Spot Gridlock Problems Before they are out of control

books:

	• Preventing Strategic Gridlock: Leading Over, Under & Around Organizational Jams to Achieve High Performance ... Pamela S. Harper Cameo Publications, LLC, 2002 - 230 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Overcoming Stalls that Derail Strategic Progress

Several studies of strategic management have found that around 70 percent of all new strategies fail. The main culprit is that they are not effectively executed. In many cases, the strategies would have been all but impossible to execute because the organization was overburdened with other challenges, did not have the resources in place and poorly communicated what was to be done.

Preventing Strategic Gridlock aims at overcoming those problems by both selecting more appropriate strategies to implement and avoiding the common pitfalls of execution for strategies that could be executed well by an organization.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part looks at the main causes of strategic gridlock (assuming anyone can execute any strategy any way they want, continuing to restructure and streamline to address strategic and implementation issues, being too quick and not considered enough in reacting to new problems, thinking that everyone knows what to do if you just announce a new program, switching to the flavor of the week fix so that everyone is confused and dispirited, not listening to what's not working, and not considering immovable obstacles to progress).

I loved that section. It reminded me of the first part of the book I co-authored The 2,000 Percent Solution, in which we looked at the stalls to organizational progress. These hidden roadblocks are illustrated with very funny cartoons that make the point very clear, good examples that you will understand, underlying beliefs that can get you into trouble, how to uncover the problem, a check list to help you see how bad the problem is in your organization, and a list of questions and answers to issues that you will probably be concerned about.

In the second part, Ms. Harper describes a six-step process organized around the acronym UNLOCK. This process encourages you to understand the full nature of the challenge you face, negotiating the enthusiastic participation of those who need to implement the new direction, considering how your culture can help or hurt in the change, organizing to get the work done, communicating in ways that make sense and to keep adjusting in response to what you run into.

I thought that the process was not quite sufficiently detailed for what most people will need to follow this advice. That was the only significant weakness in the book. But the second part does a fine job of raising the right issues.

Again, I was struck by the parallel to The 2,000 Percent Solution where we describe an eight-step process to make progress in our second part.

After sleeping on my reaction to the book, I feel like Ms. Harper has produced a 2,000 percent solution for overcoming the problems of making strategic change. Nice stallbusting, Ms. Harper!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about developing or implementing a new strategy.

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"Must-have advice for strategy developers"

I learned strategic planning from the usual textbooks and strategy consultants with established brand names. That was the easy part. Pamela S. Harper's book is not about any of that. It's about what it takes to develop strategies that have the best chance of succeeding during implementation. These are insights distilled from years of experience.

The book leads off with a description of the symptoms of stalled strategies that should be familiar to almost everyone who has spent a significant amount of time in large corporations. When I read this book, I was compelled to stop and think about why some of the strategic initiatives I've supported succeeded while others failed despite rigorous planning. This book brought the reasons into sharp relief.

Ms. Harper emphasizes that it's essential to gain active support from all of the key players that are impacted. This includes external influences such as alliance partners, wholesalers, regulatory agencies and the public. She explains how to do this in everyday language. She concludes by spelling out a sequence of practical steps that any change leader can follow with the confidence that he/she is doing everything possible to ensure success.

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Great Book for Turbulent Times

Pam Harper's book may have come out in 2002 but the insights are as fresh and relevant as yesterday's newspapers. Few companies made it through the recent financial crisis unscathed, and few strategic plans survived the turmoil.

This is an environment that tends to foster strategic gridlock, as the crisis exposes the persistent organizational problems that keep a company from achieving maximum performance. The seven roadblocks that Ms. Harper describes are even more harmful when an organization is emerging from a crisis than they are in the middle of it, since this is the time when the company's leaders are most likely to let down their guard and make a misstep.

Pam Harper's book defines a process for unlocking strategic gridlock through a plan for understanding the current situation, developing a plan that has alignment and then communicating and adjusting that plan.

I just learned about this book recently and I have begun to recommend it to my clients as a way to introduce them to the process of unlocking their own strategic gridlock.

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Spot Gridlock Problems Before they are out of control

Reviewed by Juanita Watson for Reader Views (8/06)

Pamela Harper is an internationally know speaker, author, and is the president of Business Advancement, Inc. She has over 20 years of experience as a consultant with companies ranging from small-business to Fortune 500. She is sought out by leaders in the business marketplace to transform their internal strategies and increase performance results.

The first part of "Preventing Strategic Gridlock" Harper reveals and explains seven of the most common hidden roadblocks that stall business growth. She outlines real-life examples of the step-by-step path to the downward slide giving readers a cut-and-dry visual of how this happens.

Part Two of "Preventing Strategic Gridlock" details Harper's six-step process for reducing the gridlock and enabling leaders to more smoothly integrate execution with strategic thinking and planning. Harper discovered these six principles and guidelines during her research and consulting experiences and research, and has formed U.N.L.O.C.K. to `unlock' performance.

Pamela Harper guides businesses to re-evaluate their strategies and enables leaders to run a more effective and efficient organization. Bottom line - Every business leader would benefit from having "Preventing Strategic Gridlock" on their resource shelf. It is educational, consistent, and proven effective, and will help leaders spot gridlock problems before they get out of control.

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Common Sense Advice For Moving Your Business Forward

The other day, I came across a very interesting book called Preventing Strategic Gridlock, by Pamela Harper. Ms. Harper is the President of Business Advancement Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to helping leaders transform strategy into high performance results. Check out the link to the article entitled The Key to Aligning Strategy with Execution on her website.

I really like Preventing Strategic Gridlock.

Ms. Harper begins her book be describing what she calls the Seven Hidden Roadblocks that come about because leaders have mistaken assumptions about their organizations' reality.

The Seven Hidden Roadblocks are:
1. One size fits all -- The tendency to adopt previously successful solutions without regard to whether they can work in your organization now.
2. Management by lobotomy -- The tendency to rely on organizational "surgery (layoffs, reorganizations, budge cuts) to solve persistent organizational problems.
3. Act now, think later -- The tendency to assume that you have enough information to select strategies and intiatives to meet your organization's real needs.
4. Magic of the marquee -- The tendency to expect the organization to instantly accept change.
5. Roller coaster -- The tendency to assume that introducing a rapid series of new strategies and initiatives will move the organization forward.
6. Tin ear -- The tendency to preceive only one "tone" of reality.
7. Lighthouse -- The tendency to "stay the course" despite clear cut danger signs.

Ms. Harper goes on to explain how to U.N.L.O.C.K. strategic gridlock

* U -- Understand the full challenge
* N -- Negotiate key stakeholder buy in
* L -- Locate cultural 'advancers and 'blockers"
* O -- Organize priorities, goals and action plans
* C -- Communicate credibly
* K -- Keep adjusting

I won't go into more detail here. You'll have to read the book yourself. However I believe that any leader who wants to move his or her organization forward will benefit from reading and applying the concepts in Preventing Strategic Gridlock.

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reviews: page 1, 2

Advancing Businesses Despite the Economic Terrain

Find out why strategies and initiatives that looked good during planning end up mysteriously snarled in a tangled web of persistent organizational problems ("strategic gridlock") during execution. Preventing Strategic Gridlock shows the reader how to:

Â· Gain insights into the common but mistaken assumptions leaders often make about their organizations;

Â· Apply the six principles and guidelines of organizational reality to U.N.L.O.C.K.Â® their company from the Strategic Gridlock cycle;

Â· Learn how to achieve the high-performance results that todayÂ?s high-pressure environment demands.

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