September Has a Way of Testing a Plan.
The year is well underway. Summer is behind us. And for many leadership teams, the priorities that seemed clear at the beginning of the year are now competing with new pressures, emerging risks and the realities of day-to-day operations.
This is often the point when organizations need to do something deceptively simple:
Stop and check in.
Not another planning exercise. Not a lengthy strategy session.
Just an honest conversation about execution.
Whether you are working from a strategic plan, an operational plan or a set of annual priorities, this is a good time to ask whether what you set out to do still makes sense — and whether you are making the progress you expected.
I’ve been encouraging leadership teams to take 30 minutes and work through six questions:
1. What has changed since we set the plan — internally or externally?
2. Are our most important priorities still the right ones?
3. Where are we making meaningful progress?
4. What is off track, stalled or at risk?
5. What is getting in the way of execution?
6. What must happen between now and year-end, and who owns it?
The questions are simple. The conversation they generate often isn’t.
Priorities may need to shift. Something that looked manageable six months ago may now be at risk. A project may be moving, but not producing the expected result. Or a leadership team may discover that people are working very hard,
just not always on the things that matter most.
That is why execution deserves its own conversation.
A strategic plan sets direction. An operational plan translates that direction into action.
Regular execution check-ins help us determine whether we are actually getting where we intended to go — and what needs to change if we aren’t.
I’ve attached a simple 30-Minute Execution Check-In that leadership teams can use to guide the conversation.
30 minutes. Six questions. A clearer path forward.
Sometimes a relatively small pause now can make a significant difference to what happens next.
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