Why the vast majority of strategies fail — and how to break that trend, with CEO Aric Wood

More than 80% of strategic plans fail. So chances are, if you’re an organizational leader, you’re (unfortunately) part of that group. But there are ways to turn that tradition around — and actually execute on the strategies you spend so much time designing. 

 

Our latest guest is an expert in helping companies do just that. Aric Wood is the CEO of XPLANE, a global design consultancy that serves Fortune 500 businesses and global organizations to clarify, communicate, and activate their strategies and drive change in their organizations. He is also the author of the Strategy Activation Playbook.

 

Tune into the full episode for more on common mistakes that companies make in their strategic planning, the importance of human-centered design in reversing that trend, how many touchpoints you *really* need with your team to actually execute your vision, how to use focus groups to understand barriers, and more.

 

Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Learn: 

 

• More about Aric’s company, XPLANE

• The statistic about strategic planning that was “infuriating” for Aric — and how his company helps to change that stat

• What an organization's failure to reach its vision or strategic initiatives boils down to

• Why human-centered design is important to incorporate into strategic planning

• Why the way companies have traditionally rolled out strategy is a “dinosaur” — and what’s changing now 

• More about the 80-20 rule, and how understanding it can impact change management at your organization

• How many touchpoints you typically need with your team (and what kind of touchpoints) if you want to successfully enact a strategic plan

• How to use focus groups to figure out the barriers to change at your organization

• Why the “smartest person in the room” is actually the “room”

• Why rolling out a strategy as a 100-page PowerPoint deck is a bad plan — and what to do instead 

• The biggest obstacle to actually executing a strategic plan

• How Aric measures success with his clients 

 

Resources Mentioned in This Episode: 

• XPLANE consultancy

• Aric Wood on LinkedIn

• “The Strategy Activation Playbook: A Practical Approach to Bringing Your Strategies to Life” by Aric Wood

• “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman

• 40 Strategy

• Contact 40 Strategy

• Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn