Turning Strategy Into Results

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• Turning Strategy Into Results
• Dr. Bill Casey
• Wendi Peck

ExecutiveLeadershipGroup, Inc.
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Danny Gilbert Self-made billionaire We have a
saying in our companies that innovation is
rewarded, but execution is worshipped. A great
idea is just the first step. The real talent is
bringing that idea to life with great execution.
Admiral Mike Mullen CNO It is time to execute.
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A Think-Do Chasm Exists
Executethe strategy
THINK ofa strategy
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Fortunately, you dont have to re-inventanything
there is a time-tested approach

• Private Military entities who have benefited
  from this approach
• Sybase
• Molson-Coors
• SPL Worldgroup
• Seagate
• Citicorp
• Qwest
• Great West Life
• US Coast Guard
• US Navy
• SUBFOR
• Navy Medicine
• NETWARCOM
• Deep Blue
• SPAWAR

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Adopt this 3-part formula to cut through the Fog
of Turning Strategy into Results
. . . and give leaders a way to steer their
organizations
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Course Objectives
Youll be able to

• Translate strategy into measurable
  effects/results
• Express effects-sans-side effects as Whole Goals
• Create an effects-based strategy with Force Field
  Analysis
• Use Whole Goals to execute strategy, using them
  as a a basis for
• Focus
• Alignment
• Accountability

In short, you should leave with the basic
know-how to develop and execute astrategy that
is scalable to almost any size organization or
initiative.
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Principles and Methods

• Well explore this formula for success in two
  ways
• Principles (for thinking)
• Methods (for doing)

However, there will be about 60 90 minutes of
ground school before weget to take flight.
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Use three elements to turn strategy into results
1 Focus
3 Accountability
2 Alignment
Lets start with some important principles on
creating FOCUS. . .
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Effect
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A results-focus helps us avoid the activity trap
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A results-focus promotes innovation
"Great leaders never tell people how to do their
jobs. Great leaders tell people what to do and
establish a framework within which it must be
done. Then they let people on the front lines,
who know best, figure out how to get it done."
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
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?FIRST ask
Whats really, really the point?
?ONLY THEN ask
How will I know when I succeed?
What happens if you ask the second(metrics)
question FIRST?
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When you lead an initiative or execute a
strategy, its good to know what good looks
like . . .
GOOD
FAST
CHEAP
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Good comes in 4 flavors
Successful Results
DisputableSuccess
IndisputableSuccess
Successful Efforts
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Well focus on indisputable results
Successful Results
Our focus
Because the indisputable result is a smart way
to write effects
IndisputableSuccess
And I ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEE it will make YOU
strategically smarter
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Indisputable means we can ALL agree on whether
or not success has occurred, which is why we
measure.
Who are you gonna believe me, or your own eyes?
How will we know weve achieved objectives such
as Win the War on terrorism or, Achieve
transformation?
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If Theres Room For Interpretation . . .

• Execution will
• Take longer than it should,
• Cost more than it should, and
• Produce unpredictable, and often undesired
  results
• Oh, and frustrate a lot of people in the process!

I THINK I know what they mean. Sort of.
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Are These Indisputable?

• 1. Defeat violent extremism as a threat to our
  way of life as a free and open society,
• 2. Create a global environment inhospitable to
  violent extremists and all who support them
• From the National Military Strategic Plan for the
  War on Terrorism

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Communicating Indisputable Results Means
combining the Metric and the Target
Decrease Lost Underway Days by at least 25.
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It is easier to focus on indisputable results
when they are stated simply
In our personal lives, we would never think this
way
Outcome
Metric
Target
Dollars/year
Make a good living
100,000
Instead, wed simply say
Make a 100,000 per year.
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You already know how to answer the question How
will we know?
Twenty bucks says youll fail.
Imagine that youre betting on your own success.
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Summary Key Principles

• Focus on Results (aka Effects) Not Activities
• First ask Whats The Point?
• Then ask How will I know Ive succeeded?
• The answer to the second question must be
  answered in indisputable language to avoid
  misinterpretation
• Indisputable results must include both the metric
  and the target to be achieved
• Indisputable results must be defined UP FRONT
• Indisputable results are the foundation for
  achieving the focus, alignment and accountability
  required for successful execution

