While researching the topic on strategic implementation, I came across a Palladium Group white paper entitled, “Strategy Execution: A Competency that Creates Competitive Advantage”, which explores disconnect between the strategy of an organization and its day-to-day operations. Much of the white paper is devoted to sharing best practices.
In the report, researchers have found that 80-90% of organizations fail to execute their strategies. Additional statistics from the white paper include:
- 60% of organizations don’t link their budgets to their business strategies
- 46% of organizations don’t have a formal strategy execution process
- 95% of the typical workforce doesn’t understand what the strategy is
The white paper suggests the cause for this lack of strategic execution to be a lack of alignment of the strategy with the operations of the organization.
While it’s important to provide vision and motivation during your strategic planning process, it’s equally important to align your strategy with the capacity of your organization (your availability of human and financial resources).
Think big, but align those dreams with the realities of what your team is capable of doing, and what it has to work with. An unattainable grandiose vision will undermine the good work of your organization. If you don’t have the capacity within your organization (human resources and financial resources), it is difficult to fully operationalize the strategy. The resulting chaos leads to unnecessary burnout of staff and volunteers; which is prevalent in the non-profit sector.
Below is a link to the white paper. It’s a great read for those who want to better understand the connection between strategy and the day-to-day operations of the organization.
http://bit.ly/2dPYK0F
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