The Execution Flywheel - Achieveit · Execute Smarter. Faster. Better. WHITE PAPER 9209 || PAGE 1...

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The Execution Flywheel is AchieveIt’s best-of-breed methodology for strategic and operational planning, and it follows a six-phase cycle:

1. Focus: The gathering of business intelligence for the purpose of focusing your strategic/operational plans.

2. Plan: The act of developing the plan, which includes, at a

minimum, goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics.

3. Align: The cascading of assignments to members of management, and the allocation of appropriate capital, operational, and human resources required to execute the plan effectively.

4. Forecast: The linking of the strategic and operational plan

to the budget & financial plan.

5. Monitor: The oversight of plan implementation and execution.

6. Report: The communication of plan results and performance to key stakeholders.

Lets dive deeper into the execution flywheel on the next page.

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The Execution Flywheel


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FocusDuring this stage, the organization deploys various tools to understand opportunities and risks that need to be considered during the strategic planning process.

At the outset, a review of mission, values, and vision is required – for several reasons. First, inasmuch as the strategic plan serves to fulfill the mission and achieve the vision, it is important to test your mission and vision statements for relevancy. For instance, if the vision has already been fulfilled, then a new vision statement needs to be developed to set a boundary for the strategic plan.

Even if your mission, values, and vision statements are current and still resonate within your organization, a review is necessary to ensure everyone involved in the strategic planning process understands the purpose for planning, and newcomers to the strategic planning team are indoctrinated to the organization’s most critical operating statements and philosophies.

Once you are certain the strategic plan is being guided by sound mission, values, and vision statements, then it is time to conduct internal and external analyses that will allow you to create a strategic change agenda. For a list of common tools that are used during the Focus stage, see the sidebar to the right.

PlanIn this stage, the strategic change agenda is converted into a plan that moves the organization toward its vision. Doing this requires the members of the strategic planning team to address five specific areas:

1. How do we describe our strategy? This is where strategic themes, goals, and objectives are created.

2. How do we measure our plan? This includes dashboards, a balanced scorecard, and key performance indicators.

3. What action plans do we need? Achieving objectives requires a series of strategies and tactics.

4. What are the funding requirements? This requires detailed analysis of financial projections, including volume and revenue forecasts, as well as capital and operating budgets.

5. Who will lead execution? Every element of the strategic plan must be assigned to specific individuals; sharing assignments should never be allowed, as this often reduces accountability.

AlignAssuming all strategic plan objectives have been assigned to senior executives on your team, two additional steps need to be completed prior to plan implementation. First, whenever possible, strategic plan objectives should be cascaded to managers throughout the organization. Second, an internal communications program should be developed and launched.

Although strategic plan objectives are the domain of your senior

The Stages of the Execution Flywheel

06. THE REPORT PHASE

is designed to supplement the work of the Monitor phase by providing systematic controls.

• Regular plan review sessions. • A reporting system that illustrates progress over time.

04. THE FORECAST PHASE

provides revenue and cost-savings forecasts, as well as implementation costs for every tactic contained within the plan.

• Budget assumptions for the plan• Calculations for ROI• Resource requirements

05. THE MONITOR PHASE

is where execution happens, requiring that the plan, balanced scorecard, and key performance indicators are evaluated on an ongoing basis.

• Dashboards to track and monitor business performance.• Scorecards to identify successes and failures

• Due dates in m/d/y format• Agreement on deliverables• Accountability systems in place

03. THE ALIGN PHASE

allows the organization to assign all plan items to people within the company, ensuring that everything that must be carried out has an owner with firm due dates and deliverables.

• Surveys to identify the company’s mission, vision, values

• Executive Interviewing• Internal capabilities gap analysis• External PESTEL analysis• SWOT analysis

01. THE FOCUS PHASE

is where organizations gather strategic business intelligence to focus on strategy development.

• Balanced scorecard• Key business processes• Key performance indicators• Scorecards and dashboards

02. THE PLAN PHASE

is where the strategic or operational plan comes together. The plan should contain five levels: strategic themes, goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics.

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executives, you should not overlook the opportunity objectives offer in aligning your entire management team. For instance, your customer service objective is most likely assigned to your customer service executive. However, including customer satisfaction as an annual performance objective for each of your customer-facing department managers not only enhances the organization’s likelihood of success, but also creates shared responsibility.

