The document discusses bridging the gap between organizational strategy and execution. It states that while organizations spend significant time and resources developing strategies, there is often a breakdown when executing those strategies through projects. This can result in failure to achieve strategic goals. The document recommends upskilling project teams and leaders through training to improve their technical and relational skills for better strategy alignment and execution. It promotes the services of TwentyEighty Strategy Execution, which provides performance education to strengthen peoples' strategic and project capabilities.

1. To learn more about bridging the gap between your organization’s
strategy and execution, contact a learning expert at
+1 888.374.8884 or info@strategyex.com.
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1
The TwentyEighty Strategy Execution
Alignment Skills Bridge
Strategy making and execution are essential to organizational success. However,
many organizations are continuously challenged with bridging the gap between
the two. Over the years, research has shown a good deal of time and resources
are spent building strategies. Too often though, when strategies are translated
into project-based work—the projects, programs and portfolio efforts that enable
forward momentum—there is a break down, resulting in failure to achieve the
organization’s strategy.
What can be done to improve strategy execution alignment in order to better
support the achievement of organizational strategies? A key opportunity lies in
empowering and up skilling the teams and leaders responsible for the execution
of your project-based work.
Up Skilling vs. Hiring New Talent
According to a recent TwentyEighty Strategy Execution
Project Manager Salary and Talent study1
, 83 percent
of project organizations reported that they were
understaffed, and 44 percent of the open positions were
for senior project professionals. This number will continue
to rise as demand for talent in the marketplace continues
to increase.
Add talent challenges to external factors such as
increased regulation and compliance, emerging
technologies, rising globalization and the constant
acceleration of business, and the case for increased
investment in talent management practically writes itself. We know from
research and experience that organizations actively working to develop and
retain their talent maintain significant competitive advantages.
What happens when organizations fail at this
critical phase of strategy execution alignment?
ƒƒ Loss of revenue
ƒƒ Loss of market share
ƒƒ Decrease in shareholder value
ƒƒ Misaligned organizational structure
ƒƒ Decrease in competitive advantage
ƒƒ Slow to market with innovative solutions
ƒƒ Inability to move from reaction to pro-action

2. To learn more about bridging the gap between your organization’s
strategy and execution, contact a learning expert at
+1 888.374.8884 or info@strategyex.com.
INSIDER INSIGHTS
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Bridging the Strategy Execution Gap
Successfully aligning and executing project-based work requires a strong mix of
skills. Skills, or the lack thereof, directly impact the ability to execute projects and
realize your strategies.
If successful strategy execution alignment is seen as a “roadway” that enables
two-way flow between strategy making and strategy execution, it becomes
easier to talk about the knowledge and skills required to improve organizational
performance by strengthening strategy execution alignment.
In order to bridge the gaps and create alignment, leaders need to evaluate teams across a range of technical and
relational skills that support strong strategy execution alignment. If you think of strategy execution as the “roadway”
on a bridge, which enables seamless two-way flow of information between strategy and the required technical and
relational skills as the pillars that support the roadway, you can more easily plot the various knowledge and skills
required for your success. From there, it is much easier to look at where your organization—and your people—need
to improve in order to achieve a higher state of strategy execution alignment.
BRIDGING
THE GAP

3. To learn more about bridging the gap between your organization’s
strategy and execution, contact a learning expert at
+1 888.374.8884 or info@strategyex.com.
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At TwentyEighty Strategy Execution, we first break the skills into two pillars:
ƒƒ Technical skills: the ability to perform a specific job function or task, such as:
document a plan as part of a project or program management role.
ƒƒ Relational skills: how people interact with and analyze information, as well as
personal relationships, such as: strategic thinking
and change management approaches used to lead a project or program’s
execution.
The two skill pillars can further
be broken down into foundation,
mechanics and advanced. This provides
a structure to help an organization
begin to answer a range of questions,
including:
ƒƒ Are there gaps on the technical
side—project performance, budget
management, or governance issues
for example?
ƒƒ Are there gaps on the relational
side—effective communication,
situational analysis or customer
satisfaction?
ƒƒ Is the challenge simply having a
good mix of team members who
demonstrate strong technical as well
as relational skills?
ƒƒ Where should you invest for the
greatest and fastest impact?
Recognizing the required technical and relational skills as the pillars that
support the roadway allows you to do more than identify where the gaps are. It
helps facilitate determinations around the skill gaps that should be prioritized
for investment.
Does your team have the knowledge and skills to not just answer the
hard questions, but also develop solutions to overcome the challenges
they represent?
Internal forces:
ƒƒ Where is your organization strong?
ƒƒ Where will it benefit the most from efforts to strengthen weakness?
ƒƒ Do you have the resources to execute strategy?
ƒƒ Does your culture support your strategy?
ƒƒ Is your strategy understood at all levels internally?
ƒƒ Does your team have the appropriate skills to execute the strategy?
ƒƒ Do you have the right metrics in place to measure success?
ƒƒ Have you anticipated any and all unknown internal factors (changes
in staffing, structure, financials, customer base, etc.)?
External forces:
ƒƒ Have you anticipated any and all unknown external factors (changes
in economy, regulations, cost of materials, competition, etc.)?
ƒƒ Does your strategy recognize current and future trends?
ƒƒ Is your competitive intelligence-gathering sufficient? And is it filtered
down to everyone who needs it?
ƒƒ Are you prepared for economic changes?
ƒƒ Are you prepared for regulatory changes that might impact
business, your industry or your customer’s industries?

