When I step back and look at the big picture, I hear and see three things from leaders at this time period. First, we live in world filled with contradictions and we are craving “islands of sanity”, using a Margaret Wheatley term, in the midst of it all. We live in a time period of profound and deep loneliness. It is not just lonely at the top of the organization. It is now lonely everywhere. We also live in a time period where many people are feeling profound and deep discouragement. This in combination with being over booked, over extended and over committed has resulted in many feeling like they and their teams are “stuck in the weeds.” However, in the midst of all of this, we, as leaders, are suppose to create, maintain and preserve cultural clarity and alignment.
Second, many leaders are coming to the same conclusion as John Doerr in his book, Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs (Portfolio, 2018) that “alignment is rare.” Studies suggest that only 7 percent of employees “fully understand their company’s business strategies and what’s expected of them in order to help achieve the common goals.” Furthermore, notes Doerr, a lack of alignment, according to a poll of global CEOs, is the number-one obstacle between strategy and execution.
Third, “cultural inclinations are well intrenched, for good or for bad”, explains Jon Katzenbach, Ilona Steffen and Caroline Kronley in their article, “Cultural Change That Sticks,” Harvard Business Review, July-August 2012. Myself and many others are seeing this on so many levels.
Brene’ Brown in her book Braving The Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone (Random House, 2017) writes that “research participants described a diminishing sense of shared humanity. Over and over, participants talked about the concern that the only thing that binds us together now is shared fear and disdain, not common humanity, shared trust, respect, or love.”
With the above in mind, we, as leaders, know that we must visit more with people at all levels of the organization, understand their perspective, and involve them in the planning for the future. We also know that changing just a few critical behaviors within the culture is a lot of work.
When I step back from all my meetings and reflect on where I see cultural clarity and alignment taking place, I note two small, but very important things taking place. First, the leaders who are visiting with people at all levels of the organization are somehow creating safe spaces for discussion. With so many people feeling like they are outside their comfort zone, moving through a trough of chaos which at times is feeling like either the pit of despair or a trough of continual panic, these safety zones are so important for leaders and followers to share, be heard and dialogue. At times, I think this happens best because of a good strategic level question that is timely and worth exploring, but also because of the presence of a facilitator. However, in the end, I think it really comes down to committing the time and resources to do it on a regular basis.
Second, I believe the leaders who are creating cultural clarity and alignment honor the strengths of their existing culture. In particular, I have noticed that the leaders within those organizations are clear about two things, namely that they can articulate the strengths of their company culture, both operationally and strategically, plus they can articulate what alignment means within their organization.
This week, I encourage you to reflect on these two questions: What are the strengths of your culture? What does alignment look like within your organization? Your answers will be helpful to you and many others in the coming days and weeks.
