“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results”
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965).
In a box in the attic, I have a copy of the Daily Express dated January 25th 1965. The front page is taken up by a full-face portrait of Sir Winston Churchill, who died on January 24th 1965. As a small boy, I had no understanding of what was so important about this man, but nevertheless, I was fascinated by the reaction of the adults around me. Sir Winston was, and still is, a man to be quoted. However, in the subsequent 55 years, we seemingly have not learnt the lesson he so cleverly articulated.
It is ‘that time of the year’ for many companies. We are entering a holiday period and will use the ‘lull’ to go off-site with our executive teams to look at our next three years’ strategy. We will brainstorm and mind-map; yellow stickies will fly across walls. Flip charts will be filled with wonderful ideas, and everything will be dutifully recorded. We will present our strategic initiatives and make promises to each other to report back on progress and include our strategic output in our monthly business review meetings.
All of this will be done with the best intentions and 100% commitment. That is until we return to our day jobs and events overtake us. Our great ideas will fall to the bottom of the agenda and eventually fall off the agenda altogether. A very cynical view, I know, but I guarantee anyone reading this will be cringing a little and thinking, yes, that tends to be the way it happens.
Our beautiful strategies will be put on the shelf and never implemented. But why? The single biggest reason for strategic implementation failure is that we try to do too much. Now please do not misunderstand this point. It is not that our plans are too bold or audacious or too big.
No, it is because there are too many. One big plan can be managed, someone will be responsible. It may be hard to manage, but everyone will be on the same page with one leader leading the way. Twenty small plans require twenty leaders, and that is seventeen leaders too many!
So what is the answer? It is blindingly simple.
Do Less!
Focus on a small number of things that can get done. It is a simple law of diminishing returns. If you plan to do three things, you will achieve three things. If you plan to do five or six things, you will achieve two. If you plan to do ten things, you will get nothing done at all.
You cannot boil the ocean. You can make a cup of tea!
