How to improve the design and execution of strategy
Creating consensus - Avoiding corporate schizophrenia
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diseases
Likely symptoms of problems
The management team ostensibly agree, but give out contradictory
signals confusing the organisation. Manager’s words and
actions appear not to match.
Preliminary diagnosis
In the course of developing the strategy the management team's
individual opinions will evolve. They may not all agree
with the details of the strategy as it progresses. Of course disagreements
occur, but if they are not resolved properly they can linger.
Two things can happen as a consequence. If not discussed
and resolved intelligently they can become “undiscussable”
and are never resolved. People act to avoid the issue and
the team, and the organisation, end up behaving oddly to avoid
a conflict.
Alternatively they leave the board room and talk to their staff.
What they say, and what they believe and do, become different.
They say they support the strategy, but act differently because
of what they believe. As people realise this is happening
it leads to confusion in the organisation.
EIther way, the strategy is being undermined, despite the good
intentions of the management team.
Case study
The board of a FTSE 100 company received their targets for shareholder
return from the corporate board. This was regarded
as a given that could not be questioned.
When we explored the strategy and how they would execute it,
the whole board were in agreement. They had a clear
view of the future of the company, how it would get there, the
major actions needed and the competencies that they needed to
develop to achieve that future vision.
However, there was some discomfort about the TSR (Total Shareholder
Return) target. When we sensed this we decided to get this (undiscussable)
issue out into the open. It was too fundamental to leave
under the table.
Very quickly a curtain seemed to drop down across the room.
The Finance Director did not believe that the target was achievable
and the new member of the board did not understand it. The
rest of the management team said they believed it was achievable
and were happy.
The only course of action was to get the new member and the FD
to explain their concerns. This lead to an open debate,
and the FD presenting a detailed explanation of what the target
meant, what was in their control, and what was not.
This lead to a much fuller understanding of the whole issue by
the rest of the board and, subsequently, the discussion over the
target and its objective moving up to the Corporate Board to be
resolved.
Out in the open, the management team were able to resolve the
issue and act as a single body when communicating the overall
targets. Left alone it would have festered and undermined
the way the whole of the management team regarded their objectives.
Underlying solutions
We use a variety of facilitation techniques and soft skills to
pull out the thinking of the various players. Being comfortable
with our overall process we are able to concentrate on what is
going on with the people in the room. This enables us to
sensitively identify, address and help teams resolve such issues
openly and maturely. This unlocks the potential within the
team and the organisation.
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