Strategy away-days in the year of efficiency: Part three
If you're joining us here (ie part 3) – welcome. You've stepped in at the end of a three-part blog series looking how how to get the most from your strategy away-day.
Part one – Clarity of intent and planning for outcomes
Part two – How to enable a meaningful strategy away-day
The tips in this series apply whether you're hosting a session for your team, or supporting another team. If you want help specifically on running a hybrid strategy session, check out tips for facilitating a hybrid team offsite.
Part three: Translate your strategy session into action
Strategy away-days often get a bad press. All that ‘strategy theatre’ (the post-its, hotel, travel etc) can quickly trigger cynicism in even the most engaged colleagues. So what does success look like?
In short, a successful strategy away-day should deliver an actionable strategy with clear next steps. The four Cs below are a guide to making that happen and building a path from the offsite whiteboard to the operational frontline.
Content
You need to leave your away-day with clarity on a number of things:
Action items that will turn strategic initiatives and ideas into implementable tasks.
Responsibility. Who is doing what? Who is responsible for ensuring that happens? Who needs to be consulted and when? Who needs to be informed?
A timeline with milestones for when these actions will be carried out (ensure this is accessible and not buried in a notebook or photo somewhere). Be clear on who owns this timeline and how you will check in on it and keep it updated.
How you will collaborate, including when and through what channels?
Well-defined success measures. How will you determine if your initiatives are successful and effective? How will you know if you're on track?
Review and iteration. How will you work in a way that keeps your strategy relevant and up-to-date?
Conflict
It is ideal if you can agree in advance how you will work together when things aren’t going well, or when you disagree about the best course of action. Conflict is a healthy, if not an essential, part of any team dynamic. Whether you are new, or an established team, having the trust, relationships and mechanisms to healthily debate and resolve conflict, and then align around decisions, is essential. A team coach can help you explore this in a positive and productive way.
Comms
It’s easy to fall in love with the things we create. That’s no less the case with strategy. But for those outside of the strategy development process, it can be harder to see the beauty in what’s been created. How you communicate your strategy – including from the moment you leave the strategy room – will play a significant part in how effective it is.
Bringing a new strategy to life is a critical first step in creating alignment leading to effective execution. People can’t align around something if they first don’t know about it, understand it and believe in it. Only then are you likely to see effective delivery. It’s about head, hands and heart.
With more people in the workforce increasingly motivated by extrinsic factors around purpose, and values, it’s vital that a new strategy is communicated in a way that speaks to these higher, longer-term intentions. If strategy is deliberately, or unconsciously, developed or communicated separately to purpose, the validity of your purpose will be eroded. And, your strategy will be less likely to succeed.
Conversation
In an era of fast and unpredictable change – in the organisation, market, society and the environment – any strategy needs to be able to adapt. A culture of feedback and adaptability is critical for strategy execution. This needs to start early. Rather than broadcast communication, the introduction of a new strategy needs to be done through a process of conversation and collaboration. Not only will this help to encourage more effective delivery through a more engaged team, but the organisation will benefit from the ability to make real-time adjustments, learning from what is and isn’t working.
