This presentation shows how agile concepts can be combined with strategy execution best practices, resulting in a meaningful, practical and quickly deployable strategy execution framework.

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Agile Strategy Execution
Framework: Part 1
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Culture
Governance
Strategic
Plan
Align
& Link
Plans &
Metrics
Refresh/
Transform
Innovation
Bets
Cadence
Decisions
Real-time
Updates
Plans, Updates & Cadence Decisions

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“A plan of action or policy
designed to achieve a major or
overall aim” Wikipedia
“ A systematic way of exposing
reality and acting on it.”
Execution Bossidy & Charan
Strategy Execution:
Redefined
“Translating strategy into a reality that is
aligned, accountable & responsive”
“... a term used to describe the
activities within an organization to
manage the execution of a
strategic plan”. Wikipedia

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Strategy Execution Must Become more Agile!
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Aligned
•Goals, strategy and initiatives are linked and coordinated.
•Processes exist to coordinate/integrate organization & department operating plans
vertically & horizontally.
•Breakthrough and run-the-business projects & activities must cascade from linked
goals, strategy and initiatives.
Accountable
•All employees have direct line of sight to goals and strategy and can see the
interconnectedness as well as their role and contribution.
•Culture is data & outcome driven with team buy-in & ownership.
•Progress to expected plan outcomes is regularly measured & reported.
Responsive
•Ongoing adaptation/realignment to the changing internal and external landscapes.
•Cross-department objectives, actions and metrics are managed real-time with
frequent discussion and decision making.
•Real-time performance measurement transparency with common definitions

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Agile Strategy Execution:
Framework Dimensions
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Plans & Metrics:
Overview
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Definition: A systematic approach translating organizational goals,
objectives & strategies into area initiatives, tactics & metrics
Methods:
Hoshin Kanri: Hoshin Planning, Policy Deployment
Focus on the few breakthrough business goals and objectives
OGSM: Objectives, Goals, Strategies and Metrics
OKR: Objectives and Key results - Intel, Google
Communicate priorities, maintain alignment and make it stick
Balanced Scorecard: Performance measurement framework
Outcomes:
 Objectives/initiatives: broken into manageable components (epics/stories)
 Transparency: Single Source of Truth: (SSOT)
 SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results focused, Time bound
 Metrics: tied to critical objectives: measured & reviewed real-time
Plans &
Metrics

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Area/Initiative Plan
Plans &
Metrics
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Area Scorecard
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Plans &
Metrics

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Plans & Metrics:
Tools
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Balanced Scorecard OKR’s Scorecard
Plans &
Metrics
OGSM ScorecardHoshin Planning

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Cadence Decisions:
Overview
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Definition: Ensure real-time resourcing & course correcting solutions to
manage prioritization & the backlog decision making processes.
Methods:
Decision meeting: identify issues, develop action plans to get back on
track/change direction. Not intended as an “Inform” meeting
Identify & prioritize items for next set of sprint items (initiatives/epics)
Reprioritize backlog re. “Stop Keep Start” (SKS) as needed
Outcomes
Objectives/initiatives broken into manageable components (epics/stories)
Real-time refinement/pivoting of initiatives/tactics to stay on track
Work completed, delivered and evaluated/communicated…. regularly
Institutionalized prioritization/backlog processes
Strengthened organizational agility & responsiveness
Cadence
Decisions

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Cadence Decisions:
Cascade
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EPIC
?
Cadence
Decisions

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Agile Dimensions:
Decision Cadence
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“We’ve basically unplugged anything that was annual. … in the digital age, sitting down once a year
to do anything is weird, it’s just bizarre. So… whether it’s doing business reviews or strategic
planning, in a much more continuous way…..” Jeff Immelt, GE Chairman 2015
Cadence
Decisions

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Putting the ‘Agile’ in
Agile Strategy Execution
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Adherence to a set of themes that integrate meaningful Agile Concepts with strategy execution
Best Practices.
→ Focus on results (i.e. metrics, targets and undesirable variance thresholds) with the ability to
and drive course corrections when results deviate from expected tolerances.
→ Sustainable self-organizing cross-functional teams built around projects, programs, run-
the-business activities & process improvement work efforts.
→ Building through incremental improvements Rapid cycles of learning, with ‘Backlog’ as a
place to capture initiatives/tactics for next cycle of work
→ Continuous delivery of value (i.e. actionable intelligence) based on knowledge transfer, a
continuous improvement learning culture and a bias for action.
→ Commitment to innovation via responding, adjusting, testing, evolving and making changes
continuously with Scrum as a mechanism for getting things done.
→ Transparency and a single-source-of-truth for all information seeded from disparate data
sources.
→ Valuing individuals and collaboration with a focus on governing from the middle based on
direction from the top - especially cross-functional and even cross-enterprise (i.e. with
customers, suppliers, partners, and the contingent workforce).

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Revolutionizing the HOW!
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 Inclusive & can be used with strategy
‘Best Practices’ tools & techniques in
place in organizations today.
 Strict in intent yet flexible in delivery
style.
 Success can be measured, showing
before and after results.
 Each dimension can be worked
separately or together, in whatever
order is best for the organization.
Benefits of Using an Agile
Strategy Execution Framework
https://www.amazon.com/Agile-Strategy-Execution-Revolutionizing-
How/dp/1537477633/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=148548325
0&sr=1-1&keywords=alan+leeds

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Alan Leeds, Biography
Alan Leeds is the president of Agile Strategy Manager, a software company enabling
companies to convert strategy into action. For 20 years, Mr. Leeds was President
of Leemak, a management consulting firm. Alan’s experiences in consulting provided
the foundation for the methodology upon which ASM is based.
​His expertise in strategy deployment and change management methodologies has
helped companies deliver tangible operating results. He has led numerous Fortune 500
companies such as Raytheon, Cisco Systems and Texas Instruments to effect these
changes, pioneering both innovative processes and tools.
Alan holds a Masters from SUNY, and a BS from Syracuse University and is currently on the board of Directors
for the Association for Strategic Planning (ASP). Prior speaking engagements have included 2007 National
conferences for the IPS Learning, CSCMP and the ASP. He introduced his Agile Strategy Execution Framework
paper at the Agile Alliance2016 conference in July. An award winning magician, he incorporates magic into
his presentations.
This paper, based on the book, Agile Strategy Execution: Reinventing the HOW! ,was developed for the ASP
webinar series, to be presented on February 14, 2017.
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