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Secrets of Facilitation reveals the principles and techniques effective facilitators use to produce amazing results through groups. The author identifies 60 secrets that separate great facilitators from good ones. He then puts you right in the room through his case studies and numerous sample dialogues, so you can see and experience the techniques in action!

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Strategy Execution: Moving the Plan from Paper to Implementation

By Michael Wilkinson, Managing Director

Strategic plans often fail due to a lack of focus on implementation. For all too often, great plans are placed in binders and gather dust on bookshelves, only to be looked at a year later once the time for strategic planning comes around again.

The Key Question

With your strategic planning effort, would it be helpful if there was a method to ensure that there was execution and follow-through and people were held accountable for success?

In the Drivers Model, Phase III of the strategic planning process includes the development of a monitoring and accountability plan.

Phase I
Situation Assessment

Phase II
Strategy Development

Phase III
Implementation

We recognize that a full monitoring and accountability process requires four important components: clear assignment, structured monitoring, desirable rewards, and undesirable consequences. We have helped clients implement numerous monitoring and accountability strategies. A sampling is described below.

  • Assign objectives and strategies to departments and have those departments include these elements in their plans and budgets.
  • Establish SPAN charts which indicate levels of involvement in the strategic priorities by indicating who "supervises, participates, approves, or must be notified" for each.
  • Review the status of strategies monthly based on percent complete and likelihood of meeting the scheduled timeframe.
  • Review the status of objectives quarterly based on progress to date and likelihood of achieving the target in the timeframe.
  • Implement a monthly dashboard of indicators for monitoring progress.
  • Establish an annual award fund shared only by those teams that complete their targeted strategies. If eights teams are successful, those team members share in the fund. If only one team is successful, that team gets the entire fund.
  • Tie a portion of all executive compensation tied to the achievement of all of the strategic objectives. This increases accountability to the team results not just an executive's particular area.
  • Implement the "accountability dice" as potential consequences for teams falling behind. Appropriate consequences vary widely from organization-to-organization. As examples, some have been relatively trivial (e.g., clean-up the break room for a week), some have been time-focus (e.g., assist another team for 2-hours), and some have been monetary (e.g., pay $20 to the party pool).

To learn more about these pitfalls and how to avoid them, consider our Strategic Planning training class or Springboard Online!, our online course.

About the Author

Michael Wilkinson is the Managing Director of Leadership Strategies - The Facilitation Company, and a much sought after trainer, facilitator and speaker. He is a Certified Master Facilitator and a Certified Professional Facilitator. As a past president of the Southeast Association of Facilitators and a board member of the National Institute of Facilitation, Michael is a national leader in the facilitation industry. You can get more tips from either of Michael's books, The Secrets of Facilitation or The Secrets to Masterful Meetings. You can receive a signed copy through our website.