When it’s not working, it can sound like this: 

“I don’t know how to prioritize my time.” 

“INSERTNAME is not a team player.” 

“It doesn’t feel like we are moving the needle.” 

Building a culture of teams within your organization who are strong decision-makers takes work. And it all starts, you guessed it, with a solid strategic plan.  Many change conversations are backward looking: “Our direct mail program is faltering. Our staff are turning left and right. We don’t feel like we’re on the same page as the board.” 

Ponder this: Are you thinking about the symptom, or the root cause? In other words, is your strategic plan strong, clear, and transparent enough across the organization that your entire team can figure out this challenge while remaining in tight alignment? 

Did you hesitate? Many—maybe most—do.  

What does a scope to address this problem look like? Here’s where we start: 

Hone in. What, exactly, isn’t working at my organization? 

Identify our key objectives. Here are some examples: 

• “Grow strategically dependable, undesignated support” 

• “Evaluate and provide a roadmap for getting XYZ revenue channel to growth” 

• “Identify ways to de-silo or restructure organizations to become more efficient and one-minded cross channels and cross departments” 

Look at the challenges you are facing and identify the “highest common denominator.” Think deeply about if each challenge is a symptom or a root cause. According to Root Cause Analysis purists, a root cause can never be a person. It can only be a system or structure that people are operating within. Hence, we regularly find that the Strategic Plan is the root cause—its contents, structure, or the implementation. If you feel strongly that a person is the root cause, that means you know that the Strategic Plan is pointing to that person not being a fit.  

Plan. Examine your process for working through the root problem.  

Second, we look through our process. At Turnkey, we believe the process starts way before the starting line. The process starts with a deep understanding of the behavioral principles at work and the “whys” behind them. Taking the extra time on the front end to come to this understanding is often uncomfortable. Are we willing to make this change? What happens if we do not make this change?  

 

At first look, issues seem isolated and unique. If you pull back the curtain, you may find that they are symptoms of the same cultural challenge at your organization. In this case, lack of decision-making outside of the ELT. Otherwise, if you don’t identify and address the highest root cause of the symptoms, history will repeat itself—if it’s not this revenue stream suffering, it will be that one. If not this department treading water, it will be that one. Treating each issue in a silo will produce frustration and slow (if any) movement. Converting the culture of stagnation or finger-pointing to one of iteration will free all projects to move forward.  

 

Okay—but what if, upon further examination, it feels like a person is the root cause of the symptomatic challenges? We hear you—stay tuned for blog #2. 

 

Define what success looks like.  

How will you know when you are “done” with solving this problem? Decisions can be made efficiently when the following cascade nicely: 

• The Strategic Plan is clear and encompasses how we will move the needle, and where we will be at the end of this period.  

• The well-built operational plan rolls up into the strategy seamlessly. 

• The executive leadership team and staff are deeply engaged in the implementation of the operational plan to include organizational objectives and KPIs.  

• Subordinate staff are empowered to make decisions to achieve those objectives. In other words, the top leadership says, “this is where we are going,” allowing lower-level staff to be creative and take ownership of “this is how we are getting there.”   

 

When it’s working, it can sound like this:  

“I look at the dashboard of our strategy every day to guide my work and see across the organization.” 

“I know what others are doing, and how my work interacts with theirs to make the mission delivery happen.” 

“Our plan will change lives and it’s special to be a part of it.” 

“My work is easily prioritized by our strategic plan and our operational plan underneath it. I know how to react to changes and new opportunities as I go through the year.” 

 

Culture change is hard. Changing culture to one that is characterized by confident decision-making can take years of false starts. But the choice is to be content spinning your wheels in frustration and a lack of achievement or doing this hard work. And ironically, digging DOWN into the root cause of failure will land you at the top—the handling of your strategic plan.