WHITE PAPER 9209 || PAGE 1 || 800 .535.

1559

The Execution Flywheel

A White Paper from AchieveIt

The Execution Flywheel is minimum, goals, objectives, to the budget & financial plan.
AchieveIt’s best-of-breed strategies, and tactics.
methodology for strategic and 5. Monitor: The oversight of plan
operational planning, and it 3. Align: The cascading of implementation and execution.
follows a six-phase cycle: assignments to members
of management, and the 6. Report: The communication of
1. Focus: The gathering of allocation of appropriate plan results and performance
business intelligence for the capital, operational, and to key stakeholders.
purpose of focusing your human resources required to
strategic/operational plans. execute the plan effectively. Lets dive deeper into the execution
flywheel on the next page.
2. Plan: The act of developing 4. Forecast: The linking of the
the plan, which includes, at a strategic and operational plan

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The Stages of Plan

In this stage, the strategic
the Execution change agenda is converted
into a plan that moves the
Flywheel organization toward its vision.
Doing this requires the members 01. THE FOCUS PHASE
of the strategic planning team is where organizations gather
strategic business intelligence to
Focus to address five specific areas: focus on strategy development.
During this stage, the • Surveys to identify the company’s
organization deploys 1. How do we describe our mission, vision, values
• Executive Interviewing
various tools to understand strategy? This is where • Internal capabilities gap analysis
• External PESTEL analysis
opportunities and risks that strategic themes, goals, and • SWOT analysis
need to be considered during objectives are created.
the strategic planning process. 2.01. THE
How do we measure our plan?
FOCUS PHASE 01. THE
02. THE FOCUS
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company’s
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vision, values that mustvision,
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• Executive Interviewing
as the strategic plan serves to need?
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• Balanced scorecard
• Internal capabilities gap analysis
• Internal capabilities gap analysis
fulfill the mission and achieve the requires ••• Due
Key business processes
PESTELa series of strategies dates
External in m/d/y
PESTEL format
analysis
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••• Agreement
Key
SWOT performance
analysis indicators
on deliverables
vision, it is important to test your and tactics.
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Scorecards andsystems
dashboards
in place
mission and vision statements 4. What are the funding 01. THE FOCUS PHASE
01. THE FOCUS PHASE 02. THE PLAN PHASE
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andsystems
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by www.achieveit.com
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indoctrinated to the organization’s Assuming all strategic plan
and failures

most critical operating objectives

03. THE ALIGN have been assigned
PHASE 04. THE FORECAST PHASE
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with firm due dates and deliverables. evaluated on an ongoing basis.
plan is being guided by sound toevaluated
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track and monitor
mission, values, and vision whenever
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• Scorecards to identify successes and failures
conduct internal and external to and
managers
failures throughout the
analyses that will allow you to organization. Second, an internal Provided by www.achieveit.com
05.Provided
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us on Twitter @goachieveit
create a strategic change agenda. communications
Followexecution
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For a list of common tools that bethatdeveloped and launched.
the plan, balanced scorecard, and of the Monitor phase by providing
are used during the Focus stage, key performance indicators are systematic controls.
evaluated on an ongoing basis.
see the sidebar to the right. Although strategic plan objectives • Regular plan review sessions.
• Dashboards to track and monitor • A reporting system that
arebusiness
the domain of your senior
performance. illustrates progress over time.
• Scorecards to identify successes
and failures

Provided by www.achieveit.com
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executives, you should not overlook objectives are tracked using implemented effectively and
the opportunity objectives offer in dashboards and scorecards, on time. Scheduling monthly
aligning your entire management the impact of plan execution is reviews will accelerate your
team. For instance, your customer evaluated, and course corrections results. Scheduling weekly
service objective is most likely are made. It is important that you reviews even more so.
assigned to your customer service focus on timely implementation
executive. However, including and that you have tools in place

3-6-6 Cycle
customer satisfaction as an annual to ensure accountability.
performance objective for each of
your customer-facing department The faster you implement, the
managers not only enhances the sooner you can expect to see Mature organizations have been
organization’s likelihood of success, results. Thus, don’t wait until able to significantly cut down
but also creates shared responsibility. the end of your plan year to on the time it takes to move
execute your strategies and through the first four stages of
Cascading objectives throughout tactics, as there will usually not the flywheel – Focus, Plan, Align,
the organization is not the only be enough time left for your and Forecast – thus allowing
way to pave the road toward efforts to take root. For this as much time as possible for
successful implementation. A reason, strive to implement as stages five and six: Monitor and
structured internal communications much of your strategic plan as Report. Organizations that take
program, including pre-launch possible in the first half of your too long to move into execution
communications and ongoing plan year. reduce their chance of success.
communications throughout the
plan year, will keep everyone Report Ideally, stages should never
focused on what is most Successful implementation rarely overlap. Unfortunately, because
important to the organization. happens by chance. To drive many organizations take
accountability throughout the too much time to put their
Forecast organization, it is important to plan together, they are often
Few things are more frustrating schedule regular strategic required to begin next year’s
to managers than being expected plan reviews. planning cycle while they are
to implement a key component still executing this year’s plan.
of your strategic plan without These reviews can take multiple
having the resources to execute forms. First, strategic planning The 3-3-6 planning cycle
effectively. The costs of execution teams – usually formed around the resolves conflicts by eliminating
– capital, labor, and non-labor strategic themes – should meet overlaps. Stages one and two are
– must be identified during the at least monthly to review the conducted in 90 days – the third
planning process and then used as implementation timetable, discuss quarter of the organization’s fiscal
important financial assumptions roadblocks and obstacles, and year – followed by stages three
when developing the annual brainstorm alternative strategies and four, also completed in 90
budget. In addition, growth and tactics if plan objectives days – or in the fourth quarter
and performance improvement are not being met. Second, the of the fiscal year. This allows six
objectives carry with them senior strategic planning team months for plan execution, which
increased revenue and cost- should conduct a monthly or takes place in the first half of
savings opportunities, which are weekly review of the strategic the organization’s fiscal year.
important drivers of the annual plan objectives and provide
financial plan. The financial impact direction to the various teams. As much as possible, the strategic
of the strategic plan, along with Third, the quality management plan should be implemented in six
the implementation costs, should committee should regularly report months. The benefits of this are
provide the starting point for on projects that are directly two-fold. First, if the entire plan
your annual budget process. linked to the strategic plan. is executed in the first half of the
fiscal year, the organization still
Monitor By scheduling a regular series of has six months to develop and
This is the phase where execution review meetings, you increase implement alternative strategies
occurs. Strategic business the likelihood the plan will be and tactics if the strategic plan

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objectives are not being met.

Second, it allows the organization
to focus exclusively on developing
The 3-6-6 Cycle Made Simple:
next year’s plan in the second Solving Conflicts by Eliminating Overlaps
half of the year without having
to divert attention and resources
to plan implementation.

Most critical in the timing of your

strategic planning cycle is that
3rd Quarter
the plan should be completed 90 Days
prior to the budget process.
Plans prepared after the budget
has been approved often lack
the appropriate resources
required for full implementation.
1. Focus 2.Plan 5. Monitor 6. Report
To prevent this from occurring,
time your 3-6-6- cycle so that
stage two – Plan – is completed
before the formal budget process
begins. When this happens, the 4th Quarter
strategic plan then serves to 90 Days
provide budget assumptions in
the form of increased volumes
and revenues, decreased cost
projections, and capital and
operational budget requirements 3. Align 4. Forecast
associated with the strategic plan.

Measure Success and Quantify Initiatives with AchieveIt!

Through our suite of cloud-based applications, we AchieveIt is changing the game by using a new
give every customer access to a set of tools that approach to execution management and strategy
enables them to execute smarter, faster, and better. development. We are passionate about helping
We’ve added to this toolset a transformation roadmap organizations solve one of their biggest problems
that allows organizations to move easily from a today: The ability to turn organizational vision and
culture of collaboration to a culture of individual goals into real, meaningful, and tangible results.
accountability to a culture of execution – a natural
path to becoming a truly innovative organization. By combining our technology firepower with our
human brainpower, we help organizations achieve
short- and long-term success.

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