Why lists about why strategies fail, eh
- fail
By Pål Wæhle
January 2015
During 2014 I have been 25 years in consulting. Some people say I must have learnt a lot working with
top executives on their most pressing issues. That is true. Some of what I have learnt comes from working
with them one on one, some from engaging them in surveys understanding their beliefs, their experience
and how they resonate. I will share some of what I have learnt with you in a series of articles.
Critiquing strategy processes is popular. If you have
auto complete on in your browser, and type Why
strategies… - then the word …fail may come up as the
first suggestion in google. It leads you to a long list of
entries of sharp but rather useless studies and insights.
And since our backyard is operations and
implementation, we looked for root causes to the
problems. We looked for things you actually can fix with reason to believe it will make a difference.
Take one common symptomatic observation in many of
the "why fail lists".
It is strategy season again soon! Many companies follow
an annual wheel where late winter and spring means
strategy process.
"The executive suite is gone when the hard work of
implementation starts".
If the same lists aspire to come up with a remedy – like
some of them do - it is something like- "Executives must
have stamina and follow through".
It is time to rally Forrester and Ovum reports (or similar),
a strategy consultancy as well as Porter and Osterwalder
models. It is time to pencil the strategy offsite into the
corporate and even the non executive board calendar. It
is time for some energizing weeks of slow, long term
thinking.
This is like saying:
1. Pål is slightly obese
2. Pål needs a diet and to exercise more (although he
stands when he puts his socks on :) – “How a tiny
habit with socks can keep you fit”)
But down the corridors - if you listen - you may hear
some laconic and cynical comments.
“Here we go again...”
What is the likelihood that:
1. I do not know?
2. I have not tried it? (several times…)
“Why not take a look at last years strategy, it had great
potential, of which little has been realised. It will save us
time and effort...”
To find the ways to handle why the officers leave the
war theatre before the battle begins, you need to drill
down further. Why is it that the executive suite is not
following through?
So, to make sure that this time around it will be
different, you seek guidance on why strategies fail.
And as stated there is a lot of advice to be found.
The problem is that these lists are less helpful than they
seem to be.
The reason is that they are expressing symptoms.
Chasing symptoms is like chasing shadows, great fun and
exercise, but little progress or results will come out of it.
Last year we did a survey with 60 CEOs on the topic. We
got the same long list of symptoms. But together with
them we drilled down.
www.beneagere.com | LinkedIn | Copyright © 2015 Bene Agere Norden AS
1
If you have done root cause analyses you know that it
takes 5-ish levels of great why questions to get to the
root cause.
As this was often the case, the CEOs had other proposals
than to do changes in their executive team. Their ideas
all circled around extending the team that does the
strategy to include the introverts, the planners, those
who are able to operationalize, implement and follow
through, from the very beginning,, i.e. to enlarge the
coalition of dedicated owners of the strategy with
people who could be officers - on the ground - amongst
the soldiers - through the battle.
The executives had a lot of energy around this approach,
and brought deep insights. The challenge is that in the
case of strategies not delivering results, the root causes
are quite company specific. This makes it hard to make
lists of 5, 7 or 10 things to remember that are snappy to
post on linkedin. But there are clearly some ideas that
came from the CEOs worth while to consider for anyone
entering the strategy season, and which can serve as an
example of my point.
This – to my mind - is better advice than doing the same
thing as last year and expecting a different outcome.
What do you think?
One root cause to be found according to the survey, is
the executive team composition (this is a possible root
cause for many other issues listed as well). Who become
executives? What are their preferences and they
behaviors? There is clearly no single answer to this, but
if you look through many teams, you will find they tend
to be extrovert more than introvert analytical, creative
and great communicators - or people who like to control
- rather than planners and implementers.
The survey gave us a huge library of possible root
causes. My next post will follow with a few more that
may have a possible wider application.
Web Post | Linkedin Post | Linkedin Profile
Teams with a composition of these profiles only or
mostly mobilise great energy and great insights in the
strategy planning process. But they are easily diverted
when the tedious implementation starts. Remedy:
Change team composition? No, in most cases probably
not.
Firstly, all CEOs must in the short term play the hand of
cards they have. Secondly, this team might be extremely
successful.
www.beneagere.com | LinkedIn | Copyright © 2015 Bene Agere Norden AS
2