Many strategies fail when people are unable to effectively contribute, because they are unsure of what they need to do, when and with whom.
Strategies are usually presented from the perspective of senior managers, who understand the context and what they are trying to achieve. But most people involved say, Just tell me where I fit into the strategy and what you want me to do! They dont want to see all the complexity of a strategy; only what is relevant to them.
Strategy implementers need to ensure that the strategy is connected to each person involved. Conventional methods rely on people making these connections through unstructured communications with others implementing the strategy. Unfortunately these connections are difficult to maintain, so there is a high risk of something important being missed.
To ensure success, the connection between the strategy and personal actions must be explicit and clear. That is, the strategy needs to be connected to relevant peoples To Do lists. So changes to strategy actions show on To Do lists, and actions completed on To Do lists drive progress reporting for the strategy.
Without this rigorous connection, it is difficult for a person to contribute to a strategy and know that their contribution is meaningful. Unless strategy actions are explicit, and people feel some accountability, local tasks and issues will take their time away from contributing to the strategy.
TASKey has developed a
simple distributed method to connect strategies to To Do lists, and to see and report progress. Web and mobile software provide anywhere, anytime access, and keep tasks, actions, teams and individuals synchronized.
The method and software make it easy for people to contribute to a strategy, because most of the essential critical processes are run in the background. People simply need to provide some inputs that are usually readily available, and act on outputs that provide critical decision making information.
The benefits go well beyond the successful completion of a strategy:
Each person knows what to do, when and with whom
Nothing falls through the cracks
Senior managers can be confident that the detailed work is being done
Templates reduce planning time and effort and underpin continuous improvement
Each person has a comprehensive list of the actions/To Dos they have done
Training and management skills required are minimised, because the software handles complex processes in the background.
Accountability is clear to everyone involved
For more information, please visit
www.taskey.com and
www.me2team.com
