Building a Vision and Executing Plans

Setting up operational systems and accountability structures is the key to implementation of any strategy. Over and over in my work, I see teams pour time and energy into thinking strategically about the direction to go, how to engage stakeholders, how to develop a vision. And then at the end of it all, when it's tidied up and packaged, the transition into implementation is like jumping into the cold water at the deep end of the pool. Actually connecting the dots between a high level vision or strategy and the day-to-day of a team and their work is something that leaders struggle to navigate. But really, it comes down to the obvious -- that you need to break it down into specifics, and set up structures to reinforce accountability and ownership to do the work. The first step is figuring out what specifically the work actually is -- it needs to be broken down into tangible steps, done in what priority order, and by who. Then, the next step is to set up operational infrastructure for getting the work done -- who is accountable? how will decisions get made? where and how will we collaborate, and with who? and what operational habits do we need to form to make the work sustainable over time? If we can build better muscles as teams to transition from strategy to execution, from vision to implementation, we are able to become more nimble and make impact faster, in a more iterative manner. I don't know about you, but this is something I don't see enough people talking about. Curious to hear your thoughts. #strategy #implementation #planning #leadership

I'm hearing that the great contractors have started or are finalizing their business plans for 2024. These folks are doing it right. Why? and How? Should you give yourself 5-6 months out before the new year? Planning your business for the upcoming year well in advance, such as starting or finalizing your business plans for 2024 several months before the new year, is a smart strategy for several reasons: Strategic Vision: Planning ahead allows you to develop a clear strategic vision for your business. It gives you time to reflect on your past performance, assess your current position, and define your goals and objectives for the next year. Budgeting and Financial Planning: Preparing your business plan in advance gives you time to create a detailed budget and financial projections. This is crucial for allocating resources, securing funding if needed, and ensuring that you have the financial foundation to achieve your goals. Market Research: Conducting market research takes time. It's important to understand your target market, your competitors, and any emerging trends or changes in your industry. Starting early allows you to gather and analyze this data thoroughly. Operational Planning: Developing operational plans, such as production schedules, marketing strategies, and staffing plans, can be a complex process. Giving yourself ample time to create and refine these plans ensures that you're well-prepared for the year ahead. Adaptation and Flexibility: Business plans created well in advance provide room for flexibility and adaptation. If you identify potential challenges or opportunities during the planning process, you can adjust your strategy accordingly. Goal Alignment: By starting early, you can ensure that your entire team is aligned with your business goals and objectives for the upcoming year. This can improve employee engagement and productivity. Here's a general timeline for the business planning process, assuming the new year starts on January 1st: June-August (5-6 months before): Begin the planning process. Reflect on the current year's performance, gather data, and conduct initial market research. September-October (4-5 months before): Define your strategic goals and objectives for the next year. Start working on your budget and financial projections. November (2 months before): Finalize your business plan, including detailed operational plans and marketing strategies. Review and adjust your budget as needed. December (1 month before): Share the plan with your team, gather feedback, and make any final adjustments. Ensure everyone is on the same page and ready to execute the plan in the new year. Of course, the exact timeline can vary depending on your industry, business size, and specific circumstances. Some businesses may need more or less time for planning. The key is to start early enough to allow for thorough preparation and to ensure that your business is well-positioned for success in the upcoming year.

You have a Management Operating System – do you know what it is? Is it effective? In today’s fast-paced business environment, an effective Management Operating System (#MOS) is no longer a luxury - it’s a necessity. As a leader aligning strategy with execution, ensuring enterprise-wide collaboration, and driving continual improvement are integral to success and can all be achieved through and effective MOS. To drive success, a leadership team needs to have the right conversations, at the right time, at the right level, to facilitate decisions based on the right information. So how do you put a system in place to achieve that? Here are the steps: 1)      Start with your purpose: As Simon Sinek states, you have to #startwithwhy. You can’t solve for what is important until you know where your organization is trying to achieve. 2)      Define what success looks like: use measurable objectives and key results (#OKRs). Define what success looks like for your organization in the current period. 3)      Identify your external requirements: every team has a set of external requirements that you don’t control.  Board meetings, your boss’s meetings, reporting to the street. What are the deliverables required to meet those deadlines? 4)      Identify your internal requirements: your team has its own requirements. A business has to focus on daily operations, contracts, employee engagement, 1 on 1 meetings, etc. 5)      Schedule your routine: build a meeting cadence to get alignment on your external and internal deliverables ahead of their due dates. Build reviews of your OKRs into those routine meetings to drive execution. 6)      Adjust the routine: your plan, do, check, act review of the routine will drive adjustment as you better understand and flush out additional deliverables. 7)      Tighten up your meeting hygiene to elevate performance: pre-meeting agendas with pre-reads, and post-meeting summaries with defined actions / decisions will drive efficiency among the team. 8)      Increase Accountability: have an action list that is tracked with due dates assigned that gets reviewed regularly with the team. #Leadership #ChiefOfStaff #Management #BusinessStrategy #ContinuousImprovement #OperationalExcellence #EmployeeEngagement #BusinessGrowth

