Strategy Execution Playbook
A Trusted Companion for Leading Initiatives
Bettina Büchel
Catherine Agamis
Mahwesh Khan
Welcome to the Strategy Execution Playbook!
This Playbook is designed to be a trusted companion for sponsors, teams or leaders of strategic initiatives.1 It provides the necessary theoretical frameworks and practical tools to help guide teams in successfully implementing strategic initiatives (interchangeably referred to as “projects”2 in this Playbook).
The Playbook follows a methodological guideline for implementing both “exploratory initiatives” 3 and “exploitative initiatives.”4 [15] This is done in a stepby-step, modular way (explained in more detail in the ”Setting up for success” section). The Playbook’s structure broadly follows the phases of a strategic initiative’s execution – EXPLORE–DEVELOP–DO–EMBED.
In the EXPLORE section of this Playbook, we focus on team formation, the project scope and understanding the business stakes. At this stage, the key strategic question – the one question that your entire project answers – is identified, the stakeholders are consulted and the outcome expectations are clarified. At the end of this stage, the project team performs a robust diagnosis of the current situation and identifies the likely root causes or opportunities for improvement. It progresses from identifying key questions to developing a set of hypotheses (often based on assumptions) that
can be prioritized and tested. These hypotheses are then verified by gathering and analyzing data.
The DEVELOP section helps the project team zero in on ”solutions.” The team is able to propose a range of options and evaluate them before proposing "the" solution that is most feasible, desirable, viable and sustainable to execute. To do so, the team creates a compelling vision and engages with and takes input from key stakeholders. This helps it envisage the most optimal solution, for which it then creates a compelling case and pitches it to stakeholders using a solution roadmap.
The roadmap provides the logic behind the sequencing of various actions and should guide teams on the ”what” and ”how” that are needed to ensure effective execution.
The DO section provides detailed guidance on piloting the solution, onboarding result critical stakeholders across the organization, managing change and designing a project monitoring system to evaluate the performance of the initiative deployment. It also includes details on an after-action review, which will ensure broader learning is captured.
Finally, the EMBED section helps sustain the initiative within the organization and ensure market success. You may have spent significant time and energy in the EXPLORE–DEVELOP–DO phase building the future, but without ensuring the adoption of practices and products, the return on investment will be difficult to demonstrate.
The EXPLORE–DEVELOP–DO–EMBED parts of the book are broken into different steps (interchangeably referred to as chapters). Each part aims to identify the specific steps that the project team needs to take.
initiative, we also encourage you to review the impact you have achieved and its wider implications for the organization and you as an individual.
At the end of the Playbook, we refer to the most common management tools that will help you in your strategic initiative decision making. Keep in mind that critical thinking is at the core of any approach you take or tool you use for your strategic initiative. So, carefully think about which framework works best for your initiative – be a critical thinker yourself as you apply the frameworks and tools. While the Playbook by no means presents all available tools and frameworks, it includes those that, based on years of experience with organizational transformations and strategic initiative implementations, we have seen work well.
1By strategic initiative, we mean an action-oriented choice through which an organization translates its goals and visions into practice in order to help achieve the organization’s success over the next few years.
2A project is a specific strategic initiative that you as a learner and practitioner and your team are assigned to execute.
3Exploration focuses on finding innovations beyond the current horizon. The business impact is derived from exploring new possibilities that will drive growth through new products and/or services in the longer term.
4Exploitation requires looking for ways to improve existing operations and so the focus is on business efficiency [15] The business impact is derived from improvements that make current practices more efficient (or help exploit within the existing operational context) typically in the short-term.
Before you delve into the EXPLORE–DEVELOP–DO–EMBED phases of any strategic initiative, we call your attention to the very first step – Setting up for success. In this section, we introduce the project and team management philosophy. We recommend you start with these preliminary frameworks and tools to ensure a strong foundation is established for your initiative team and we encourage you to come back to these tools as and when needed during any of the EXPLORE–DEVELOP–DO–EMBED phases. Upon completion of your
The tools used depend not only on their inherent properties, but also on the context and interpretations of those selecting the tools. While we think there are tools that fit certain situations better than others, there isn’t a right or wrong tool for each situation. Each person’s choice of tool is shaped by their preferences, which will likely influence their decision and the outcome. We often find that it is not the “fit” of the tool with a particular situation which determines whether or not it will be used. Rather, such a choice is dictated by the ease and standardized way in which such a tool can be deployed in an organization. According to Jarzabkowski and Kaplan [51], tools that are simple and offer clear visual representations are easier to remember and use. Quantitative tools are attractive to users because numbers can signal rationality, but this attractiveness is offset by potentially greater difficulty in using the tool.
