Strategy deployment is a tool to create alignment.

Use tools to create alignment to company vision and corporate mission (strategy deployment).

Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic

Strategy deployment is an important function for any organization. Whether large or small, formal or informal, creating alignment to vision and strategy is critical. What tools do we have to support and further this endeavor? Creating an image of True North will guide us toward our goals, but how do we keep True North in front of us?

I have been exposed to the X-matrix tool with unimpressive results. At the risk of insulting some, I will express my opinion and share an experience that validates my position. When I worked with this tool and an executive team, we experienced very mixed results. Of the 8 executive team members, two found the tool to be positive. The rest were confused and frustrated by it.

We spent more time deciphering the methods of using the tool than we did experiencing value from it. Finally, I ask the question who is the tool for? The answer I got from the chief executive was – me (himself). I asked him if serving himself or if serving his team was his purpose. He told them to throw it away and we started again.

The tool we need most is called an agreement. When vision and strategy are deployed, and we create a condition of readiness, there is an agreement to pursue a specific outcome through defined and agreed upon methods. If we need to document these agreements, by all means, document them. If the document is confusing or difficult to manage, then find another way. True North, vision, mission, strategy, are all meaningless is they are just a catch phrase or an idea that fails to reach the organization in a meaningful way.

Strategy Deployment is the Tool

To evaluate the effectiveness of any process, we should ask two questions. Did you follow your process, did you produce the intended results. We are inundated with ideas every day. They sound great, but until they are tried, tested and proven to deliver the expected results they are nothing but an idea. True North is great unless you never use it to move forward.

One of the greatest frustrations an organization experiences is when leadership looks nothing like their words. Talk to me all you want about your vision and your strategy, but until I see the effort put into making it happen, it’s all just talk.