Do you feel overloaded at work? If ‘yes,’ as most of us would like to answer, the only comfort you can draw is the fact that you are not alone. Not surprisingly, therefore, whenever the management announces a strategic review and launches new initiatives, the perception that is created is generally one of greater burden for everybody.
Wait, you can counter such a perception to some extent by looking explicitly at those activities that need to be stopped, advise Ap Eigenhuis and Rob van Dijk in HR Strategy for the High Performing Business (www.vivagroupindia.com).
‘Must stops’ are necessary in order to create the space for other new activities and to free up the energy needed to work on the newly determined priorities, the authors insist. “Communicating explicitly which programmes and activities will be stopped will encourage people and teams to review their own set of activities and priorities and to align their new work plan with the new strategic framework.”
This can be embedded into one of the golden rules within the organisation – such as, ‘don’t start a new initiative before having completed or stopped another one.’ The authors see value for discipline of this sort especially in organisations where different departments or sections are not fully aligned and have undertaken different initiatives that all require support.
“A ‘strategy into action’ and ‘must stop’ programme can help to streamline the activities, and raise a clearer profile of HR and the contribution that can be expected.”
Communication of strategy may, at times, be successfully executed towards the external world, leaving the internal audience starved. That’s a wrong order, the authors note. They, however, caution that it can be unproductive to show employees the same strategy statements and PowerPoint presentations as were shown to shareholders and financial analysts.
Eigenhuis and van Dijk emphasise the need for a proper definition and understanding of the oft-used statements, such as: ‘We will give high priority to operational excellence,’ ‘We want to beat the competition,’ ‘Be better in what we do,’ and ‘We want to be the best in innovation.’
While these words and phrases may be all right in themselves, the management has to clarify in tangible terms what is expected from the people in the organisation to make the wishes come true in the daily work.
Just as places with pleasant climate attract holidaying tourists, so too you can create a winning organisational climate, the authors urge. “A winning climate is not just ‘pleasant and sunny,’ but also radiates the feeling of ambition to be successful and to continuously raise the bar in terms of performance.”
In organisations with a winning climate, the authors find that there is a willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty, to ‘go the extra mile,’ and that the positive impact is not only on the organisational performance but on the level of employee retention, too.
Success of an organisation depends to a great extent on the quality of leadership. Real leaders are connected, the authors state, citing Emmanuel Gobillot’s The Connected Leader . In contrast to the old, formal leaders who were diplomatic, tactful, managerial, efficient, and knowledgeable, the real leaders are innovative, risk-taking, approachable, warm, communicative, listening, and flexible. “They have a different language and offer a different mental map.”
And, if you run into real leaders, you will find them doing three things: Connecting through trust (because they are aware that they have to build credit on their trust account before they can spend any); aligning through meaning (to achieve this, they talk with individuals about their purposes and how those individual purposes can mesh with the organisation’s); and sustaining through dialogue (through stories).
Imperative read.
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