Given that the choice falls on you to some degree (unless you are constrained by what someone more senior prescribes), it is important that you understand your options before making a choice. The greater your knowledge of the tool options upfront, the more you can try to obtain the best fit between the situation and the tool you want to employ. In the application of tools, remember that this provides a space for exchange with your colleagues and that a common language provides the ground for better conversations across functions, hierarchies or geographies.
As there is often more than one tool that makes sense to use, be aware that certain tools will focus your attention on some strategic issues more than others. This means that positions or viewpoints are more likely to come to the forefront, while others can become blind spots. We often look at the success of a tool from two perspectives: one that is widely adopted; but more importantly, one that leads to the right decision. For a tool to lead to a good decision, it should provoke new explorations and enable interim decisions that allow you to move forward with a project; it should satisfy either internal or external clients; it should allow you to demonstrate competence; and it should ideally highlight, surface and help resolve the different viewpoints or positions that people might have relative to the decision to be made.
Throughout the book, we are introducing three types of tools:
1
2
3
Strategic and analytical tools
Operational efficiency tools
Project and change management tools
While strategic and analytical tools are the most useful for exploratory growth initiatives, operational efficiency tools are useful for business efficiency initiatives, while project and change management tools are useful for all initiatives. Remember there are other tools available, so explore those we have listed and test and use them if you find them appropriate in your context. Ultimately, we hope this Playbook helps you on your journey as a critical thinker and executor of your strategic initiative!
Red Threads in the Playbook
As you go through the Playbook, you will notice the following red threads:
1. The diverge/converge pattern. To avoid coming to a conclusion too early, teams often need to diverge in their thinking before converging. This is often done at each phase, i.e. while exploring, developing and doing. During the EXPLORE phase, the divergence involves understanding the context from multiple perspectives before developing hypotheses. In the DEVELOP phase, it involves ideating solutions and diverging before making choices. In the DO phase, it involves learning from pilots before scaling up the implementation. Finally, in the EMBED phase, it involves ensuring that the future solution is fully institutionalized.
2. Efficiency and growth initiatives. Performance improvements are typically achieved through two different types of initiatives: business efficiency and growth initiatives. Business efficiency (also sometimes called "exploitative") initiatives derive their benefits from continuous improvements to existing processes or systems often achieved in the short term. Growth (also sometimes called "exploratory") initiatives are about exploring new possibilities that will drive new revenues through new products and/or services in the longer term. While some customer-focused initiatives could deliver incremental revenues and, therefore, do not neatly fall into one of the two types of initiatives, this is a helpful way of thinking about initiatives as, typically, different analyses are required to successfully achieve the expected results.
3. Change management. Any strategic initiative is essentially a process of transforming from one state to another. Irrespective of the complexity of the initiative, there is a need to involve stakeholders throughout the change management process. As you go through this Playbook, we will elaborate on the change management steps along the way and repeatedly point toward the need to also get buyin for any changes to the business that you suggest.
Figure 0.1: Diverge/Converge pattern
Setting up for Success
Get to know your project team, prepare your work plan and allocate tasks.
Leading strategic initiatives is not possible without a core team that is dedicated to understanding, analyzing, ideating and solving the problem or pursuing the opportunity. Before embarking on the EXPLOREDEVELOP-DO-EMBED phases of a strategic execution journey, let us look at what is needed to start strong as a team.
For your specific initiative, it is critical that you create alignment with the project expectations among your team members. During this step, together with your team, you will:
• Understand the stages of team formation.
• Learn about the different work styles in a team.
• Define and put in place the rules of engagement.
• Implement key project management tools and processes.
• Understand how to engage with stakeholders critical to your project’s success, primarily the project sponsor.
To set up for success, you need to work on three dimensions: Understanding team dynamics, building an effective project management approach and establishing meaningful engagement with the project sponsor.
