Strategy execution is everyone’s job

Strategy execution is all about getting things done through people. It involves every individual in the organisation. It is about the whole of organisational teamwork and collaboration where every individual is striving and being lead towards a common vision and goal. 

This is what makes strategy execution extremely difficult for organisations, often demoted to the too-hard basket, which is unfortunate.

Personal accountability vital

Effective collaboration, integration, and synchronisation vital for strategy execution and decision-making cannot occur if personal responsibilities and accountabilities are unclear, inconsistent, or non-existent. 

Working as a team, every individual should be personally accountable for their performance, risks, and controls. They should have the appropriate empowered and delegated decision-making rights and authority for executing or performing their work within defined amounts or thresholds of residual risk and risk appetite. 

With clear accountabilities (not responsibilities), all employees should understand how their individual job and performance are specifically aligned with and contributes positively to the overall achievement of the corporate strategy, thus creating a clear performance line-of-sight.

Organisations should create and sustain an environment and culture that enables and supports personal accountabilities. The ‘it is not my job’ syndrome should be minimised or eliminated through the appropriate HR, compensation, benefits, and rewards systems.

Without personal accountability, organisational and personal performance will be sub-optimal because people do not know who is doing what, when, and why, leading to a lack of strategy execution focus and performance. 

Without ownership, authority, and accountability for achieving goals, key performance indicators, risks, controls, and actions:

• Feedback and performance cannot be effective (e.g., sub-optimal).
• Compensation, benefits, and rewards cannot be objectively assigned, especially for pay-for-performance reward schemes.
• Thrust for positive change, agility, and strategic differentiation cannot effectively work.

Five key aspects of accountability relevant for strategy execution:

• Accountability is a relationship — Accountability is a two-way street or a contract between two parties (employees and the organisation as the employer).
• Accountability is results-oriented — Accountability does not look at inputs and outputs; it looks at outcomes or performance.
• Accountability requires reporting — Reporting is the backbone of accountability. Without it, accountability will not stand up.
• Accountability is meaningless without consequences — A keyword used in defining and discussing accountability is ‘obligation’. Obligation indicates liability, and liability comes with consequences, especially if there is underperformance. Deal appropriately with poor or underperformance.
• Accountability improves performance — The goal of accountability is to improve performance, not to place blame and deliver punishment. In taking an acceptable or calculated risk, organisations learn positively from their mistakes.

Empowered and delegated decision-making rights

Empower employees with the appropriate delegated decision-making rights and authority to execute the work that they are personally accountable or responsible for. Document decision-making rights in job descriptions, work plans, and limits of authority instruments.

The organisation’s capability to make effective decisions and make them quickly affects strategy execution. A good decision executed quickly beats a brilliant decision implemented slowly or poorly.