Breaking Strategy Into Measurable Employee Actions

All organizations have strategies that help them define their approach to competing on the market. In the corporate world the development of strategy is one important aspect of executive management while successful implementation of that strategy is a second. Solid strategies, that can compete on the market, should be implemented throughout the organization creating deep alignment and competitive advantages. Breaking strategies into executive, managerial, and employee functions helps in finding an improvement blueprint.

The far majority of strategies don't fail at actual design but fail during the implementation process. As strategies are implemented throughout the organization they do not move deep enough to ensure that actions are integrated with operations. Understanding the activities needed at each level of the organization has its benefits for implementation and management.

The process of breaking down strategy into definable actions helps companies convert employee action into measurable outcomes. It provides a larger framework for understanding how each employee either contributes to or detracts from the organization. Likewise, it also offers a better understanding how departmental actions contribute to financial success.

Executive Level

High level corporate strategies are developed to define the needs of the organization and what major functions fulfill those needs. These corporate strategies help in directing departments on their major functions and goals.

Example: The fastest seating and service within the local dining market.

Managerial Level

Each department will have their own goals and functions. Managers break these goals into daily activities and actions. Managers oversea these processes to ensure that everyone is working according to the definitions of the department and the strategies that guide the department. 

Example: Employees should seat and provide drinks for customers within ten minutes of entry.

Employee Level

Employees are trained on very specific functions that might include taking customers orders, refilling machines, or greeting customers. The definition of these functions is finite and offers the ability of the employee to understand their position. 

Example: Greet the customer within two minutes by saying "hello", "welcome", or "good day".

Each level (executive, managerial, and employee) have functions that correspond to their designed spheres of influence. Each of these functions are under the control of the appropriate position. Executives offer higher level strategies, managers provide daily actionable direction to employees, and employees complete specific functions. The level of flexibility is dependent on the actual position itself.

Having a working definition of the functions and objectives of each department and position helps in managing the entire process. It becomes much easier to see how an adjustment in one area can impact the entire chain. For example, adjusting from the fastest service to the friendliest service in the local market will create corresponding adjustments at the departmental and employee levels.

Part of the strategic planning should be to understand how each individual piece fits within the large pie. It is possible to review the market and find where competitive advantages are likely to be found and then break them down throughout the organization until you get to individual actions. Such analysis and planning affords an opportunity to better align actions to strategies that produce higher results.

PISA Report: U.S. Mediocre in Education

Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, recently released its 2012 results for creative problem solving for real life solutions. They looked at numerous countries to determine which 15-year-olds are best equipped to handle various problems.  The results compare the U.S. against other nations in global trends. The results indicate the U.S. is not doing very well and has lots of room for improvement. 

Among the 34 OECD nations the U.S. is performing below average with a ranking of 26 in math, 17 in reading and 21 in science.  The silver lining is that the country has not slipped from previous positions and seems to match their European counterparts. However, the results rank behind a number of Asian countries. 

More strikingly, 26% of American students don’t even reach the minimum requirements to be tested leaving them off the test. This is higher than the average of 23% in other countries. Top performers within the country are 2% compared against 3% for the average and 31% for Shanghai-China. The U.S. is not fostering their highest performers to excel within the classroom and this impacts their capacity to compete in the future. 

Students are still suffering from socio-economic issues. Those from the most disadvantages schools are having a difficult time competing against their counterparts and those of other nations. In the United States 5% of  students that come from the lowest 25% socioeconomic status perform better than their circumstances compared with the 7% international average. It is difficult for them to improve their position in life.

Common Core appears to have some positive benefits with test taking and the researchers indicate that by implementing such standards improvement in achievement can be expected. Likewise, schools that compete against other schools and have some autonomy in their decisions do better than those who don’t. Assessment appears to be only part of the answer as 80% of U.S. schools post data publicly while the average is 45% in other countries.

The educational environment needs the concerted effort of multiple stakeholders. Even though some of the factors in home life may be out of control of decision-makers this shouldn’t slow the advancement of providing better opportunities. Getting students in school at a younger age appears to make an important difference in socializing them to the world of higher academic performance. 

Creative problem solving isn’t something that is born in a vacuum. There are many pieces that come together to solve complex problems. Students that understand the concrete aspects of math (even though math can be subjective at its core root based upon how units are measured) and have the free-flowing thought processes to be creative can build better models and test those models with scientific methods. It is this critical and creative thinking that takes science and makes it practical for public use to solve problems.

PISA (2012). Lessons from PISA 2012 for the United States. Retrieved April 1^st, 2014 from http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/PISA2012_US%20report_ebook%28eng%29.pdf