Strategy Delivery -

Do we all believe in Magic?

Sustainable Strategy Conference - 22nd / 23rd June 2023 - on line.

Successful organisations are led by smart creative people who can listen, evaluate and imagineer. The details are often left to managers to interpret and translate the ask into a go-do - right?

When the go-do fits within controllable domains, we can expect results. But when our transformational change goes cross-business, value stream development and delivery involves several areas, often our business as usual effort is focused on bonus laden area targets - so how do we integrate, performance manage and make objective priority calls at the same time as our delivery context changes dynamically? Are we able to make accountability stick, do we have the objectivity of assurance, is good governance in place and do we have governance professionals and the reliable information sources we need for agile decision making?

Evidence from multiple public workshops tells us that generally our organisations are not very good at this. There are consistently-reported key challenges in strategy delivery, such as:

unsatisfactory strategy formulation
implementation planning, and delivery
difficulties in balancing and prioritising Business-as-Usual (BAU), change, and value creation
insufficient business support and assurance resources to effectively orchestrate governance operations
inadequate information infrastructure for agile decision-making
cultural difficulties in achieving accountability for strategic outcomes; and
underwhelming results from strategy delivery workloads

The presentation emphasises the need for a strategy operating model (SOM) and Business Integrated Governance (BIG) to enhance organizational performance and agility. It suggests that organisations often face challenges in strategy delivery due to unsatisfactory formulation, implementation planning, and delivery, as well as difficulties in balancing business-as-usual (BAU), change, and value creation. Additionally, inadequate resources, information infrastructure, cultural difficulties, and underwhelming results contribute to the overall struggle in strategy delivery.

The presentation raises the question of why strategy, despite its critical role in organizational success, often lacks the necessary processes, rigor, and tools compared to other areas like budget management. It suggests that organizations may rely on hope rather than effective planning and execution, almost expecting "magic" to happen.

To address these challenges, the presentation proposes a strategy operating model (SOM) and Business Integrated Governance (BIG) as solutions. The SOM would provide a structured approach to strategy formulation, delivery, and integration with business-as-usual activities, value generation, and local innovation. BIG would connect governance principles, such as those outlined in ISO 37000 (Governance of Organizations), to practical implementation.

The argument also emphasizes the importance of engaging senior sponsors and overcoming inertia within the organization. It suggests that by adopting a SOM and BIG approach, organizations can overcome common problems, achieve better strategy delivery, and enhance overall performance and agility.

In conclusion, the presentation highlights the need for a more systematic and integrated approach to strategy delivery. By implementing a strategy operating model (SOM) and Business Integrated Governance (BIG), organizations can address key challenges, connect governance principles to practice, and improve their ability to achieve strategic outcomes.

Listen to the argument:

Formulation – a 5 year fire-and-forget, or a process?
Strategy - formulation and delivery - top down, bottom up – both?
Delivery – isolated as a change portfolio – or integrated with BAU, value generation and local innovation?
Anecdotal and evidential problems - Why do we often ignore good practice?
ISO 37000 – principles for Governance of Organisations
Business Integrated Governance – connect principles to practice
Engage about the journey – overcoming inertia
Conclusions

Join us at the sustainable strategy conference to hear more and engage in panel hosted discussions.

Claim a Regular Entry Pass to the conference today, at a price you set. Contribute if you can. But don't miss this unique event.

With your pass, you'll be able to participate immediately. You'll receive:

a link to a strategic planning scheduling aid
complimentary access to a select number of past conference videos
invitations to attend webinars
plus more

Once the conference starts on June 22nd, you'll be invited to view a select number of pre-recorded videos, attend live sessions and join discussions.

Such live sessions include the panel discussion on Shortening the Planning Cycle

Some people argue that with unpredictable world events and volatility in business domains, the future is so uncertain that to 'plan' is at best nugatory, and worst a complete distraction.
What then is the answer? While fast adaption may not be open to all of us - we can at least make strategic planning less difficult, faster and more efficient.
UTC -5 - 2:30pm-3:45pm (8.30pm UK) - Panel: Shortening the Planning Cycle - discussion with Michael Taylor, David Dunning, Dionne Harris. We will attempt to unravel this!!

Plus, if you can't attend the entire event, we'll tell you about the Full Ticket which is a package of all the video content from the event. With your purchase of this VIP product, you can view all the pre-recorded and live summit videos for a year.