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Now Lets Explore One Method For Applying These
Principles
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Whole Goals are an exquisite method for depicting
indisputable results.
Whole
Goals
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Whole Goals are the hub of this success formula
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Whole Goals are exceptionally robust because of
their two parts
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The first half states the result you want
½
Result
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The second half bans the side-effects you dont
want
Restrictions
½
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Prescribe results proscribe side-effects
Result
Bind thesecommitmentstogether intoa single,
Whole Goal
. . . but without these side-effects!
½
Restrictions
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Some indisputable results

• Increase the skill fit between all billets and
  all employees (civilian and military) to at least
  90.
• Ensure that at least 60 of the fleet is C1 or
  C2.
• Decrease customer wait time by 40 for high
  priority (c3/c4) CASREP parts.
• 100 theater ASW Commanders agree or strongly
  agree that, The IUSS community provides
  information that is accurate, actionable, and
  timely. quarterly, 5-second survey
• Increase the breadth and depth of commanders use
  of IO as reflected in incorporation of IO in
  deliberate crisis action planning, exercises,
  and current operations as indicated by achieving
  gt X on our IO maturity model.maturity model,
  behaviorally anchored rating scale, some
  measures of effectiveness

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Whats the right strategic level?

• Increase company share price by gt X
• Increase the companys profit gt X
• Increase the companys revenue gt X
• Increase sales of VAD by gt X
• Increase add-on sales of VAD by gt X
• gt 90 service reps can answer at least 19 out of
  20 questions on VAD
• gt 90 of service reps sent to VAD sales training

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Conquer the Dark Side
2nd Half of aWhole Goal
Q How do we achieve The Point, while protecting
whats precious?
A We use restrictions.
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Restrictions state the co-LATERAL damage you
wont allow
Result Restrictions Whole Goal
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Use restrictions to protect whats precious while
pursuing your goals
Non-violence wasnt his dream. It was the
restriction he placed on achieving his dream.
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Restrictions can help promote collaborative
behaviors
Or . . . at least they can muzzle a lot of
uncollaborative behaviors
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The difference between resultsand restrictions
Drive Warfighter Medical Readiness Owner VADM
Arthur, Navy Surgeon General
Indisputable Result
At least 90 of all Sailors Marines are
Operationally Medically Ready.
Restrictions
At least 75 of all Sailors and Marines are Class
1
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Heres a before after example(From the Navys
Network Warfare Command)
Workforce example
Starting point Develop a cadre of
cyber-warriors.
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Restrictions help manage some risks
You will have risks of collateral damage and
risks of failure. Restrictions help you manage
the first kind.
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Restrictions vs. Constraints Same thing?
Constraints
Restrictions
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Use these criteria for restrictions
Measurable and verifiable (yeah, youve got to
track restrictions, too)
Not objectives-in-disguise
Keep your list of restrictions short
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Simple

• Whole Goals add a beautiful simplicityto
  clarifying and communicating direction because
  they combine the ideas of desired effects,
  objectives, measures of effectiveness, and
  collateral damage.

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Summary Effective GoalsThe mechanism for
applying the success principles

• Goals should reflect the appropriate strategic
  level for the role trying to achieve them
• Indisputable Results (expressed as measurable
  goals) are the centerpiece for achieving
  successful strategy or initiative execution
• Goals should prescribe indisputable results while
  proscribing collateral damage.
• We like Whole Goals because they
• Articulate indisputable results/effects
• Include critical restrictions that help prevent
  unintended negative consequences
• Simplify communication and create greater focus
  by integrating desired effects, objectives, and
  MOEs into one place

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ExerciseMake It a Whole Goal
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Alignment
Use Whole Goalsto help achieve
1 Focus
3 Accountability
2 Alignment
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So What Are We Trying to Align Anyway?

• Personality types?
• Philosophies?
• Intentions?
• Motivation?
• The stars?

