We’re all bombarded by tens of thousands of signs, signals, cues, and messages every day. Our minds factor in the sum total of our experience: what we’ve learned, where we’ve been, our anxieties, fears, happy moments, sad times, disappointments, and joys. It filters all that through what we really believe, our values, and preferences. We decide, then we act.
Connecting people to the business strategy – or, in other words, engaging them — requires managing the information bombardment so that we are managing decision moments and the discretionary effort everyone exercises to serve customers and/or other stakeholders – or not – based on their experience, information, attitudes, and messages that bombard them every day from all directions in the organization.
- Leaders set the tone, and people pay attention to what they say and don’t say, what they do, how they act, their tone of voice, facial expressions, what they wear, who they promote, and who they ignore. Everything a leader says and does is communication that gets scrutinized for meaning – often beyond what the leader imagines. Some of the smallest things speak the loudest about a leader’s preferences, priorities, and moods. These are important factors for the CEO, chairman, owner, or ultimate leader to be the authentic communication champion who links people and what they do to the business goals and strategy.
- Systems infrastructure includes all of the processes, policies, procedures, and programs that govern operations. They need to be aligned in order to communicate consistently – from structure, measurement and rewards, to policies and procedures, resource allocation, working environment and more. They all need to “say” the same thing. What they say needs to guide people when they encounter decision moments, and they should drive behavior toward winning.
- Formal communication channels, including printed publications, audio/visual productions, digital/web content, emails, meetings, and more, provide context by keeping people updated on the business, customer expectations, and the activities of competitors, regulators, and other stakeholders that influence the organization and what it’s trying to achieve. Note, however, that it’s important to strive for a careful balance between high-tech and high-touch communication. For example, huddling is a structured series of meetings designed specifically to allow more people – not just leaders — to participate in running the business. With the emphasis on performance, huddles are disciplined, quick, to-the-point, data-driven, and filled with stories about people and what they do, how they win by hitting their targets, and what help they need to hit future targets. This effectively capitalizes on the use of technology to gather and disseminate information, and when it’s designed and implemented well, it can achieve real business performance improvements.
Information should be shared in ways that capture as much discretionary effort as possible to engage people to give more than what’s necessary and do what it takes to win. People doing the work should decide what they need to know, and leaders should be responsible for making sure people have the information needed to win by communicating:
- Context — The beginning of line of sight and the foundation of change, it gives big-picture perspective and explains “why.” Leaders should take everything that’s happening around them and develop an elegant, powerful perspective and interpretation that captures hearts and minds.
- Vision and strategy — A targeted picture of the future and a roadmap to achieve it. Leaders have to communicate a behavioral portrait of what it’s supposed to look like when it’s completed so people can understand what they need to do, when there are decision moments and action options, to contribute.
- Linkage, roles, and support — Bind people to the business and to each other with the quid pro quo that conveys “what’s in it for me,” define what people need to do in order to share in the gain, and provide resources to help people create success.
