Strategy on paper vs. reality: How to successfully transfer the strategy into everyday operations in the company?
Mar 9, 2025
Companies spend months developing strategies, values, and defined behaviors. But how much time and energy do they dedicate to their implementation?
In practice, we often encounter situations where a well-defined strategy, on which the organization's management has spent months, remains only in powerpoint presentations for the leadership, while employees perceive it as a distant reality. Like slogans on walls or articles on the intranet that no one reads. The key question that needs to be answered for regular employees when presenting the company's strategy is:
“What’s in it for me?”
If we cannot answer this question with concrete steps, covering the hidden or expressed fears that employees have about the upcoming change (yes, the strategy is about change and more than 90% of people have concerns related to it), the strategy will never take hold. And this is where a systematic roll-out of the strategy comes in, connecting strategic goals with the daily agenda of all employees.
1. From strategies to action: Where do most companies fail?
Common mistakes in implementing strategy:
❌ The strategy is presented only at a one-time all-hands meeting, a forum of dozens and hundreds of people, where everyone is afraid to ask out loud so as not to look foolish.
❌ There is a lack of translation of strategic goals into specific activities for employees. It remains at general slogans and huge transformational activities, but how does the poor accountant find his way in it with his agenda?
❌ People are not involved in the process and perceive the strategy as “something detached from reality.” They often take the strategy as just another set of tasks and an additional burden, even though they already have their hands full.
The solution? Involving employees in the process, connecting to existing roles and team rituals.
2. How to connect strategy with the daily work of employees?
Every employee participates in the roll-out of the strategy on two levels:
Company-wide activities – participation in strategic initiatives, workshops, project prioritization. We present them with a list of things the company decides to launch as part of the change, and usually, there are 3-5 activities that each of them is involved in today. They just didn't realize that they were part of the strategic plan.
Individual changes in everyday work (business as usual = BAU) – changing the way of working according to the principle STOP – START – CONTINUE. The key is to use that moment for hygiene. To eliminate activities, and there are always some, that we do out of habit. For example, preparing a routine report that no one reads, but our boss assigned it to us, who hasn’t managed us for 5 years, and preparing it takes 3 hours, etc.
🔹 STOP: What tasks or processes no longer make sense and can we eliminate them?
🔹 START: What new habits and work processes will we introduce to support strategic goals?
🔹 CONTINUE: Which activities are effective and make sense to maintain?
📌 Example: Instead of unproductive meetings with no clear outcome (STOP), implement regular short team sessions with specific tasks (START) and maintain effective reporting of results (CONTINUE).
3. Corporate culture as a key accelerator of strategy
Corporate culture cannot exist in a vacuum – it is the main tool for implementing strategy. In order for the strategy not to become just a “management exercise,” it is necessary to change people's behavior systemically. Changing behavior is especially difficult for us at the moment when we have been sitting comfortably in a warm, well-paid position for 5 years. It hurts, it raises fears and a sense of discomfort.
🔹 How to achieve this? Through team rituals that ensure that strategic changes will be sustainable in the long term.
🔹 Example of a ritual: Each month, the team reflects on what has been accomplished in relation to the strategy and what changes need to be implemented.
💡 Employees must feel that the strategy has a tangible impact on their work. Otherwise, it will never become a reality. They must see specific shifts and successes. Otherwise, this activity will be overtaken by another priority, which is currently being approved in powerpoint at the board
4. Practical steps for a successful roll-out of the strategy
Translating the strategy into everyday practice: What does the strategy mean for the work of a salesperson, IT specialist, or customer service? Be as specific as possible, discuss the changes to your role and the impacts on your work
Regular engagement of employees: Workshops, feedback, strategic initiatives. Involve individual teams in the roll-out, work through the specific content of their work and how the changes in strategy affect them. Talk to them and listen.
Setting success metrics: How do we measure that the strategy actually works? What you do not measure, you do not manage – therefore it is crucial to choose some proven methodology. The Balanced Scorecard works best for us at Kogi.
Long-term support from leaders: Managers must lead by example and be agents of change. Culture is formed around the manager, subordinates watch him very closely to see if the changes he proclaims are actually lived out.
🔑 A strategy that is not woven into the daily reality of employees translated into specific activities is not a strategy – it is merely an exercise on paper.
What is your experience with implementing strategy? If you feel that you are not succeeding as you had imagined, do not hesitate and let’s discuss it with us.