Webinar Questions 2/3: Ten Ways Fast Companies Accelerate Strategy Execution

by Steve Barry

In a previous blog entry, I wrote that we would use this space as a means to answer questions from our recent webinar on the 10 Ways Fast Companies Accelerate Strategy Execution.  (Please click here  for a recording of the webinar).   Here is part 2 of our answers to your questions. 

Question:  Can you elaborate on the four speed traps?

 Sure.  In each of these scenarios, the organization has strengths upon which to build, but it also has identifiable vulnerabilities that slow or even derail sustainable strategy execution.  Here are some brief snapshots of some other common organizational speed traps. 

Speed Trap 1:  “Not My Problem”

–     This is where clarity is emphasized to the exclusion of other people factors. 

Common symptoms:

• People are clear about what the strategy is but less clear about how to execute it. 
• The strategy turns into fragments that each function or division interprets differently, causing people to selectively execute the strategy in ways that protect their turf.
• Silos result from conflicting priorities; data and resources are withheld; trust erodes. 

Speed Trap 2:  “Everything to Everyone”

–     Agility is emphasized, while clarity and unity are overlooked. 

Common symptoms:

• If you asked seven different people to describe the company strategy, you’d get seven different answers.
• Strategy is too high-level:
    -People don’t know what they should start and stop doing—so they do everything.
    -Leaders state initiative objectives that seem to link to strategy, but at too high a level.  It’s difficult to know how to act on them, measure progress and hold people accountable, or even identify projects that don’t align.
• Every “hot opportunity” in the marketplace is pursued, confusing customers and eroding profits.    

Speed Trap 3:  “Myopia Utopia”

–     Unity is emphasized at the expense of clarity and agility.

Common symptoms:

• A strong push to maximize shareholder value through “all hands on deck” efforts in order to hit the numbers.
• Agreeable, loyal team players are rewarded even if that means avoiding obvious strategic issues.
• Pressure for short-term performance is so high that there’s little experimentation or reflection.

Speed Trap 4: “ Boiled Frogs”

–     These firms have high clarity and unity, but low agility (this was the profile of all of the webinar participants’ firms).

Common symptoms:

• These firms have a very clear strategy and strong execution abilities.
• A high degree of pride in the company excludes thoughts or events outside the company.
• Too narrow a focus on internal process improvement can overvalue quality, while undervaluing speed to market.
• Susceptibility to losing market share to smaller, more nimble competitors.

 For a recording of the North America and Europe Webinar, click here

5 New Strategic Initiatives That Are Creating Business Impact Right Now

We asked our colleagues across Forum to share strategic initiatives that have a positive impact for clients.

We see a gradual shift away from short-term focus on results, and a renewed emphasis on the implementation of strategic initiatives to take organizations forward.  Here are some examples:

1. Re-engage employees through focus on growth
Clients are re-engaging their people and developing new products, services and markets. The enthusiasm generated by these ‘growth’ conversations positively impacts their organizational climate and injects renewed optimism for 2010 and beyond.

2. ”Back to Basics”
Several clients are using this time of economic turmoil to re-assess their strategic plan and focus on the individual gaps standing between them and their strategic goals.

For example, a regional energy company is ‘going back to the basics’   They have placed an emphasis on understanding the fundamental service skills and are focusing time and energy on the critical skills of customer service for front line representatives.    

Another example is a not-for-profit organization embarking on a 24-month plan to enhance leaders’ abilities to sustain success and to develop new opportunities for growth.

3. Retain Talent
I have noticed increased thinking about how to retain and motivate top talent. For example, a leading investment firm is assessing the climate of its sales force and preparing managers to create a high-performance environment.

4. Leverage Six Sigma
A global pharmaceutical company has started a thorough Six Sigma initiative.  However, rather than focus on systems, they are focusing on the numbers (increasing consistency and reducing variation).  Initially they are aligning their revenue-producing sales and marketing teams, attaining their buy-in using basic indicators such as call rates and customer segmentation data.  The business then plans to focus on high performance, enriching and improving every action based on global benchmarks.

5.  “One-firm firms”
Organizations seek to gain market share by pooling their combined capabilities to better serve clients in “one stop”.  Collaboration is the key to this initiative.  For example: 

• A large Middle-Eastern conglomerate with global operations is breaking down internal barriers to communication and collaboration in order to accelerate growth.  They see learning as the key lever in this effort, and they’ve created a common language and approach across the sales organization.

• One of our Asian clients implemented a successful, cross-functional collaboration initiative to deliver customer value. This initiative is championed by the General Manager, which has enabled it to gain traction.

