Enable your Strategy to support your Culture, not work against it! Enagaging Your People for Success- Lisa Askwith

Engaging Your People for Success- Ep 3 Season 6. Enable your Strategy to support your Culture , not work against it!
 
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INTRODUCTION
Show Objectives - The Why
Often it is assumed if a company has a great vision or strategy then it must have a great culture and people will want to stay. Sadly this could not be further from the truth! I often see companies that once had a great strategy and culture, but over time things have changed, and not in a good way, the synergy is gone and often the culture has changed direction. Often the strategy has not really been reassessed for true relevance to the business and people- just the bottom line, and this leads to further problems.

It's amazing just how often the people working in the business cannot see that this has occurred. Often it takes some time for them to realise the depth of the problem, and by then it has often become pervasive and much more difficult to change. In fact, by then the Strategy has continued on, and is often totally ignoring, or worse yet contradictory to the culture. This is what I want to ensure you avoid. It's time to rebuild the way your culture and strategy work together, to fully capitalise on long term sustainable business success.

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 Key Issues - Owner Perspective:
Don’t let your business suffer, let me help you make your business the best that it can be by utilizing your greatest assets, Your People!!!! 

In order for your business to be the best that it can be, you need a great strategy that fully supports and enables an amazing culture. One cannot work well for long without the other. Often established businesses get too busy in the day to day, and forget they need to constantly maintain their culture, not just just their business plan, and financial metrics. Metrics take over, and these are only financially based, not people and engagement based. Except in the extreme case of being a necessary KPI to retain your role. When this happens the two start to separate and the culture invariably degrades. In the worst case examples it can become very toxic, and then it starts to hinder the strategy and business outcomes.

This can all be avoided through using some simple tools and metrics, and building them into your leadership team reviews and strategy. That way you have the best opportunity to always stay on top of your entire business and benefit from fully engaging your people for success, through a strong strategy and an amazing culture.


What You Need to Know - The What
For many years we all believed that the strategy was the be all and end all to business success. Yes of course you need to have one that will drive your business, through tough times as well as establishment and change. However, business has changed a lot in the last 10 years…….not only are we being impacted by rapid changes in technology and global accessibility, but also the workforce needs have changed……..people rarely now want a job for life, plus they want to feel valued and part of the business that can be heard in, and effect change in. This is very different from 15 years ago. So it's time to re-build your business and focus on how you can achieve a symbiotic strategy and culture that supports your long term success. 

 The employee value changes have led us to having a highly skilled and highly mobile workforce……..plus we now have the GIG economy, and people are increasingly less reliant on the ‘old fashioned’ full time job, and more comfortable with part time and contract roles……this is a huge shift in belief patterns and needs. So these companies that are still functioning on a great strategy without regard for culture, are really finding they are coming up against a range of difficulties, as they have missed the key shifts in workplace needs, and the change in their employees behaviours and needs. So whilst we have over the last few years become familiar with the phrase, ‘Culture eats strategy for Breakfast’ the true reality is that many companies have not been able to implement this shift, and capitalise on the benefits of it.

Instead they are still almost 100% strategy focused, and are wondering why their strategies no longer work as well as they used to. Hence, there is a need to recognise and implement strategies that embed the culture into the strategic plan, and that both elements support each other to drive success. They are not mutually exclusive, but rather symbiotic.
 
What You Need to Do - The How
Key Tips to get you started today

Develop or review your Strategy- it is more than guesswork, or what you have always done!

This great article gives you the below key tips
10 Steps To Building a Killer Business Strategy | Vistage

1- Develop a true vision.
2- Define competitive advantage
3- Define your targets
4- Focus on systematic growth
5- Make fact-based decisions
6- Think long term
7- But, be nimble
8- Be inclusive
9- Invest time in pre-work
10- Measure your results and execute excellently

Key metrics to develop to support your Culture

• Staff turnover/attrition figures that are monthly by department and company
• Exit interviews- reason for leaving by department and company
• Time in business metric- by department and company- plus external comparison
• Regular 360 degree feedback surveys for entire leadership team
• Results used from 360 degree to create leadership training and address issues
• 18 monthly Culture surrey for entire business
• Results used for Culture survey to affect internal business change
• Develop engagement metrics that work for your business and use them at every leadership meeting
• Ensure your employee value proposition is embedded to your entire business and is supported by documentation, training, leaders and outcomes.

Overall, you need your strategy and your culture to be truly symbiotic. A culture is not a document like a strategy, it really is living and breathing. All cultures have 5 key characteristics, and these can be recognised and supported in a great strategy. These are;
 

• It is learned,
• shared,
• based on symbols,
• integrated, and
• dynamic.

All cultures share these basic features. Culture is learned. It is not biological; we do not inherit it. 

So this means if you want to keep your strategy ahead of the game and incorporate your culture successfully you also need to look at how your strategy deals with these topics…..and more importantly that it is done in a way that engages your people and helps drive business success.

 
Shows
●      Previous: Episode 2 Season 4 - Recruitment and Retention made easy. 
●      Next: Episode 4 Season 6-  Winning the War for Talent - In order to really build your talent and your business success, you need to have  a model that not only retains great talent, but attracts them in the first place.

Written by Lisa Askwith
Director of ApexBRS | ApexBRS, Regional Director of See Global Media, Chair of  EGN Singapore, and Associate Professor Cambridge Corporate University | At the Age of Change, providing the HR component of the Global Executive MBA and BBA. Lisa has worked for some of the largest companies in the world and successfully led restructures and change management programs in order to improve the bottom line through engaging the people for success, while developing exceptional leaders who can make a positive impact on Culture and long term business sustainability.

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