Sunday, October 14, 2012

Alignment, Motivation, Change & Commitment

If you have a large new strategic initiative, how do you get buy-in, commitment, alignment, motivation and change management communicated. According to research led by Jim Collins in his book “Good to Great”. You don’t.

In a large company like Kroger, the Level 5 CEO did not spend too much time to align 50,000 employees to the new strategy.
Level 5 leaders simply don’t worry about that upfront, rather they depend on turning, what Collins calls the “Flywheel”: let the flywheel do the ‘talking’. Executing and then repeating success of a strategy and communicating that allows people to extrapolate – people want to be part of a winning team.
Alignment, motivation, change and commitment takes care of itself. In my professional life, I have seen that happen – your strategy becomes everyone’s strategy! Everyone takes ownership and enjoy a shared success. It is possible, I have been part of it and recognize the ‘chemistry’.