Strategy By Department
Yet another component of strategic planning that we feel needs changing is the tendency to structure the planning work by department. When it comes time to do the strategic plan, each department takes stock of its activities and translates them into quantifiable goals for the upcoming year. Predictably, the strategic plan has a section for each department, complete with goals, action plans, and timelines. While it is true that each department will spend time doing different things throughout the year, this approach to strategy has some major flaws.
First, it reinforces the status quo. Updating strategy morphs into merely updating the metrics on a previously devised strategy. The strategy stays the same each year: you do your meetings, your education, your membership activities”â€it’s only a question of how much. This year becomes last year plus three percent. This may generate results in the short run, but this approach removes innovation from the equation, so it will certainly fall short over the long term. Like every living thing, organizations (and their strategies) must change.
Second, it reinforces those “silos” that everyone complains about. Each department creates its own goals by itself, so it stands to reason that implementation will be a solitary activity as well. This can actually inhibit cooperation and information sharing. Departments can create priorities that eventually come into conflict, but as you were focusing on your department’s goals, you missed the opportunity to resolve the issue early on (when it was easy to resolve), and now it is a crisis. This is typically perceived as the “other” department letting you down, which creates an even deeper divide between departments.
Third, it inhibits a truly strategic reaction to changes in the operating environment. Sometimes a key strategic issue will emerge that impacts only one department”â€but that is rare. Strategic issues affect departments differently, but when each department plans and implements independently, you are unable to get a coordinated response. For one department it is a crisis, but for another it is a low priority, so they do not respond on the same time schedule, slowing the response time for the whole organization.
The solution to this problem lies first and foremost at the top of the organization. The CEO and the heads of each department must create opportunities for cross-program strategy generation and implementation. While there is certainly a portion of the senior manager’s attention that focuses exclusively on their department, if they do not devote time to hashing out overall organizational priorities on a regular basis, they will fall into the silo trap. When the senior team can work effectively through cross-program priority setting, they can then manage their own department’s priorities and actions more effectively.
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