Strategic Setback: Three Guaranteed Methods to Sabotage a Plan Implementation—and Effective Alternatives
Alex Brueckmann, the CEO of Brueckmann Strategy Consultants Ltd and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of "The Strategy Legacy," often finds executives grappling with the tricky task of implementing successful strategy initiatives. These leaders, navigating the maze blindfolded, may lack experience, feel under-skilled, or be dealing with high stakes and an unwillingness to fail. One of the most common pitfalls they encounter is outsourcing strategy creation to consultants or attempting to handle the process themselves.
In some cases, executives lean heavily on external consultants, unrealistically expecting them to make crucial choices. While consultants can provide valuable data and analysis, they cannot truly grasp the organizational context, leaving the tough decisions to the leaders themselves. Conversely, leaders with previous strategic success might overestimate their ability to self-facilitate, overemphasizing planning at the expense of strategy.
Instead, executive teams should leverage external support as partners, guiding the process while ensuring that the final strategy is co-created with the leadership team. Likewise, internal facilitators must equip themselves with proven frameworks and methodologies to effectively manage the strategy-making process.
Another common mistake is neglecting the training of key leaders to facilitate executing the strategy. By educating leaders to not only understand but effectively communicate the strategy, organizations can foster collaboration and alignment across the organization. In turn, this enables middle managers to make the strategy relevant, actionable, and motivating for their teams.
Lastly, rushing to create a strategy without first laying a solid foundation, such as clarifying the organization's purpose and engagement of leadership, often leads to failure. The result is a misaligned strategy that fails to resonate with the workforce, creating friction, mistrust, and a high risk of the strategy being abandoned altogether.
To avoid these mistakes, executives should clarify their organization's purpose and vision, engage in open, collaborative discussions, integrate external support where necessary, and provide strategic development training to leaders. By taking this approach, organizations can create strategy initiatives that resonate with the workforce and ultimately drive tangible results.
Alex Brueckmann, recognizing the challenges executives face, especially in the realm of strategy implementation, often emphasizes the importance of leaders taking an active role in strategy creation. Despite some executives relying excessively on consultants like Brueckmann himself, he emphasizes the need for a collaborative approach where external consultants serve as partners rather than decision-makers. Brueckmann, being blindfolded to the specific details of each organization, offers insights and frameworks but encourages leaders to co-create the final strategy.
