Great news! About 70 percent of strategic initiatives fail.
Last year, we did some digging into that statistic and found that it’s well supported. Here are a few data points pulled from the dozens of research studies we reviewed:
- Seventy percent of reengineering initiatives fail.
- Eighty percent of major systems investments don’t get used or don’t deliver the intended impact.
- In one study of more than 100 companies, 52 percent of change projects failed and one-quarter of the companies reported a 92 percent failure rate.
When we studied what “failure” looks like, we found that it comes down to two things:
- Few initiatives achieve even two-thirds of the quantifiable performance results intended.
- Most initiatives run way beyond their deadline.
These tendencies hold for all types of organizations in all parts of the world. In other words, the great majority of companies today are facing an execution problem: the results of strategic initiatives they undertake are lacking or late—or both.
“Okay,” you say, “why is that great news?”
Because, even given the sea of companies that are failing at execution, you still have an excellent shot at making your company (or business unit or team) stand out from the crowd. If your organization can achieve a higher-than-30-percent success rate in its strategic initiatives—even if it achieves only a 50- or even 40-percent success rate—it will actually join an elite group of execution stars. And, as we detail in our book Strategic Speed , the financial benefits of being part of this Speedy Executors Club are significant.
Here’s even more good news: Our research shows that the path to achieving faster, more effective execution is not the one most people might think of: it’s not primarily a matter of installing more efficient (expensive) technology systems, nor is it a matter of dragging the organization through lengthy (expensive) process-reengineering efforts. Rather, it’s about ensuring that every leader in the company has the skills and the mind-set necessary for mobilizing people in service of the initiative.
We found seven leadership actions that predict faster, more effective execution of strategic initiatives and projects. Successful leaders take these actions both when they launch an initiative and repeatedly throughout its life:
Increase Clarity
1. Describe the what, why, who, how, when, and where of the initiative.
2. Craft relevant messages about the initiative that communicate its importance and value.
Foster Unity
3. Communicate about the initiative in a compelling way.
4. Create opportunities for others to engage in dialogue about the initiative.
5. Involve people in shaping the execution plan.
Promote Agility
6. Build into the execution plan opportunities to assess progress, identify obstacles, and correct course as necessary.
7. Take steps to reduce the impact of unanticipated events on execution.
Ironically, taking most of these actions requires slowing down at certain points. But, the resulting increases in clarity, unity, and agility pay off in the form of an overall acceleration in execution. Here’s how one leader in a large insurance company puts it:
It’s the “slowing down to speed up” concept: making sure there is clarity and unity and [that] we understand other individuals’ perspectives as we bring forward big projects. I need to get others to understand and bring them in, so people feel their perspective has been taken into account. [In a recent initiative I led] we spent a lot of time interacting and creating greater engagement with the field and managers. In the long run, we went faster.
To learn more about how to help leaders in your organization take the seven actions and reliably accelerate execution, check out our recent webinar on the topic, and see the fact sheet for our new program Accelerating Strategic Initiatives.
PDF 
Contact. Connect. Share.