Taking the time to set up for success helps create synergy within the team, whereby the combined value it delivers becomes higher than the sum of all its parts. It also allows you to agree on the project management approach that will structure the work of the team from the very beginning and ensure that you are aligned with the project sponsor from the outset. Similarly, understanding what the project sponsor expects from the team and, in turn, ensuring that the sponsor’s support remains available for the project team, requires early and regular engagement between the project team and the project sponsor. Two points to consider are:
• A strong team is a necessary component of successful strategic execution. Team strength lies in not only the depth of experience and subject matter expertise of the team, but also the effective team dynamics and behaviors.
• Project management and work plan development provide clarity in navigating the initiative’s execution journey.
Team Dynamics
Team dynamics5 evolve over time and form a critical base for driving any strategic initiative. Each team, given its context and the diversity of its members, will demonstrate different characteristics. Individuals do not act the same in all teams. The dynamic of the team is shaped by the individuals, but the dynamic within the team also shapes individual behaviors. Thus, it is critical that you recognize the team’s working preferences and align the team members accordingly. Below are some steps (with frameworks) you can use to help develop efficient teams:
• Understand the stages of team formation because team dynamics have the potential to make or break a project (Box 0.1, p. 42).
• Allocate work to ensure the balance and compatibility are commensurate with the team members’ preferences and competencies. Using a framework such as Belbin’s Team Roles (Box 0.2, p. 44) provides an easytouse method to structure the team members’ roles and responsibilities within the team.
• Develop the rules of engagement. They will help navigate the team when it is faced with challenging decisions and timelines or even conflict. It can be done as a group exercise and formalized through a team charter. An example of a team charter is provided in Box 0.3, p. 46.
Engage your Project Sponsor
The sponsor provides resources and support for the initiative. As the sponsor is accountable for the initiative, s/he should have a high stake in it. The high-level sponsor should confirm the scope, set the direction, priorities and target objectives as well as provide the big picture in terms of how the initiative fits within the overall strategy. They will likely also be involved in major decisions throughout, such as the selection of the team leader, go/nogo decisions or decisions to replace team members.
The sponsor should have a reputation for getting things done. S/he should monitor teamwork over time, provide the necessary information, challenge the team’s ideas, raise the “what ifs” or naïve questions and look at the potential risks or unexpected events/surprises that would result in redirecting the initiative.
The sponsor must demonstrate a high level of personal commitment and expect the team to maintain its energy throughout. S/he should be a role model to inspire others in terms of supporting the initiative, talking about it, communicating news about it, particularly to the rest of the organization. Indeed, the sponsor is not just the one that kicks off the initiative, S/he should ensure that the initiative stays on track and dedicate several hours per week to follow through.
5
Toegel, Ina. ”Top Tips for Better Collaboration.” IMD Tomorrow’s Challenges, November 2017.
Introduction
A healthy team dynamic is crucial to high performance; it allows team members to make effective use of their time, be truly engaged creatively and, therefore, find optimal solutions to problems [111]6. IMD’s Professor Ina Toegel suggests that you can enhance your team members’ selfawareness and foster trust with teams by focusing on the following:
• Feedback. Members (including the initiative/ group leader) are comfortable giving and taking feedback from each other, and they do so in a predefined, consistent and regular fashion. When teams institute regular weekly or monthly feedback sessions, members become more skilled at formulating and receiving feedback.
• Check-in and check-out. High-performance teams begin and end their meetings with a discussion about their relationships. A “checkin” is a short sharing of feelings, with each member sharing positive or negative sentiments, such as: “I worry about this deal because …” “I was anxious last week because …” or “I feel relieved because ….” A ”checkout” might revolve around questions, such as: ”How satisfied are we with this meeting?” ”How well did we listen to each other?” and ”To what extent did we resolve the tensions in the room?” It is the team leader’s task to role model that it is safe to share such sentiments, as long as they are constructively phrased. Both the checkin and the checkout provide an opportunity for team members to share positive emotions or unburden some frustrations. When negative emotions are not verbalized, they tend to build up and, therefore, magnify tensions in a team and decrease productivity. Members are encouraged to speak up to test assumptions about issues under discussion.
