Organizations are entities made up of people and consumable resources (Time, Money, Physical Assets, Intellectual Property (IP), Agreements, Data, etc) that all work (hopefully) in alignment with the mission/mandate/vision for which the organization was created. 

A challenge that every organization faces is in how those resources are prioritized, marshalled and effectively invested toward achieving the mission of the organization. IE: managing the "work" of the organization.

Strategic plans and goals are like a roadmap for an organization. They show where the leadership wants the organization to go and how they plan to get there. Goals are specific checkpoints along the way that help the organization reach its destination. Together, they make sure everyone in the organization is working toward the same mission.

Legal and regulatory compliance refers to rules and requirements set by governments or industry authorities that organizations must follow. These rules dictate how a business operates, ensuring it follows laws related to privacy, security, safety, ethics, finance, and fair competition. They're essentially guidelines that ensure organizations operate responsibly within the law

Operational pressures are the daily challenges and demands that organizations face to keep things running smoothly. These pressures can include tasks like serving existing customers, handling new customer requests, meeting deadlines, managing resources efficiently, controlling costs, dealing with technical issues, and maintaining quality standards. In essence, they're the everyday obstacles that organizations need to overcome to function well and achieve their goals

Most organizations struggle to execute on strategy and are overwhelmed by conflicting priorities.  Many succumb to responding mainly to short-term pressures. The urgent rather than the important. Many try to do too much strategy, too fast and end up getting little accomplished.

They are not able to manage critical projects and get the right work done at the right time and in the best way.

The biggest challenge is with how organizations manage the "Messy Middle" which is the process, management and decisions that drive the utilization of people and resources to deliver and respond to the various pressures on the organization.

Most organizations struggle with some variation of the following 3 challenges in managing the messy middle. This is where process and key organizational habits and behaviours can really help. 

Being able to break strategic direction and goals down into clear packages of work and outcomes that people can actually work on and deliver. Being able to clarify and stick to the scope of what is truly necessary for mandatory and operational pressures.

In the midst of dealing with numerous challenges, opportunities, and ongoing tasks, attempting to pursue multiple strategies simultaneously often leads to a flurry of activity without significant accomplishments. It's akin to poorly juggling several tasks compared to concentrating efforts on a few tasks to achieve success effectively.

Staying on top of the work to ensure that it gets initiated and continues to go in the right direction, or be adjusted if direction changes. Making adjustments and course corrections quickly and effectively.

With over 25 years experience managing hundreds of millions of investment in Information Technology work over multiple organizations big (10,000 people) and small (10 people), I have refined a simple, straight forward and practical methodology for managing the messy middle and getting the right things done at the right time and in the best way. I have also accumulated a number of organizational behaviours (habits) that make the process truly work.

I call this methodology "Flight Plan" as managing the "messy middle" is analogous to managing aircraft from hanger, runway, sky, airports, etc.  Getting the right planes in the air at the right time, going to the right places, making sure they are safe for their entire journey from take off to landing.

Over the coming months, I will write further about how the "Flight Plan" methodology and organizational habits can improve managing the messy middle, allowing better utilization of people and resources towards meeting your organization's strategic goals.