Strategy Design and Strategy Delivery course is easy to follow and progress. The topics are presented in a theory followed by real case studies from companies from around the world. I have already written about the first 2 principles that Brightline initiative with Project Management Institute introduce. In this blog, I explore the third principle and my own takeaways from it.
In the first 2 principles, awareness, accountability and acceptance to move forward were explored. So what is the third principle about?
Principle 3 – Dedicate and mobilise the right resources
This principle is when you start to put meat to the bone. We are now talking about resources and the leadership responsibility to resource availability. When we talk about resources, we generally think of the people element. This is true, people must take a great deal of attention as we leverage talents. But resources also mean non-human resources that should support the deployment of the strategy.
Project Management Institute used to have a knowledge area called Human Resources up until the 5th edition of the PMBOK Guide. In the 6th edition, they removed the word human and addressed Resource Management as a whole. Smart move? You can be the judge of that.
With the third principle in focus, leaders must be able to work with the talent they have. It is not only about identifying the right talent, it is also identifying the right talents that can work at different speeds for the different initiatives. In this module, examples were given from Volkswagen and American Red Cross. The examples were rich in differentiating resources – both human and non human, and their importance to a successful delivery.
- Identify the right competency levels
- Assign the best people you have to tackle the most challenging programme.
Take a moment and go back to my second principle and see point 3 – where leaders must focus on where change happens and those who champion it. Can make the connection with this principle now?
In my own experience, I will bring a different point of view to this principle. I will not talk about mobilising the right resources. I will explore what it feels like to be on the other end: on the delivery side without any engagement in the design stage. Ensuring a strategic initiative is achieved requires a lot of focus and commitment. This is necessary not only to fully understand the initiative and how it will benefit the team, but also to help them go on the change journey with me and the company. This requires time. Nothing happens in a switch of a button. Working on achieving this positive journey easily gets distracted by other daily operational duties that come at you from different directions. With emails and collaboration tools available at large, it is very easy to get distracted, and in some instances I find my flow on a certain initiative interrupted. I respond to an operational task promptly, but then getting back into that flow would take time. How often do we actually go to business leaders and present them with a list of these competing priorities – operational and strategic? This level of trust and transparency in communication is important and necessary to help keep the focus available for both executives and operators.
Have you had any experience with businesses who do not allocate sufficient resources to the strategy deployment? How did you work around that?
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