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What We MUST Align

• Strategies to ultimate desired effects/results
• Individual performance to these strategies
• Interdependent roles to each other
• Performance consequences (such as pay) to the
  achievement of desired results (more to come on
  accountability later)

Good News Whole Goals will help you with all of
these
Whole
Goal
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Start by aligning strategy to results
Strategy is your theory about how to step from
the present to a specific, desired future
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Strategies Must Be Clear, Too

• Unfortunately, most strategies get expressed as
  fuzzy concepts that can also be interpreted in
  many ways.

We will lead with innovation! We will adopt a
fast-follower strategy. We will shed
non-essential activities and stick to our
knitting.
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Solution State strategies as subordinate,
indisputable results that prove you have
successfully implemented your strategy
We need to reduce flag involvement, and do
better at standardizing and consolidating.
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Goals to the rescue!
Use Whole Goals To clearly express strategy as
Results in cause and effect fashion
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This is a Results MapIts like strategy
mapping on steroids
Whole
Goal
Whole
Whole
WBS, tasks, timeframes, resources, etc. (actions)
Goal
Goal
BIG Strategic Result
Whole
Goal
Tier 2 Results
Tier 3 Results
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This provides a common definition of success, and
of successful contribution
Whole
Single, over-arching metric
Goal
Whole
Whole
Goal
Goal
Whole
Goal
The people down here have a deep understanding of
the strategy and where they fit in!
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Notice that strategic thinking occurs at every
level of the organization
Whole
Goal
Whole
Whole
Goal
Goal
Whole
Goal
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There are many ways to pry loose good theories
(strategies)
SWOT Analysis
Force Field Analysis
Force Field Analysis
Benchmarking
Gap Analysis
Talk with your customers
Listen to your people
Be brilliant and insightful
Shamelessly steal ideas
Just brainstorm with smart people
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Force Field Analysis is Brilliantly Basic
Ve get schtuck betveen equal, opposing forces.
Kurt Lewin
The schtuck point
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Force Field Analysis
Goal 20 Less
Enablers
Barriers
My Current Weight
My Desired Weight
Disequilibrium yields movement
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FFA Pumped UP
Do this to net more than twice as many useable
ideas as ordinary FFA

• First, decide on categories of enablers
  barriers
• E.g., suppliers, customers, funding, internal
  resistance
• Then do a FFA for each category.

Examples of categories People, Money,
Communications, IT/IM, Diversity, Change
Management, Risks, Stakeholder Interests
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Here are some FFA tips

• Barriers Enablers are not
• Pros cons
• Absence of a pre-conceived solution
• Fuzzy abstractions

If you dont know whether something is an
enableror a barrier (e.g., budget), dont worry.
Just put it somewhere.
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Part OneDo a force field analysis on your Whole
Goal
Two-Part Exercise
You will receive instructions for Part Two in
approximately 30 minutes.
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Pull forth strategies from FFA(The second part
of your exercise)

• Identify where you are now where you want to
  be.
• Brainstorm the forces
• Enablers Barriers (AKA Drivers Constraints)
• Weight them (1 5)
• Circle what you can change or influence
• For the items you circled, decide the
  implications for strategy
• Generate COAs that would . . .. . . strengthen
  or add enablers. . . weaken or eliminate barriers

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Your strategy(ies) must address the risk of
failure
You will have risks of collateral damage and
risks of failure. Your judgment of whats
necessary sufficient are how you manage the
second kind. Bonus good judgment here drives
efficiency, too.
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Tight alignment asks the necessary sufficient
questions
Is each of these really necessaryto cause the
result?
Taken together, are they sufficient to cause the
result?
Tier 1 Result
Tier 2 Results
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Traditional alignment asks a less rigorous
question
Im sure aligned!
Me too!
Can I claim that what I am doing somehow
contributes to the boss goals?
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Tight alignment enables strategic goal
alignment
In Other Words . . .
Okay, folks, to accomplish our top goal,there
are exactly four resultswell have to achieve.
Versus Potluck Alignment
Hey, everybody, bring something to the party that
supports my goals!
Question which do we mean by common metrics?
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Tight alignment requires that you cascade
goals one tier at a time
Whole
Goal
This is also how you ARTICULATE and TRANSLATE
strategy at every level
Whole
Whole
Whole
Whole
Whole
Goal
Goal
Goal
Goal
Goal
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The organizations strategy drive subordinate
strategies
Enablers support your effects
Initiatives
Organizational Design
Strategy for Our People
Policies
Lean Six Sigma
I.T. Strategy
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Summary The Alignment Logic

