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WHAT is oPERATions sTRATEgy imPlEmEnTATion? 337
individuals should feel that they can, without any threat to their own security, com-
municate their views honestly upwards in the organisation. Certainly, the ability to
communicate upwards can be enhanced by support from colleagues and team mem-
bers, as well as through more formal statements of individual empowerment.

Education in the necessary skills
Experience at a job is not always sufficient to ensure effective participation. Experience
must be structured and contextualised through education, training and development.
Education allows individuals to generalise their experience so that it can be used in dif-
ferent contexts. It also provides a shared language and body of knowledge that helps in
the generation of innovative ideas, as we discussed earlier. But education in the basics
of (in this case) operations management and operations strategy must also be comple-
mented by education about what the strategy implementation is trying to achieve. The
general term for this is ‘policy deployment’. This is the way in which high-level strategic
objectives are translated into more specific objectives and measurements appropriate
for each individual group within the organisation. Of course, this presupposes two
things: first, that a clearly articulated and coherent implementation plan exists; and
second, that there is an appropriate process in place to ‘cascade’ and communicate the
purpose of the strategy and its implementation down the organisation.
For education to thrive there must be learning. For learning to be an important ele-
ment in an organisation’s culture, both individuals and the organisation in general
must learn how to learn. Amongst other things, this means never wasting an oppor-
tunity to learn. And many of the best opportunities to learn come from the mistakes
that one makes. It may be something of a cliché, but mistakes really are one of the most
valuable sources of learning. They provide an opportunity to discuss and debate exactly
why things went wrong and what can be done about it in the future. Of course, this will
not happen if an organisation routinely punishes its employees for every mistake they
make. And many organisations do claim that they punish mistakes only when there has
been a clear dereliction of duty or when individuals refuse to learn from their mistakes.
Yet, relatively few organisations have managed to build a culture that genuinely exploits
the full potential of being able to learn from mistakes. Those that have come close to
it (including the much-quoted example of Toyota) have, over the years, developed a
culture of continuous improvement based on a problem-solving methodology that
emphasises the importance of learning.

Opportunity to participate in the implementation process
Individuals may be supremely confident and soundly educated, yet unless they are pro-
vided with the opportunity to participate, their contribution will remain untapped.
Those organisations who see implementation simply as a set of tasks, devised by sen-
ior management and communicated ‘down the line’, which people simply have to
carry out, are not providing the opportunity for individuals to participate. The most
obvious way to provide opportunities for participation is to expect employees to par-
ticipate in planning the implementation itself. But organisational space must be pro-
vided to allow this. It cannot simply be expected that employees will participate in
implementation planning in addition to an already excessive workload. Some organi-
sations programme formal workshops or team meetings to provide opportunities for
participation. Some also include implementation planning as part of their appraisal
process. Whatever mechanisms are used, the overall intention is to foster a feeling of

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