You Can’t Delegate Strategy Development: Why bottoms-ups strategies never work
As leaders, we are frequently inundated with new ideas and initiatives from our teams. They are eager to take ownership and contribute to the success of the organization, and we want to encourage and support them. So, when it comes to building long-term strategies for our organizations, one popular approach is the “bottoms-up” strategy, where each individual group or function builds its own strategies. These separate strategies are then consolidated at the highest levels of the organization to create a top-level strategy built from the “bottom-up.” On the surface, this approach seems like a great way to ensure buy-in and ownership from everyone involved. However, the fact is that bottoms-up strategies are often lazy and uninspired.
Bottoms-up strategies are equivalent to everyone being out for a pass, but no one calling the play.
Let me explain. Imagine you’re the coach of a football team, and you’ve tasked each player with creating their own game plan for the next match. Each player is focused on their own goals and objectives, and there is no clear direction or playbook for the team as a whole. The result is chaos, missed opportunities, and an ineffective team. The same is true for bottoms-up strategies in business. Without a clear direction, the lack of alignment leads to confusion and poor decision-making.
Strategy is the leg work that must be done to establish a long-term goal, set a unifying direction, and determine where to focus. The best top-down strategies seem simple and obvious once they are developed. Delegating strategy development to be bottoms-up is a great way to get no where fast.
Here are their three reasons why bottoms-up strategies are lacking when compared to a top-down strategy.
1. Bottoms-Up Strategies Lack a Long-Term View
The first reason why bottoms-up strategies often fail is due to a lack of a long-term view. While bottoms-up initiatives may produce short-term wins, they lack the insight to see and articulate the bigger picture. Intuitively this makes sense… the deeper into the organization you go, the more tactical the work gets. I sat through a recent bottoms-up strategy review and the majority of what was presented as “strategy” would have been more at home in monthly operations review not a 3–5 year strategic plan! When strategies are built from the bottom they look like near-term action plans because that is the world in which these leaders live. They are in the swaps every day focused on kicking the closest alligators away. It’s almost unfair to expect anything different.
That being said, we all know long-term planning is critical to the success of any business. It’s what helps businesses stay ahead of the curve and prepare for potential disruptions. However, this long-term planning requires a significant investment of time and thought that is distanced from the every day hand-to-hand combat happening in the trenches. Building great long-term strategies requires us to “zoom out” which can only happen if there is distance between the strategy being developed and the front-line action. Without a long-term view, businesses risk missing out on future opportunities and falling behind their competitors.
2. Bottoms-Up Strategies Lack Direction
The second reason why bottoms-up strategies often fail is a lack of direction. Without a clear top-down direction, each group in the organization creates their own plan, making it difficult to achieve a cohesive strategy or tell a holistic story about the business. This lack of alignment leads to confusion and poor decision-making. Sailors look to their captain to set a direction for their ship and once everyone knows where they are going, they suddenly have a clear understanding of the individual part they play and can get to work.
To develop a successful strategy, it’s important to share a clear top-down direction that provides focus and guidance for everyone in the organization. This direction should be communicated regularly and reinforced through measurable objectives that align with the overall strategy. Our teams are very skilled at achieving near-term, tactical objectives. Its our jobs as leaders to help them understand where we are going and then empower them to help us figure out the best way to get there. With this approach, everyone in the organization understands the direction and what is expected of them, leading to better decision-making, more empowerment, more trust, and more successful outcomes.
3. Bottoms-Up Strategies Lack Focus
The third and final reason why bottoms-up strategies often fail is a lack of focus. Without a clear focus at an enterprise level, these strategy deliverables end up being a “check the box” activity that doesn’t actually affect business results significantly. They don’t move the needle because they are not focused.
There are always more good ideas than bad ones and never enough resources (time, money, people) to follow-through with all of the good ideas. Real strategy is about knowing which good ideas to pass on and having the conviction as leaders to say ‘no’. Saying ‘no’ to our teams’ bottoms-up initiatives is hard, especially if they’ve invested any amount of time developing them. And since it’s hard to say ‘no’, we end up saying “yes, but”.
As in “yes, but we can’t fund this initiative at the amount requested.” Or “yes, but we can’t add anymore headcount for this plan.” Or “yes, but we may have to slow roll this.” Saying “yes, but” is the kiss of death of the bottoms-up strategy. It’s worse than just saying ‘no’ because it leads to a peanut butter spreading of resources. Since we’re unwilling to stop anything, it leads to sub-scale investment and upside-down returns on those investments. It leads to teams infighting for limited resources and everyone feeling slighted. To sum it up, I once told my boss, “you can’t delegate torture to the prisoners.” Leaders have to lead, and setting the strategy and saying ‘no’ is the job of the leaders.
You can’t delegate torture to the prisoners. Leaders have to lead and setting the strategy and saying ‘no’ is the job of the leaders.
To avoid this kiss of death, leaders must ensure that the strategy is focused on the most critical initiatives that will drive real business results. This requires prioritization and a willingness to say “no” to good initiatives that may not align with the overall strategy. By doing so, your organization can focus its resources and efforts on what really matters, and achieve more significant results.
Final Thoughts…
While bottoms-up strategies may seem like a good idea in theory, they often fail in practice. The lack of focus, direction, and long-term view are the main culprits behind their failure. As leaders, we must realize it’s our jobs to think with a long-term view, set the direction of our organizations, and focus our teams and limited resources. It’s only by doing the work of a leader that we can ensure the long-term success of our businesses. Steve Jobs famously said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”
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Hi, I’m Tommy. I moved around a lot as a kid, and I think it had a lasting impact on me… I don’t get too attached to things, because I never knew when we were going to move again. Today, I’m extremely comfortable with change and am usually the one challenging why we still “do it this way.” I live with a self-imposed pressure to assimilate quickly, because it’s never fun being the “new kid.” Today, I’m good at hitting the ground running with each new challenge. And I am very observant of my environment, because I needed to find out who the cool kids were and who to avoid. Today, I’m able to connect dots others miss and skillfully use influence to lead my teams and organizations.
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