Getting Everyone on the Same Page
As we work to wind-up what has been an “interesting” business year and look forward to better fortunes in 2010, our minds naturally turn to things like improving performance, execution and growth. We’ve been working on our business strategy and making plans to gain strong traction at the beginning of the year—engaging our people and getting the new year off to a strong start.
We’ll all put a lot of effort and resources into “getting everyone on the same page” strategically, but how successful will we be? How well will your people be able to understand and execute your strategy?
Getting everyone on the same page in any endeavor is the key to its execution. Playmakers need to know both the gameplan and the plays. Increasing your people’s collective literacy in your company’s strategy will increase your results.
Three tips for getting everyone on the same page are:
1. Clarify and focus your big picture strategy–make it easy to understand.
2. Build absolute strategic consensus with your senior executives.
3. Make sure that your playmakers have translated versions of the strategy for themselves so they know both the gameplan and the plays they should run to make it happen.
These, naturally, sound easier than they are. We recognize the high degree of difficulty associated with all three of these best-practices. If you’d like to explore some ideas for clarifying your strategy, building consensus with your senior team, or translating your strategy at the individual level, give us a call. We’d be happy to learn about your situation in more detail and make some suggestions to help you on your path forward.