• If desired effects and strategies are expressed
  as measurable Whole Goals,
• If these goals represent the necessary and
  sufficient achievements for success, and
• If these goals will effectively be used to drive
  individual performance (yes, were about to
  discuss accountability) . . .
• Then
• The very FIRST thing we need to align is GOALS

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Can you begin to imagine a results map that
articulates subordinate Whole Goals that reflect
your strategies and align to your top-level Whole
Goal?
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Accountability
Use Whole Goalsto help achieve
1 Focus
3 Accountability
2 Alignment
Again, lets start with some key principles . . .
. . .
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Bottom LinePeople must be held accountable for
producing the results (Whole Goals) to which they
committed
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Accountability is not about bullying
people(This is not the sense in which we are
using the word execution)
However,
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The Three Cs of Accountability
Clear Goal Assignment from the manager
Commitment from the direct report
Consequences for performance
Mostly positive work best
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Some leaders use Whole Goals FitReps
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Accountability is for individuals(not groups)
Each Whole Goal belongs to an actual, real
person. This means each person has an
excruciatingly clear role.
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Accountabilities stay with the role
Whole Goals stay with the position, even when the
person has moved on. This promotes the role
clarity that results in Predictable
organizational performance despite personnel
churn.
With Whole Goals, it doesnt matter whos in the
picture
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Summary Accountability Concepts

• Accountability only exists if there is (1) a
  clear assignment (2) commitment (3) consequences
  (preferably positive) for performance.
• Accountabilities are best expressed as Whole
  Goals that are tightly aligned vertically and
  horizontally
• Whole Goals stay with the role in order to drive
  predictable organizational performance over time
  (despite frequent churn)
• Authorities of the role must be commensurate with
  the accountabilities (Whole Goals) of the role

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Bringing it All Together

• Lets look at a process that applies the
  principles weve discussed and
• turns strategies into results

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Strategic Planning Execution
Current-State Assessment
Assess Landscape
Validate Vision and Mission
Validate Vision, Purpose
Establish Tier 1 Whole Goals
Tier 1
Identify strategies for closing the gap between
current state and desired ultimate success
strategy
strategy
strategy

• Drive your strategies deeper with lower tier
  Whole Goals that
• Articulate and operationalize strategy
• Align vertically and horizontally
• Enable accountability for strategy execution

Tier 2
Tier 3
Employ an ongoing governance process to ensure
accountability for goal achievement
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A Few Tips For Making The Process Work . . .
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First, you gotta talk with people
Baseline (assess) your current performance.
Figure out what you need, what customers need,
what you can or cant count on from suppliers,
how you fit into your boss success, and the
point of your command, organization or initiative.
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Then, float your draft Whole Goals with your
leadership team
So, THATs what hes been trying to tell us!
Hey, team, whatdya think of my great, new Whole
Goals?
Uh, boss. I do have an idea or two.
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Dont forget to . . .

• Validate and align your Whole Goals with
  interdependent organizations (i.e. customers,
  suppliers)

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Cascade Whole Goals one tier at a
time
Then
Whole
This is how you ARTICULATE and TRANSLATE strategy
Goal
Whole
Whole
Whole
Whole
Whole
Goal
Goal
Goal
Goal
Goal
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Resolve WHO is on the hook for each goal
It makes perfect sense that my role owns this
goal!
Make sure the role assigned to achieve the goal
has the appropriate authorities
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Use team discussions to achieve goal alignment
and give the boss better strategic control
Boss

• Gaps
• Overlaps
• Conflicts
• Danglers

Et Cetera. Look for
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Much is UN-delegatable

• Sponsorship of the process cannot be delegated,
  but day-to-day management of it can
• Strategic thinking cannot be delegated, but
  data-gathering can
• Expressing strategy as a measurable result cannot
  be delegated, but building tracking mechanisms
  and using them can

