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In today’s accelerated pace of business, there are benefits to going slow on strategy execution. In this post, Sean McCoy explains why.

Leaders of all types of organizations – businesses, non-profits, government departments – often want their organizations to move faster. Once leaders develop clear vision and strategy, they want the organization to move as fast as possible in executing the strategy.

We have worked with numerous organizations across various industries on their “speed of execution”, and some patterns have emerged. We have seen 10 common reasons why organizations execute strategies slowly.

Layers – More layers mean more time is spent delegating and not doing. Once work is finally completed by frontline staff, each layer means another step of review. Also, each layer in the org has its own interpretation of the strategy, so more layers means more degrees of separation from the CEO’s original strategy.

Gaps in responsibilities – A CEO provides a clear vision and strategy to achieve that vision, yet organizations can still move slowly because work slips through the cracks. This usually happens because the division of labor for an activity was not clearly defined.

Overlapping responsibilities – When multiple people think a decision or activity is in “their lane”, the organization slows down while ownership is sorted out. Too many organizations are familiar with the turf wars that often ensue.

Unclear communication – When a CEO brings a new strategy, everyone silently asks themselves “what does this mean for me?”. Unclear communications make it difficult to answer this question. As a result, the organization develops a reluctance to embrace a course of action with unclear consequences.

Key points include:

• Culture mismatch
• Excessive hand-offs
• Speed not measured

Read the full article, 10 Reasons Organizations Execute Strategies Slowly, on TheMcCoyConsultingGroup.com