Accelerate your strategy

I spent a day with the Treasury One Dakar Rally team a few months ago.

The machine they’ve built is extraordinary. It’s astonishing that something can move so swiftly, accelerate that rapidly, sound impressive, maintain such control, and navigate over rocks and through obstacles seamlessly.

We all experienced a ride in the car (as passengers, of course). As one passenger got out of the car, he said: “I saw this ramp approaching and thought we would slow down. But we didn’t. Instead, we continued at full speed, soared over it, and landed on the other side as gently as a feather settling on a down duvet, barely feeling the impact.”

This experience got me thinking: imagine building that level of performance within your organisation. What if your team could set a goal and move toward it with such speed and control, overcoming obstacles and impediments without as much as a flinch?

Level Up Your Strategy Execution

There are three key contributors required to move purposefully toward a goal. We use a process to guide teams through the three contributors:

Traction

Traction is the initial grip needed to start progressing. For a Dakar team, it’s how their tyres engage with the terrain.

This analogy can be pulled through into an organisation. Traction is the organisation’s ability to engage its environment – creating an understanding of the market, the trends, the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses – in order to start moving.

To achieve traction, start with this:

• Strategic direction: Align your team behind a clear vision and ultimate goal. Without understanding the “why”, they will keep on spinning, expending a lot of energy with no movement.
• Priorities: Identify and focus on your most critical initiatives to ensure efforts are concentrated where they matter most.

Momentum

Momentum involves building speed and maintaining it by managing energy, pace, and obstacles simultaneously to prevent unnecessary stops. Keep momentum and you keep moving.

In terms of strategy, it’s about understanding what is realistically achievable to sustain progress. Without this pragmatic lens, the speed of execution will become unsustainable and come at a cost of momentum.

Understanding what is realistic requires an understanding of the capacity to deliver on strategic goals.

Here are the steps to build momentum:

• Articulate the outcomes: This involves setting clear, outcome-based goals, with deadlines. We use goals to track and measure whether we’re getting better.
• Assign accountability: Each goal needs an agreed-upon individual to mobilise the team and drive the progress towards the outcome.
• Develop an Action Plan: The accountable individual can outline specific steps required to reach the goal.

The initial attempts at reaching these outcomes may fail. However, as you repeat and refine the approach, you enhance the organisation’s ability to predict capacity requirements and therefore limit misalignments.

Velocity

Velocity is speed coupled with direction. Increasing speed requires more effort to stay on track.

Driving at the speed limit in the neighbourhood doesn’t require a navigator. Driving at breakneck speed through the desert does.

Like a navigator consistently guiding a driver, organisations need consistent communication to ensure everyone is aligned with the direction of travel.

To maintain velocity:

• Increase communication: The only way to mobilise larger parts of the organisation is through continuous communication. Foster collaboration by reminding the organisation of strategic goals regularly.
• Establish healthy habits: Implement rhythms and routines such as weekly check-ins, regular all-hands meetings, and quarterly celebrations to reinforce direction and progress.

Accelerating your strategy is not a once-off event. Leaders must continuously be on the lookout for opportunities and anticipate potential disruptions. By aligning your team (traction), translating strategy into actionable short-term goals (momentum), and cultivating the right habits (velocity), your organisation can navigate the path to successfully launch more of your strategic projects.

If you’d like to know more about our accelerator process, please reach out.

Happy racing,

Paul