Strategy Survival Guide

Strategy Survival Guide Version 2.1
Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit
home | strategy development | strategy skills | site index
Strategy Development > Policy & Delivery Design > Tasks
Planning the roll out
Applying the appraisal criteria to a final short list of options should result in the selection of a preferred policy
or set of policies. Once these have been fully detailed and agreed by key stakeholders, attention can be
turned to planning for implementation. This will be focused around three key tasks:
Defining Success Measures
The foundation for planning the roll out is the definition of the indicators that will be used to measure success
in moving towards the desired state of the future described in the vision. This provides the mechanisms for
establishing clear accountability and responsibility for delivery.
Developing an Implementation Plan
The detail of how the new policy will be implemented should be documented and agreed by developing an
implementation plan. This should be done in conjunction with all key stakeholders and especially those
directly involved with delivery. By detailing all the actions that need to be taken and who will be responsible
for each, the plan is a means of securing commitment and buy-in to deadlines, budgets and the overall
conclusions of the project.
The plan should also help to identify those who will be responsible for monitoring and evaluating the
progress of the implementation. Implementation is more likely to be successful if formal structures are
created for this purpose.
The implementation plan should be checked by working backwards from final delivery dates to provide a
sense check that it is really deliverable.
Developing a Change Management Plan
Implementing the new policies will inevitably require some degree of change to organisations, systems and
processes. A pro-active approach to change management is essential if the benefits of the new policies are
to be realised. Developing a change management plan is a way of defining and agreeing what change is
required and how it will be brought about. Building on the organisational analysis conducted in the
Research & Analysis phase, the plan should be grounded in a thorough understanding of the obstacles and
constraints to change and lay out a realistic road map for achieving it.
In situations where high levels of uncertainty surround the effectiveness, impact or implications of a new
policy there is a strong argument for running pilot programmes ahead of a full-scale roll out. Simulations
can also play a valuable role in helping to predict the likely response to a new policy. Where a number of
options have been identified for how to implement a policy, controlled experiments offer the possibility of
observing rather than pre-judging which is the best option.
Useful links:
> designing an implementation plan
> change management
> organisational analysis
> The Role of Pilots in Policy Making
Strategy Survival Guide – Strategy Development
Page 40