It’s February, 2025, how are your business and customer experience strategies going? By now, I imagine that you’ve completed your staff blast off, shared your business vision for 2025 and the targets to be accomplished for at least quarters one and two. Additionally, you’ve taken the time to drive the big picture details into bite-sized dollops that have been cascaded across the business via departmental meetings, so that even the most junior staff members are crystal clear on the strategic direction of the business and how they will need to contribute to the achievement of targets.
Oh, and the strategic plan is no longer thirty-five pages long. It’s a one pager that is shared with every staff member. Some businesses go so far as to share it with stakeholders as well, for added value chain alignment. Gone are the days when this important document is held close to the breasts of board members and senior managers. That’s real old school.
You’ve taken the time to drive the big picture details into bite-sized dollops that have been cascaded across the business via departmental meetings, so that even the most junior staff members are crystal clear on the strategic direction of the business and how they will need to contribute to the achievement of targets.
Every year, businesses have either small, medium, large or transformative goals. These goals sometimes rollover from previous years, or are completely new, depending on the growth and development arc of the business. What I’ve encountered, is that while the small, medium and large goals may, with a bit of struggling, come to some level of fruition, it’s the transformative goals that are the greatest source of miscarriage. These are the goals that require the widest possible participation when being defined, the most precision when planning their execution, the deepest level of employee opting-in, and the most sophisticated measurement mechanisms. Not many businesses have the wisdom to know that “slowly” is the best way to attack these transformative goals. There is this haste to get things done, at the expense of getting things done well and with precision.
Not many businesses have the wisdom to know that “slowly” is the best way to attack these transformative goals.
Then there are those businesses that decide not to be ruled by emotion and opt for a level of meticulous planning. They understand that the day one plants the seed, is not the day that one reaps the harvest (Paul Coelho). They understand, as well, that transformation is about changing a culture and altering the molecular structure of a business. People do not like to change and changing a culture takes a surgical approach.
Just think of the surgeon who spends hours discussing an upcoming procedure with his or her patient. The intention is to ensure that the patient understands what will be happening before, during and after the procedure. Chances are that the surgeon will have created a more co-operative patient, who will go into the surgery with a sense of preparedness.
The day one plants the seed, is not the day that one reaps the harvest (Paulo Coelho).
In the same way, there is so much to gain when a business takes the time on the front end, to create a workforce that is prepared for the structural changes of the future. Conjecture is reduced, unnecessary tumult is avoided, continuity overrides the occurrence of operational fault lines and there is an air that the business is moving as a single unit.
As an integral aspect of the business plan, service excellence would be a stand-alone domain, with its own landing outcomes and measures of success. Alongside the several moves to create a connected workforce, there would be articulation of the effort to elevate customer success for yet another year.
That transformation is about changing a culture and altering the molecular structure of a business. People do not like to change and changing a culture takes a surgical approach.
So, at this point, notwithstanding the fact that we are in the throes of an annual cultural extravaganza, that threatens to place much of the business agenda on hold, I’m still going to be bold enough to ask the question, “How is your strategy going?”