How can you create transparency in culture to align with strategy?

Without a sense of urgency and compelling reason to change, understood and believed by a critical mass of advocates, the vision will be weak and of little value.

Clarity is the #1 driver of outcomes. If you are confused, your team will be confused. Know your why - what is driving your vision. Be clear and consistent on this. Then paint a vivid picture of a tangible outcome. Focus on the what, not the how. It takes time to deliver a vision and there is a high chance that you will need to course correct. Focusing on the what, allows this to happen seamlessly. Know what bad looks like too. A simple step, but it makes a big difference and provides a much needed boundary line. Be consistent. Choose a short phrase that can be repeated often. Repeat it often. The biggest failure in creating a vision; not realising that you need to communicate, communicate, communicate. More than you think.

Before you share your strategy, you need to recruit your next layer of leaders and their teams, so that they share an emotional connection to your vision and your strategy. Failure to do this step and you will struggle to get traction beyond the first layer. Give them time to understand your why, the thinking behind your strategy and what good looks like. Encourage them to come up with their own way of explaining it - which feels more authentic. The difference will come from the stories that others tell, not the dashboards, presentations or posters. Encourage these.

This is the crucial step. Your goal is simple: make your employees communicate openly and honestly. It’s so straightforward that it makes you wonder why your employees aren’t behaving in that way to begin with. Well, that’s usually because they once voiced their opinion honestly, and that brought them more issues than praises. Firstly, your employees may think that their input isn’t going to change anything, so they choose to stay quiet. To fix this, you’ll have to actually act on their feedback. Secondly, it’s possible that your employees are afraid to give negative feedback because they fear repercussions. To resolve this problem, it’s a good idea to start with an anonymous feedback system that will make your employees more comfortable.

Strategic change happens at the speed of trust. Before you leap into open dialogue and feedback, build the relationships and establish the trust that you need. Otherwise you risk being deluded, as your teams tell you what you want to hear. The voices you need to hear will rarely speak up in group settings, so give other methods for them to be heard; either 1:1 in an environment that feels safe, or anonymously. It helps if the conversation is two way, so that you can clarify and challenge assumptions. If you do hear dialogue, or get the results of a survey, you will have an obligation to do something about them. Otherwise I do not feel heard.

Even better. STOP making decisions for your team, each time you do this you are disempowering them. Ask your team members what they would do, what they would consider. This is a great way to build trust in their judgement. Often decisions are the least worst choice, not the best or optimal ones, as other considerations come in. Be honest with your team about the options that you discounted and why. Treat your team like adults. The more they understand the choices being made, the more they are likely to deliver the outcomes.

Do what I do, not what I say. If you are not prepared to lead by example, don't lead at all. Think before you act or speak. Everything you say or do is being interpreted by your team. Leaders get the outcomes they deserve.

Consider creating transparency and fostering a balance between openness and strategic communication. Not every detail needs to be transparent; instead, strategically share information that aligns with organizational goals. Emphasize clarity over sheer transparency, ensuring the communicated information serves the larger strategic vision, promoting understanding and commitment among the team.

The end goal for me is the team buys in and feels connected to what we're doing and how we're going to get there. To do that, the first step, in my opinion, is including the team from the very beginning of building the strategy / vision. Keeping the team in the loop from the beginning is the openness and honesty in the process, it allows the team to contribute, provide their opinions and feel apart of the vision / strategy itself which leads to a more connected team and buy in on the strategy.

Keep it simple and keep it alive. The most successful cultural/strategic alignment use understandable language, don't over complicate it and use that language through all interactions and for decision-making. In my experience as a leader, if that's not there cross-organisationally, then I'd step into that and act as 'translator' for my team.