Execution is About Front Line Activity and Behaviour
Execution is about front line activity and behaviour
First a fundamental point often over-looked. Execution is about staff activity and behaviour.
Although the strategy might be conceived in Boardrooms and in Management Team workshops, ultimately it will be the workers who will:
Be required to execute the strategy, AND
See instantly the impact of that plan in the marketplace.
Three points to consider:
1. Look through the Eyes of the Front-Line
Let’s assume that we have developed a well thought out and conceived strategy. We have drawn on our experience, a thorough knowledge of our products and services and a sound understanding of our customers. There is a high level of confidence that this is the ‘right’ plan. Ask yourself these questions:
How will this be perceived by the employees…will they “Buy In”?
What might their resistances be? Will they push back?
How will we gain their confidence?
2. Be Clear on Action and Behaviour.
To be successfully executed a plan requires a certain set of actions and behaviours from the employees. Two simple questions:
What ‘action’ and ‘behaviour’ do we need from the staff to be successful?
How is that different from what we currently have? In other words, what will we need to change.
3. Tap the Intelligence of the Front-Line
Finally once you are in motion and the plan has been launched make sure you have a discipline in place to tap into their intelligence. Get their feedback:
What are they seeing with this new strategy?
What is their experience?
What’s WORKING and what’s NOT?
Armed with this information you are well place to identify Road Blocks and make adjustments to a plan that is now ‘live’ and dynamic.
Remember the Execution of your plan depends to a large extent on the actions and behaviours of the workers. If you ignore this in the formulation and roll out of your strategy you are setting yourself up for failure.
