Hi, it's Pete Wilkinson with the Strategy Gap Podcast. This is episode seven. And here I want to talk about something that came up recently, which is quite a few business owners I was working with, like kind of owner-managed teams, uh businesses, and they were rating their strategy execution only around four to five out of ten. And it got me really thinking, and we had a good discussion in the uh in the session around it, and quite a few in that space that felt they should be doing better, they felt they should be making more progress. And although they had great teams, they said that you know they would only rate their execution of their current strategy at around four or five out of ten. So I thought I'll give that some thinking, and we discussed some areas and I shared a few that they could think about in terms of improving that. And I want to share with you now six things for you to think about that if you feel that your strategy execution is around four to five out of ten, let's improve that by looking at these six things. And the first thing uh to think about, number one, is your longer-term strategy, and and it's just thinking about do you really know and have you thought about a three or five-year strategy? And it's basically asking the question, where do you want to land? Now it sounds quite easy to do, but it is actually quite a challenge. It's coming up with a nice, succinct statement around the future state of your business, it's where you want the company to land in the next three to five years. I sometimes see seven or eight years, and I know some of the people work with use EOS and they have their tenure, I think they call it a rich picture or something, the big picture for 10 years. I'm a big fan of the three to five year strategy um statement, and it's it's it's a vision statement of where you want to land in the next sort of three to five years. And once you've got that and you've thought about it, and you've worked with your SLT and it's refined and it's clear, then you need to think about sharing it. How are you going to share that so everyone in the team understands, everyone in the company gets a really good picture in their mind of where the company wants to land? Most people don't know where they want to be, they just go through day after day doing the same things. So when your company has a compelling five-year vision or a three-year vision that's really clear and describes where you want to land, it's just a destination where you want to land the next five years. That's the first thing to get really clear in your mind. The second thing to think about is bringing that time frame right the way down to the next 12 months. So this is actually saying, okay, then I know I want to be in the next five years. What does a great year look like? Now, normally I would be asking you to think about, you know, if you were going to be 20% of the way there, what would that be? This is a shorter time frame vision statement, and it can be a little bit more detailed than the five year. The five years are a big sort of stretch vision over there. The 12 months is a bit closer, it's a bit nearer, and um, I'll be as I move away there, it's a bit nearer, and this is a bit more detailed to describe. Okay, so we know where the five year is, what does the next 12 months look like, and get really clear as to where the business needs to land and is going to land in the next 12 months. You want this really, really clear. Once you've done that, then you start thinking about the third thing, which is a standardized process of measuring. So try and come up with a simple framework, OKRs, KPIs, balance scorecard, whatever it might be, EOS, there's lots of different ones, but come up with a standardized approach. One of the reasons that company's strategy isn't executed is that you know, after they've got the longer term vision, the shorter term vision, one of the other reasons is that they just don't know what the method is, they don't have a system or a process for this, and it's just coming up with a very simple framework, it doesn't have to be complicated. I'm a big fan of keeping things super, super simple, but just having a standardized. So is it monthly goals that you're going to report on, that you're going to check in um and and and clarify the progress with? Is it is it quarterly? Is it you're going to have a quarterly stretch? So you've got your 12-month vision, and everyone comes up with where they want to be at the next quarter. It it to begin with, it doesn't have to be something that is like you know, mega detailed, that's that's really, really dialed in at the start, it's just coming up with a fairly simplified process so you know really what is happening, so it's really clear. The next thing to think about is are you as a company focusing on the progress you're making? You see, we need to make sure that we're talking about the progress. Sometimes we set the intention, we set the goal, we go forward, we think about it, we think about it, we think about it, and eventually, you know, everyone just thinks that the finish line is constantly shifting. What I want you to think about is are you as a company really good at measuring the progress? And how are you sharing the progress? And you want your leaders to be looking for people who are sharing the progress. Very, very important that that is in place, okay? Really clear. Once you've got your 12-month vision, sorry, your five-year vision, your 12-month vision, you've got a standardized process of doing it, and everyone is looking at the progress, etc. The next thing we need to think about is are you making sure everyone is having a great regular one-to-one? And it's a simple thing, but part of the problem is that we're not talking about this enough. We're not, we're not, it's not visible, and then there's no regular check-ins, there's no regular reviews, there's no, there's no one-to-ones where people can know if it's monthly or quarterly or or every two months, that they that they know how they're performing, and you're referring back to that longer-term vision. So we just need to make sure that as a company, you are you are being clear on we know where we're going for five years, we know where the 12 months are, we've got a system in place of measurement, very, very simple framework. We've got everyone's got KPIs, everyone's got three goals, everyone's got three key results, the measuring, whatever it might be, simple, simple process, and then making sure we're doing the regular one-to-ones and we're sharing the progress. The last thing to think about with this is you're looking for any seeds of success. So once you've got these little five things previously all kind of mapped out and working, you then the sixth thing is you're looking for seeds of success, and then you're really making a point of publicizing that. So if there's a team that really adopts this well in your company, then use those as the as the team to highlight. Look, this is what this team's produced. What will happen is you see, is that people will start to realize oh, I can see the big picture, I can see the shorter term, I can see what a very simple way of doing it KPIs, goals, whatever it might be. Keep it really simple to begin with, and then we're making sure we're always reinforcing the progress. We're talking about this all the time, making sure that happens, and then there is a one-to-one, refined, really simple. And I mean, the the one-to-ones could be simple. When we do our one-to-ones, it's like five minutes on. This is what um, you know, what's on your mind. Second question is all around um my questions, kind of the second part is like things I've noticed that I'm asking about and clarifying, and then the third part is the future. So you don't need to have really complicated one-to-ones. You may have a process in place if that's good, brilliant. But the big thing is it's got to be consistent. You will probably be very surprised at how often I'm doing sessions with teams where when we get into the detail, they just not haven't had a one-to-one for months. And I really do think that's bad. I think that's you know, gotta be careful. I don't go on rants, but that's something that really does actually bother me is that we've got this bunch of people and we've clarified where we're going and we're talking about stuff, but we're not actually given the time for a structured one-to-one. So thinking about it, let's just recap those six things. These are six things that you know you could think about that will help you to go from four out of five on your strategy completion, execution to about an eight or a nine is is check in with your long-term vision. Is it compelling? Is it concise? Three to five years, what's your big, big picture of where you want to land? Next 12 months. Let's just make sure that your 12-month vision, bit more detail, and that's going to kind of get you to about 20% of the way there. Then think about a very simple framework that you could check in with for the guys, and you just adopt a simple KPIs, goals, whatever it is. Then think about making sure you're doing your regular one-to-ones. Then in the one-to-ones, you're sharing the progress of how people are performing, and then you're looking for a great standout team to show this is what is possible, and then put energy into sharing what they're doing, how it's making a difference to them, how they're moving forward, and just make this strategy execution more of what you talk about all the time. People are very busy, they're doing stuff, but they might not be able to connect their stuff to what they're doing to the big longer-term vision, and that's what your shorter-term one-to-ones are to really get in there and look, look for the gems, look for the progress, and really get them going. Doing those things will really help you, and that's all about getting that strategy execution from a four to five out of ten to an eight or nine out of ten. So, your action for this really is to think about those six steps and identify one of the teams in your company, small team, you've got a great leader in that team, great manager, and put them through a project and just think, come on, let's see what we can do and how can we improve you to get your team up there and then use that as a message for the rest of the business because it all comes down to not just having a great strategy but having that great strategic execution in place in your company. Thanks very much, it's Pete. Bye for now.