• Creating psychological safety to foster innovation. Paying attention to team relationships is important not only for productivity and efficiency, but also for innovation. Team members who feel safe and supported by the team are not afraid of making a mistake, and they feel greater freedom to experiment. Psychological safety is the difference between traditional efficiency-focused organizations and more innovative learning-focused companies. Conversations that enhance empathy and engagement within the team have a positive effect on the bottom line. 6
Box 0.1: Understanding the Stages of Team Formation
Source: Tuckman (1965) [113]
When to Apply
Teams need to be prepared to tackle different challenges and be ready to explore synergies when working together. Bruce Tuckman, an American professor, published “Developmental sequence in small groups,” [113] in which he describes the four phases that teams go through when the members create interpersonal bonds and work together toward a common goal.
• Each phase has its own challenges and behaviors. Anticipating them allows the team to preempt and overcome them.
• Teams can leverage their understanding of the phases to discover opportunities to improve group dynamics, such as organizing team social events.
• Throughout the life cycle of the project.
• At the start of each new activity, you can review how the team works when faced with team conflicts.
• If team efficiency is not deemed optimal.
Figure 0.2: Stages of Team Formation
Ensure Role Compatibility
Plant: Innovators & ideas. Prefer to work alone.
Monitor Evaluator: Separate good ideas from bad.
Specialist: Skills in a specialist job.
Shaper: Challenge norms. take lead, push team.
Implementer: Executors of plans.
Completer Finisher: Complete the fine details.
Coordinator: Natural team leaders.
Team Worker: Diplomats, keep team cogs turning.
Resource Investigator: Find external resources.
When to Apply
Dr. Meredith Belbin has defined the role of a team as “a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way.” [4] After studying teams for many years, he identified nine team roles that people seemed to take on when working in teams: Shaper, Implementer and Completer Finisher are Action-oriented Roles; Coordinator, Team Worker and Resource Investigator are People-oriented Roles; and Plant, Monitor Evaluator and Specialist are Thinkingoriented Roles.
• Helps team members not only develop selfawareness, but it also helps them understand each other better.
• Allows team members to play on their strengths but stay aware of their weaknesses, thereby minimizing the potential for friction.
• Provides a learning opportunity and helps individuals move beyond their “default” settings.
• Celebrates the diversity of the team rather than seeking homogeneity.
• At the project kick-off.
• To be revisited as members evolve from one role to another over time, or if the team welcomes a new member.
Figure 0.3: Belbin Team Roles
Source: Belbin Team Roles, Belbin, Meredith Dr. (1981)
Box 0.3:
Team Charter Framework
• Individual preferences (Hogan/Belbin)
• Discuss how team members will support each other
• How and when will you exchange constructive
A team charter enables the team to discuss its aspirations, rules of engagement and critical information upfront. You can use this charter when kicking off a team’s work on a strategic initiative. Developing a team charter has proven to be an essential first step in the successful delivery of a project.
Merits
• Identify team values
• Review professional conduct guidelines
Discuss confidentiality Decide how you will monitor team spirit
• Determine how you will have fun as a team
• Determine anticipated involvement
• Identify knowledge resources within team/ or within organization
When to Apply
• Serves as a directional tool to think about the critical elements of the project.
• Establishes critical rules of engagement, based on determination of the team values and roles, as well as considering the personal goals of individuals within the team.
• Provides a good focal point for the teams to return to when they need to realign or reassess their assumptions.
• During the first week of the project’s kick-off.
• At the start of each new step.
• As a reference when faced with team conflicts.
• As a reference when team efficiency is not deemed optimal.
Tools to Use
Figure 0.4: Team Charter Framework
Project Management
Without establishing and agreeing on project management structures and processes, the risk of derailment becomes quite high.
• Understand the stages in the project management life cycle and choose a project management framework. Being familiar with the project life cycle will help the team develop clarity about activities, deliverables, key milestones, required resources, timeline and success measurement.
• The Project Management Institute (PMI) has developed The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which provides a wellrecognized standard framework for managing projects. It describes the project management life cycle and breaks it down into five main process groups discussed in Box 0.4, p. 50. There are fundamentally two different approaches for managing projects – the traditional waterfall method and the agile method. While the waterfall method uses sequential phasing, the agile method uses iterative work cycles often called "sprints" to complete projects. See Box 0.5, p. 52 to understand the comparison between these two approaches.