💡 Do you hate strategic planning? I used to as well, but then I divided it into two distinct processes - strategic thinking 🧠 and execution planning 📝. Traditional strategic planning often leads to a multi-headed monster, with everyone pulling in different directions. That's why I advocate a two-day session. Day one is all about strategic thinking - what do we NEED to do to be successful? Forget about the hows. Day two, armed with our priorities, we tackle the hows, adjusting if needed. The danger comes when you mix the 'what' and the 'how' - too much concern over execution can cloud our strategic vision. It's like being torn between east and west without a clear destination 🧭. I'd like to share a story that perfectly illustrates this conundrum. I once had a meeting with two brothers who co-owned a company. Each brother wanted to go in a different direction. I explained that without a specific destination, both were right. Just wanting to "grow" or "make more money" is not enough; you must define your goals precisely. This process involves creating a clear, long-term vision, like Jim Collins's Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) 🌟. A BHAG is your North Star that helps you realign when things go off track. In the words of the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, 'If you have no idea where you want to go, just continue walking. You're still going to get there, right?' Your company needs a clear BHAG for clarity and alignment in your strategy. Do you have one? Let's start the conversation. #StrategicThinking #BusinessStrategy #BHAG

How do we create alignment in our organization towards our goals? I've seen too many teams struggle to translate high-level strategy into their daily work. The disconnect between executives' strategic vision and the teams building the products is a common pitfall. This is what I call “The missing middle”. I developed the Product Strategy Canvas to help teams hone in on the middle, and figure out how to connect the dots. This canvas is designed to help teams and executives align on the 'why', 'what', and 'how' of their product strategy. It's a visual and collaborative tool that breaks down the overarching strategy into actionable components. By using this canvas, teams can ensure that every feature, every sprint, and every release is a step towards the strategic goals of the company. Here's how it helps: 1. Clarity: It provides a clear framework for discussing and defining the key elements of your product strategy. 2. Alignment: It aligns cross-functional teams around a common understanding of the product vision, goals, and initiatives. 3. Focus: It helps prioritize efforts by making it evident what contributes to the strategy and what doesn't. 4. Communication: It serves as a communication tool that can be used to keep stakeholders informed and engaged. The Product Strategy Canvas is more than just a document; it's a catalyst for strategic thinking and a beacon for product development. It's about making sure that every team member, from engineers to marketers, understands the part they play in the company's success. 🌟 Have you used the Product Strategy Canvas? Share your experiences and insights in the comments, I’d love to hear them. You can also learn more about he Strategy Canvas in our Product Foundations course at productinstitute.com. 🚀 Already familiar with it? ‘Product Operations’ explains what data is necessary to help determine each one of these levels and how ProductOps can help you get it: Grab my new book with Denise Tilles here: https://a.co/d/8biyITB #StrategyCanvas #BusinessInnovation #ValueCreation #CompetitiveStrategy #BusinessGrowth #VisualMapping #StrategicPlanning #Leadership #ProductStrategy

Building a security program without being aligned with the business occurs when teams get disconnected and start operating outside the context of the business goals. It’s like a ship navigating without GPS - it might be moving, just not necessarily in the right direction. Understanding where to focus your efforts means understanding what will drive the outcomes that make the most meaningful impact to our business’s goals. 1️⃣ Learn how the business’s goals map to the work of other leaders across the company. Business-wide goals rarely map directly to security efforts. “Prevent hacking” isn’t likely to be a business goal anymore than “Ensure employees get paid” or “Make sure the logout button works”. As a leader, you’re expected to take company-wide goals, your knowledge of the security domain and the context of the business and operations to synthesize them into a strategic plan. 2️⃣ Educate others on the importance of resilience to business goals. A narrow view of “security” doesn’t cut it anymore. We need to ensure resilient systems, able to adapt to failures regardless of whether they’re from security incidents or something else. Kelly Shortridge has done tons of amazing writing on this topic. The shift involves adopting a holistic perspective that encompasses the interactions between the systems that make up the entire organization. 3️⃣ The bread and butter - Risk assessments and threat modeling. Based on what you learn about how the goals relate to the various systems, processes and work, you have a higher fidelity feed for whatever framework you use to assess the risks to those goals, how they might happen and how you can reduce their impact. 4️⃣ Mapping to projects and efforts - You’ve learned the goals, how they map to work and priorities, and you’ve thought through how they could break or fail. Now’s the time to translate it into your strategy and plans. Look for ways to address upstream root causes and don’t fall into the trap of attending to symptoms. What are the leading indicators of success and how will you move them? 🔁 Repeat! Incentivize ongoing communication and circular, free flowing feedback between the security team and other parts of the business as a top priority. Alignment is a continuous process, not an endpoint. Teams need to always be considering what they’re building, how they build it and why in the context of the business at large. An aligned security program is not just a set of generic best practices but a tailored strategy that best supports key business goals. ❓ How do you keep your teams aligned with business goals?

