In Part 1 and Part 2 of this article, I discussed how CEO’s can take practical steps to turn a 
vision into real organizational and business change, including deciding on and communicating the plan.
The final step is perhaps the most critical: execution of the change plan.
Execute: Develop the Operational Plan
The third step is to translate the strategic vision document into a tactical, actionable operational plan that will have:
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Specific detailed subtasks that support each of the activities that were identified in the strategic vision plan.
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Resources identified and allocated to each subtask.
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Accountability & review processes built into each subtask.
Assuming you now have the three-year strategic vision plan laid out on paper you can proceed to this third step of translating the plan into a set of accountable, measurable actions that will specify:
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The shorter-term roadmap of where we're going.
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The specific tasks of what we are doing on a month-to-month basis (or any other periodic review horizon).
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Who is responsible for each task and who will be held accountable to manage the tasks.
It is essential to develop KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) to manage to the plan, which will serve as the basis of periodic review (at least monthly) of the plan, and will foster accountability to each other in carrying out the plan.
In this process you take each specific step identified in the strategic vision plan and break it down further into the department and people responsibilities.
You need to be clear here that it is the organization’s management that must develop the action plans to support the vision plan.
The CEO can coach and guide but should never get involved in the detailed planning of each area - at least not at this stage. Why? Because you want the management of the company to tell you how they are going to support the vision plan, what the steps are, the timeline, and resources needed. This way it is their plan and they are committing to it.
Assign to each area of the company the task of taking every item in the strategic vision plan and developing a detailed plan of their own that shows how their area of responsibility is going to support each goal. Their plan must include timelines and the person responsible for each task.
In your coaching role encourage everyone to come to you for guidance, but resist the urge to solve problems for them. This is an iterative process so don't be too concerned about sending them back with ideas or other considerations to work on – that should be part of the process. Oh, and be sure to communicate to them that it is an iterative process!
Encourage each functional area to work with other departments in coming up with a plan. Remember you have the advantage of seeing all the plans as they are developing so you can orchestrate collaboration between departments. You want a cohesive, collaborative plan so that as we bring the individual plans together they can fit into one cohesive plan. This is necessary since one area may need the resources or support from another area.
Once you have all the plans rolled into a comprehensive plan, your work can now begin!
“What? I thought we finished the plan!”
Well, yes you have the plan, but do you desire success or failure?
Remember that vision you had? The achievements you set out as necessary to your business? Well, if they are still important, then it is also important now to manage to your plan so the visions become reality.
Each and every month you must review the results against the operational plan with the management team, referencing the strategic vision plan.
Just as you review the P&L each month, the action plan must be reviewed as well. The KPI's you set up during the planning process will be one measure to use. Each and every task must also be reviewed with the managers who are accountable for them, so they know they are going to be held accountable to the process and organization.
Anywhere there are major discrepancies between the task KPI, timeline or other measurement and what the actual results were, you should require that managers or owners of the task/KPI provide a corrective action to be put in place to achieve the desired results before the next review period, or agree to revise the measurement or task goal.
Here, just as you do with the strategic vision plan, you will periodically review the operational plan, as it may be necessary to modify the monthly action plans as well. This is permissible as long as the modifications still support the strategic vision goals/tasks within the necessary time frame.
After several monthly reviews and having held staff accountable for the tasks supporting the vision, you will find patterns develop:
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The old 80/20 rule will come into play; 80% of the problems will be within 20% of the Departments or will originate with 20% of your people.
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Some areas of the company will be easily achieving their tasks each month. You should explore these tasks to redevelop them and establish some stretch goals for these areas. Why? Because this will drive innovation in the business. If there is no challenge the status quo will be maintained.
As you approach midway through the year you will find everyone settling into the new system and becoming more responsive to the accountability requirements. For the outliers who do not accept accountability, it will be time to replace those people or reassign the responsibility.
But now it's time to start planning for the new year! Don't wait until the final month or two to start next year's plan. It gets easier each year if the vision remains the same--but in fact the vision is likely to change and you need to be sure that the program to implement it changes as well.
This concludes my series of articles about turning vision into reality. I would like to conclude with a recommendation that you have a bias toward action. Better to try something and then correct it than not to try at all. Good luck!
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Contact Phil at phil.wofford@newportboardgroup.com
image credit: yourstory.in