What strategic initiatives would you add to this list?

Webinar Questions 1/3: Ten Ways Fast Companies Accelerate Strategy Execution

by Steve Barry

For a recording of the North America and Europe Webinar, click here

I recently co-hosted, along with my colleague Henry Frechette, a Forum webinar for North America & Europe entitled “The 10 Ways Fast Companies Accelerate Strategy Execution.”    The topic of Acceleration seems to be a hot button topic – participants had more questions than we had time to answer.  We’ll use this blog to answer these questions over the next week.  The first question was:   Can you expand your message to include how to be successful in resource constrained firms?

Though Henry answered this question on the webinar, here is a bit more food for thought regarding resource constrained firms.  Consider the following equation from Bigler & Norris’ book, The New Science of Strategy Execution:

 Cycle time = Actions in progress / processing speed

In the webinar, we talked a lot about the denominator (processing speed).  But simply reducing the numerator (the # of strategic initiatives you have in place) may actually be a good place to start for resource constrained firms.  Take a thoughtful approach to reviewing the strategic initiatives you have in place.  Does the estimated cash benefit outweigh the time and resources they are using?  Are they truly helping your firm improve or innovate?  Prioritize them.  Are there any “pet projects” that can be eliminated?   This should help to free up resources and enable you to be more strategic and successful. 

For a recording of the North America and Europe Webinar, click here

Webinar questions 3/3: Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement

by Tom Atkinson

For a recording of the North America and Europe webinar, click here. 

 Here is the final question raised by participants in our recent Forum webinar for North America and Europe entitled “Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement.”  I was joined by climate expert Henry Frechette of Forum and by Joe Price of Aflac—which has recently boosted the performance of its sales force by helping managers shape climate.

 

What employee-related things does the manager overlook most often?  How does this influence climate?

Managers often focus on achieving business results—and rightly so.  But, in order to be effective, they must focus not only on the result but also on the process.  For example, when a production problem occurs, does the manager use it as an opportunity for the team to learn and develop new capabilities, or is she more focused on just getting the product out the door?  The most effective managers look through two lenses:  one on the business results (what the team accomplishes) and the other on the “people processes” (how the team achieves results).  We’ve noticed a blind spot of even the most effective managers:  losing touch with how the team is working and how their own actions as managers affect the team, especially in stressful situations.  The value of assessing climate involves managers becoming aware of this blind spot and taking action to illuminate it.

For a recording of the North America and Europe webinar, click here.

AsiaPac Webinar questions: Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement

For every webinar that Forum hosts for a North American and European audience, we also host a separate version for our audience in Asia-Pacific. The Asia-Pacific webinars include presenters, insights, and case studies from across the region. Recently we hosted a webinar called Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement for Asia-Pacific  (click here for a recording). The audience included participants from Delhi to Sydney, from Tokyo to Singapore.

We were asked a number of questions at the end of the webinar—more than we had time to answer. Here are the ones we couldn’t answer in the webinar:

1. How do you weight the value of training managers in emotional intelligence in relation to the value of training them in change management?

Change management often focuses on the process. Though it’s an essential part of any change initiative, if we don’t address people’s emotional resistance and comfort zones, the process will struggle—or fail. A truly successful change initiative must address both the process and the people to ensure that it has the buy-in required to make it work. This is the value of incorporating emotional intelligence into our initiatives. For specific weightings, look at each organisation/team individually to discern the level of EQ and understand the climate.

 

2. How do you bring managers to embrace the tremendous impact they have on climate?

We help them see themselves as leaders of people—not just managers of a process. Many managers move into a people-leader role because they want to make a difference or a positive impact. We need to empower them to do just that.

 

3. How do you remain optimistic and create a positive climate when you are under-resourced, with no sign of any resource changes in the future?

First of all we need to accept this as the new business reality and get clear about what the opportunities are. Don’t underestimate the impact of the leader buying into the “new” way of doing things. We may not agree with it—but we must accept it as the way things are. How do we make the best of it? How do we use this challenge to grow our leadership practice? We need to invest time daily in developing an optimistic mind-set. Then it is essential that we take the “chess” approach, building on our people’s strengths. It does require an investment up front and a deeper level of strategic thinking, but it will help us and the team to maximise our leverage in all our activities and create a greater level of engagement.

