Consider the following scenario: A service company is revamping its in-home treatment plans in an attempt to meet consumer demands and offer a more personalized, on-demand experience.
Marketers launch campaigns to build interest and make promises about a whole new experience that's a "step above the rest" - but no one is communicating with the sales people or technicians.
Meanwhile, the technician teams are creating their own strategies around minimization and up-sells.
Complicated doesn't work
This lack of communication leads to misalignment. Before long, the consumer experience falls behind stated brand promises and internal teams start pointing fingers.
Eventually this type of environment devolves into a blame game and rationalized excuses.
An atmosphere of redirected and deferred accountability is just as dangerous to an organization as having no accountability in the first place.
Getting back to the basics of clear expectations and results alignment across departments is the simplest and fastest way to cut through the noise and get all teams rowing in the same direction.
Create Clarity & Align Direction
In the end, the responsibility of team alignment starts at the top.
While this sounds like common sense it is surprisingly uncommon in practice. One study found that 95% of top level executive teams do not effectively communicate and clarify organizational priorities.
There is a significant negative trickle-down-effect caused by this lack of clarity. Employees are left with a vague sense of how their daily work contributes to company goals causing pervasive frustration and a drop in engagement resulting from unfulfilled expectations.
So how to create clarity? Well, rule #1 is don't get complicated.
Examine top level priorities and simplify them into 3 - 5 objectives.
The objectives need to have meaning, be measurable, and be memorable for each team. It's not the employees responsibility to create a clear line of site between their work and company objectives.
While that kind of proactive approach should be refreshing, the accountability falls on the shoulders of the C-Suite.
Align Team Expectations
This kind of clarity will have a massively positive trickle-down-effect across your organization.
Your people will start to see personal accountability in a whole new way. They will rise above hurdles and take personal ownership of achieving desired results. Engagement will soar.
Every company employee, from the C-suite down to the newest hire will be challenged to follow through with their role.
They can keep their eyes focused on 4 simple steps:
Remain proactive in seeing critical performance gaps.
Take psychological ownership of bridging those gaps.
Practice creative problem-solving to develop solutions.
Do what it takes to achieve key results by implementing effective solutions.
These are simple concepts, but in today’s swift and disruptive business environment it’s easy to get caught up in the complexity of fast-paced, multi-tiered agendas and lose site of accountability and direction.
Remember, communication silo's = broken promises
Push back chaos, remove the blinders and gain alignment. Chaos brings with it stress and misalignment. When you're going a thousand miles an hour even the best of leaders can get blindsided by missing what's right in front of them.
Desired results are easy to align with when they are simple – and now more than ever we all crave simplicity in these complex times.
A clear plan allows companies to organize around common goals, reveal core challenges and opportunities that will enable steady upward progress towards achievement of key top-line goals.