4. To learn more about bridging the gap between your organization’s
strategy and execution, contact a learning expert at
+1 888.374.8884 or info@strategyex.com.
INSIDER INSIGHTS
4
In other words, using a bridge as a metaphor makes it easier to look at
where your organization—and your people—need to improve in order to achieve
a higher state of strategy execution alignment.
What If Your Strategy Had Context?
A key benefit of having team members with a strong balance of skills is their
ability to see, understand and communicate the context of the strategies driving
their project-based work, as well as the organization’s strategic intent. And,
importantly, how the two fit together.
To be successful, your strategy needs to be developed and managed based
on an ever-changing environment. This means your workforce needs to make
decisions and take actions based on situational context—while still being able to
drill down and get the work accomplished.
How skilled is your current workforce at navigating through the challenges and
barriers created by internal and external forces that affect performance and
outcomes? Can they answer the hard questions? Can they help chart a critical
path to success?
Combine the right skills with context and your people will gain a more holistic
perspective to strategy making, strategy execution and alignment. This fresh
perspective will help make your organization’s execution more adaptive and
successful.
What If All of Your People Thought Like You? Like Leaders?
Today’s business climate requires project-based work to be executed with more
coordination and agility than ever before. People at all levels of the organization
are being asked to take on more leadership and decision making responsibilities.
Enabling your people through the development of their relational skillset enables
them to fulfill this leadership need.
ƒƒ What if your organization was able to build and enable decision-makers who
understand and can execute with appropriate risk?
ƒƒ What if your people had the right skills to make improved decisions?
ƒƒ What if your teams weren’t afraid to make a mistake? What if they could
apply lessons learned for rapid insights that improve results?

5. © 2015 TwentyEighty Strategy Execution, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
To learn more about bridging the gap between your organization’s
strategy and execution, contact a learning expert at +1 888.374.8884
or info@strategyex.com.
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At TwentyEighty Strategy Execution we
deliver performance education that closes
the strategy execution gap by strengthening
peoples’ strategic and project execution
capabilities to drive higher performance.
By combining the best of cutting-edge
university research and proven business
techniques, we deliver a performance-
focused perspective designed to increase
alignment and engagement across teams,
business units or the entire enterprise.
Learn more today at strategyex.com.
5
INSIDER INSIGHTS
ƒƒ What if your people had robust relational skills that allowed them to
persuasively communicate needs, ideas and recommendations up, down
and across?
Enabling leadership at all levels drives innovation, breaks down barriers and
enables your organization to proactively identify and resolve issues that can
impact successful achievement of your strategic objectives. It also helps to
make your organization more versatile and dexterous.
TwentyEighty Strategy Execution Can Help
TwentyEighty Strategy Execution cultivates the knowledge and skills your
workforce needs to close the strategy execution gap and operate effectively
in the world of project-based work.
We are more than a training company, we are a performance education
company that focuses on developing peoples’ abilities to get their work
done while expanding their tolerance for ambiguity, growing their ability
to balance rigor and discipline with agility and increasing their capacity to
zoom in and zoom out as necessary to make the most informed decisions at
any given time.
References
1. Study: PMI Pulse of the Profession: The High Cost of Low Performance, February 2014
ESI International is formally integrating with IPS Learning, who partners with the Stanford Center
for Professional Development (SCPD) to offer organizations the Stanford Advanced Project
Management (SAPM) program, to form TwentyEighty Strategy Execution.