How do leaders communicate effectively during this transition? - part #1

There are two important questions that every leader needs to address right now:

- Do I know what is happening on the front lines? 

- Am I getting the complete picture?

“Strategy is communication,” writes Howard Morgan, Phil Harkins, and Marshall Goldsmith, Editors of the book, The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching: 50 Top Executive Coaches Reveal Their Secrets, John Wiley & Sons, 2005. As they continue, “The metaphor of “rolling out” needs to be replaced with the imperative to give people at all levels the tools to redefine the ideas that shape the choices and actions. Strategy must create language for people to solve problems laterally as well as to facilitate decision making up and down the organization.”

There are two major challenges when it comes to communication this summer. First, most strategic choices being made are achieving their half life in a more accelerated manner. Half life in physics refers to how many years before a radioactive element becomes inert. It refers to “the time required before a quantity to fall to half its value as measured at the beginning of the time period.” In strategy, it means that a 3 year strategic plan has lost most of its value after 1.5 years. Within a highly dynamic environment, the half-life of a plan is getting shorter and shorter.

Second, given the acceleration in the half-life of a strategy, communicating strategy and defining related operational choices is becoming harder and harder. 

The keys to solving these two challenging problems is three fold. First, we need to improve decision-making which is the pre-cursor to effective communication. As we all know, decision-making is a four step process, namely preparing to make a decision, making a decision, executing a decision and evaluating a decision. In the first stage of decision-making, there is a major key to successful communication during a transition of this magnitude. It is the part when we find and filter available information, i.e. putting it all in context. Within the finding and filtering stage, we are asking critical questions as outlined in the article called “How Successful Leaders Think” by Roger Martin, Harvard Business Review, June 2007. As he explains:

- What are the salient factors to take into consideration?

- What is causing what? i.e. an analysis of causality.

- What is the correct decision architecture to deploy?

Second, using the answers to these questions, we make the most appropriate or right decision with an understanding that changes can be made as more data or information becomes available. This is what is not being communicated well at this time period. Finally, we create a communications plan and then mobilize people for action. 

This week, answer the two big questions: Do I know what is happening on the front lines? Am I getting the complete picture? This will help you and your team communicate better during the next 90 days.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257