Why people don’t understand your organisational strategy, the Alignment Advantage

Guest post by Richard Nugent, who is the author of a new book The Alignment Advantage

Does your organisation have a challenge with how it communicates its strategy? Does your staff satisfaction survey tell you that not everyone in the organisation understands the strategic direction?

While these issues are among the most common challenges in organisations of all types and sizes, the solution often remains a mystery. But what if the problem isn’t communication after all?

Why people don’t understand your organisational strategy, the Alignment Advantage

In nine out of 10 cases that we come across, problems with strategic communication are less about the challenge with communication and more about a misalignment of strategic thinking, and it starts at the very top of the organisation.

Before you do anything else to solve this challenge, go to the most senior people in your organisation, whether they sit on the board or in the executive team and ensure there are aligned answers to the following three questions.

1. What is our definition of strategy?

One of the challenges with strategy is that the word is used so interchangeably and to mean so many different things. One of the simplest but most significant steps you can take as an organisation is to ensure that everybody has an aligned understanding of what strategy is and what strategy isn’t. This alignment must start at the very top of the organisation.

1. What are our key strategic objectives?

You probably assume that the leadership team are aligned in their understanding of the key aims of the organisation, yet our research suggests otherwise. We have asked leadership teams in hundreds of organisations what their key strategic objectives are. In over 90% of cases, those at the very top of the organisation had different views on the key goals. This included one organisation in which the top two people (the CEO and COO) had a difference of half a billion dollars when asked what the overall key strategic objective was.

When this degree of strategic misalignment exists, no amount of strategic communication will help. Before beginning any more communication projects, ensure that the most senior leaders are aligned in their understanding of the key strategic objectives.

1. What is our strategic process?

In most organisations, different pockets of the business will develop strategy in different ways. Even if the leaders of your business are aligned in their understanding of strategy and the strategic goals, a misalignment in the strategic process will erode understanding of the strategy in the broader employee community.

Until those three things are clear and aligned at the very top, it doesn’t matter how great your communications are; there will always be misunderstanding and misalignment. The good news is that if these challenges are familiar and exist in your organization, you have a big opportunity if you grab what we call The Alignment Advantage. If you were to align your senior leadership’s thinking and understanding around strategy, then align your culture so it becomes a strategic enabler, you will find yourself in a minority of 5% of organizations who are fully and completely aligned.

Richard Nugent is the author of new book The Alignment Advantage: Transform Your Strategy, Culture and Customers to Succeed.

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