Strategy implementation plan
An implementation plan turns a chosen strategy into work people can start on Monday. The best ones keep the reasons for the strategy beside the tasks.
What an implementation plan is for
Choosing a strategy is half the job. The implementation plan says who will do what, by when, and how everyone will know it is working. A common failure is a plan that leaders understand and the people doing the work never see, or see without the reasoning that would let them adapt it.
What to include
- The endeavor and the aspiration: the goal, and where the organisation means to be.
- The strategy and why it was chosen: the alternative left standing, with the alternatives that were ruled out and the reasons.
- The diagnosis: the bottleneck the strategy is meant to get past.
- Initiatives: the larger pieces of work, each with an owner and a target date.
- Sub-goals: milestones that show progress before the final result arrives.
- Plans and tactics: the concrete steps, ranked so the team knows what comes first.
- Measures: how you will know each initiative is working.
- Triggers for review: the conditions that would send the team back to the choice, such as a fitness criterion that stops holding.
Keep the reasoning with the plan
Teams adjust plans every week. When the plan carries the reasoning behind the strategy, they can tell a sensible adjustment from a change of strategy, and take the second to the people who own it.
A simple structure for each initiative
- Initiative: open three new wholesale accounts a month.
- Owner: the sales lead.
- Sub-goal: twelve new accounts by the end of June.
- Measure: new accounts opened each month.
- Serves: the wholesale strategy, by turning inbound demand into regular orders.
A free implementation plan template
The strategy implementation plan template is a spreadsheet laid out as this guide describes, and it opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers. It has three sheets:
- Strategy: the endeavor, aspiration, diagnosis, the strategy chosen and why, what was ruled out, and the triggers for a review.
- Initiatives: each with an owner, a target date, a sub-goal, a measure, how it serves the strategy and its status.
- Plans and tactics: ranked, each tied to the initiative it serves.
Grey text is a worked example for the coffee roaster above. Start with the Strategy sheet, then write over the example rows with your own initiatives and tactics.
From the matrix to the pack in Wayframer
In Wayframer, locking the strategy hands it to the Implementation Pack. The pack gathers the endeavor and its synopsis, the strategy framework, the alternatives and the initiatives, plans and tactics that deliver it. Plans, tactics, sub-goals and initiatives are modules: tables you and Huxley fill in together, tied to the framework they serve. You rank the rows, tick what goes into the pack and export the pack as a PDF for the team.
Related guides
OKRs and strategy. Why the strategy comes first, and how to write OKRs that serve it.
The Strategy Alternatives Matrix. Set the ways forward side by side and test each against the same fitness criteria.
How to write a strategy. What a written strategy needs, a strategy statement, and tests to run on the draft.
Questions
What should a strategy implementation plan include?
The aspiration, the chosen strategy and why it won, the diagnosis it answers, initiatives with owners and dates, sub-goals, ranked plans and tactics, measures, and the conditions that would trigger a review.
What is the difference between a strategic plan and an implementation plan?
The strategic plan says where you are going and which strategy you chose. The implementation plan says how the work gets done: initiatives, owners, dates and measures.
Why do strategy implementations fail?
Common causes are a strategy the people doing the work never see, plans without owners or measures, and no agreed point at which to revisit the strategy when conditions change.
Is there a free strategy implementation plan template?
Yes. Wayframer's template is a spreadsheet with sheets for the strategy and its reasons, the initiatives with owners, dates and measures, and ranked plans and tactics, with a worked example to replace. It is linked from this guide.
How often should an implementation plan be updated?
Update plans and tactics as often as the work needs, often weekly. Revisit the strategy itself when one of its review triggers fires.