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Taking your team from strategy to execution

Friday April 08 2022
Strategy.

There is a right climate for every outcome, and a right culture for every strategy. PHOTO | FILE

By WALE AKINYEMI

Have you ever had a dream for the organisation or for your department but have had to deal with a disconnect between what is in your head and the performance of the team? Have you had numerous sessions with your team on an issue and at the meetings you are excited that they seemed to get it, but when it comes to execution you are shocked at how things turn out?

You are not alone.

The problem most leaders face is not in strategy. It is in execution. There are many reasons for this.

First, there could be a lackadaisical view towards execution, in which you assume performance will happen. Or, as a leader, you could think that because people know it is a good idea and can see the accompanying benefits, they will want to get it rolling quickly.

Just because people are excited at the conception of the idea is no guarantee that they got it. Some of these misconceptions have cost companies time and money.

Many organisations hire consultants to help them get their team members to behave and perform in a particular manner. Say, a firm wants people to be more innovative; it invites someone to talk about innovation. This is repeated for every level of performance required. Before giving a verdict on this, let us cite two examples.

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Non-compliance

In the 1980s, the Nigerian military government launched a programme called “War Against Indiscipline”. The goal was to get people to become more orderly and embrace good behaviour. However, to enforce this, soldiers were placed at bus stops and public places to whip people who did not comply. As long as the whips were visible, people complied. But when that administration was overthrown, the behaviour was promptly restored to its default settings. People went back to behaving the way they did before.

The second story happened during the 2018 World Cup. The Japanese fans cleaned up the stadium after their matches. It was not for reward and neither was it a photo op. There was something from within that drove their actions and that “something” is what we need to infuse into our organisations.

It is the same reason why apples do not grow in the desert and palm trees don't grow in the North Pole. There is a right climate for every expected outcome and this is also true in organisations. There is a right culture for every strategy.

Another example is the “polar bear” case study. A person may have a vision to bring a polar bear into Kenya. Everything is right — the team, the equipment, the resources and an abundance of enthusiasm. When the polar bear arrives, it is celebrated with great fanfare but in a few days it is dead.

The polar bear can be likened to the strategy. If everything is right with the strategy and yet the environment is not right, the outcome will be negative.

The same principle influences adherence to traffic lights. A person who has never stopped at a red light in a certain country will stop in a totally different country because of the environment. The converse is also true that a person who grew up in an environment where they do stop at the red traffic light, will behave differently when exposed to an environment where people have no regard for the law.

The mindsets and belief systems of people are what determine how they behave. These are shaped by their environment, also known as culture. Strategy lays out what you want to accomplish as an organisation, but culture creates a conducive atmosphere for what you want to achieve.

Strategy without culture is a gamble that often leads to frustration for leaders. Behaviour that is imposed from outside is not sustainable in an organisation. This will be akin to the Nigerian soldiers whipping people to get them to behave in an orderly manner.

Wale Akinyemi is the chief transformation officer, PowerTalks. [email protected]

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