How can you match your strategy to your company culture?

Leaders, aligning strategy with culture isn't just a business mandate; it's a human-centered imperative. Use design thinking to get to the heart of your stakeholders' needs and aspirations. "Know Me” isn't just a customer principle; it's equally valid for your teams. Employ radical transparency to share your findings on culture and strategy, then build a cross-disciplinary team of champions to bring them to life. Remember, success isn't solely numbers-driven. If we create cultures that "Value Me, Care For Me, and Make It Easy For Me," our strategies will naturally align, and the numbers will follow. In essence, make your strategy and culture not just coherent but also resonant with what people deeply care about.

It’s imperative that when you are assessing current state you consult various sources that provide and balance qualitative and quantitative insights. Surveys and conversations are good but often less that 30% participate. Also don’t ask leading questions on surveys or interviews. Keeps the questions simple and open ended. You’ll get better responses and more diverse perspectives.

Leaders, defining your desired state isn't just about crafting statements; it's about embedding a human-centric ecosystem into every facet of our organization. Your vision, mission, and values should resonate in every stakeholder interaction, passing the "Know Me, Care For Me" test. SMART goals are not mere checkboxes; they're the actionable expressions of our higher calling. Instead of just 'increasing customer retention,' aim to 'make it easy for customers to stay loyal.' It's not just about hitting targets; it's about enriching lives. Create a culture and strategy that doesn’t merely coexist but thrives in harmony. This isn't just a business mandate; it's your human responsibility.

Your strategy should align to your mission, vision, and values. It is important to ensure that you have a strategy around your workforce. Our team members are truly our most important contributors and therefore we have to care for them.

Gap analysis is about determining the delta between where you are and where you want to be. Each gap that is determined is an opportunity to dedicate staffing funding to help move the organization towards the achievement of its vision. Once all of the gaps / opportunities are identified, it's wise to group and prioritize them for execution. After all, you can't do everything at once. With this, you have the making of your strategic plan comprised of all of the initiatives needed to make the changes required for unfettered achievement!

Before implementing anything you need to seek buy-in. Once you’ve identified gaps, seek out champions that are already demonstrating the behaviors that align with your strategy and mission, vision and values and understand their “why”. They will be your change champions. You also need to enable those impacted by socializing what you’ve learned. If you just implement and then communicate, the risk of failure is way higher. By communicating what you’ve learned and seeking buy-in, chances of a successful execution increases tenfold. Timely communication is a critical success factor.