So You Have a Good Strategy… What’s Next?

In a world where change is constant—whether from economic pressures, the energy transition, or rapid AI advancements—having a solid strategy is more important than ever. But how confident can we really be that our strategy is the right one? With uncertainty at an all-time high, we need faster ways to test and validate our strategies.

Challenges in Moving Strategy to Execution

Moving from strategy to action isn’t always straightforward. Here are some common roadblocks:

• Rigid Governance Processes: Most organizations rely on long-term, three-year plans, making it hard to monitor progress in real-time.

• Long-Term Goals without Short-Term Wins: Strategies often set ambitious long-term outcomes, but without breaking them down into achievable milestones, it’s easy to miss signs of trouble until it’s too late (the "green, green, green, green, red" phenomenon).

• Traditional Change Management Is Too Slow: The need for results is immediate, and traditional change management doesn’t always deliver quickly enough. Ownership and accountability need to shift to those on the front lines, where the work actually happens.

To address these issues, we need to rethink our performance and accountability systems. This is where the Quarterly Delivery Cycle (QDC) comes in, designed to help organizations test and validate strategies quickly, build momentum in delivery of results, and execute at pace with fast escalation of roadblocks.

The Quarterly Delivery Cycle: Key Principles

The QDC is built on three core principles, enabling organizations to move faster, with confidence:

1. From Milestones to Outcomes: By using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), we focus on outcomes rather than arbitrary milestones. This way, we stay clear on what success looks like and track meaningful progress towards it.
2. Financial Metrics Remain Key: Tracking financial metrics is essential to ensure our strategy is delivering intended results and isn’t negatively impacting other areas of the business.
3. Quarterly Governance Cascades to the Front Line: Quarterly check-ins help teams review past performance, set new quarterly targets, and identify barriers. Importantly, these check-ins focus on goals that actually shift quarterly, allowing us to make timely adjustments. For instance, if you’re running a three-year capital project, quarterly profit updates may not be relevant—but tracking OKRs gives insight into short-term progress.

Embedding Quarterly Cycles Across the Organization

Moving to a quarterly cycle requires buy-in from all levels. While the change can be significant, there are ways to start small and build momentum, ensuring progress is made every 90 days.

By adopting the Quarterly Delivery Cycle, organizations can achieve greater agility and accountability and test and refine their strategy quickly to have greater confidence they are on the path to success, one quarter at a time.

In this video excerpt, Paul McNamara goes through the quarterly cycle for planning and delivery: