For a term paper in the course of Strategic Implementation, I wanted to look at the biases that exist in strategy implementation. But a lot of literature I am finding speak of biases in the formulation stage.
Looking for resources where I may find something relevant.
Open to advice whether this is topic makes sense.
Dear colleague, I would definitely start with Thinking fast and slow by Kahneman. This is a key work in the area of cognitive biases and really funny to read as well
Strategic reversals are quite commonly failures of execution. In many cases, a strategy is abandoned out of impatience or because of pressure for an instant payoff before it has had a chance to take root and yield results. Or its focal point is allowed to drift over time. To navigate a strategy, one must maintain a balance between strategizing and learning modes of thinking.
Article From Strategy to Practice
I believe that the gap between strategy and implementation begins with poor change management. If you want people to co-operate, and do something different they need to be brought on board --- perhaps involved in identifying and definitely in understanding the issue. They should be included in the process that explores what needs to be changed and developing the solutions. This would help them to assimilate the goal and use the new processes that are being implemented to achieve the change.
Hence the literature around change management should provide insight into how the change process needs to be managed to avoid resistance.
Communication is key. You could examine the role of communication… who has to say what, how and when. Again, you are looking at how to persuade people to adopt and own the change.
The other issue is whether sufficient resources have been allocated? If not, people will believe that it is not possible to implement the change. The training will also include convincing people to believe in themselves. To be confident that they have all the necessary skills so that they are able to do things differently. To stop using the old methods and adopt the new.
I believe, while implementing the strategy one should be guarding against biases in terms of People, the Strategy and the process.
For example:
People: Many times the manager thinks that Mr X or Mr Y can do it, because he has done similar things before or approved by senior management so there is less risk or his position
Strategy: When one implements he thinks, this is the ultimate solution so he ignores other signals or closes his mind to deviation and expects as per the strategy.
Process: Believing that the process or mechanism with us is perfect or can not be improved. Again there is possibility that people don't believe that each strategy needs different culture.
I like your question and it is probably more difficult to answer that it seems. However I would suggest to focus on the biases that are related to the "interpretation" and implementation of the strategic decision. The sources for documentations are the same as for strategic decisions but the way to look at the biases is different. What for instance do you do if the strategic decision was influenced by a groupthink bias? what if a decision was created out of a halo bias or a survivor bias ? what if all players still suffer from a sunflower bias during the implementation phase ? Implementing something that comes out of a biases decision is very difficult.
This said, those biases can survive for a long time in implementation, for instance, the halo bias or the survivor bias do not die fast. Interesting would be to know what specific biases appear during the implementation phase (some of the answers above make it clear) and how a biased decision can be offset or not at the time of implementation. Good luck and keep us informed of your work !
Following may be useful...
Bukszar Jr, E. (1999). Strategic bias: The impact of cognitive biases on strategy. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l'Administration, 16(2), 105-117.
Olson, B. J., Parayitam, S., & Bao, Y. (2007). Strategic decision making: The effects of cognitive diversity, conflict, and trust on decision outcomes. Journal of management, 33(2), 196-222.
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