Dr Rajeev Gupta

Lack of team involvement

So even if you are saying it enough times, are you sure that everyone can hear your message? This brings us to another reason why good strategies often fail.

Any business, whether small, mid-sized or large needs everyone to be on board. The same goes for non-business scenarios as well.  Despite having the best plan on paper, execution can go out the window if all departments of the business are not involved. This is because the execution process needs contribution from every department so it needs to be a coordinated effort.

Remember that you cannot execute strategy alone. Do not undermine the size of your team when it comes to executing the plan. If you have a team of 6, things are fairly easy. Expand that number to 60 and things start getting trickier. Often strategy leaders do a great job of gaining support from their immediate colleagues and direct reports but do not present equally impressive results of securing similar support from others.

Many large companies view strategy as an annual activity conducted by an elite group of people who sequester themselves in a conference room. In smaller organizations the same comes as an edict from above on which employees must act.

But because execution of the strategy demands action it requires specific people to carry it out. Lack of such involvement can easily become the cause of strategy failure. When employees are not given the chance to question high level strategy, it can spell trouble for the company.  Instead of isolating certain demographics, get the communication going through a conversation thread that involves everyone in the organization.

Involving team players early on will make the communication component of the process so much easier. And as seen earlier, communication is key to making sure that a strategy takes off and delivers results.

Too many times plans do take off with a blast only to see communication dwindle gradually as everyone returns to business as usual.

 

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