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Do not confuse these roles They are really quite
different
Make the gauge
Move the gauge
Read the gauge
Our discussion has been focused on accountability
for MOVING the gauge
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Once a boss and team have their Whole Goals, its
time for governance
Regular Whole Goal reviews

• Keep people focused and motivated
• Ensure agility (Keep the plan updated and
  relevant)
• Promote risk identification and collaborative
  solutions

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The governance process is your organizations
adaptive conscience
and it must never, never shut up
(Just kidding about the ruler. Effective
governance is rarely punitive.)
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Adjust your governance cycle to the speed of your
organization
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Use these 3 elements for strategic control
In Summary
Apply the principles and methods weve discussed
and drive your organizations and projects to the
desired destination
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Supplemental Material
Pretty Good
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Alignment Process
Phase I Senior Team Alignment
Tiers 1 2 Senior Leader Direct Reports
1 Develop Senior Leader Whole Goals

• For the senior leader of the organization
• These are baseline (revisable) Whole Goals

5 Accountability to Sustain Alignment Focus
Every 30 45 days
2 Alignment Session 1 (for sr. leader and direct
reports)

• Review Whole Goals to sustain alignment
• Modify Whole Goals only as new information
  becomes available and strategy needs to change
• Again, review sequence is based onleaders Whole
  Goals, not based on routinedepartment head
  readouts

• Educate
• Whole Goals, Strategy Dev. Execution

• Direct Involve
• Explain leaders (i.e. the orgs) Whole Goals
• Solicit feedback questions

• Develop/Refine Strategies to
• Achieve Whole Goals

Build linkages between performance on Whole Goals
(achievement of desired results) and meaningful
performance consequences

• Challenge
• Homework Develop your own Whole Goals.

• 3 Alignment Session 2
• (for senior leader and direct reports)
• Each direct report proposes his/her Whole
  Goals to the group
• Discussion debate encouraged
• Presentation sequence based on leaders
  Whole Goals
• Results

• 4 Align Externally
• Discuss confirm Whole Goals with external
  organizations
• Include customers suppliers

Vertical alignment of Whole Goals to Tier 1
Horizontal alignment to each other
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Alignment Process
Phase II Aligning Tier 3 Below
1 Tier 3 Education

• Strategy articulation Whole Goals alignment
• Execution accountability authority

• 4 Cascade Whole Goals (optional)
• Align Tier 4, 5 etc.
• Sustain alignment focus

• 2 Tier 3 Alignment
• Alignment session for each Tier 2 manager and
  team
• Inter-team gallery walks to ensure horizontal
  alignment

3 Accountability to Sustain Alignment Focus
Every 30 45 days review Whole Goals to
sustain alignment (procedures as described
previously for Tier 2 Whole Goal Reviews)
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CONOPS Strategy creation deployment for the
effects-based enterprise
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Metrics Comments worth sharing
My experience with metrics leads to a couple of
questions for the enterprise leaders who choose
them

•      (1) Are you measuring because you have
  threshold/objective MOEs...or is the measuring
  just to find out what you are doing over time?
•      (2) What assumptions were the basis for each
  metric as a useful MOE?  In other words, do you
  know how meaningful the measure is?
•      (3) Do management meetings address how the
  leadership enables or constrains efforts to
  achieve the useful MOEs?   In other words, is
  there a feedback loop making senior management
  responsive to lower tiers (that actually do...or
  don't do...the work)?
•      (4) If the metrics are going in a good
  direction, what do you do?  Reward?  Cut efforts
  as they exceed threshold or as payoff on the way
  to objective does not balance against other
  needs?  In short, how does management react to
  its own metrics?  Same is true for metrics headed
  south.  It is interesting to see that, when an
  MOE heads south, and an enterprise actually set
  conditions for that to happen, senior leaders
  often blithely just change and lower the output
  metric.     We also are very good at not changing
  goals and MOEs, even if the leadership cannot
  enable them, they then become enterprise cultural
  totems, not real performance metrics..

Informal communication from Gen. Robert
MagnusAssistant Commandant of the Marine Corps 2
APR 2006
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Example of a results map
(cont)
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Example continued
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A simple maturity model(A concept that is
sometimes useful in measuring complex things)