Three Cs of Implementing Strategy
Strategy falls at the top of most organizational leaders' priorities. But how does one implement the strategy most effectively? No matter how excellent your plan success, it could lead to disaster if executed incoorectly. Sucess begins by focusing on the three Cs of implementing strategy: clarity, communication, and cascade.
Each of these three Cs rolls into the next. For example, clarity works to define communication, communication is essential for effectively cascading your strategy, and the cascading will help increase the transparency of the project. Following? Let's break it down.
Clarity
Craft your strategy with every player in mind. From the boardroom to production, from sales to customer service, make the roles of every individual involved in the new approach clear and concise. Make sure everyone understands the changes.
There are several ways to do this.
Define every player's role. Written functions allow managers and workers to review their responsibilities as needed. Make everyone's parts available to the team, so there is no breakdown in knowing who is responsible for what.
Provide immediate feedback, allowing team players to make necessary adjustments. Don't let mistakes fester. Avoiding difficult conversations will create confusion and stall progress.
Encourage questions.
Avoid "corporate speak."
When communicating, speak to the majority, not the boardroom. Communicate clearly. This takes us to the second C.
Communication
Speaking is essential in the implementation of any strategy. If those you lead don't understand even what you are asking of them, you will have failed before you ever begin. Therefore, towing who you are speaking to and then speaking their language is essential. Industry terms go far in the boardroom and even with fellow managers, but you distance yourself from the everyday worker and the customers they interact with directly.
Sit down and have conversations with everyone involved. Outline the goals and the purpose of implementing this new strategy. Encourage questions and feedback to clarify any steps that are not understood. Effective communication must occur in both directions.
(Read: 5 Facts About Communication in the Workplace You Need to Know)
Don't worry about over-communicating. You can't. Put the message on posters, in emails, and on the blog. Make it impossible for someone to say, "I just know." Every individual is redone or ensured they know what it is and how to do it. When you set everyone up for success, you also reap the benefits. Become the boss they need to thrive!
Cascade
You will need to determine how much of the implementation belongs in each part of your organization. If you are blessed with additional management, bring them into this conversation. This will further communicate a sense of ownership in the successful implementation.
If everyone in your organization is working toward the same goals, divide responsibilities evenly. For instance, if you own a small storefront and want to raise your sales by 5% over one month, then every employee will be responsible for increasing their sales by 5%. The responsibility does not fall on one individual but evenly throughout the store.
However, if your goal is to raise sales by 5%, but your organization is more significant than one storefront, the responsibilities may be distributed differently. For example, the marketing team will need to develop new catchy ads to bring in more foot traffic, while production needs to increase its workload to anticipate demand.
Employee engagement can be significantly improved when linking cascading goals to the employee improvement management. By placing the goals in your employees' performance reviews, the employee will be able to identify the company's f more clearly focus, how their work contributes to the organization's overall success, and how the team impacts the bottom line.
During team and one-on-one meetings, check in to ensure you communicate the cascading strategy at every level. Then, using these three Cs, you'll be on your way to implementing a system that works!