Culture is comprised of values, beliefs, and practices that are both declared and tacitly shared but are often not codified. That being said, culture is inextricably intertwined with your business strategy and the degree of success with which it is executed, so how can you tackle these amorphous barriers? Here are the three ‘unwritten rules’ you can put into effect to ensure that your culture supports your strategy and that you are setting yourself up for organizational success.
“Strategy without execution is just hallucination,” is a statement attributed to Thomas Edison. Irrespective of whether Edison said this, there is little dispute that the ability to execute strategy is a linchpin for organizational success. At the same time, many leaders struggle with the lack of progress against implementing strategy and at times reference Peter Drucker’s famous quote: “Culture will eat strategy for breakfast”.
To start, it is important to note that execution success rests on both cultural and non-cultural factors, although those are ultimately interrelated. Organizations need to have the mechanisms for executing strategy including measurable outputs and outcomes and closed loop systems for reporting on progress and adjusting where required. Those mechanisms can be codified, actioned, and adjusted. Senior leaders can leverage managers, recruit, or leverage consultants to set up and run these processes.
But what about culture? Culture is comprised of values, beliefs, and practices that are both declared and tacitly shared and are often not codified. What can leaders do about ensuring that the organization’s culture supports strategic execution? What do experiential learnings and real-world examples tell us about tackling these amorphous barriers? This post is dedicated to highlighting “unwritten rules”- to augment the methodological approaches- to gain traction and accelerate progress.
1. Lead the change with clarity
The first key is for senior leaders to avoid the trap of feeling hostage to their own organization’s culture. As a leader, know that organizational culture can change and that this is up to you and your leadership team to catalyze that. It is important to identify and leverage expert and influential individuals within your organization. This begins with clear, frequent, and focused communication. Leaders and influencers in your organization must communicate strategy repeatedly and in measurable terms. When strategic goals are fuzzy, they are less compelling. They are also less likely to contribute to changing behaviour or contributing to a culture of accountability. Clarity is key.
An inspiring example of this is the 100K campaign led by Dr. Don Berwick who was at the time the head of the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI), which is an independent non-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. The goal of the campaign was to save 100,000 lives by improving the quality of care and reducing inadvertent harm to patients. Instead of a qualitative target Dr. Berwick communicated a number and set a clear target date of June 14, 2006.
He was not only leading a culture shift in his own organization, but also leading change across healthcare systems. In case you are wondering, IHI exceeded this goal and went on to set even more ambitious strategies, which have had global impacts. Berwick’s example was highlighted in New York Times Bestseller, “Influencer, The New Science of Leading Change”: “The first things influencers do is focus and measure. They clearly articulate the goal they are trying to achieve.”
Of course, a target was not enough, IHI had specific actionable, science backed steps to make this happen.
2. Follow through with action
This is where the rubber hits the road because what you say matters, and what you do matters more. One of the most powerful ways to change people’s minds is by showing them the path forward, through action. This is where culture ties into the mechanisms and practices of the organization. Leaders need to maintain organizational focus by acting. While some organizations err on the side of not having an up-to-date strategy, others can end up in endless loops of creating strategies for their strategies.
A common mistake is to attempt to understand everything before starting, especially if your organization is innovating on business models, products, and services, where there is ambiguity at the start. It is important to set expectations around the next steps to execute strategy and follow through and follow up consistently leveraging business rituals and rhythms.
Although this is an ambitious example, OpenAI’s recent reverberating success with ChatGPT illustrates how a small and relatively new organization that is action-oriented can overtake giants. A recent article, “Big Tech was moving cautiously on AI. Then came ChatGPT,” in The Washington Post, highlights: “‘The technology underlying ChatGPT isn’t necessarily better than what Google and Meta have developed’, said Mark Riedl, professor of computing at Georgia Tech and an expert on machine learning. ‘But OpenAI’s practice of releasing its language models for public use has given it a real advantage.’”
3. Prioritize for a ‘culture of discipline’
Surprisingly, it is not rare to hear middle managers declare they are too busy for strategic implementation. Strategic execution is often encumbered by existing work, sometimes non-visible work, occupying the time and energy of people. It is important to respond to these signals and take steps to stop non-priority work to make way for strategic priorities. This is hard because there is often emotional attachment to the historical bodies of work. If leaders do not directly tackle prioritization as part of creating a culture of discipline, work may not be aligned to the strategic focus. Additionally, priorities need to be adequately resourced and, where appropriate, supplemented by external help.
In Jim Collins classic, “Good to Great”, a chapter is dedicated to creating “a Culture of Discipline”. In this chapter Collins describes how George Rathmann, cofounder of biotechnology company Amgen, borrowed from his former employer Abbott, combining the ethic of entrepreneurship with a culture of discipline. He was able to lead Amgen through immense growth. Collins notes that a common feature of good-to-great companies is that they have institutionalized the discipline to “stop doing” and advise leaders to start a “stop doing list”.
Does your current culture pose a challenge to your strategic implementation? Do you have an up-to-date strategy and methodologies for implementation? At Stratford we lead with our practitioners and utilize our tested methodologies and experience. By bringing to the table a team of experienced leaders and industry practitioners we go beyond the basics and help you diagnose and manage barriers standing in the way of your implementation or support acceleration to build on your success.
About Rana Chreyh
A senior executive, professional engineer, and Ivy league MBA business graduate with over 25 years of accomplishments in technology and business domains. Rana’s experience includes strategy development and implementation and large-scale solution delivery including for not-profit, technology start-ups and global fortune 500 companies. Rana Chreyh is recognized for her ability to seamlessly transverse and integrate business and IT strategy due to her broad and deep experience and industry expertise in technology, manufacturing, process engineering, medical device, HealthTech and healthcare. As Practice Leader, Management Consulting at Stratford, Rana will bring the team’s expertise to the table to meet your specific needs.