The Better Strategy OS: Living Your Strategy by Turning it Always-On

This is the 5th article in The Better Strategy OS series.

Article 1: Why you need a better strategy.

Article 2: The 3 pillars of making better strategy and what is strategy explained.

Article 3: A structured framework for thinking about strategy.

Article 4: A systematic process for doing strategy

The biggest challenge in implementing a strategy is closing the (perceived) gap between strategy and daily business. Strategy is often seen as something on top, something that requires extra work, something that disturbs business as usual.

But strategy should be your daily business! You want your organization to live your strategy day in and day out. I call this “Always-On” strategy.

That’s the ultimate goal!

Living your strategy day to day, as well as living strategy as a capability within your organization.

Ideally, strategy is everybody’s business, every day.

How do you create strategic leaders everywhere?

1. By having the strategic conversations I outlined above.
2. By making sure everybody knows what activities to focus on to contribute to the strategy.
3. By going through the three types of activities – understanding, design, activation – on an ongoing basis, instead of the annual strategy retreat.

Although I presented the three types of activities in a sequence above, in reality, they will be iterative and dynamic. That doesn’t mean that you change your strategy all the time. Instead, you will think through strategic issues continuously and at different altitudes. I have developed an agile approach to strategy to help with that.

Don’t get me wrong. An annual strategy exercise can be really valuable. If you have a clear strategy that is working well and only needs to be reviewed and maybe fine-tuned.

Trouble is, most organizations don’t have such a strategy.

Another problem is that challenges and opportunities don’t only present themselves once a year when you happen to have your offsite.

And finally, in our current environment, you can’t possibly predict everything that needs to happen to make your strategy work. Oftentimes, it won’t even be possible to fully define your strategy before you start acting on some key elements.

Strategy development and implementation hence become intertwined. You define the first steps, you act, you get feedback, you learn what works, what doesn’t, what’s required next, you incorporate that feedback into your strategy and you continue the process. And while you’re going through these iterations the maturity of your strategy increases.

That’s how you turn strategy always-on. That’s how you increase the capabilities of your organization for strategic thinking. That’s how you make sure you keep on winning today, while shaping tomorrow.

Don’t forget…

To successfully design and execute a winning strategy, keep in mind that:

Strategy is innovation.

If you want to create a competitive advantage, if you're going to differentiate and create new growth, you need to innovate. You can’t expect to win by copying somebody else's strategy or only cutting costs and becoming more efficient. These things are essential, but you can’t cut your way to new growth.

Innovating means either (1) doing different things or (2) doing things differently. And not only differently but better. You need to be adding more value for the customer and your business.

Innovation is transformation.

As Einstein famously said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

A new strategy and innovation mean you must transform how your organization operates, how your teams work, and how your leaders manage to create unique, innovative, and better results. Same old, same old won‘t do. You need to transform your business. And you need to transform your organization.

Transformation is leadership.

Transformation isn‘t easy. We all know that. Successful transformation requires leadership…from everyone. Not only those at the top. At the same time, successful transformation cannot be mandated from the top either. Coherent action is required. Ordering employees to change while senior management keeps acting in its old ways is not very coherent. Transformation can also not be outsourced to a consultancy. Senior leadership must be actively involved and take charge, just like everybody else in the organization.