  

4. What different or additional management practices can be used to address a climate in an M&A situation?

Change and ambiguity create stress because we feel as if we are not in control. We feel as if things are happening to us. As leaders, we need to bring back a sense of control, a sense of certainty. If we don’t, we will create a leadership void, and someone or something will fill that void—usually at the watercooler, in less-than-optimistic conversations. Here are four key steps we can take:   

1. Manage our personal climate. Be in a resourceful, grounded, optimistic state.
2. Communicate clearly and regularly—even if it is only to say that nothing has changed. Do not allow rumours and gossip to take root.
3. Set short-term measurable (achievable yet challenging) goals to give the team a sense of accomplishment on a weekly basis.
4. Shift the focus to what the opportunities are and how we as a team add value to the organisation, the M&A process, and our customers. Ask our team (and ourselves), “What are the opportunities here? What can we learn from this?”

Strategic Speed in 140 Characters or Less

by Steve Barry 

As text-messaging and Twitter slowly take over my life (and my thumbs), I’ve begun to appreciate writers who express themselves with the power of brevity.  I recently saw an example of their writing in one of the core tenets of a church near my house:

 

 “In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity.”   

 

I write about this not to advertise for any religious institution, but rather to express my pure admiration for the simplicity and elegance inherent in this statement of beliefs. 

And when the “H” in charity is swapped out for an “L”, we get:

 

“In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things clarity.”    

 

That phrase is the pure, boiled-down essence of strategic speed.  Of course, there’s a lot more to it than that, but what do you expect in less than 140 characters?  To hear more about how top performers in our research attained strategic speed, please attend our webinar (register here), The 10 Ways Fast Companies Accelerate Strategy Execution, October 28^th at 11 A.M. EST or November 10^th at 10 P.M. EST.

Webinar questions 2/3: Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement

by Tom Atkinson

For a recording of the North America and Europe webinar, click here. 

 Here are some more questions raised by participants in our recent Forum webinar for North America and Europe entitled “Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement.”  I was joined by climate expert Henry Frechette of Forum and by Joe Price of Aflac—which has recently boosted the performance of its sales force by helping managers shape climate.

 

How does climate differ from organizational culture?

 The concept of organizational climate was developed by George Litwin and Robert Stringer in the late 1970s.  Their goal was to identify factors that made a workplace motivating (or de-motivating) for employees.  They found that an organization’s climate—what it feels like to work in the organization—could be measured.  More importantly, it could be shaped by the manager in a way that increased motivation and improved performance. 

 Climate differs from culture in that it is much more easily changed.  Think about the tone set by a new manager, for example.  Imagine working on a team whose manager sets a clear direction, encourages members to offer ideas, empowers members to resolve customer problems on the spot, and recognizes members’ accomplishments publicly.  Now imagine a new manager who keeps secrets, shows no interest in team members’ ideas, requires members to seek approval for the smallest decision, and rarely offers praise or recognition.  Not only would team members quickly pick up on the different atmosphere of the second manager, most of them—especially the most talented—would be heading for the exit.

 Culture, as opposed to climate, refers to values, norms, beliefs, and other aspects of the organization that tend to be enduring, such as whether it values customer intimacy or product innovation, whether it values individual contribution or team effort, whether its people tend to gather for regular face-to-face meetings or instead work remotely, and whether these people value competition or collaboration.  These cultural factors affect motivation and performance, but they generally take a long time to change.

 

How does climate differ from employee engagement?

 In recent years a lot of attention has been paid to the concept of employee engagement—the extent to which employees show real dedication to their job and exert discretionary effort (as opposed to just showing up—and even being counterproductive).  We know that climate affects motivation directly, and so it sets the stage for employees to become engaged.  If employees find their environment motivating, they are more likely to invest their energy in it and show signs of engagement.   

 Many companies conduct employee opinion surveys to size up employees’ degrees of satisfaction or engagement.  These surveys ask about a range of things that might affect satisfaction:  physical working conditions, compensation, opportunities for advancement, and so on.  Our research has found consistently that managers have the biggest effect on climate:  about 70 percent of variation in climate scores is attributable to managers’ behaviors.  And so we focus on the manager’s actions as levers for changing climate and conduct surveys that provide managers with information they can use to make immediate meaningful changes.

Webinar questions 1/3: Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement

by Tom Atkinson

For a recording of the North America & Europe webinar, click here. 

I recently hosted a Forum webinar for North America & Europe entitled “Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement.”  I was joined by climate expert Henry Frechette of Forum and by Joe Price of Aflac—which has recently boosted the performance of its sales force by helping managers shape climate.

The webinar participants represented a range of companies and industries, but almost all were focused on preparing their company to drive growth as the economy improves.  Almost half identified their single greatest challenge as strengthening their relationships with customers or fostering innovation.  And most agreed that establishing the right climate was critical to retaining talented people and delivering on their growth strategies.

