The team from the performance factory has identified and analysed the major implementation challenges of more than 1100 organisations. The results are bundled into the Strategy Execution Barometer.
The first hurdle is initiative management. The second topic causing significant execution problems is strategy communication. Whereas most companies try (hard) to get it right, many fail to communicate their strategy effectively.
The results
Our research shows that 22 percent of managers aren’t happy with the way strategy is communicated within their organisation, 13 percent are unable to explain the strategy, 15 percent believe it’s the wrong strategy and 24 percent have no idea what the strategic goals from other departments are.
Learn from the best-in-class
Let’s now focus our attention on perfomers. What can we learn from the best-in-class strategy communicators? These organisations understand that the communication of strategy and its execution comes in different shapes and forms, from individual conversations during objective setting over group interactions around the Balanced Scorecard and from intranet postings, to writing a memo regarding a strategy shift. But they are also aware that all strategy communication efforts serve only one purpose: to get the strategy into the heads, hearts and hands of the people:
They make their communication efforts an essential, ongoing component of their implementation efforts. They put in the right effort and skills. Top communicators realise that even communication aspects that seem trivial and simplistic on the surface, demand substantial skills and effort to get it right. And getting it right means communicating relevant information to the right person that results in the required execution action. In other words: best-in-class communicators don’t focus on the question ‘Was my message communicated?’ but rather on ‘Was my message effective?’. They look beyond the send button and shift the focus to the receiving end.
