Where Your Strategy Goes to Die #5 – Net Zero by 2050
The challenge with Net Zero by 2050, as many point out, is that it creates no urgency. It is too far away for people to feel the need to act. This is why “the decisive decade” – what we need to achieve in the 2020s – is a much better framework.
Though even better would be to start with a critical quarter and see what we can do by March 2022.
I’ve stood in front of a team at the start of a year, talking about our strategy for that year, only to revisit the slides 10 months later in a blind panic of how to save face at the next annual kick-off.
I know I’m not alone on this – I’ve seen versions of this play out in \*lots\* of organisations. The most typical response I’ve seen is to ignore it entirely, talk about what other great things happened in the year, then create new excitement about Next Year’s Strategy.
But a couple of times, with 6 or 7 weeks to go before our annual kick-off, we looked to see what we could salvage in the short time left. And often, it was more than we’d have thought.
The two key lessons for me here were these:
1) How easy it is to not do anything explicit about a 12 month strategy until a panic at the end;
2) How much we could actually achieve in those last 6 or 7 weeks.
That helped me figure out a better cadence for making strategy real, which is how I now approach it with all the CEOs and leadership teams I work with. Invariable we make more happen in the year than in previous years, and are often surprised by the end of the year by how much we get done.
So if you’re putting together the strategy for next year, figure out what your strategy for the next quarter is going to be to create some urgency, and then shape it for execution. You’ll be surprised how much more you get through.
As we start 2022, if you want your strategy to be more than a PowerPoint deck, join me in my complimentary online workshop “Where your 2022 strategy will go to die, and what you can do about it”. Only for CEOs of companies with 12+ employees / £1.5m+ revenue.
Details behind the hashtag – #WhereYourStrategyGoesToDie. Or just PM me.
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