Strategy Implementation: The ‘One In, One Out’ Approach

13 March, 2015 by Victor Gamez Barrera

If they want to accomplish anything, managers should make sure their staff have the capacity to work on the right projects

In any company in any industry, the person most keen on a new project is usually the one that dreamt it up in the first place.

This is especially true of corporate strategy projects where the ideas behind them are necessarily big, bold, and intended to bring in excitingly large amounts of money for the firm.

But it’s also a fair bet that many of those in the line whose job it will be to implement the strategy will be less keen, especially as it will probably mean more work.

In fact, CEB data show 55% of employees say they don’t have enough time to complete their current workload and, worse, 88% of staff believe their workload has noticeably increased in the past year to the point that they are far less willing to put in the extra effort they were a few years ago.

One In, One Out

All of which means that if senior managers want to successfully implement a new strategy – and that’s never an easy task – and they want employees to take on new strategic projects and initiatives, then those managers must address existing workloads before doing so. Otherwise engagement levels may drop, employees may not be able to give their work the necessary attention, and they will be increasingly likely to make mistakes.

This is a bit like how someone may run a popular bar on a Saturday night: once it’s reached capacity the doormen are told only to let more people in once the same number have left; a policy known as one in, one out.

Unlocking Capacity

So, even though the strategy team can’t hover over everyone’s shoulder to make sure crucial tasks get the resources they need, they must help managers unlock the capacity to implement strategy.

One way to do that is to share the tactic of the quality team at a beverage company in CEB’s networks, which takes employees’ workload into account when delegating projects.

Originally, quality managers would identify areas for improvement and forecast the resources needed for a given project (such as an initiative to manage increased scrap rates at a certain plant). But now, the team also does two other things.

1. It assesses how much work different employees currently have, identifying overworked staff as well as those who have the capacity to take on new projects.
2. Quality rebalances employees’ workloads to make sure it assigns new initiatives to those who have the capacity to handle them. Leaders also consider which employees are best suited to a certain project, shifting employees to where they are needed most.

Although its a simple step, the firm found that these workload reviews helped managers identify areas where efforts were being duplicated, enabling the team to free up resources for other activities.