According to the article, The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution, there are four building blocks to successful strategy execution.
The blocks are:
1. Clarifying decision rights (setting expectations)
2. Designing information flows (making sure people are on the same page, have the right information to do their jobs)
3. Aligning motivators (recognition and rewards consistent with attitudes, behaviours)
4. Making changes to organisational structure to support effective execution
The authors say that it’s much more effective to clarify decision rights and improve the flow of information both up the line of command and across the organisation.
The authors have distilled and ranked in order of importance the top 17 traits exhibited by the organisations that are most effective at executing strategy. Decision rights and information are clearly the most important factors for effective strategy execution, with all of the top eight traits in those areas. Only three of the 17 traits relate to structure, none of them ranks higher than 13th. The most outstanding attribute of companies that excel at executing strategy is that their employees are clear about which decisions and actions they are responsible for. Few decisions are second-guessed, and accurate competitive information quickly finds its way up the hierarchy and across organisational boundaries. In these companies, field and line employees usually have the information they need to understand the bottom-line impact of their day-to-day choices. Although motivators such as performance appraisals that distinguish high, adequate, and low performers and rewards for fulfilling particular commitments do matter, they work better when applied after decision rights and information flows have been addressed. Structural changes will also be more effective if the top two traits are first strengthened. Of those structural moves, the survey revealed the most effective to