Stratsuma

Category: Transformation

  • Run the Business, Transform the Business

    Day to day vs. long term transformation

    Every day, businesses face a constant tug-of-war. On one hand, leaders need to run the business, which involves the usual tasks such as managing staff, fulfilling orders, and ensuring a steady stream of revenue. On the other hand, leaders must incrementally transform the business to keep up with a constantly evolving landscape, including the impact of emerging technologies, shifting customer needs, and innovations from competitors. 

    The challenge for business leaders is to achieve a healthy balance between running and transforming the business. As James Schoen, Co-Founder of Trumbug says, “for small businesses, the biggest challenge is often taking the time to focus on strategy amidst competing priorities. You know it’s important, but it keeps getting pushed back due to more urgent tasks.”

    The dangers of not doing both

    Focusing only on running day-to-day operations can cause a business to become stagnant. While it might feel safe and comfortable to keep everything running smoothly, this approach leaves a company vulnerable to market changes and disruptions. Consider how many successful brick-and-mortar stores ignored the rise of online shopping and were outpaced by competitors who embraced e-commerce.

    On the flip side, concentrating solely on transforming and innovating without paying attention to your current operations can lead to chaos. Picture a scale-up that’s so obsessed with developing the latest technology that they neglect their core product. Their customers might become frustrated with poor service or unmet expectations, leading to a loss of trust and business. This imbalance can cause a company to fail despite having great potential.

    Being able to transform or grow a business while putting out the fires that come with running a business is difficult, but essential, so how can you ensure you aren’t neglecting transformation?

    First of all, have a forward-looking strategy, and refer to it often. Putting some time on the calendar to step back and consider whether you have the right ambition, and whether the way you spend your time is going to get you there. Cassie Maschoff explains that at Lottie’s Meats, they proactively “try to reassess and align on our strategy on a monthly basis. Because once you’re going and operating, it’s hard to find the time to sit back and strategize.”

    Second, think strategically about how you divide your budget, time, and team resources. Allocate a portion to running the business, to ensure smooth and efficient operations, and dedicate other resources to transformational initiatives that will help you achieve your future ambition. The resources you need can be defined in an initiative charter, which is a tool that provides an overview of a specific initiative.

    Lastly, track how you spend your time. As you review operational metrics to show how you are running the business, don’t forget to review progress against your strategic initiatives to show how you are transforming the business. Short, regular updates shine a light on how you are progressing towards your ambition, or whether you are getting stuck in fighting today’s fires. 

    By setting up these simple mechanisms, your transformational initiatives stand a better chance of not getting buried in the endless list of urgent to-do’s, setting you up for achieving your longer-term ambitions.

  • Does Your Team Know Your Strategy?

    To give you the best chance of achieving your ambition, everyone on your team, from the top down, should understand the “what” as well as the “why”. With this understanding, team members can connect their individual contributions to the bigger picture. This understanding ignites motivation and increases confidence in the company. 

    Despite the importance of understanding your company strategy, a 2015 study by McKinsey consultants found that only 34% of Directors admitted to fully understanding theirs. And compared with the rest of the company, Directors are doing well. According to Harvard Professors Kaplan and Norton only 5% of total employees understand their company strategy. That is largely because, while it is pretty easy to share a strategy – a quick mention in a townhall or company-wide email isn’t enough. Ensuring everybody actually understands it takes work.

    On the other hand, and in the case of the 66% of Directors in the McKinsey study, failing to understand the strategy comes with unwanted challenges. James Schoen, co-founder of Trumbug, has seen this firsthand in some of his previous corporate roles, noting that a lack of common understanding “causes frustration and inefficiency. It’s crucial to have clear priorities and a well-understood strategy to avoid these issues.”

    So if our north star is that everyone understands the strategy, how do we do it? Here are some ideas:

    Townhalls and company meetings are a good starting point, but they are the bare minimum. They are a great way to bring everyone together and introduce the strategy in a clear and personal way. Leaders must share the “what” and “why”, and make the session exciting and memorable. A lack of passion and good storytelling at this stage will kill off any chances to get your organization aligned.

    Your people need to see your strategy often, so make sure it is always visible. You can use posters, screensavers, or even display it on screens in common areas like the cafeteria. The idea is that people should see the strategy often enough that it becomes second nature. In fact, a “lack of repetition” is the “number one challenge that people that created good strategy have,” according to Stukent founder Stu Draper. He continues “If you have key initiatives for your strategy, those key initiatives need to be on the wall in every department’s office.” Just like repeating a favorite song helps you remember the lyrics, seeing the strategy regularly will help everyone keep it in mind as they go about their daily work. Remember, repetition doesn’t spoil the prayer!

    Keep the conversation going by having leaders talk about the strategy regularly. This means giving updates on how things are progressing and what steps are being taken to achieve the strategic ambition. Share what is going well, where the team is struggling, celebrate recent initiative wins together. When leaders consistently communicate about the strategy, it shows that it’s a living part of the organization, not just a one-time announcement. This ongoing dialogue helps keep everyone informed and engaged, enabling the strategy to remain on track and actually make a difference.

