A common response when strategy doesn’t seem to be happening is to throw out the framework for implementing it and look for a new one.
But in my experience, the framework is rarely the problem. The far deeper and bigger problem is discipline.
I strongly believe in the importance of frameworks for delivering strategy. Some kind of structure for implementation is critical. However, if the leadership team has a discipline issue, then a new framework is rarely the salvation.
Not all implementation approaches are created equal. For sure, and in a slight deviation from The Smiths’ somewhat cruel lyrics, some frameworks are better than others.
For instance, and as you’d expect, I’m somewhat a fan of our Build on Purpose framework for delivering strategy (and purpose and values).
But it doesn’t always deliver.
It fails mostly when there’s not the discipline of following through on commitments.
Which sometimes means we need to be more careful about making those commitments in the first place.
But what it does, which I think is key for any methodology for implementing strategy, is to shine a light where things are working, and where they’re not. And we can then as leadership teams decide what to do about that.
We can look for another methodology, enjoy the thrill of the new for a few weeks or months as we try it out, until it fails us again. Or we can ask the harder question of why we don’t have the discipline to get the work done, and what we can do about that.
{Disclaimer – I’m also not saying we have the perfect framework here. We don’t. And there are plenty of other good, but imperfect, ones out there. What I’m making is a different point}
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