How to Deploy Your Strategy Effectively

<p>Every one of your employees must clearly see how his actions and decisions impact execution of the business strategy. This is accomplished through a line-of-sight deployment process.</p><p>It is not enough to describe the strategy at an all-hands meeting, or even add to that the down-one-level strategy. Stopping the formal deployment process at that points leaves entirely too much to false assumptions and bad guesses.</p><p>You are familiar with the 5-Why problem solving process in which we keep asking why until we identify the root cause of the problem we've defined.</p><p>Strategy is similar. We have a strategy defined at the high level, but must roll it down level by level to understand what its implementation requires. </p><p>You know you have accomplished that when every employee can reverse that thinking process by describing their priorities and actions "so that." </p><p>An example:</p><p>"I am reorganizing the warehouse and receiving area <strong><em>so that </em></strong>we can flawlessly add new materials and components to our storage <strong><em>so that</em></strong> we can begin producing samples of our innovative new products for market test <strong><em>so that</em></strong> we can expand sales of those new products to the most receptive markets <strong><em>so that</em></strong> we can grow our sales and profits <strong><em>so that</em></strong> we can deliver on our owners' mission of providing reliable employment as we serve the evolving needs of the automotive aftermarkets."</p><p>By using a line-of-sight deployment process surprises are reduced and prioritization and decision making are improved.</p>