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Building the Mandate for Strategy
Execution
“Despite widespread rhetoric about
the need for organizational agility, an
astonishing number of businesses stay stuck
in neutral when they need to implement a
new strategy,” begin TruePoint’s
Michael Beer and Russell Eisenstat in “How
to Have an Honest Conversation About Your
Business Strategy,” their most recent
Harvard Business Review article.
So often, the strategy is solid — so why the persistent failure to execute?
Because the organization’s people
cannot talk frankly and publicly about the
obstacles to change.
The HBR article references the
case of an Agilent division and the struggle
of its general manager, Lynne Camp, to integrate
a global organization. Her strategy was
sound — but people were not on board
and, despite their respect for Camp, unable
to tell her why. The breakthrough came when
Camp and her senior team used TruePoint’s
Strategic Fitness Process to structure an
organization-wide strategic conversation.
Camp and her fellow leaders recognized and
addressed their ineffective management approaches
and other barriers to change. And, because
Camp and her team demonstrated the courage
to listen and act on what they heard, the
organization’s trust and respect for
them rose enormously. The result: a global
organization transformed more rapidly than
Camp ever thought possible — a sustainable
change supported by its people.
“By enabling a complicated organizational
truth to emerge, senior managers reduce
cynicism, increase trust, and develop selfless
commitment,” the article concludes.
“As a result, they create a mandate
for change that even the most entrenched
and resistant power centers cannot resist.”
Contact TruePoint
to receive a reprint of “How to Have
an Honest Conversation About Your Business
Strategy,” Harvard Business Review,
February 2004.
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