One of the most fundamental challenges in every CEO’s world is how to convert vision and strategy into reality. This is the essence of change management, and it is where every CEO regularly faces his or her defining moment. The fact is, you can have incredible breakthrough business strategies, but if you are unable to successfully implement, your days as a CEO are numbered—and your company’s existence is in jeopardy! Brilliant ideas without execution and results simply aren’t worth much…

Many experts (ourselves included) teach the importance of corporate strategy and what it should consist of. (Click here to go to an example of a CEObuilder Strategic Plan Review) While this is essential, it represents only one part of your responsibility: strategic CONTENT. It is equally important for every CEO to manage the PROCESS of strategy implementation. CEObuilder coaches work with our clients to assure that both CONTENT and PROCESS are addressed successfully.

It is important for the CEO to have a personal vision of what will constitute success in terms of both CONTENT and PROCESS. Generically, successful content will entail the execution of any strategy—and the achievement of desired outcomes. Successful process, however, goes further. It assures that a strategy is not just “flavor of the month;” that it becomes part and parcel to the company’s culture; i.e., the way you and your people do business on a day-to-day basis.

As you might imagine, this seldom happens easily or fast. Our experience over the years has taught us to expect the following progression—if the CEO carefully manages PROCESS as well as CONTENT:

Initially, every significant change is met with some level of resistance—or CONFLICT. This can be overt, or even take the form of sabotage, and it is important for the CEO to understand where each of his or her stakeholders really stands regarding becoming fully engaged in the strategy.

It is important to discuss strategy in detail with your executive team, and where possible, with all employees. This should not be a lecture or one-way communication, but rather should entertain the ideas, opinions, and concerns of all. CEOs sometimes balk at taking the time to do this—since they are inevitably “action-oriented.” Because of this, they have a tendency to want to skip this part of the process in favor of “getting started.” This is inevitably a mistake! Although it is certainly within your power to force a strategy to the COMPLIANCE level, the likelihood that you will move rapidly to CONCURRENCE is low. When COMPLIANCE is obtained through force rather than working cooperatively together, people generally come grudgingly to CONCURRENCE.

In managing the process inherent in climbing the pyramid, your first objective is to work through the CONFLICT or resistance phase to the “try it, hopefully you’ll like it” phase. This is COMPLIANCE. What you should expect here is that your team will give a full effort to adopting the essential actions required to implement your strategy. This doesn’t mean that they are completely sold; it just means that they are no longer resistant to trying it out. Your job will be to provide sustaining behaviors to assure that they perform their essential actions every day. (More information on Essential Actions and Sustaining Behaviors is available from any CEObuilder Coach.)

As your strategy begins to prove viable, your team should naturally move to the next level: CONCURRENCE. At this point, they will begin to express their understanding that the strategy actually works; that it is achieving the outcomes desired—and that they approve of it. Continued attention to essential actions and sustaining behaviors is critical here. This is often where solid strategies begin to lose traction. CEOs and other executives stop fulfilling their sustaining behaviors, which gives license to employees to discontinue their essential actions. In short, CONCURRENCE isn’t a change of culture yet; it is, however, an essential stepping stone to real culture change.

When the top of the pyramid is attained, the CEO will find that most, if not all of his or her employees will readily extol the virtues of the strategy. They will not only attest to its effectiveness, but they will begin to express their feeling that the strategy is “who they are.” At this point, they will willingly adopt the sustaining behaviors required to keep the strategy (and its essential actions) intact. And, you, as the CEO will have the ability to extend your attentions elsewhere.

It is impossible to achieve the ultimate goal of having the strategy becoming part of the everyday culture of your business if you don’t move through each level of the pyramid shown above. CONFLICT must be overcome to achieve COMPLIANCE, COMPLIANCE must be achieved to reach CONCURRENCE—and finally, CONCURRENCE must be attained to lead to CULTURE. To get to the top of the pyramid, you must build buy-in to your strategy. In order for this progression to occur, it is essential that the CEO keep an open mind and an open door to allow for regular input and feedback from stakeholders.

From among those who are clearly supportive, it is generally important to identify a champion or evangelist. This person should be someone with the time, energy, and enthusiasm to focus their attention on the initiatives or projects that grow out of strategy. It is often important to empower this individual to carve out some dedicated hours each week to concentrate on moving the strategy forward—including defining and implementing essential actions and sustaining behaviors. By using a champion, CEOs will feel less isolated in taking on the challenges of implementing new strategies—and they will find that their ability to move rapidly from COMPLIANCE to CONCURRENCE will be enhanced. This comes as a result of the champion’s evangelism for the strategy. Through these efforts, other converts to the cause will begin to engage.

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