Lessons from a Coyote

                                                        Beep beep…Beep beep…Linking busy-ness to strategy

By Carey-Lyn Kurten

Let’s evaluate Wylie Coyote’s busy-ness. He has a strategy. He is goal directed and focused on catching the Roadrunner. He is not without a plan and spends many hours formulating and putting these plans to work. He is knowledgeable, always willing to research and shows absolute dedication to his cause. Sound familiar?

But how effective is Wylie Coyote? Wylie Coyote lacks results.

 The gap between strategy formulation and results is larger than the gap in the Stormers’ defense. Could your organization be like 90% of businesses around the globe – they have a strategy, but are failing to implement it? They lack results. The adrenaline rush and urgency that springs from daily firefighting comes with a significant cost.  Today, calendars are full. Emails pile up. Meetings and dozens of initiatives have managers working hard.  Strategic plans and vision statements fail to permeate the organization. They are owned by a handful and are usually saved for the few getaway days allocated to “strategy sessions”. Busy-ness ensues. In the absence of clearly defined results employees can find more than enough to keep themselves busy. To get results a business needs a map (master action plan).   

 One framework that allows us to generate such results is the Balanced Scorecard. Grounded in the work of Dr Edward Demming, and flowing from the TQM work of Art Schneiderman, this tool has claimed fame in the corporate world since its introduction as a business management tool by Kaplan and Norton in the early 1990’s. It’s potential to transform SMME’s is still seriously under realized. This tool offers a brilliant opportunity for SMME’s. The Balanced Scorecard is a performance management tool that aligns your vision, mission and strategy to everyday work activities and allows strategy to be implemented. It’s about priorities. If you are going to be busy, be busy on the things that get you results. Tom Peters suggests that “formulating strategy is not a valuable activity if it can’t be translated into action”.

 Let me leave you with this little anecdote. Three frogs are sitting on a wall and one decides to jump off, so how many are left? The answer: still three. One has simply decided to jump, but hasn’t actually taken the leap. Perhaps you have spent time formulating a strategy and are now faced with the gap between decision and action, between formation and actual implementation. You are facing the greatest ongoing struggle in modern organizations - the challenge of strategy execution. Without a proven implementation tool, you may end up a little frog sitting on the wall. Here’s hoping you’re not the victim of the cycle of busy-ness… Beep! Beep!! 

 Carey-Lyn Kurten

Mila   

Outsource to Outthink

 Recommended Listening:
Audio Webcast by Dr William Hendricks on http://www.bettermanagement.com

Implementation Checklist:

1. Do you have a clearly defined business strategy with 7 or 8 critical success factors defined?  Wylie, like many organizations, finds his performance defined by activities not strategic imperatives.

2. Do you have a performance timeline, including targets that will be met and can be measured? 

3. Do you have a communication system that provides you with feedback on your busy-ness? A good communication system, in the form of a daily scorecard, will warn you before you run off the cliff after the Roadrunner. Poor communication creates a serious disconnect between day to day activities and business results.  

Published in Business Link Magazine Ed: 44 July/August 2008