Evidence found in recent studies has shown that only 13% of organisations effectively end up executing their strategic plan. This shows a great disconnect between the plan outlined by leadership and the execution on the ground,

This disconnect has the inevitable effect to undermine organisational success, miss deadlines, lose opportunities, and face many more significant repercussions.

What are the main struggles and what can you do to fix them?

1. Lack of clear direction.

If people in your organisation are not executing well, it means that there is a lack of clear direction. One of the reasons for poor execution is that perhaps people and teams are not working in alignment with strategic priorities. What’s needed is clearer direction about the plan, priorities and have all the stakeholders aligned toward the same objectives.

2. Poor communication.

Another reason organisations are not executing well is that there is a lack of communication. When organisations have a silo approach, although teams and departments work toward the same objectives, communication tends to be broken up which leads often to poor cohesion and misplaced priorities, and missed deadlines. What’s needed in this case is the breaking down of silos, more cross-departmental meetings to facilitate communication and exchange of progress and information across a unified system.

3. High levels of bureaucracy.

This scenario is more prevalent in big organisations where there are too many levels of management and reporting. In this particular situation, it can become arduous to navigate the chain of command, obtain approvals and make decisions. What’s needed, once the execution plan is rolled out, is to reduce red tape by giving as much autonomy and decision-making power to line managers avoiding wasting time and bring the execution plan to fruition.

4. Lack of Delegation.

This happens when a leader wants to shoulder the entirety of a project without dividing the tasks across the team,  thus slowing down execution. What’s needed in this case is to break down the tasks into smaller tasks and delegate them among team members explaining clearly what’s expected. A coordinated effort is a clear mark of a great organisation and will foster people’s involvement and empowerment.