The winning way to execute your strategy

I love strategy. With all my little heart.

I’m always going on about it.

But in truth it’s more accurate to say that I love strategy in the context of execution, because if you remove the latter part we’re just sitting around fiddling. And no one should be paid to sit around and fiddle.

So with that in mind, here are my 5 top tips to help ensure your strategy flourishes, not flops.

1. Close enough is good enough

The best plan is rarely the best plan.

Instead, the best plan is often a good plan which gains general consensus and allows you to get cracking.

Aiming for a perfect plan puts way too much pressure on the process, as well as the people involved. People can start worrying more about protecting the perfectness of their plan than wanting to find out via execution that the plan was a stinker in the first place. So they’ll delay and delay some more.

As Michael Corcoran of Ryanair told me: “Even if the strategy is 50% or 60% right, if you consistently deliver it, time after time, you'll actually find it will do something, and that's much better than doing nothing”.

So think it through, certainly. Make sure you are comfortable and confident that it will work, absolutely. Then stop tinkering and start executing.

As the following quote from Alan Watts makes it clear:

“There is a point where thinking - like boiling an egg - must come to a stop.”

2. Get on with it

What makes execution so bloody diabolical is the fact that it often demands effort and focus over a long period of time.

With one-off projects you can get to the finish line on adrenaline alone. But you can rarely do that with strategy execution.

And the longer you take, the more things can seep in and send you awry - a new boss with a different vision, a political scandal, a restructure, a natural disaster, a pandemic, a change of government. The list goes on.

In his book How Big Things Get Done, Bent Flyvbjerg says the best way to execute any large project is by thinking slow, then acting fast. Take your time working out your plan, do all the thinking and testing, then rip into it and finish it before something catastrophic can happen.

With a content and channels strategy execution takes time, so things will crop up. But the sooner you start, the sooner you will see results, and the less time there will be for someone to think of a reason to do nothing instead.

3. Execute passionately

This is something that often doesn’t get talked about, but it’s super important.

Teams that take the strategy and run with it, pouring heart and soul into bringing it to life, they’re the ones that win.

To quote Harry Beckwith: "Execute passionately. Marginal tactics executed passionately almost always will outperform brilliant tactics executed marginally".

Half-hearted execution will lead to half-hearted results, plus it just won’t be very fun.

Speaking of fun, as a manager or strategy lead, you might want to consider interesting ways to keep your strategy top of mind for your team. In the past I’ve run quizzes, printed cards people can keep on their desks, and established a regular strategy slot in our team meeting agenda.

It also pays to incentivise execution by rewarding the behaviours that are crucial for success. This is why lead measures around publishing metrics are so powerful (there’s a link to my article on this at the bottom of this edition).

4. Iterate relentlessly

However good your strategy, and your execution, things won’t work perfectly. As soon as you start executing you’ll notice some parts are working well, others not so well. Hell, some parts might not work at all.

Here’s Harry Beckwith again: “Tactics don’t complete a process; they continue to shape one… Most important, tactics play a critical role - often the critical role - in information gathering.”

In other words, doing shit gets you wicked insights, so be open to receiving them.

Make sure to regularly spend time going through your content and feedback. I’d say this should be monthly, as any less frequently and the results become too disconnected from the original actions.

You need to be brutally honest as this stage - cut the stuff that is consistently performing badly, and double-down on the good stuff, regardless of how you personally feel about the content.

As I’ve said many times before: What’s 10 times more important than regularly reviewing your performance? Having the courage and discipline to act on what you find.

5. Give it enough time to work

We’d all like to get instant results from our strategies. Flick a switch, change our approach, and then BAM!

But most of the time that doesn’t happen. Instead, shit takes time.

The following might well sound stupid, but: as long as we're doing something that works, it will eventually produce good results. The inverse is equally true: you’ll never get good results from a crappy strategy.

So we need to be patient and do that thing consistently for long enough for it to bear fruit.

That can mean your strategy surviving changes in staff, leadership, and priorities. It can also mean getting bored of your strategy long before you even consider making changes to it.

A winning formula will keep delivering for a lot longer than you might think. Just ask NZ Police.

So, in summary:

1. Close enough is good enough
2. Get on with it
3. Execute passionately
4. Iterate relentlessly
5. Give it enough time to work

Simple eh.