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The “Value Management Framework” is a system of management practices that organizations can use to bridge the gap between strategy and execution to create measurable and sustainable value.

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Posted  by Frank Felton on January 4, 2013

In the book The Knowing-Doing Gap, the authors discuss how smart organizations turn knowledge into action. They also describe how some organizations have the necessary knowledge but fail to execute their plan. One reason that causes organizations to fail

to deliver on their mission, values and vision, as well as their strategic plan, is what the authors describe as “When Talk Substitutes for Action.”

This failure to execute comes because organizations have a tendency to believe that talking about something is the same as actually doing something about it. It is true that talking about what should be done, writing plans about what the organization should do, and collecting and analyzing data to help decide what actions to take, can guide and motivate action. Yet in some cases, there is the belief that planning for the future is the same as changing the future.

Some organizations believe that the process of creating missions, values and vision (MVV) statements actually implements them. Organizations believe that publishing these statements on cards, posters and other documents will create the environment desired by those statements.

An organization could spend months using a stakeholder-driven planning process to create a strategic plan only to have it sit on the shelf waiting to be used. In those cases when the plan is utilized, it’s often limited to being used as a prop for a presentation to address a mandate.

We have all been in those marathon meetings to resolve critical issues. Solutions are offered and agreed to by the group, but very little changes.

How do you address this failure to execute?

The answer is a management system that includes a leadership team driving the behavior of a relentless action-oriented culture that ensures follow-up and assigns accountability that action will happen as a result of meeting, talking, planning and decision-making. These actions must be in alignment with the mission, values, vision and strategic plan.

This alignment can be created by including, in the management system, a scorecard to translate the MVV statements and strategic plan into a set of objectives, measures, targets, benchmarks and initiatives that cascade to the individual performance plan to deliver the desired state. All actions flow from the scorecard. This creates an action-oriented culture that produces results that are aligned with the overall direction of the organization as defined by its mission, vision and values statements and strategic plan.

Frank Felton is a partner at a performance management consulting firm RAF & Associates and a former school administrator.

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