In a disruptive digital world, strategic agility is crucial but elusive. See how to sustain alignment in a fast-changing world and how it fuels success!

1. Empower People and Teams
to Power Strategy
Presentation with Detecon Consulting | June 21 | San Francisco

2. Concentrate Resources on
Goal Achievement
7% Of people understand
company strategy and how
they contribute
Harvard Business School Press, “The Strategy Focused Organization”

3. That 7% is at the top of the house,
and they don’t execute the strategy.

4. Your strategy probably emphasizes
speed
data-­‐driven enterprise
digital
… if your approach to strategy alignment doesn’t have
these attributes, it’s working against your strategy.
Legacy approaches have slower planning cadence, include fewer levels in plan ownership, often measure
opinion rather than data, and lack transparency.

5. 5
Disruption opportunities and risks drive faster
strategy shifts and create new execution urgency

6. 6
If it takes 4 months to do the plan and 8 months for people to understand it, the year is lost.
Companies that rapidly iterate on strategic plans and engage people in swift execution retain and gain markets.
More PowerPoint decks and meetings don’t
create more strategic agility and speed.

7. ASPIRE: Clarify and focus on the objectives and results
that matter most – at every level
ALIGN: Connect and engage teams in developing better
plans and increase outcome ownership
ACCELERATE: Iterate quarterly with execution data and
insight to enable fast, focused market response
EXECUTE: Align workstreams and actions to plan so it’s
easy for everyone to see and do work that matters
A more agile approach accelerates iteration and outcomes,
and closes gaps between people, plans and results

8. The new approach fuels
highly aligned, high impact teams
with these 8 attributes

9. They use Objectives to capture and communicate intent and aspirations.
They establish quantifiable Key Results to identity and pursue the best possible outcomes
Our experience is that without OKRs or a similar habit, less than 3% of teams can articulate what they’re trying to achieve and how near-­‐term
success is measured. Most people assume they can … but time and again, we find it takes more than an hour to arrive at even one objective and
its measures. Few teams take the time to discuss what they want to achieve together in the near term. Moreover, teams that do discuss results
typically identify the most predictable or probable outcomes but never discuss their best possible outcome. If great outcomes aren’t imagined or
discussed, it’s nearly impossible to organize to achieve them.
These teams are clear on what they want to achieve
near term and how true success is measured.
#1

10. Leaders at every level are leading …
somewhere specific with clarity, creativity and courage
#2

11. They share a #growthmindset
They view MASTERY as a process fueled by:
ü Aspiring to greatness
ü Embracing challenges
ü Seeking and using feedback
ü Welcoming what’s learned from failures
#3

12. They understand the difference between
activity and results.
And organize to achieve their best results instead of
routine tasks or predictable outcomes.
#4

13. Their results are consistently better and they
gain far more ground than less focused teams
Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12
% Result Achievement
Sustained weekly results focus
Haphazard focus
Set and forget
• Part of manager’s leadership habit
• Weekly updates keep results top of mind
• High transparency, early risk detection so not lost time
• Distraction for 1-­‐3 weeks at a time
• Sudden realization off course, not enough time to recover
• Team reverts to activity, forgets results they wanted
• No focus or no clarity on desired results
• Lost opportunity to succeed, set up for failure
• Lost confidence in leader and doubt purpose

14. They cultivate an accountability dynamic
1. OKRs are a weekly topic in team huddle à #1 predictor of outcomes
2. They set authentic key results that are best possible outcomes
3. Transparency is a team virtue and there are no results surprises
4. People confidently hold each other accountable and cheer each other on
5. Their quarterly retros are honest self reflection
#5

15. They have aspirations and act with urgency on both
the work they do and the way they work
#6

16. They measure against themselves and
their customers’ expectations.
#7

17. They play well with other teams so
organization results are better.
They don’t …
Focus on what other teams should do better or do for them
Have a sense of superiority over other teams
They do …
Focus on how they can be most successful themselves
Enable others to succeed and establish shared objectives across the organization
#8

18. So what do you want to accomplish
with the rest of 2017?

19. Deidre Paknad
CEO at Workboard Inc
3-­‐time entrepreneur and CEO
Former IBM executive of fast-­‐growing global business
17 patents granted or pending
Author of several widely accepted governance benchmarks and IT
reference models
2x inducted in Smithsonian Institute for innovation
About the presenter…
@Workboard engages with leaders and
teams to achieve smart strategies faster

20. 20
FROM Scale is Power TO Nimble is Power
Workboard is to strategy
what agile is to development.
Old World: Less dynamic market, slower rate of change, ability
to predict longer horizon, top-­‐down org structures
• Opaque plan: 1,000 hours to get data
• Progess in varratives with few metrics
• Multi-­‐year and annual plan cycle top of house
• Individual MBOs
New World: Rapid innovation, accelerating market change,
advance-­‐by-­‐iteration, dynamic non-­‐hierarchical org structures
• Fully transparent and data driven: 10 seconds to data
• Measurement with narrative
• Quarterly cycle in more inclusive, fast iteration
• Team OKRs

21. A strategy is as good as its execution and evolution.
ü Establish and cascade the plan and
success metrics faster
ü Communicate, engage and align it
further into organization
ü Empower managers to be results
leaders with strategy line of sight
ü Execute collaboratively with
greater transparency
ü Efficiently manage against plan
with facts and data
ü Shift from read outs to real time
alerts and data on demand
Workboard brings people, plans and action together faster: