How Will We Know When We Get There?

I had a call yesterday with a client that has created a “strategic directive” and they now need a roadmap.?I am surprised how often this happens!?Let me tell you how this goes and see if it sounds familiar to you.

An organization decides they need something: employee enrichment, a focus on uplifting one segment of their business or line of business, an initiative for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB)...?You get the picture.?Something significant and sweeping.??The initiative is?sometimes created in reaction to a problem or pain that they’re having.?Sometimes?it?is happening because they’ve realized it’s a BMP (Best Management Practice) or that some element of their organization is in some state of disarray.?Sometimes the initiative is launched in response to world events or dynamics.?But they have no?clear?vision for the work, no idea of?what it will look like when they achieve?the goal,?and?no process in mind to help get them from point

A to point Z.

And then people inside the organization start asking about – or expecting things – based on that proclaimed goal, directive, or strategic initiative.?It sounds something like, “If we have a strategic directive to do something about diversity, why are we hiring this white guy?” Since no one has said what “doing something about diversity” looks like, any hire that isn’t “diverse” will be criticized!

?And the organization is caught flat-footed!

I propose that we don’t create a public directive, strategic initiative,?or goal until we’ve had the time to create at least the bare minimum of a plan.?For example, one of my clients has a “Strategic Goal for 2023” called “Employee Enrichment.”?But here we are mid-way through Q2 in 2023 and they don’t yet have milestones, or implementation steps, or anything that helps employees understand what that looks like for themselves.?As you might expect, sometimes things happen within this organization and an employee says some version of, “But we have a Strategic Goal of Employee Enrichment.?How is this thing happening that’s the opposite of enriching to our people?!?”?

Well, it’s happening because they haven’t defined for themselves (or anyone else!) what they mean by?“employee enrichment.”?If the organization stated, “We have a strategic goal of enriching our employees in 2023.?This means that we will offer $X of money to every employee for professional training and development.?And we will be leading webinars on the following topics: A, B, and C.”?Then it would be really clear what the organization had in mind.?Or they might say, “We did a survey of our employees and we found out X.?In response to that, we are now instituting A, B, and C.”?Or they might say, “We understand that the needs of our employees are changing and they are expecting new things from employers.?To better understand your needs, we are launching a survey on X Date.?Please respond!?In return for your participation, we will report back to you on what we learn and the actions we are taking to respond to your needs.”?

The list can go on…and you get it!?We get ourselves into trouble when we roll out things that sounds great – like a strategic goal to enrich our people.?And, when we fail to explain what we mean by those words, we are setting ourselves, and our people, up to fail.

?Let’s knock it off!

?And if you need help taking it from nice words to an actual plan, please?reach out. We’ll be glad to help!