Strategy models & frameworks

Goal Adoption Support Model

What is it?

The Goal Adoption Support Model shows the eight ways that each strategic goal can be supported in order to ensure that strategy is effectively adopted across your organisation.

The Goal Adoption Support Model features in Mike’s book ‘The Strategy Manual: A step-by-step guide to the transformational change of anything‘ and is also covered in our Strategy Master Workshops.

How do I use it?

The Goal Adoption Support Model can be used by anyone across your organisation to check that their own strategic goals are effectively supported. It can further be used by senior leadership as a ‘health-check’ on the effectiveness of strategy adoption, by highlighting areas where the organisation supports the adoption of strategic goals well, and where it does not.

Explanation:

The Goal Adoption Support Model translates into a checklist that can be ticked off by individuals for their own strategic goals, with prompts of what to consider for each of the eight elements that support each strategic goal:

1. Authority – are the lines of authority clear for your goal?

✓ – Your directline managers (i.e. your manager, your manager’s manager etc.) have the necessary authority to enable you to make your contribution to strategic success. You have a clear idea of RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) roles, and how they support your goal.
 X – Your contribution to strategic success depends on people or outcomes that are line-managed by other parts of the organisation (not your line managers). You are unable to define RACI roles, or your goal is unsupported by them.

2. Policies and standards – is your goal supported by policies and standards?

✓ – Your goal is supported and enabled by current policies and standards.
X – Current policies and standards may get in the way of your contribution to strategic success.

3. Resources – do you have the resources needed to achieve your goal?

✓ – You have the budget and other resources (technology, staff, data etc.) necessary for you to achieve your goal.
X – Insufficient budget / resources may get in the way of achieving your goal.

4. Goal ownership – do you understand the details of your goal and what is required of you to achieve it?

✓ – You are comfortable with your ownership of this goal. You understand how the goal is described and what it sets out to achieve. You have the knowledge and skills to be able to make a success of this goal.
X – You have concerns about your ownership of this goal.

5. Goal connections – do you understand the interdependencies of your goal with others across the organisation?

✓ – You understand how this goal connects to, and has interdependencies upon, other goals, owned by other people and teams. You are comfortable that you have, or can, establish good enough working relationships with these other goal owners to ensure your goal contributes to strategic success.
X – You have concerns about the interdependencies of your goal to its connected goals.

6. Strategic purpose – do you understand how your goal contributes to strategic success?

✓ – You understand how your goal connects to strategic success.
X – You have concerns about how your goal connects to strategic success.

7. Meaningful progress – are you confident that progress on your goal will be meaningful?

✓ – You understand what you need to do to make progress on this goal and feel this will be tangible progress towards something meaningful to you and the organisation.
X – You have concerns about how meaningful any progress will be.

8. Performance targets – do you have relevant, specific and achievable performance targets for this goal?

✓ – You understand why the performance targets related to your strategic goal have been set as they have. You accept that they are intended to serve two purposes: i) providing tangible, challenging and achievable measures of progress for your work and ii) defining the contribution you need to make to overall strategic success.
X – You have concerns about your performance targets.

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