“Plan for the future because that's where you are going to spend the rest of your life.” – Mark Twain Who do you want to be when you grow up?  Following a corporate carveout, establishing a clear vision, mission, and strategy is critical for defining the new company's direction and ensuring organizational alignment. The process starts with engaging stakeholders, both internal and external, to gather diverse insights. Conducting a SWOT analysis helps assess the company’s current state, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This groundwork is essential for crafting a compelling vision that outlines an aspirational future and a mission statement that clearly articulates the company's core purpose and objectives. Once the vision and mission are defined, formulating a strategic plan involves setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals. Effective communication of these elements is crucial for their adoption across the company. Leadership should use various channels, such as town hall meetings, emails, and internal memos, to communicate the vision, mission, and strategy. Visual aids like infographics and videos can further reinforce the message, making it more accessible and engaging for all employees. Involving employees in the process is vital for ensuring buy-in and alignment. Workshops and discussions can help employees understand and connect with the vision and mission, while regular updates on strategic progress maintain momentum and engagement. Integrating these principles into performance management systems ensures that employees’ goals are aligned with the company’s strategic objectives. Recognizing and rewarding those who exemplify the company’s values fosters a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. Finally, aligning the vision, mission, and strategy with individual roles involves breaking down strategic goals into department-specific objectives. Providing training and development programs that align with these objectives ensures that employees have the necessary skills and knowledge. Leadership must consistently model and reinforce these principles, holding themselves accountable for their communication and implementation. Following this structured approach, a new company can establish a unified direction and ensure organizational alignment toward achieving its future state. How does your vision, mission, and strategy drive your behavior?

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞? It is the set of people, practices, and systems that enable a business to operate effectively and grow sustainably. Without a proper operating system, a business is just reactively and blindly managing risk. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦? The system consists of 5 interconnected elements in a hierarchical structure with feedback loops. It starts with a clear vision and ends with the rituals that enable that vision. 1. 🌟 𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍: Where are we going and why? A clear vision, set by the leadership team, is the bedrock for running and growing a successful business. It drives intrinsic motivation and provides a sense of purpose. 2. 📈 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐘: What does success look like and what path will get us there? Once the vision is set, outline what success looks like and the steps to achieve it. 3. 🏗️ 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄: How do we organize as a team to enable execution? The organizational structure should support the vision and strategy. Teams should be structured to maximize execution. Re-orgs, disliked by many 😃, drive the organizational “ketosis” for a healthy and growing business. 4. 📑 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐒: What are the sources of truth for elements 1-3 and tracking progress? The “on paper” manifestation of the vision, strategy, and structure, described in key documents and metric dashboards. These include: - The Strategy Memo & OKRs - The Product Roadmap - The Financial Plan (e.g., long-range plan, revenue, and margin targets) - The Ops Plan (e.g., Sales, Marketing, Headcount & Budget plans) These parent artifacts should guide all others. 5. 🔄 𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐒: What is our cadence to communicate progress & changes, and connect as a team? Meetings, communications, and events that drive and track execution and connect stakeholders. They fit into the categories below. - 𝐑𝐮𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 [~60-70% of ritual time]: Gather performance insights and drive decisions and execution. Examples include daily standups, project status updates, MBR/QBRs, operational reviews. - 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 [~20-30% of ritual time]: Reevaluate the strategy and drive new direction. Examples include roadmap reviews, strategic planning, OKR reviews. - 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 [<10% of ritual time]: Communicate strategic updates broadly, drive culture, connection, and behavior. Examples include All Hands, team offsites, broader team meetings. 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 🌿  The system is not static. These are “living” structures that evolve with market and company performance inputs with feedback loops for agility. 🛠️ Not all parts are equal. The foundational elements at the bottom of the system are harder to change compared to the top. Curious to hear what others have found helpful in their business operating systems? #bizops