Your Strategy Needs To Be More Agile: How to Continually Assess and Shift to Maximize Results

So how do you assess and shift your strategy iteratively over time without going back to the drawing board or putting your executive team through days of exhausting meetings or mountains of presentation decks? Get started with these tips:

• Measure Progress (Quantitative Data). Without regular assessment, you won’t know what’s working best and where you need to pivot. Choose a few Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that matter most, and then review them on a monthly basis so you understand where you may need to course correct before too much time passes.
• Regular Inputs from Management (Qualitative Data). Schedule regular meetings with your management team (monthly or quarterly depending on your culture and the pace of change in your business) to look at the KPIs (described above) together, assess how you are doing against your plan, identify the risks to achieving the plan, and note any new opportunities that may require reprioritization. Make this meeting efficient by asking team leads to fill in a simple questionnaire noting the current state of play, risks, and opportunities prior to the meeting, and circulate those inputs along with current KPIs prior to the meeting. Importantly, this time shouldn't be used as "show and tell" of what everyone's been doing - its purpose is for leaders to note where they need to pivot or get additional resources, socialize that with their peers, and get agreement as a management team.
• Gather Feedback. Seek feedback from your customers, employees, and other relevant stakeholders to understand their changing needs and preferences, and how satisfied they are with your current service, roles and responsibilities, etc. Use this feedback to adjust your strategy as necessary without waiting for year end.
• Use Fresh Eyes. A consultant can help you to see what you’re missing, either in the way of waste or opportunity, and can use their experience helping several other businesses and seeing industry trends to help you pivot in yours. They can also absorb some of the impact if difficult or unpopular decisions need to be made to improve the business.
• Keep an Eye on the Competition. Regularly monitor your peers to benchmark your offerings against your peers and differentiate yourself effectively, understand broader trends, identify potential gaps in the market that you can fill, or even derive inspiration to innovate. Use this information to inform your strategy and stay a step ahead.

Want to get started with a revamped process for continually evaluating your strategy, or check if your current strategy could use a refresh? Get in touch with Maior for an initial consultation. Together, we’ll create a digestible strategy for your team that's ready for tactical execution.