Here are some of the questions the participants raised, along with our responses: 

 

How do you get senior management buy-in to climate?

Climate sounds like a “soft” concept.  It can be difficult to get senior managers to pay attention to it at first.  The best way to get their attention is to “connect the dots” to business results.  Decades of research in multiple industries has shown that climate drives motivation and performance.  But rather than simply citing research studies, we recommend you begin with the business strategy and then “work backwards” to determine its implications for managers and employees.  For example, if the company’s goal is to compete through superior service, the only way to achieve it is to create a climate that fosters high levels of customer focus.  Unless managers have the skills and information they need to build a customer-focused work unit, the strategy is at risk. 

Climate has some distinct advantages:  it’s fast, it’s cost-effective, and it’s under the control of individual managers.  It does not require widespread organizational change or investments in infrastructure.  The business case for senior managers is they can reduce risk and increase the effectiveness of strategy execution by preparing their managers to shape climate.

 

How do you measure climate?

Forum’s Climate survey asks employees to describe their actual team climate and also describe an ideal climate, by answering questions that address six dimensions of climate:

• Clarity:  The individual’s understanding of the organization’s goals and policies; the individual’s clarity about his or her job; the individual’s feeling that things are organized, that they run smoothly, that they are not confused.
• Commitment:  Continuing commitment to achieving goals—which is related to the realism of the goals, the individual’s involvement in goal-setting, his or her acceptance of the goals, and continuing evaluation of his or her performance against them.
• Standards:  The emphasis that management puts on setting high standards of performance; pressure to continually improve performance.
• Responsibility:  The feeling of taking personal responsibility for work; the individual’s sense of autonomy—which stems from real delegation and encouragement of his or her initiative.
• Recognition:  The feeling that people are recognized and rewarded for doing good work—as opposed to the feeling that criticism for poor performance is more likely than recognition for good performance.
• Teamwork:  The feeling of belonging to an organization characterized by cohesion, mutual warmth and support, trust, and pride.

The survey also asks employees and managers to rate their manager’s use of a set of management practices that relate to these six dimensions (such as “establishing clear and specific performance goals for people’s jobs”).

Managers receive a Forum feedback report that provides a picture of their team’s current climate, along with guidance on specific practices they should change in order to move the climate in the desired direction.

Whether the company is experiencing dramatic growth or downsizing, managers can use the Climate feedback report to focus their energies in the areas that matter most to their creating a positive and motivating environment.  For example, in a high-growth situation, managers may need to focus on providing high clarity about direction, as well as on encouraging people to take initiative in solving problems for which there are no “problem-solving policies.”  In a downsizing situation, managers may also need to provide clarity about how the team is performing against its goals, along with fostering teamwork and rewarding initiative.

For a recording of the webinar, click here.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

by Matthew Allen

Twittering for business: Is it worth it? Okay, so I’m admittedly taking out my paddle here and beating a dead horse. No doubt you have read your share of blog posts on the subject of Twitter—arguably the most prominent and powerful of the Web 2.0 giants that have stormed the social media scene in the past 3 years. At the ripe age of 25 (yup, first-generation Facebook user here), I feel fairly confident in my understanding of the ebbs and flows of social networking. However, only recently, as a Forum employee, have I had the opportunity to tap into the “professional” side of twittering. As I see it, Twitter users generally fall into five categories:

• The lurker: Either shy, new, or just looking for quality online reading material, the lurker rarely tweets, but instead enjoys the ramblings, perspectives, and nuances of others.
• The marketer: Whether selling a product, service, or just out for general publicity and popularity, the marketer is constantly tweeting about the latest and greatest happenings in his or her world.
• The nostalgic: You know the type. Nostalgics want to reconnect with old and new friends alike … by any means possible!
• The curious (aka the celebrity follower, aka Mom or Dad): The curious have heard about this Twitter thing, but aren’t completely sure what to make of it. They do know, however, that their neighbor told them it would be a good way of keeping tabs on Johnny while he’s off at college.
• The techie: He or she who claims to know the difference between a petabyte and a mashup. The techie always wants to be involved (and highly knowledgeable about) tech trends and fads.

But what about:

• The business professional? He or she who doesn’t want to mix business with pleasure, but does think that there’s a real opportunity to connect with colleagues and grow business opportunities through social networking.

