Last week, in my series of follow-up posts to our Web Executive Seminar "Six Steps to a Successful Online Strategy", I finished outlining how one develops their online strategy. I also said that, in doing so, one was not done. This week, I want to talk a bit about what I meant by saying this. Yes, there is the actual detailed design work - information architecture, technical architecture, functional design, and graphic design - and technical development work still to go, but that is not where I was going. My point today, in fact, is that creating a strategy is useless without a plan to actually bring it about.


Of shelfware and "Wayne's World"
In the software industry, there is a term of derision - "vaporware" - used to describe applications that don't actually work and are nothing but design documents. In the consulting industry our term is "shelfware" - strategies and designs that never became reality. Strategies with no attached implementation plans are all but destined to end up as shelfware, though in the worst cases, they do so only after piles have money has been poured into a failed implementation. Why does this happen?

Once again, we get back to the organizational dynamics sphere. Any good strategy will, to some extent, require the organization to change in some respect. Even an unlikely strategy that says "do everything we are doing now, only better!" assumes changes in processes and practices to make the required improvements. Most good online strategies envision new services, new content, and new relationships. All require that the organization do different kinds of work, sometimes at the expense of things done in the past. In short, good strategies require lots of change. And peoples' general reaction to lots of change? Let me quote Wayne and Garth: "We fear change!!!"

Selling the plan
Design and development aspects aside, the key aspects to implementing an online strategy are managing the required change. This involves first selling the changes to the plan's major stakeholders; the second involves making the changes stick. No matter the bosses in question, the first is going to be easier.

Selling the strategy typically amounts to preparing an expected design and development budget and going through an RFP process in which key people participate. Getting this budget may be struggle enough - won't it be a DOA if you also lay out the organizational changes that need to accompany the technical stuff? Maybe, but the reality is that not including it is delusional, and if you sell one piece and not the other you are creating a day of reckoning down the line. It is better that everyone understand the entire picture, even if that means more work to push the ideas through.

The good news is, if you followed the process I have laid out over the last few weeks, you have a great deal of good information to use. Some guidelines for selling are:

• Know the players - Make sure you know all possible stakeholders, especially those who have no interest in the online world but rely on people the plan supposes will have different roles.
  
• Get face time - Meet with all key players and explain the process, the assumptions, the logic, and the conclusions. Ideally, they were involved all along, but let's be realistic...
  
• Show them the data - Now is when you will be glad you did surveys, interviews, focus groups, and/or other kinds of audience research. This data should validate conclusions - show it off.
  
• Paint the picture of standing still - You are making educated guesses here, but based on other findings, suggest what might happen by doing nothing (or not much).
  
• Paint the their place in the vision - Ultimately their concerns will be with having less power / influence in the "new world." Show how their role after the changes holds new exciting opportunities as the organization nails its goals.
  

Effecting the change
So you did a great job and sold everyone on the full plan. Now you need to actually bring about all the implied changes. This is the arena of change management, and this is a much much richer topic than I can get into here. The basic idea is that even if all decision-makers sign off and say "make it so," the individuals who are the ones that actually need to change can derail the whole plan by simply not changing. You need to see that everyone buys in and does their part. Some elements:

• Make sure the leaders have your back - The folks you sold the plan to have to do their part and unequivocally, vocally, and frequently back the project.
  
• Repeat the road-show - Meet with all colleagues, but particularly effected ones and explain the plan, the reason it is important, the changes required, and the opportunities it creates.
  
• Co-opt the detractors - Figure out who is going to try to block the changes and get them on board. If you can't do that, then try to address their their concerns directly. You do not want to have to fight them; try to diffuse them.
  
• Build allies - Figure out who you can bring onto your side to help evangelize for the plan. Seek out people who have much to gain and are influential among their peers.
  
• Repeat the above - often.
  

As I said, this is only a snap-shot of this effort. The idea is clear, though. The change may be important, but it will be key to making the technology actually work. It is a huge effort, but if your assumptions are correct that you can make large advances toward achieving organizational goals, they will be worth it.

Up next, the strategy as a living thing...