Linking performance infrastructure to strategy
Make the capacity and controls needed for strategy explicit. Performance infrastructure means workable delivery arrangements, not an additional wellness label.
The performance question
A strategy requiring new systems, growth or restructuring changes demands on people. Identify which decisions, skills and cover arrangements the plan needs. Avoid presenting individual support as the mechanism that makes an otherwise unachievable strategy feasible.
What the evidence supports
FRC Principle A asks boards to ensure necessary resources, policies and practices support objectives. NICE places organisational approaches at the foundation of mental wellbeing and recommends embedding it in business strategy. These support work design alongside strategic planning.[1][2]
A practical approach
For each major objective, identify essential roles, additional tasks, decision authority and likely peaks. Cost the support and cover required, and remove incompatible commitments. Connect each proposed intervention to a documented delivery risk. Keep clinical or personal support available for its own appropriate purpose, not merely as an output tool.
How to review progress
Review strategy milestones together with capacity assumptions and control effectiveness. Where the plan changes, update the work arrangements too. Avoid claiming a wellness programme delivered a strategic outcome without evidence separating its contribution from other factors.
Sources and references
- UK Corporate Governance Code 2024 Opens in a new tab
Financial Reporting Council
Application; Principles A, E, F, I, J and O; Provisions 2, 5, 6, 17, 28 and 29
- Mental wellbeing at work Opens in a new tab
NICE
NG212 sections 1.1 to 1.6: strategy, environment, managers and individual support