 Business execs (outside the Marketing department!) everywhere, whether they admit it or not, have asked themselves the fundamental Twitter question at one point or another: “To Tweet or Not to Tweet?” Generally, this initial question leads to further questions: Do I put in the time to figure out this twittering thing? How do I make it worth my time? What type of return am I looking for? Can I expect a tangible return for my efforts?

A demographic study done by Strategy Labs in 2009showed that almost half (47 percent) of all Twitter users are between the ages of 18 and 34. So does it make sense for the more “polished” types (those who barely have enough time to check their Blackberry in-between meetings) to be tweeting? The answer to this question is not black and white. Despite what many would have you believe, whether to twitter as a “professional” is not a one-size-fits-all decision. If you do decide to make the effort to become a Twitter aficionado, I’ve outlined some guidelines and suggestions that should help in your pursuit of a successful Twitter business account.

• Maintain a voice: Though every tweet doesn’t need to be about the same industry or subject matter (keeping your followers interested is key!), you do want to come across as somewhat of a subject-matter expert, or at least someone who has a reliable and unfailing opinion or slant.
• Be consistent: Potentially the most prevalent issue among users worldwide (and maybe the easiest obstacle to overcome) is needing to be consistent with tweeting. In other words, to spark a following, you must be consistent in your tweets. It’s hard to follow (and believe in) someone who only sporadically contributes thoughts and perspectives.
• Set your goals up front: What are you trying to achieve with this account? When you start with a goal in mind, it becomes much easier to define what you need to be tweeting about to achieve the goal.
• Think about your audience: Like goals, audiences need to be thought about pre-tweet. In other words, you need to figure out who you are trying to appeal to. What would your desired audience find of interest?

Once you’ve settled on a Twitter business strategy, buckle up and enjoy the ride. You’ve committed to making this social networking thing work, so why not have some fun with it, right?

 Want to keep the conversation going? Follow me on Twitter@maallen15. Looking for more on the people side of strategy execution? Well, then check out @TheForumCorp.

Poised for growth, but do you have the right climate?

The Conference Board reported last week that its global leading economic indicators are all positive and that both consumer and CEO confidence are rising.  The drumbeat of negative economic news we’ve heard over the past year seems to be fading.  Based on the headlines in the financial press, the debate among economists is now shifting from “how bad is the crisis?” to “will the recovery be quick or protracted?” 

 

What does the changing economic picture mean for companies and employees?  One trend that we’re seeing is executives re-focusing their efforts on driving growth (as opposed to cutting costs) by:

 

• Creating growth plans that involve acquiring or forming alliances with other companies
• Looking for ways to compete by means of offering innovative products and services
• Aiming to differentiate the company by creating a superior customer experience

 

All of these paths to growth have one thing in common:  they are highly people-dependent.  That is, they require that employees be aligned and committed to the company strategy.  They also require that employees have the motivation and capabilities to carry the strategy out. 

 

Now is a good time for companies to take a hard look at whether their people are up for the challenge.

 

During the recession, companies took a number of actions that were necessary for their survival, such as freezing promotions, putting projects on hold, and implementing layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts.  They asked the employees who they retained to bear with them, take on additional work, do more with less, and postpone some of their own career aspirations.  As necessary as this all might have been, it has undoubtedly taken a toll on the climate of the organizations.  Some of the ways we’ve seen this manifested:

 

• Employees are worried about losing their jobs, which makes them distracted, risk-averse, and less innovative.
• Some employees have become disengaged, and thus have exerted a negative influence on others.
• Job stress is leading some employees to be less generous toward others at a time when “playing nice” is especially important. 
• People’s stresses outside of work (such as family members losing jobs and mortgage or credit troubles) are making them less tolerant in relations with others at work.
• Managers are finding it challenging to keep people focused and energized.

 

The good news is that the improving economic climate will allow many companies to get back on a growth track, if they can regain their employees’ confidence and enthusiasm.  The bad news is that those companies that don’t get back on a growth track are sure to see some of their best people leave them for more attractive opportunities.

 

How can leaders prepare their work force for growth? 

Consider three questions:

1. What kind of climate is needed, if your company’s growth strategy is to succeed?
2. What is the current climate?
3. What are some ways in which managers can improve the climate?

 

Focusing on climate involves some major advantages: 

 

• Managers have great control over climate (as opposed to, say, organizational change). 
• Large investments (such as those that revising the compensation plan might entail) are not required—and there is an immediate payoff. 
• Even simple actions (like taking time to check in with individual employees to express interest in their lives, their work, and their ideas about the business) can have dramatic effects on performance.

 

What are some ways that you are creating a climate for growth in your own company?