How to make your strategy a tangible difference maker

People struggle with the idea of defining and executing strategy because it feels like some wishy-washy thing.

It's hard to see and feel, so it's easy to quickly write it off.

Yet whenever anybody asks me about the "secret sauce" behind our growth and scaling success at Baker Tilly, I point to defining and executing strategy.

Look, I'm not a believer in the idea of a one-size-fits-all "secret sauce", but I can tell you this:

A huge enabler of an organization's success is when people are bought into the strategy and cause of the organization.

I call it building a movement.

And while I've written about what makes a great strategy, how do you make it real for people? How do you take it from words on a page to something tangible that grows into a movement?

It starts with intention.

You've got to be intentional about a few things, and when you succeed at doing so, you can enable a momentum that carries your organization to success.

Here's what it takes to turn strategy from an idea to reality:

Change the lens and set the tone

When I say that all roads need to lead to/from strategy, I mean it.

Think about putting on a pair of tinted sunglasses...you know, like those ones that have a strong yellow tint applied to them?

Everything you see now appears different because you are looking through a different lens.

Swap out those yellow-tinted lenses for strategy lenses, and, well, you get the idea.

Strategy has to be the lens through which all decisions are made.

EVERYTHING needs to be tied back to strategy.

Each time a decision is made, it needs to be through the lens of:

How does this help us enable strategy?

If the answer isn't clear or clearly doesn't enable strategy, then it's off strategy.

And if you are a leader and, more importantly, an organization that wants to BREAK THE MOLD™ and create outsized results, being off-strategy is no longer acceptable.

That tone must be set within your leadership team and trickled throughout the organization.

Now, once you're viewing your organization through a new lens, it's time to start activating strategy.

Operate top-down and bottom-up

Strategy activation happens from two angles.

1) Top-down

When I say, top-down, what I'm really saying is:

Are you activating all parts of the strategy?

Once you've defined your strategy, there's likely multiple components involved.

It's critical that there's a plan in motion to account for each part, otherwise, things fall through the cracks.

Once defined, your strategy should be revisited often and evaluated to determine where you might be excelling and where you are falling short.

I've found that assigning different leaders within the organization to be responsible for the execution of different parts of the strategy is an effective way to ensure all components are executed.

Activating 50% of the strategy isn't going to get you the desired results... every component needs to be accounted for.

2) Bottom-up

If top-down is about activating all parts of the strategy, bottom-up is tying everything you're doing back to strategy.

I call it putting things through the strategic funnel.

Looking at growing through M&A? How does it enable strategy?
Altering the Partner compensation plan? How does it enable strategy?
Thinking about adding a service line to grow revenue? How does it enable strategy?

Notice the question here... "HOW does it enable strategy?"

Binary questions like "Does it enable strategy?" receive binary answers, like "Yes" or "No".

Adding "How?" requires the team to articulate the way in which this transformation or initiative is actively enabling strategy.

It keeps everyone in the organization honest.

Once you're viewing strategy activation from top-down and bottom-up, now you have to make it real on a daily basis.

Make it real for people

One area where leaders miss the mark is not talking about strategy enough.

Executing strategy is not a set it and forget it sort of thing.

It's a result of continuous, intentional action.

I'll tell you this: If you don't talk about it, nobody thinks about it.

Strategy needs to become part of your everyday conversations.

I work with one firm that starts every leadership meeting by talking about one of their core principles—an element of their strategy.

In another firm, the CEO sends out a weekly message to the entire firm, and in that message, reiterates the strategy.

In the beginning, it might feel awkward. People might not get it.

That's ok! Like anything, you're going to have to practice.

Practice by:

• Stating your strategy in leadership meetings

• Putting decisions through the strategic funnel

• Asking leaders to articulate how they are activating strategy in 1:1's

You have to talk about it and bring it into your everyday conversations.

The only way it becomes real for people is if you make it clear that this isn't some nice-to-have thing.

This is the new expectation for how all decisions are made within the firm.

Your job, as a leader, is to set the tone in your team or practice area.

Do that consistently enough and long enough, and your strategy will start to take hold. In fact, there's a moment when you'll know...

When you know you've won...

The moment you get people repeating parts of your strategy when you aren't there, you've won.

First, it starts with others in the organization repeating words or key phrases tied to your strategy.

Then, people will start to put the strategy into their own words and make it theirs.

Soon, it spreads throughout the organization and reaches every team in every corner without you being the sole messenger.

Hell, I get excited writing about this because this is when you know you're building a movement.

Once everyone in the organization starts understanding and getting behind your strategy, then the entire company can begin executing.

Once that happens? Well, that's when real momentum starts to build and real results will result.

So, that's it—that's the "secret sauce".

Define a strategy.
Use the lens of strategy to view everything in the organization.
Activate strategy from the top-down and bottom-up.
Talk about it and practice it to make it real.

Do that, and you're on your way to becoming an organization that will remain relevant and sustainable for years to come.

Simple? Maybe.
Easy? Definitely not.

That's why understanding these concepts on a basic level and applying them effectively are two very different things.

If you're finding yourself experiencing friction when it comes to developing and activating your strategy, I'd enjoy helping.

You can tell me about your firm's goals and where you're taking the organization, and I can help you develop, communicate, and gain buy-in to the strategy it will take to get there.

That's it for this week.

With intention,
Alan D Whitman