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 The power of alignment

By Kim MacIlwaine

The importance of clear strategies has never been greater as the pace of change intensifies and the technologically-driven shrinking of the world is a reality. Yet, effective implementation of strategy commonly remains significantly behind the quality of the actual strategic plan.

• The plan gets ‘launched’, often in a stunning presentation form, which ‘Wows’ the employees, shareholders etc

• Two months later, the components of the plan are scarcely remembered by the shop floor

• Six months later the delivery of results is behind schedule, and slides onwards and downwards

This is evident in the public and private sectors of industry, both large and small, and especially in the Government arena where the President himself has adopted Service Delivery as the key theme for this term of office. Of course, there are glowing exceptions, in all sectors:

• Trevor Manuel’s macro finance strategy for the country –brilliantly and consistently implemented; within that the tax revenue strategy, led by Pravindh Gordon

• The Pick n Pay Customer Service strategy of the early 2000’s, led by Sean Summers

But the majority of Chairmen/CEO’s will have many tales to tell re the most brilliant strategies on paper, which commit huge resources, both in planning and presentation, and then fizzle out in implementation phase. To the point where there can be a skepticism on even introducing a strategic planning exercise into the business!

My experience, based on several General management positions in Unilever and even in an organisation as different as a Country Club –  is that really effective strategic implementation relies on the Power of strategic and emotional alignment:

strategic alignment

The crafting of a strategy is often confined to the top echelons of a business/organisation –the Board and some chosen intellectuals. BUT, it is the organisation below the top which will really determine the effective implementation, or not – right the way down to the shop floor. For alignment to work:

1. The company’s strategy must be communicated clearly, convincingly and repeatedly throughout the organisation.

• This is a role for the Leadership of a business and the CEO in particular.

• The strategy must be distilled into Plain English (and whatever other languages are relevant) and kept simple – not to demean the recipients, but to ensure clarity and so it can be remembered.

• The key themes must be repeated at every opportunity, to all levels of the organisation even though this is hugely time consuming for the CEO.
  

2. The original messages must be accompanied by updates of how the business is doing against the milestones set within the strategy – very honest updates too. No ‘snowjobs’ or ‘everything is wonderful’ as trust will rapidly evaporate when the reality is visible. I often encountered resistance, especially and ironically from my bosses in an unlisted subsidiary, to the concept of showing the ‘workers’ data on how the business was performing: profit ratios (Vs target, Vs competitors etc), profit nos., turnover nos. etc. My argument was simple: if the team doesn’t know how we are performing, how can we motivate them to greater heights! Similarly, I was unworried about such data getting into competitive hands as the effective implementation of the Power of Alignment would create a competitive advantage which could not be replicated easily or quickly, namely the effectiveness of implementation – in terms of speed, quality and determination.

emotional alignment  

So, we assume that the vast majority of employees are clear on the components of the organisational strategy, are getting reminded of those components regularly and are also getting regular updates on how the organisation is performing against the milestones. But that does not create delivery or even motivation!

• The ultimate goal is for all employees to want to come to work and be motivated to deliver for the business. A deluded Nirvana? Blissful ignorance? Poppycock, or worse? No, it can and should be done, to ensure realization of a strategy.

• The effective emotional motivation of all staff is also a key role for the Leadership of a business/organisation, particularly the CEO – and it is not just about money!

• The values of an organisation should emerge from a good strategy but must then be actively lived and practiced, starting at the top! No point in preaching honesty and transparency if the company exercises secrecy etc

• The rewards policy of the business must be aligned to the delivery of the key pillars of the strategy; in addition to paying relevant salaries and wages that are seen as fair, people at all levels of the business should be targeted against components of the plan, and sub-components (which is why they need to understand the bigger strategic picture for the business and thus where their area of responsibility fits in) – and then their rewards package structured accordingly. This can be in several forms, but equity stakes work most effectively!

• The career development process for a business needs to be utterly fair and demonstrably transparent, including the issues of transformation, where applicable to an organisation.

• The work environment needs to be conducive to people ‘wanting to work’; this does not necessarily need cost huge money, especially if the work teams are encouraged to design their own work space within a budget, but consistent with the style and culture a business is trying to create.

• Culture. Many books written about the creation of organisational cultures, but it is vital to the emotional alignment of the workforce to create a genuine and credible culture. Again, this emanates from the top, and is not about suddenly creating a pub in the office, calling it the Social Spot (an unfortunate name!) and then the Directors sit awkwardly on bar stools on a Friday evening, trying to ‘engage with the team’ – as one organisation I know did!

Thus there are three components to Powerful Alignment:  

• A Leader committed to and capable of creating alignment

• A compelling, powerful strategy created inclusively

• A product/service and workforce that is competitive, or potentially competitive

And when you have powerful alignment, an organisation can anything!

Kim MacIlwaine spent 25yrs working for Unilever in various parts of the world, initially in Marketing and for the last 13 yrs in General Management. He was CEO, then Chairman of the Unilever Foods business in South Africa from 1996 to 2004, negotiating and then implementing the merger with Robertsons, at the time the largest in the SA foods industry. He has now left Unilever, become resident in SA, consults, coordinates a small investment group, G6, and is Chairman of Durban Country Club. He can be contacted on 0824422317