‘I WAS IN A WARM BED, THEN I WOKE UP IN A PLAN’

‘I WAS IN A WARM BED, THEN I WOKE UP IN A PLAN’

This is a line in a Woody Allan movie. If the strategy is communicated badly or implemented badly, it is how it can feel to many people.

Having spent a long time developing the strategy, you will be in a different place from those not involved. Just think: you may have spent several monthsof detailed work analysing the problems, gathering facts, exploring ideas and developing the solution. Your head has moved on from where you were several months ago. However, others have not been involved. They may know something is going on, but will not know what it is.

Part of the challenge you face as a Manager or Director is to get yourself back to the situation where you started and look at where you are now, as if you were still there.  To devbelop teh communication skills to get this message across effectively and engage your staff.

Throughout this book you will be asked to consider the situation and look at the strategy from the perspective of others. This is a skill that some people take time to build. It is one thing to say, ‘I would not do that in their shoes’.

You are not them. You are not in their shoes. There is a Native American saying, ‘Judge not someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes’. To walk in their shoes, you have to ask the question, ‘How would I think if
I were them?’.

Alternatively, ask ‘What would I have to know or believe to act like that?’. Chapters three, four and five will help you develop these skills and, through these, a more effective communication style.

Phil Jones, Author, Communicating Strategy

Engaging heads hearts and hands in your strategy

Lots of time is spent developing a strategy and planning its implementation.  Yet a simple fact remains: no matter how good the thinking behind the strategy, it is a waste of time if it is not in the heads, hearts and hands of the people who need to execute it. Of course, it is helpful to have it available for reference on the shelf or in the computer, and to keep the auditors happy.

If that is where it stays, it is a waste of paper, and it has been a waste of management time and effort.   You might as well burn all the plans if they are not in people's heads.

This book is about communicating that strategy, getting that engagement and getting feedback from it. As you read through this book and think about the questions it raises, the suggestions it makes, and the examples it uses, you will see how it is designed to help you get the strategy into the heads of your people and develop that engagement.

The book is designed to help you build skills, think through the issues, and develop a plan for communicating your strategy. Of course, that plan should be in your head, which is why it is not formalized until the end of the book. By the time you reach it you will have developed lots of ideas and have started putting them into action.

A wide range of experiences in a wide variety of sizes and types of organization has gone into this book. These organizations range from large commercial and multi national companies to small family run businesses, from large public sector bodies to city councils, from dot.coms, through traditional manufacturing companies to pure service organizations. You can apply the ideas and experience in this book to them all.

At a minimum, the strategy must address the simple logic of ‘Where are we going and how are we going to get there?’. It will engage the heads of your staff. But that is not enough. It is also about getting to the hearts of your people. Whilst the cold logic of Star Trek’s Mr Spock is useful, it is the emotional commitment and engagement that often makes the biggest difference. The passion with which people engage customers or commit to activities makes a massive difference to people’s productivity and results. It also makes a big difference to how people feel about being at work and how the organization’s community and society plays in their lives. This passion and commitment will come from the passion and commitment you have when you communicate the strategy.

It is also about getting it into the hands of people, so actions are taken. Many strategies have had compelling logic and been passionately delivered, but have still failed in their execution. Sometimes the organization itself acts to stop change happening. Sometimes people need a compelling wake up call. Sometimes, people simply need to know that they have permission to act differently and no longer be constrained by the rules that bound them. So, whilst this book is about communicating your strategy in an organization, it is applicable to communicating all sorts of changes in an organization, its culture and its values.

Phil Jones, Author, Communicating Strategy

Communicating tough decisions

Communicating Tough decisions
Phil Jones, Author of Communicating Strategy, published by Gower

As Directors and Managers, you sometimes have to make a tough decision: to make people redundant, close down plants, move services off shore, move manufacturing facilities or shed unprofitable customers.

Of course, you will need to plan these changes carefully. You will need to comply with statutory requirements and contractual conditions. There are statutory redundancy periods and notice periods to comply with. There may also be consultation arrangements with unions and worker representative groups. In some countries this will include a workers’ executive, in others the union, or a workers’ representative panel or group. Some employers will stick with statutory minimum terms for redundancies. Others may decide to offer preferential terms to all or particular groups of staff.

