Strategic Implementation: Issues to Anticipate.

Planning is invaluable, but no plan withstands encounters with the world. Your competition and external circumstances have a say. You will need to remain flexible and able to course correct. As Mike Tyson put it, “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

There will be management issues to overcome when implementing a new strategy. Employees will be suspicious of new ways of operating and feel vulnerable as to their current vested interests. There will be internal inertia to overcome.

When issues arise during implementation, resist the urge to solve all the problems

yourself. Use these obstacles as opportunities to coach and develop and empower your staff.

Our instinct is to jump in and solve the issue. But when you immediately launch into solving the problem yourself, you mistake your role. Your report’s job is to provide and execute solutions. If they’re unable to solve the problem, it’s your responsibility to develop their skills.

Problems and obstacles, rightly considered, are teachable moments. If they prove un-coachable, then it’s time to replace them.

To be a great strategic manager, give your reports the ability to figure out and execute solutions.

Here are some questions to pose during a one-on-one meeting:

· What do you see as the root cause of the issue?

· What are you considering as options, possible solutions, and courses of action?

· What are the pros and cons of each course of action?

· How do you see this playing out?

· What are the second and third-order consequences in each alternative?

· How will you define and measure success?

· What’s the worst-case outcome?

· What’s the most likely outcome?

· Which part of the issue seems most uncertain or difficult to predict?

· What have you previously tried?

· What is your instinct for the path forward?

· Can you brainstorm other solutions that aren’t immediately apparent?

· What’s at stake?

· Can a decision be changed, or are there irreversible consequences?

If a decision is reversible, the biggest risk is moving too slow.

If a decision is irreversible, the biggest risk is moving too fast.

· What is a way to test run a course of action?

· How do others perceive the situation?

· Is there a simpler or easier way?

· What will happen if you do nothing?

· Is this an either/or choice?

· Is there something you’re missing?

· Is there anything you

· are dismissing that might be relevant?

Use these questions and lines of inquiry like a flow chart.

When you ask these questions, you will notice that most employees already have an answer or several solutions. They were uncomfortable with it or worried about getting it “wrong.”

Try this line of inquiry in other situations outside of work. Try it with your kids, spouse, or friends.

Going through this process will help them gain confidence in their decisions. Empower those you work with and lead. Leading is best when decisions and solutions come from those being led.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

- Lao Tzu

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