Human-Centered Approaches for Bringing Strategy to Life
Introduction: The Gap in Traditional Strategy Approaches
Strategy is often confined to boardrooms, treated as a theoretical exercise led by executives. Yet, 70% of strategies fail due to poor execution, according to Harvard Business Review.
Why? Because isn’t just about planning—it’s about activating it through people. This post explores human-centered methods to bridge the gap between strategy design and action, ensuring alignment, experimentation, and sustained momentum.
1. How to Identify the Strategic Choices You Own
Ownership Starts with Clarity
Every team contributes to strategy, whether shaping customer experience or optimizing operations. To identify your strategic ownership:
- Map Your Sphere of Influence: Use the Eisenhower Matrix to categorize tasks by urgency/importance, focusing on high-impact areas.
- Align with Organizational Goals: Connect your team’s work to company-wide objectives using frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). For example, Google ties team OKRs to corporate priorities like AI innovation.
- Leverage SWOT Analysis: Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in your domain. Procter & Gamble uses SWOT to align product teams with market needs.
Key Skill: Business Strategy
Master tools like Porter’s Five Forces to assess competitive dynamics or Blue Ocean Strategy to explore uncontested markets.
2. Engaging Stakeholders Early: Co-Creation Beats Dictation
Build Alignment from Day One
Involving stakeholders early prevents misalignment. Methods include:
- Design Thinking Workshops: IDEO’s human-centered design approach fosters empathy. Run sessions to map stakeholder pain points.
- Stakeholder Mapping: Use RACI Matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) to clarify roles. IBM’s design team engages engineers and marketers in strategy sprints.
- Empathy Interviews: Airbnb’s turnaround story began with founders interviewing users to rebuild trust.
Case Study: When Microsoft shifted to a “growth mindset,” Satya Nadella hosted company-wide hackathons to align 150,000 employees around cloud-first strategies.
3. Testing Strategy: Think Small, Learn Fast
Prototype
Avoid grand rollouts. Instead:
- Run Pilot Experiments: Test initiatives in controlled environments. Dropbox validated its referral program with a minimal viable test (MVT), boosting signups by 60%.
- Build MVPs (Minimum Viable Products): Eric Ries’ Lean Startup principles apply to strategy. For example, Spotify tests feature ideas with “squad” teams before scaling.
- Adopt OODA Loops: John Boyd’s Observe-Orient-Decide-Act framework enables rapid iteration.
Key Skill: Innovation
Learn rapid prototyping from Stanford’s d.school or IDEO’s Design Kit.
4. Assessing Resources: Fuel for Execution
Balance Ambition with Realism
A 2023 McKinsey study found that 45% of strategies fail due to resource gaps. To avoid this:
- Audit Resources with VRIO: Evaluate if resources are Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, Organized.
- Budget for Agility: Allocate 10–15% of budgets for experimentation, as Amazon does with its “two-pizza teams”.
- Leverage Cross-Functional Teams: Nike’s “Consumer Direct Offense” pooled digital, supply chain, and marketing experts to accelerate e-commerce.
Tools: Use Trello for task tracking or Asana for resource allocation.
5. Bringing Strategy to Life Daily
Embed Strategy in Rituals
- Daily Standups: Link tasks to strategic goals, like Atlassian’s engineering teams.
- Visual Management: Toyota’s Kanban boards make progress tangible.
- Storytelling: Salesforce’s “V2MOM” (Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, Measures) translates strategy into narratives.
Key Skill: Stakeholder Alignment
Use Balanced Scorecard to align KPIs across departments.
6. Key Skills for Activating Strategy
- Business Strategy: Understand market dynamics with frameworks like Business Model Canvas.
- Stakeholder Alignment: Master facilitation via Liberating Structures.
- Resource Assessment: Learn financial modeling from Corporate Finance Institute.
- Innovation: Apply Design Sprint methods from Jake Knapp’s playbook.
Conclusion: Sustaining Momentum
Activating strategy requires shifting from “planning” to “doing” through collaboration, experimentation, and agility. As Reed Hastings of Netflix says, “Strategy is never done; it’s a living process”. Start small, engage broadly, and iterate relentlessly.
