Culture can definitely eat away and ultimately consume strategy. This often happens by stealth, going unnoticed.
The way we talk changes the way we work.
“The ancestor of every action is a thought” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The way you think and act may have got you to where you are today very effectively, but will it take you to where you want to go? Will the way you talk as a team, as an organisation support your future direction?
Leaders – are you aware of the impact of your own thinking style, your self-talk and the way that your thinking is experienced by others?
Consider the influence and impact you could have on the organisation culture by changing your thinking style from being defensive to more constructive. Imagine the collective impact of a high achievement, self-actualised, humanistic-encouraging and affiliative culture.
Are you creating the conditions for strategic success? If you want to encourage strategic conversations in the business, are you creating the safe space to enable constructive, collaborative, and creative thinking?
Do you have a reporting framework which supports the surfacing and addressing of strategic issues? Is the organisation structured and aligned to support the strategy?
Are you measuring and monitoring Key Performance Indicators which motivate and manage the organisation to be aligned with the strategy and its successful execution?
I love the redefinition of KPI as:
– Keep People Interested
– Keep People Informed
– Keep People Involved
– Keep People Inspired
A strategy is only as good as the capability to execute it. Aligning your culture is a fundamental part of that.
