
Position effective organisational governance to manage and deliver performance and strategy.
Position ISO 37000 as the background principles to draw from
Brainstorm - audience experience trying to improve strategy delivery
Position Business Integrated Governance as the delivery means – logical model and readiness assessment
Summary

Link to the YouTube Session Introduction

Event Summary:

David and Martin introduced the event and opened by pointing out that there is plenty of evidence on the internet that strategy delivery is not great.

We illustrated how strategy delivery is not integrated - and how information transfer and meaning losses at every handover point were problematic - compounded by the lack of ability to verify message transfer or to allow for meaningful discussion and feedback. It was further suggested that organisations may have objectives competing (or conflicting) for the same leadership time / funding / resources across BAU, value generation and change. The difficulty with trade offs for resources was illustrated with a simple organisation example.

The audience was then engaged for their view of strategy delivery pains. We got a lot of responses, and our considered answers are here for some. (which we related to outputs from previous events - and signposted the outputs making the case that strategy delivery is not perfect - access that event report here.)

We illustrated the difficulty in cascading and reconnecting the information around strategy through 3 example levels - board, directorate (sales) and team. The complexity on a simple example was obvious - so can it be any wonder that organisations struggle to connect strategy to delivery with no systematic support, governance framework operation or technology?

We positioned ISO 37000 - Governance of Organizations. It was released in September 2021 and provides language structure and principles to run your organisations by. Its principles underpin Busienss Integrated Governance (BIG).

We then asked attendees for their views on "What is your experience of trying to implement strategy delivery solutions?". We got a lot more responses , and our considered answers are here for some:

All these responses drive us to think BIG.

The Business Integrated Governance framework helps us organise ourselves for success. At the heart of BIG is Accountability and Governance, but it also covers organisation, data, information, business support, assurance, and an integrated strategy development and delivery model. BIG encourages collaborative strategy and objective setting at all levels of the organisation and enables a move away from rigid annual strategy plans and inflexible budgeting. A version of it has been integrated into the Praxis website, and can be used with tried and tested delivery methods out of the Praxis Framework.

The session explained that the BIG Model is developed by the Core P3M Data Club - a Community Interest Company, and introduced:

The BIG Operating Model
Components
Enablers
Culture
Key Concepts
Principles

The session then introduced the BIG Readiness model which can be used with stakeholders to understand their readiness for Business Integrated Governance - developing clear understanding of current capability and outline design of possible future strategy management fitting into Integrated Governance.

We concluded: