Business Execution: Monitoring and Evaluating Initiatives

This is the fourth part of the Business Execution series.

Effective Learning

Understanding the Fundamentals * Crafting a Business Strategy that Executes * Linking Strategy to People and Operations * Monitoring and Evaluating Initiatives

FAQs

Strategies are only useful when they're implemented effectively. To ensure that a strategy is effective, execution needs to be monitored on an ongoing basis.

Organizations spend a lot of time and resources on developing effective business strategies. However, strategies are only useful when they're implemented effectively.

The Science of Better Learning

A key use of strategic dashboards is to provide information during quarterly strategy review meetings. Review meetings are the third method you can use to monitor implementation.

Reviewing employee engagement is the fourth method for monitoring implementation. This is a key metric, as engaged employees can increase profitability and customer loyalty.

Use this job aid as a guide when selecting methods for monitoring strategy execution.

A good way to analyze how a project or strategy is progressing is to conduct a variance analysis. This involves assessing the differences between the intended objectives and end results.

Having a strategy that's appropriate and adaptable is critical for success. However, a strategy is useless if it can't be evaluated against results.

Evaluation usually takes place once the implementation process is underway and it's continuous throughout the execution of a strategy. The strategic planning process itself should also be reviewed.

The second step in the evaluation process is to assess priorities for dealing with these variances. You first need to establish which part of the strategy is causing the variances.

The third step in the process is planning what corrective actions to take to address areas that may be associated with the root cause of a variance – the organization's vision, strategy map, achievement targets, or the program itself.

The fourth and final step in the evaluation process is to record lessons learned. Organizations should use this process as an opportunity to continually learn more about their own strategic planning processes.

Use this job aid as a guide to evaluating the results of strategy execution.

When changing strategy to deal with changing circumstances, a new team should be established. The team should follow four steps when altering the strategy.

Strategy comes full circle after it has been evaluated. The organization's vision, strategy map, achievement targets, and a program of execution are all analyzed during strategy development.

Once problems are identified and their root cause investigated, those accountable need to follow through on fixing them. If the results aren't as expected, either the strategy or the tactics you use to implement it need to change.

When altering strategy, there are four steps to help focus on the problem and its solution. The first is to focus on the mission of the organization and its strategic direction. Second, try to coordinate the systems and execution processes already in place.

Organizations spend a lot of time and resources on developing effective business strategies. However, strategies are only useful when they're implemented effectively.

Having a strategy that's appropriate and adaptable is critical for success. However, a strategy is useless if it can't be evaluated against results.

Once evaluation of execution has taken place, these components of strategy then become areas of change. The root causes of variances discovered during evaluation are linked back to one or more of these change categories.

This is the fourth course of the Business Execution series.

You think knowing stuff changes the game? You think sitting in a library, stacking up facts like you’re building a Jenga tower, is gonna make you a winner? Man, that’s cute. But life ain't a trivia night. Information alone? It’s worthless. It’s like having a Lamborghini in your garage but you never learned how to drive. You just sit in it, making engine noises. Vroom vroom. People walk by, they see the car, but they also see you ain't going nowhere. You got all this knowledge, all these textbooks, but when life throws a punch, you’re still looking up the definition of "duck." It’s what you *do* with that information that actually matters. Don't be the person with the shiny car and no keys.