Gary Neilson wrote a good article recently on the Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution. He argues that a lot of things get in the way of organisations turning ideas into action.  I think he has some very useful insights.

• Structural change is very tempting at times but it often ignores the root causes of an organisation’s weaknesses. 
• Poor decision making clogs up the organisational arteries. Do your decision making processes help to get things done, or do they slow them down?
  Is everyone clear about the decisions and actions they are accountable for, or are the guidelines unclear?
• Can key up-to-date information – market changes, customer concerns, finance worries – get through to the decision makers quickly bearing in mind that often decision makers are on the ‘front line’?
• Are decisions second guessed with people further up the hierarchy changing things? Where too many people vet decisions, accountability and commitment to get it right declines. When managers interfere with decisions they are in danger of undermining local experts and managing their own time unproductively.
• Does information flow freely or have you got silos? Do managers have enough information to make joined-up decisions?
• Do front-line managers have the information they need to understand the bottom line impact of their decisions?

I see some of these errors repeated in most of the organisations I work with, and I make some of them myself. In today’s climate, however, we need to be looking at unproductive behaviour, and some of these can be really expensive!