    Use stratuma to develop a ready-to-share strategy on a page, and to facilitate constant progress updates to ensure you can bring your ambition to life.

  • Building Effective Teams for Strategic Initiatives

    Imagine a hundred cooks vying for space in a cramped kitchen, all trying to stir the same pot. This chaos complicates the task, slows down the work, and is potentially even dangerous. This is exactly what initiative teams need to avoid in order to become successful. Strategic initiatives thrive on smaller, focused groups with clear responsibilities and direct communication.

    The best teams resist the temptation to simply throw bodies at an initiative, and don’t include everyone that raises their hand to be involved. The guiding principle to determining team size should be: “as few as possible, as many as necessary”. Instead of crowds, ensure the right people are involved and empowered to bring their specific skills to the table.

    Just like a well-run kitchen, every team member needs a clearly defined role; outlining specific responsibilities eliminates ambiguity and ensures everyone understands their part in the initiative’s success. This further increases the sense of ownership and prevents confusion. 

    The team should also be empowered with appropriate decision making authority in order for the initiative to progress at speed. Far too often, initiative teams are left waiting for external decision makers to discuss progress and make decisions that could have been entrusted to individuals on the team; either empower your team, staff it with more senior people, or have a responsive sponsor who can escalate questions quickly.

    But even with the right people in the right roles, it is still easy for teams to be out of alignment. Imagine our cooks focusing only on their own work and getting in each other’s way. They shout instructions over each other and as the noise level rises, no one knows if they are being addressed, information is getting lost or distorted, and frustration is building. Initiative teams need a clear flow of information to ensure everyone stays in the loop and works together effectively.

    Regular meetings can be an effective communication tool, but keep them short and to-the-point. Targeted discussions ensure everyone stays aligned and on the same page, without wasting valuable time. The best meetings are like quick kitchen huddles – focused and informative to keep everyone moving towards a shared goal. Tracking mechanisms, such as progress tracking in stratsuma, are a great way to facilitate these meetings. 

    But before any of this, it’s crucial to establish a clear strategic direction. As Stuart Draper, Founder of Stukent points out: “A clear strategy gives aim for tactics. Your team very quickly wants to go after the next thing that’s going to drive sales. If you haven’t given them an overall strategy, they are going to go all over the place in different directions.” Without clarity on which direction to move in, even a team of exceptional chefs will not deliver you the results that you crave.

    stratsuma helps you create your strategy, craft clear initiative charters, and track progress with confidence.

  • A Progress Tracker isn’t a Performance Review

    The first time I saw a progress tracker also happened to be the first time I saw an all-green one. “Wow,” I thought, “they must have it all together.” In the years since, despite seeing probably hundreds of all-green progress trackers, I’ve never seen a perfect transformation – so why the disconnect?

    The typical traffic light system—Red, Amber, Green (RAG)—is a common way to assess the health of transformation initiatives. Green indicates everything is going according to plan; Amber suggests some risks or issues are present, but they’re manageable; and Red signals that there are significant problems or that an initiative is off track. Teams are often permitted (as they are with stratsuma) to self-report the status of their own initiatives. 

    All-green trackers often hide more than they reveal. They look promising on the surface, but they may also signal that teams aren’t feeling safe enough to report the reality of their challenges, or aren’t close enough to the detail that they spot issues in the first place. Many of these teams struggle to differentiate their performance from the health of their initiative. Imagine an emergency room doctor doing the same thing – marking all their patients as Green to try and show their leaders that they’re a good doctor, despite the health of several patients clearly being Amber or Red.

    Too often we assume that a Green status is the ultimate indicator of success. It’s easy to think that if our initiative is green, our leaders will think highly of us. But in reality, the absence of reported issues can be a red flag in itself. When teams feel safe to mark their initiatives as Red or Amber, leaders can take immediate action to mitigate risks and help solve problems to get the initiative back on track.

    Research from Bain & Company supports this. Their study, which analyzed data from 24,000 transformation initiatives, revealed a startling truth: 50% of initiatives that were underperforming reported a Green status throughout the entire process. Conversely, a third of initiatives that were flagged as Red (off track) showed improvement in performance over time. This suggests that teams who report honestly—even when things are going wrong—are more likely to get back on track and achieve the desired outcomes.

    Leaders who treat Red and Amber statuses as signs of failure discourage their teams from raising early warnings, leading to delayed responses to emerging issues, ultimately costing time and resources. Conversely, Leaders should promote a culture where it’s safe for teams to report challenges honestly, without fear of repercussion. Red and Amber shouldn’t be seen as a reflection of failure; they are indicators of active problem-solving.

    The most successful transformations aren’t those that stay perpetually green; they’re the ones that allow for honest conversations about what’s going wrong and what needs to be fixed. As a leader, it’s crucial to foster an environment where Red and Amber are seen not as negative indicators, but as opportunities to uncover deeper insights and address potential risks early on. By embracing transparency and creating a culture where teams feel safe to report the truth—no matter how uncomfortable—you’re setting the stage for more resilient, successful transformations.

  • Progress Beats Perfection

    We’ve all encountered the perfectionist in the workplace – always revising, re-doing, and re-tweaking their work until finally satisfying a ridiculously high (and yet subjective) bar. And we’ve all met the scrappy pragmatist who cobbles things together and quickly moves on to the next task. The perfectionist’s commitment to quality is oftentimes admirable, but their relentless pursuit of perfection often puts them behind the pragmatist in getting things done.

    A culture of perfectionism is often a real problem. It stifles creativity and leads to a fear of making mistakes, both of which get in the way of innovation. Perfectionism drives builders away. Embracing a culture or expectation of perfection can lead to burnout and a decline in team spirit. Perfectionism is often guilty of slowing the work and wasting resources on things that don’t actually make a difference. 

    For example, it is common for big tech companies to hire highly-paid ex-consultants with the expectation to solve thorny problems, only to have them spend hours beautifully formatting an executive document which could instead have been summarized in a 20-word email, or to spend a week creating a 50-page appendix on the off-chance that an executive asks a specific question.

    Shifting your focus from achieving perfection to embracing progress unlocks a multitude of benefits. Pragmatism, when coupled with the freedom to take risk and make mistakes, allows companies to move from idea to execution quicker. A pragmatic mindset allows for agility and adaptation, and creates a culture of continuous learning within your organization. 

    But to be fair, there are instances where a desire to be perfect is warranted. For example, a NASA engineer tasked with bringing astronauts safely back to earth absolutely needs to be perfect, because the consequences of failure could be disastrous. However, the stakes are a little different for an advertiser testing ad copy, who can be a lot more pragmatic as they learn what drives clicks to a website.

    Almost all of the time, we are in the position of the Ads tester, not the NASA engineer. Concerning strategy, James Schoen, Co-Founder of Trumbug explains that “a good strategy is clear, concise, and easily understood by those who have to execute it. Even if it’s not the perfect direction, if everyone is aligned and working towards a common goal, you’re likely to be somewhat successful.” In James’ example, it is progress that makes the difference, despite the lack of perfection.

    Here are some things we’ve learned to favor progress over perfection:

    • Ask “what happens if.” Instead of defaulting to perfect, ask yourself what happens if you don’t finish on time, what happens if your email has spelling errors, what happens if the colors, font size, etc. aren’t on brand? You’ll often realize that nothing serious will happen, showing you that you don’t need to be perfect.
    • Determine the “definition of done.” Identify the minimum viable product (or what are the bare minimum requirements) for each item you need to deliver before you start work. This will help you avoid feeling compelled to add a bunch of unnecessary bells and whistles to whatever you are doing.
    • Prioritize Ruthlessly. Remember that in most cases you have many other things that need to be done, and you’ll need to simplify, delegate or eliminate tasks from your list. Keeping in mind the next important task on your list helps you move on instead of having too many tasks pile up!
    • Embrace Iteration. Recognize that much of the important work you do will end up having to evolve over time. Understanding what you need to get done before the next round of feedback helps to avoid aiming for perfection at every step. For example, if you’re working on a slide deck, tell your supervisor you only want feedback on the content, not the format in this particular iteration.
    • Celebrate progress: Acknowledge and celebrate progress, both of things that have worked out, but also on things that failed and led to learnings. This recognition keeps teams motivated while remaining them that it is OK to fail, so long as you learn.

  • Avoiding the 88% Trap: Setting Your Transformations for Success

    According to Bain & Company, a staggering 88% of business transformations fail to achieve their original ambitions. That’s an unbelievable amount, considering the amount of time, resources, and energy poured into these transformations. With so much at stake, how can you bridge the gap between ambitious plans and disappointing outcomes? A good place to start is realizing that transformations are not one-time events, but longer journeys requiring clear direction and sustained effort. 

    A fitness example will resonate with many of us: have you ever embarked on a fitness journey, only to see that journey fizzle out prematurely? Maybe you’ve had a goal to run a marathon in an ambitious time – you’ve bought a nice pair of running shoes and paid your race registration, but without a solid training plan, and mechanisms to keep you accountable to it, progress stalls, and motivation dwindles. Next thing you know, it’s race weekend and you’re nowhere near your target time, or maybe you didn’t even show up to the race at all.

    This is what happens with 88% of transformations. Leaders get excited about the possibilities a transformation brings, but fail to translate that excitement properly into a practical roadmap and see its execution through to success. Let’s break down some key elements missing from many failed transformations:

    • Clear Strategy: Transformations need a north star that everyone can understand and rally behind. This “strategy on a page” should outline the company’s ambition and the key initiatives for achieving it.
    • Actionable Initiatives: Initiatives need to be defined in detail so that teams can bring them to life. Initiative charters are crucial here. These documents define scope, deliverables, timelines, and assigned team members, to help bring the direction teams need for execution.
    • Accountability and Progress Tracking: Regularly tracking initiative progress against defined charters keeps motivation high and helps teams maneuver around roadblocks. Without governance and accountability, teams lose focus, and execution wanes.

    By implementing these key elements, teams can avoid the 88% trap and successfully achieve their ambitions. Tools like stratsuma empower businesses to navigate their transformation journeys with confidence and achieve lasting success. Learn more about how stratsuma can help you navigate your transformation journey today.