Strategies are relatively Wondering why you’re not seeing results from your strategy? A recent study suggests that your employees don’t understand your strategy as well as executives think they do.
A recent study published in Harvard Business Review, showed a gap of 59%!! between what executives believed to be strategic alignment and what employees believed they understood about the strategy and its execution. Even amongst executives there’s a strategic disconnect.
Traditionally, strategy is a top-down exercise, owned by the leadership team and created by a small group. They’re vastly familiar with it and its intricacies. Then, they roll it out to their organization, in a small or large fashion. Spending 1-3 days engaging, on something that took 3+ months to create.
Is it any wonder there’s a disconnect?
Studies show that individuals need to hear something 7 times before they understand it and truly remember it.
So, it’s no surprise, in a one-and-done roll-out, that your employees don’t understand your strategy and its goals.
This doesn’t have to be the case.
You can create more strategic alignment, understanding and value through your organization by tuning your strategy creation and roll-out in a few ways:
- Focusing on customer value — When companies focus on prioritizing customers, strategic alignment and RESULTS increase dramatically.
2. Make strategic execution the job. Strategy and strategic value-creating activities aren’t an add-on to current work. They need to become the focus.
3. Make it personal — Strategy is realized when it becomes personal to people. How do you do that? Through true dialogue – conversations and questioning – rather than top-down narratives.
It’s only when everyone across your company engages with and understands the strategy, and their role in it, that true results occur.