Turning Objectives Into Actions

Companies can spend lots of time (and money) on defining their strategic direction and yearly objectives (not to be confused with each other). But how much time does any business  spend on making sure that the functional and department objectives and plans are aligned to deliver these? I would risk saying they spend a great deal less on making sure the granular objectives support the wider targets, but that doesn't have to be the case. 

As leaders, whatever level we are working at, its our responsibility to interpret the requirements of our objectives and make plans to deliver on them. 

In the past I have used the below framework as a guide to working down from Strategy to Plans. Each stage is a couple of items broken down from the step above.

Strategy --> Objectives

Objects dont need to be too specific. They are aspirational in nature which means they can be interpreted a few different ways. Think "Have our best Sales year ever" rather than "Increase revenues by 33.2%" - Dont worry, the detail comes in the next level. 

You want to be able to keep objectives short and to have them encourage the team in their performance.

Objectives --> Success Factors

here is where you will start adding the finer detail points of how you know you've achieved your objective. Defined and Dated. 

How will you know you are achieving the Objective of "Be customer obsessed"? Well you can have a success factor of CSATor NPS, you could target referrals or testimonials, maybe you want to make sure that every are of the business has a bonus impacted by Customer. This is where you define that.

Success Factors --> Plans

Having ideas in place for how you want to be successful isnt enough though. You need plans. These are then the specific tasks which you are going to do to achieve your Objectives (as defined in your success criteria)

These can then form a 'roadmap' of activities and could even influence your required budget. 

If you had an objective around employees and a success factor was an ESAT score, your plans might include "Create employee events committee" or "Hold formalised leadership training on coaching and career plans for team" - Again, define and date these.

All of these things are designed downwards (start at the top and work down). You cannot decide on a plan if you don't know what the objectives are. But tehy are delivered upwards. The plans are to deliver specific success factors. If you meet all the success factors you are doing ok on objectives.

Lastly I have included across the bottom a "themes" section. This is something to guide your thinking when working out you objectives and plans. They dont need to be specific instructions, but something to think about when planning. Maybe a theme for the year could be "Moving to cloud" and then any tech you use, you could consider this. Or "Virtual for everyone" so that you don't disadvantage remote employees by planning lots of in-person events they cannot attend. 

Below is a PDF of the framework which is free for download and use. If you find this helpful, please let me know and if you have any feedback to improve this process I am always happy to listen. 

Phil