In the quest for sustainable success, Consultant Magazine gathered insights from a diverse group of experts, including HR coaches and CEOs, to share their wisdom on long-term strategy development for clients. Among these thought leaders is Gemma Bullivant, a renowned HR consultant and executive coach, who was recently featured in an article by Consultant Magazine.
In the article, Gemma shared her invaluable perspective on creating impactful, sustainable strategies for clients. She emphasises the importance of crafting strategies that are not only simple and flexible but also deeply aligned with an organisation’s core values. Her approach underscores the need for consistency and the establishment of lifelong schedules and routines to ensure long-term success. Dive into the fourteen valuable perspectives we’ve compiled, including Gemma’s, to drive sustainability and impact in your client strategies.
Craft Simple, Flexible, Aligned Strategies
In my experience, ensuring sustainability in client strategies requires simplicity, flexibility, alignment, consensus, and realism.
1. A strategy should be simple yet ambitious, providing a clear direction that can be easily communicated and understood. I like to create a one-pager (backed up by further detail) to help delivery teams focus on implementation without confusion.
2. Flexibility is crucial; the strategy is the North Star, not the to-do list, so it can adapt while keeping the organisation on track towards its ultimate goals. To achieve this, I recommend ensuring the purpose of each aspect is clear—why is it important to include?
3. Alignment between the strategy and on-the-ground activities is essential for meaningful impact. A well-documented strategy helps to identify interdependencies and ensures that initiatives are effective and cohesive.
4. Consensus is not the same as agreement—while complete agreement on every detail isn’t necessary, when people understand and accept the trade-offs, and why they’ve been agreed upon, they are more likely to stick to the plan and not go off-piste.
5. Lastly, a strategy must be realistic and meaningful at all levels, supported by regular communications, consistently linking objectives to organisational goals. People forget, get lost in the detail or distracted by urgent demands, and need regular reminders of the North Star and why it’s there.
