Executing business strategy is like a braid — specifically, a French braid, the beautiful, twisted strands of hair atop one's head. Both require a clear start and ongoing adjustments.  

Picture this: You’re a sales rep for a product that hospitals use, whether a device, a drug, or a piece of equipment. You believe in the product. You believe that it works better than the other products in the market. You’ve seen lives changed by this product. You’re proud of it.

One of the elements that is often absent from virtual leadership development programs is the lively “oh, by the way” exchanges — the hallway conversations that frequently occur between participants at in-person programs. One approach Insight Experience has taken to combat this is to have participants engage in Colleague Conversations or Virtual Watercooler Chats within our learning platform. One of the most insightful conversations leaders explore during our Executing Strategy leadership development program is about balancing Dance Floor time with Balcony time. If you don’t already know the Balcony metaphor, check it out! 

Goals. Objectives. KPIs. OKRs. Metrics. Success Factors. Vision. Mission. Purpose. And then there’s the elusive “Value Proposition.” Companies use these terms differently, and departments use them differently within the same company. Does this vocabulary matter? If it does matter, why?

Every manager must be able to take the strategy handed down from above (sometimes more clearly than others!) and make that strategy work for their teams.  The Strategy Execution Cycle lays out an interconnected path for making that happen.  First, a manager must Understand what the larger strategy is – the big picture and the larger goals.  Based on that understanding, the manager must then Translate it in terms, metrics, and expectations that are meaningful to the team.  Implementation of the strategy is the day to day work of the team, meeting customer needs, responding to the unexpected, and working toward the expectations set in the Translate stage.  The Measure stage checks performance against those expectations, and the Adapt stage course corrects.  But the stages cannot happen only linearly -- all of these stages happen multiple times over the course of any business’ regular operations.