Strategic success depends on more than just buy-in and flawless execution.
If the current culture doesn’t align with and support the strategy, the odds the strategy will be successful drop rapidly. Sometimes, leaders need to change the culture before they attempt to introduce a new strategy.
It really doesn’t matter where a sailboat is headed if the wind is not in support. The same is true with the connection between strategy and culture.
A strategy will not succeed if the organizational culture is at odds with it. New products, services, compensation designs, sales processes, and the like all depend on a culture that is in lockstep.
When the beliefs, values, and everyday practices of an organization do not align with the strategy, team members will have an impossible time accepting and executing the plan.
In other words, the strategy “just won’t take.”
Good leaders consider whether the culture will support the proposed strategic changes before they embark on introducing a new plan. They examine what features of the culture will hinder or facilitate the strategy and what they can do about it.
Working on changing a critical cultural belief or introducing a new team practice or norm can prime the organization to seamlessly incorporate the new strategy. In most instances, small changes in the culture can create a big runway for strategies to take off.
Thinking through the strategy-culture alignment before introducing the strategy is key.
By first resetting the culture through new rules, policies, metrics, reporting lines, or priorities and then letting those changes take hold, a new strategy has a much better chance of gaining traction and catching a strong tailwind.
Even micro interventions, such as new team norms, can help to reshape the culture and give the strategy a better glide path. When leaders model these small changes, they speed up the process.
The best leaders don’t talk about the need to change the culture to set the groundwork for a new strategy. When a misalignment exists, they simply go to work.
Their best bet is to go to the heart of culture.
They attempt to influence the day-to-day practices that shape how team members interact with each other. They know that changing the way team members engage each other in conversations and meetings will produce the quickest cultural difference.
With culture and strategy fully aligned, a strong foundation exists for the organization to embrace the new strategy when the time comes. Think about this alignment before introducing any major strategy into the organization. You’ll be glad you did.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