You may decide to put in place counselling, job assistance or support for any people made redundant. You may even be eligible for funding from government depending upon where you are located. Some organizations help their ex-employees start new businesses, so they become or move to suppliers, customers and competitors. Remember, these people will continue to talk with people in your industry and with customers and suppliers. They will continue to be ambassadors for your company, whether you employ them or not. How you treat them will be reflected back on you as an organization.

Questions

• What statutory or compulsory arrangements do you have to make?
• What contractual obligations do you have?
• What are you doing to help and how are you communicating this help to these people?
• How are you ensuring that those people who leave remain ambassadors for your company?

Communicating after redundancies

While attention is paid to those being made redundant, you also need to talk with the ‘survivors’. They might be relieved they are still in a job. They might wish they were offered a redundancy cheque. They might simply fear that they will be included in the next round of redundancies.

On occasion, when people leave an organization quickly, with no notice, sometimes those who remain are asked not to contact those who have left. I do find this strange, but it is not unusual. I have personally witnessed it twice. In one case people were explicitly asked not to contact those that had left. It is almost as if the management were saying, ‘Those people are bad and you are the survivors. Do not mix with them’. In reality, these people were probably your friends and will remain so long after they have left.

Some of the ‘survivors’, perhaps when the cuts seem somewhat arbitrary, may feel embarrassed that they still have a job when other were selected. You get a double whammy: rejected by your company and rejected by your ex-workers.

You will probably have selected key people you are keen to retain. If you handle the redundancies poorly, you may disenfranchise them as well. Handle this badly, and they will simply leave when they are ready, on their terms.

The message is simple: pay attention to what messages and signals you send out, both to those who are leaving and to those who remain.

Questions

• How will you deal with the survivors?
• How will you manage the message to them?
• How will you make sure they do not leave at the soonest opportunity as well?
  

Explain and engage people in the economics of the business

Any strategy is likely to involve a cost of change. This might be associated with projects or programmes of work aimed at delivering a better process, the cost of redundancy or investment in a new factory.

Engage people in the economics of the business. The level of detail need not (and should not) include all the detailed financial calculations but should explain the broad economics. Amongst the heresies in chapter 2 there is Heresy 1: People are not stupid. Explain the economics and don’t dumb it down. For example:

1) ‘At the moment we make this much per car and we want to be making this much. Steel prices have risen by 40 per cent which has cut our margins from eight per cent to four per cent. This means we shall make a loss of £500 million this year, unless we find ways to cut costs elsewhere.’

2) ‘If we can avoid an increase in costs above inflation, whilst managing the eroding prices, we will remain profitable. But only just and bonuses will need to be cut back.’

When people understand how what they do affects the costs, they are better positioned to make informed judgements about helping to improve it. If they are kept away from the economics, how can they understand and assist?

Questions

• What is your economic model for the business?
• What are the economic levers or drivers of your strategy?
• Can you explain these in a simple expression?

Conclusion

The clearer your communications, the easier it is for them to understand them and trust them. Even if there is bad news, explaining the bad news well, will engender trust and understanding.

About the author

Phil Jones is Managing Director of Excitant Ltd, and a consultant and author. This article is based on material from his book, Communicating Strategy.

Phil has helped a wide variety of commercial and public sector organisations communicate their strategy, improve how they manage performance and deliver results. He can be contacted via email at phil.jones@excitant.co.uk or via his website http://www.excitant.co.uk/. There is also his Strategy communication blog at http://www.communicating-strategy.com/

"All plans should be burnt"

"All plans should be burnt"

Recently the managing Director of a client organisation was presenting their strategy to the senior managers. He started by openly admitted that he got the phrase "All plans should be burnt" from me and said he would do the same.

However, as there were smoke detectors in the room, he had to rip the strategy up rather than burn it. So he did.

The reason I say, "All plans should be burnt" is very simple.

People are making decisions on a day to day basis that influence the strategy. Thy do not refer to plans every 5 minutes. They rely on what is in their heads.

If the organisation's strategy and plans are in people's heads, then people act on them and they get executed. In this case it is safe to burn them as the plans have served their purpose of communicating the strategy.

If the plans are not in peoples' heads, then they are being ignored, are a waste of time, and might as well be burnt.

So all plans should be burnt.

Of course auditors don't like this, but what does that matter. If they want to find out whether the strategy is understood and working, they can do the same as anyone else. If a strategy is sitting on a shelf it is not being implemented. Go and ask those who should be implementing it.

Phil Jones
Author "Communicating Strategy"