• One method for managing projects is through a PDCA (plan–do–check–act or plan–do– check–adjust) approach. PDCA is an iterative fourstep management method useful for teams and individuals as shown in Box 0.6, p. 54. It helps when managing performance, reviewing progress and learning from successes and failures. Other “must have” project organization tools that have proven to be very effective include RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted and informed) charts, risk logs, Gantt charts, flash reports, etc. Some of these tools are presented in the Appendix at the end of this book.
• You may discuss and agree on the project management tools, such as developing a project charter, to help your team agree on a common understanding of the project intent (see Box 0.7, p. 56). It also provides a useful support for communicating your project’s intent with others.
Project Management Life Cycle
About The Project Management Institute (PMI) [49] breaks down project management into five stages:
Merits
0.5: Project Management Steps
Source: PMI. The Project Management Institute (https://www.pmi.org/)
When to Apply
• Takes a generally accepted standardized approach to project management.
• Helps teams progress.
• Throughout the life of the project.
• Stages 1 and 2 are typically used to manage the EXPLORE phase of your strategic initiative execution.
• Stage 2 supports the team during the DEVELOP phase.
• Stages 3, 4 and 5 help you effectively manage the project during the DO and EMBED phases.
Tools to Use
• RACI chart (see Annex C.18, p. 452)
• Gantt chart
• Flash report (see Annex C.14, p. 444)
• Risk log (see Annex C.13, p. 442)
Figure
Box 0.5:
Project Management Approaches
About
When to Apply
A good project management framework should include a spectrum of components required for planning, managing and governing projects, while remaining cognizant of the timeline and need for iterations. There are several frameworks that can be used according to the context and nature of a strategic project. Usually, the most common project management frameworks fall under two categories:
• Waterfall. An approach that requires a project to be planned beginning-to-end, and each phase of the project starts after the previous one has ended.
• Agile. An incremental and evolving approach designed to remain flexible and adaptive to the changes that occur throughout the life of the project.
• Throughout the life of the project, but the framework that makes the most sense should be chosen during the project kick-off stage.
• Continuous cycles
• Small, high-functioning, collaborative teams
• Multiple methodologies
• Flexible/continuous evolution
• Customer involvement
• Sequential/linear stages
• Upfront planning and in-depth documentation
• Contract negotiation
• Best for simple, unchanging projects
• Close project manager involvement
Figure 0.6: Project Management Approaches
Agile Waterfall
About A PDCA (plan–do–check–act or plan–do–check–adjust)
[100] is an iterative four-step management method that helps manage performance, review progress and accelerate learning from successes and failures. Planning and doing is indeed not enough to drive continuous improvement; you also need to check and adjust.
When to Apply
•
•
• Identify the root cause of the problem Set goals and objectives
• Define corrective actions
the improvement process
• Test potential solutions
Source: Adapted from Walter A: Shewhart and William E. Deming
• Ensures clarity and accountability.
• Helps teams progress.
Throughout the life of the project during the following phases:
• Plan. Key activities to meet objectives, critical milestones, timelines, people to involve (the level of planning and contingency consideration increase with the project’s level of difficulty and complexity). Set SMART objective(s) – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. Think through and list all key activities you need to perform to meet objective(s), identifying interdependencies along the way. Plan regular meetings/communication activities, and decide on critical milestones, success measurement and tracking process.
• Do. Carry out plan/activities for what the team is accountable for. Identify and select options to move forward, follow up on agreed next steps.
• Check. Take the time weekly to review the performance against milestones and timescales, capturing what went well and what needs to be improved, what are the results versus the targets.
• Adjust. This involves modifying your plan to incorporate learning and celebrate successes.
Merits
PDCA
Box 0.7
Project Charter
A project chartera is an excellent communication tool that provides a simple and common framework to launch a project and gain buy-in. It is the team’s blueprint for success. Project charters provide focus and direction for the team and help communicate the purpose to sponsors and stakeholders.
• Aligns the team around a common vision of the project.
• Serves as a roadmap for the team and a communication tool for the stakeholders.
When to Apply
• To help the team understand and develop confidence in the scope and rationale for the strategic initiative as well as prepare the team for the kick-off.
Figure 0.8: Project Charter
Tools to Use • Project charter template (see Annex C.11, p. 438)