Cascading objectives throughout the organization is not the only way to pave the road toward successful implementation. A structured internal communications program, including pre-launch communications and ongoing communications throughout the plan year, will keep everyone focused on what is most important to the organization.

ForecastFew things are more frustrating to managers than being expected to implement a key component of your strategic plan without having the resources to execute effectively. The costs of execution – capital, labor, and non-labor – must be identified during the planning process and then used as important financial assumptions when developing the annual budget. In addition, growth and performance improvement objectives carry with them increased revenue and cost-savings opportunities, which are important drivers of the annual financial plan. The financial impact of the strategic plan, along with the implementation costs, should provide the starting point for your annual budget process.

MonitorThis is the phase where execution occurs. Strategic business

objectives are tracked using dashboards and scorecards, the impact of plan execution is evaluated, and course corrections are made. It is important that you focus on timely implementation and that you have tools in place to ensure accountability.

The faster you implement, the sooner you can expect to see results. Thus, don’t wait until the end of your plan year to execute your strategies and tactics, as there will usually not be enough time left for your efforts to take root. For this reason, strive to implement as much of your strategic plan as possible in the first half of your plan year.

ReportSuccessful implementation rarely happens by chance. To drive accountability throughout the organization, it is important to schedule regular strategic plan reviews.

These reviews can take multiple forms. First, strategic planning teams – usually formed around the strategic themes – should meet at least monthly to review the implementation timetable, discuss roadblocks and obstacles, and brainstorm alternative strategies and tactics if plan objectives are not being met. Second, the senior strategic planning team should conduct a monthly or weekly review of the strategic plan objectives and provide direction to the various teams. Third, the quality management committee should regularly report on projects that are directly linked to the strategic plan.

By scheduling a regular series of review meetings, you increase the likelihood the plan will be

implemented effectively and on time. Scheduling monthly reviews will accelerate your results. Scheduling weekly reviews even more so.

3-6-6 CycleMature organizations have been able to significantly cut down on the time it takes to move through the first four stages of the flywheel – Focus, Plan, Align, and Forecast – thus allowing as much time as possible for stages five and six: Monitor and Report. Organizations that take too long to move into execution reduce their chance of success.

Ideally, stages should never overlap. Unfortunately, because many organizations take too much time to put their plan together, they are often required to begin next year’s planning cycle while they are still executing this year’s plan.

The 3-3-6 planning cycle resolves conflicts by eliminating overlaps. Stages one and two are conducted in 90 days – the third quarter of the organization’s fiscal year – followed by stages three and four, also completed in 90 days – or in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. This allows six months for plan execution, which takes place in the first half of the organization’s fiscal year.

As much as possible, the strategic plan should be implemented in six months. The benefits of this are two-fold. First, if the entire plan is executed in the first half of the fiscal year, the organization still has six months to develop and implement alternative strategies and tactics if the strategic plan



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objectives are not being met. Second, it allows the organization to focus exclusively on developing next year’s plan in the second half of the year without having to divert attention and resources to plan implementation.

Most critical in the timing of your strategic planning cycle is that the plan should be completed prior to the budget process. Plans prepared after the budget has been approved often lack the appropriate resources required for full implementation. To prevent this from occurring, time your 3-6-6- cycle so that stage two – Plan – is completed before the formal budget process begins. When this happens, the strategic plan then serves to provide budget assumptions in the form of increased volumes and revenues, decreased cost projections, and capital and operational budget requirements associated with the strategic plan.

Measure Success and Quantify Initiatives with AchieveIt!

Through our suite of cloud-based applications, we give every customer access to a set of tools that enables them to execute smarter, faster, and better. We’ve added to this toolset a transformation roadmap that allows organizations to move easily from a culture of collaboration to a culture of individual accountability to a culture of execution – a natural path to becoming a truly innovative organization.

AchieveIt is changing the game by using a new approach to execution management and strategy development. We are passionate about helping organizations solve one of their biggest problems today: The ability to turn organizational vision and goals into real, meaningful, and tangible results.

By combining our technology firepower with our human brainpower, we help organizations achieve short- and long-term success.

The 3-6-6 Cycle Made Simple:Solving Conflicts by Eliminating Overlaps

1. Focus 2.Plan

3. Align 4. Forecast

5. Monitor 6. Report

3rd Quarter90 Days

4th Quarter90 Days

The Execution Flywheel - Achieveit · Execute Smarter. Faster. Better. WHITE PAPER 9209 || PAGE 1...

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