Compiled
BY Nabin Shrestha
WaterComm

Is silence undermining your strategy? When employees are unable to speak truth to power, senior leaders do not get the necessary information about their company's competitiveness, and employees lose faith in those leaders and become less inclined to change. In ‘Fit to Compete’, the author proposes an antidote to silence: principles and a time-tested innovative approach for having open and honest interactions with everyone in your organisation.

A company's ability to align its organisational capabilities with its strategic goals generates long-term competitive advantage. However, many organisations fail to achieve this alignment due to a lack of honest conversations about their capabilities, resulting in strategic misalignment, poor performance and, eventually, failure. Here is a framework for developing open communication and creating an honest and accountable culture inside organisations to generate strategic success.

The Problem of Strategic Misalignment

By investigating the underlying reasons for strategic misalignment, leaders may bridge the gap between top management's strategic vision and the organisation's real capabilities. Misalignment is typically caused by a lack of openness and honest communication inside the organisation, as leaders may be uninformed of their company's genuine capabilities or afraid to address tough facts.

The Role of Leadership

Effective leadership is critical for achieving strategy alignment and cultivating a culture of honesty and responsibility. Transformational leaders prioritise open communication, empower their staff and create an atmosphere that encourages differing viewpoints. This may be accomplished by emphasising the significance of leadership commitment to driving organisational transformation and demonstrating the behaviours they want to see in others.

Importance of Organisational Capabilities

Organisational capabilities are the cornerstone of competitive advantage, covering the people, processes and systems that allow an organisation to provide value to its customers. Organisations must have a comprehensive awareness of their skills, strengths and limitations to design a successful strategy based on "honest conversations" for analysing and enhancing organisational capabilities.

Creating an Honest Culture

To foster an honest culture, leaders must establish a safe environment in which employees can speak out and share their opinions without fear of repercussions. Some of the cultural traits that leaders must foster inside their organisations include strategies for encouraging open communication, such as conducting anonymous surveys, providing feedback channels, and rewarding candour. By listening to other points of view and questioning preconceptions, leaders may identify hidden impediments to achievement.

Aligning Strategy and Capabilities

Strategic alignment happens when an organisation's strengths are closely related to its strategic goals. The process of assessing organisational capabilities and identifying gaps that may impede strategic execution can be addressed through a holistic approach that takes into account both internal and external factors, such as market trends, competitive dynamics, and technological disruptions.

Overcoming Resistance to Change.

Resistance to change is a typical impediment to organisation transformation. Employees may avoid honest conversations about their capabilities for a variety of reasons, including fear of job loss, scepticism about management's motivations, and a lack of faith in the organisation's capacity to change. These barriers may be addressed by communication, education, engagement and empowerment to increase buy-in and support for strategic goals.