Introducing StrategyBlocks 6, Strategic Planning for the Modern Organization

Strategy planning and execution have never been easy for organizations. The statistics can be disheartening—anywhere from 60-90% of strategic plans fail.

There is a myriad of reasons—everything from a poorly designed plan, lack of ownership in the process, failure to properly communicate, not having enough resources available to accomplish the strategy, or misalignment within the team. As research from Harvard Business Review uncovered, a staggering 95% of employees either don’t understand or are completely unaware of their own company’s strategic goals.

For those that get it right, however, the payoff can be profound. Companies that take the time to plan strategy, and work collectively to execute it, typically see a noticeable lift in revenue, experience more stable growth and are more likely to receive funding.

Execution is a big part of the puzzle, and often the hardest part for companies to achieve. When The Economist surveyed C-level executives, 88% categorized the successful execution of strategic initiatives as essential or highly important to their ability to effectively compete. However, 61% of those executives say their company struggles to bridge the gap between planning and implementation. 

With so much time and earnest effort put into strategic planning, it is in everyone’s best interest to see it succeed. 

That’s why, for over 15 years, we’ve been working closely with organizations around the world to help them turn their strategic ideas into tangible goals and manageable tasks. Through our unique, highly visual approach to strategy, we’ve helped create a system that not only simplifies strategic execution, it even makes it fun! 

Introducing StrategyBlocks 6

Today we’re excited to announce the newest version of our platform, StrategyBlocks 6. This latest version includes important updates to our homepage and navigation and offers a more compelling visual interface. Perhaps most exciting, it includes a brand new feature: StrategyBlocks Ideas.

Strategic planning has changed. No longer can companies plan for it as a once-a-year activity, or even every six months. To be effective in today’s business climate, strategy has to be an ongoing effort. The more companies can allow information to flow from top to bottom and bottom to top, the more effective strategic execution becomes.

After assessing the needs of our customers and engaging feedback from our clients, we knew there had to be a better way of capturing ideas at every level of the organization. For example, team members who are customer-facing often have incredible insights that management does not, or one department may have information that another department is not privy to.  For these reasons, we designed StrategyBlocks Ideas to help organizations facilitate greater engagement across their team and make it easier to harness new ideas, recommendations, proposals and opportunities from every level. Using Ideas, individuals can contribute to strategic planning, evaluate other ideas and seek approval to add their own ideas to the overall strategy. See how it works here. 

StrategyBlocks 6 offers additional helpful improvements. We have reorganized the main menu to create a clear path for users to follow and we’ve ensured the home page has added value by highlighting your most frequently used assets. Panes can be more easily configured to user preferences and reporting needs. An enhanced, easier-to-use interface allows for faster interaction with our platform and makes it easier for team members to share updates on progress, monitor metrics, keep an eye on potential risks and check the status of new ideas.

We’re incredibly excited to bring you StrategyBlocks 6 and hope you find it enhances your company’s strategic planning and helps you to more successfully execute to achieve your strategic goals. We’d love to answer questions or walk you through a brief demo. Contact us today!