Sent: August 29, 12:44 p.m.
From: CEO
To: Companywide
Subject: Strat. Plan Decisions
Hello everyone,
I’m very excited to announce that our leadership team has created an amazing plan for 2020! Now everyone gets to help implement it. We will be posting the plan shortly, and I hope that each and every one of you will weigh in on what you think and what role you would like to take.
Ideally, each of you will take a different section, but even if you don’t, we’re going to try to make sure you all get what you want. My assistant, Sarah, will be taking your preferences, and then we’ll be assigning tasks based on those. With 100 of you now in the company, it will be a bit of a challenge—but not one that we haven’t faced before!
And of course, I’d really like to hear what you think of the plan because if you don’t like it, that’s important for us to hear. Although we went to the proverbial mountaintop to create it, we know we can’t get there without you, so each and every voice is important to us. We’re absolutely open to changing our course if we get enough feedback on any of the elements. Remember, every voice counts at LifeLine!
If anyone thinks of a better way to assign tasks, we are open to that too. We want to make sure everyone feels heard and that each of you is brought into the plan. Any questions are welcome; just run them through Sarah, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Lastly, let me know what you think about the timing. Is it too soon? Should we stretch it out to 2021 or keep the deadline at 2020?
Thank YOU!
Steve
Sent: August 29, 2:03 p.m.
From: Tom, COO
To: Leadership Group
Subject: FWD: Strat. Plan Decisions
Okay, guys, here he goes again, getting everybody and their brother involved. He’s likely to backtrack on everything that took us weeks to decide. Who’s got ideas on how to stop this train wreck before it gets out of the station? Anyone?
Tom
Sent: August 29, 2:30 p.m.
From: Ann Marie, CTO
To: Tom; Leadership Team
Subject: RE: FWD: Strat. Plan Decisions
Good call, Tom. You know he’s going to get everyone’s input and then change his mind a hundred times before we get going. I say we just ignore him and keep going, tell him that everyone loved the plan, and this is how it is. He’ll be fine. It’s how I get him to agree to sign off on any of the financial items. He just can’t make a decision to save his life.
Sent: August 29, 2:58 p.m.
From: Judy, CFO
To: Leadership Team
Subject: RE: RE: FWD: Strat. Plan Decisions
Guys, you know this is his process, so I’m not sure we should interfere. Let’s just wait till he’s done and then change what we need to. Unless any of you think otherwise? I’m completely open to doing this a different way.
Judy
Sent: September 24, 3:26 p.m.
From: Sarah
To: CEO; Leadership Team
Subject: Strat. Plan Assignments
Hi Steve,
I’m having a little trouble assigning goals and tasks to people. Everyone wants to be on the IT initiative for the new building, but no one wants to work on the marketing or compensation initiatives, let alone the innovation strategy. Some of the assignments were pretty vague, so I couldn’t really explain what they were, and about 40 people haven’t even bothered to sign up for anything.
I’m not sure what you want me to do.
Sincerely,
Sarah
Sent: September 24, 3:34 p.m.
From: CEO
To: Sarah; Leadership Team
Subject: RE: Strat. Plan Assignments
Hi Sarah,
Well, that is a pickle, isn’t it? I’m sure we can figure it out. Why don’t you put a meeting on the calendar for the leadership team, and we’ll whiteboard some ideas. Maybe at the end of the month, because I’m sure by then more people will have stepped up to the plate.
Steve
Sent: November 2, 12:02 p.m.
From: Sarah
To: CEO; Leadership Team
Subject: Strat. Plan Assignments
Hi Steve,
I hate to bring this up again, but we’re still waiting for about 25 people to sign up for tasks, and we still have multiple goals and tasks without anyone assigned to them. It seems like we’ve already missed some deadlines. I’m not sure this is the right approach, but I just did the seating chart for my sister’s wedding, and we made a big chart with all the tables and cut out the names of everyone coming, and started placing them around. Maybe we could use that approach?
I’ve never been able to get that meeting scheduled due to everyone’s competing priorities, so let me know if you guys still want to whiteboard it through.
Also, not sure what you want me to do with all the feedback and questions I’ve been forwarding to you. It’s been a few months, and no one has responded to them.
Just let me know how to proceed.
Sincerely,
Sarah
Sent: November 15, 1:15 p.m.
From: Steve
To: Sara; Leadership Team
Subject: RE: Strat. Plan Assignments
Hi Sarah,
Thank you so much for checking in on this. With the holidays and all, let’s set up a meeting for January and get this thing put to bed. By then we should have enough opinions to finalize the execution strategy!
Steve
LET’S GET REAL
I think we all know where this execution plan is headed: to the crossroads of Nowhere and Purgatory. Indecision cripples strategic-plan execution more than anything else. Whatever enthusiasm you had going at the start will quickly fade from the lack of a timely decision from leadership. In our example above, not just the CEO but all of them seemed stuck in the same indecision Twilight Zone; all waiting for someone else to make the call.
You don’t need to be right, but you do need to choose. Leaders who wait for consensus on everything doom the plan to paralysis. Nothing gets launched, and everyone goes back to business as usual. People figure out how to make the same stuff happen that they did yesterday, but NOT how to execute on a new plan. Waiting for all twelve members of the jury to agree will keep things stuck in yesterday’s paradigm. Leading a successful execution strategy requires making decisions in a timely manner. Have a plan for people if they make a mistake but empower them to keep moving forward—proper strategic execution requires it.
To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.