Keep Your Strategy from Becoming a "Dusty Deliverable"

The slightly warmer weather here in Denver has me thinking of spring...and spring cleaning.  Ever do any “spring cleaning” in your office? Well, here's something to think about when you're taking a critical look at the contents of your bookshelves or filing cabinets: do you have any "Dusty Deliverables?"

This rather colorful phrase was mentioned by Anne McCune, SVP at Ingenix Consulting, when she and I were recently discussing  strategy execution.

I bet you have at least one Dusty Deliverable (DD) within eyesight right now. It could be an impressive 3-ring binder you brought home from a leadership retreat or strategic planning session, or maybe it's a glossy multi-page recommended action plan you received from a consultant. At the time, it held so much promise, but now it's just sitting there. Taking up space on your shelf.

So what turned yesterday's gem into today's DD? Did it contain bad ideas?  Was it foiled by bad timing? Probably not. Failed strategic efforts can almost never be blamed on a lack of creativity, energy, intentions, or insight. Time and again these efforts fail because of poor execution and little or no accountability  (read about the biggest culprits in my previous post: Top 10 Reasons Strategies Fail to be Executed).

What steps have you taken to make sure that this year's plans don’t become Dusty Deliverables? If the answer is "nothing," you might as well save yourself the time and skip the planning from now on!!

Or, perhaps take this much better approach -- turn this year's spring cleaning day into a "DD Day" instead. Crack open all of those DDs from prior years. I bet there are still some great ideas in there if you can help bring them to life. Some of the content may need to be updated, and some might just need to be thrown out.

Integrate what makes sense from the old DDs and then take a critical look at your current strategic plans and initiatives. Are they already in an operational, executable format, like a balanced scorecard? If not, that's a great place to start.

If you have already translated your plan into a top-level scorecard, but haven't cascaded it down to lower levels yet, that's a critical next step for you (read some tips on cascading scorecards).

If you've already cascaded your scorecards, are you reviewing them regularly and holding owners accountable for results? If not, read more about conducting good scorecard business reviews, which become infinitely more effective when conducted within scorecard software.

Whatever step makes sense for your own organization, just be sure that it's driving results against your plan. That way you'll never need to hold another DD Day again.