Suppose your organization is taking on new, cross-functional strategic initiatives to transform the organization. As you assemble teams to lead and implement the initiatives, what percent of time should you expect team members to devote to working on these transformational organizational priorities?
As with many questions about implementing strategies, there is no ONE correct answer.
If you want to get strategic initiatives done as quickly as possible, you'd advocate for a 100% commitment for some period. If you are a departmental leader and worried about accomplishing all the other things your department is expected to deliver, you'd say 0%.
So, the answer is SOMEWHERE between zero and 100% depending on your organization's situation and those of your people.
That’s not much help, is it?
Here’s a starting point that we suggested to a client: at a minimum, working on a strategic initiative should account for 20-25% of a team member's time.
The reason for this time commitment?
If the required time is something over the equivalent of one day’s time, a participant will likely be thinking about the strategic initiative and working on it at least part of every day during the week. At 20-25%, it's more difficult for days, even weeks, to slip away without giving any attention to the strategic initiative as day-to-day realities impose their demands. You can also use regular (and brief) team meetings that are progress oriented to set the strategic initiative’s pace; when a team member knows he or she must report on initiative work progress at a weekly meeting, it keeps making progress at the top of to-do lists.
While there aren't any absolute rules, this starting point will help you to begin creating the right type of focus, commitment, and push to implement strategic initiatives. – Mike Brown
