Editorial
Transparency: Act Two – Get Organized
In September of 1945 a Colorado farmer swung an axe and gave the world “Mike the Headless Chicken.” Though Mike’s head came off (as planned) the brain stem was left intact and somehow the five and a half month old Wyandotte rooster shook off the trauma and stayed with the living. Farmer Olson packed up the barnyard phenom and drove 250 miles to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City where:
“Skeptical scientists determined the ax blade had missed the jugular vein and a clot had prevented Mike from bleeding to death. Since most of a chicken's reflex actions are controlled by the brain stem Mike was able to remain quite healthy.” (From Mike’s website)
Mike lived for 18 months during which time he went on a national tour, graced the covers of Life and Time magazines and gained international recognition as “Wonder Chicken” until his life was cut short (again) by an unfortunate run-in with a large piece of grain.
Now here’s our point, effective strategy formulation requires the collective “head thinking” of those committed to the mission and vision of an organization. Just as with Mike, without it we concede control and authority to the forces within our environment…we are left to blindly react instead of act. This is an extreme statement and we do not suppose that organizations simply focus on day to day (mission) with no regard for future growth and development (vision). However, take a moment to read the following observations provided by the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative on why strategies and strategic initiatives fail:
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•95% of a typical workforce does not understand its organization’s strategy
• 90% of organizations fail to execute their strategies successfully
• 86% of executive teams spend less than one hour discussing strategy
• 70% of organizations do not link middle management incentives to strategy
• 60% of organizations do not link strategy to budgeting
Now you may interpret BSC’s observations as focused on failures in execution not planning and you would be 100% right. No argument from us thank you very much. However, we would argue that the roots of failure go deeper and are found in the inability to get organized…be it for strategy development, execution or anything else within an organization requiring communication and information sharing. Here is where the seed of transparency is best planted.
This is where it can thrive not as high-minded happy talk but as a fibrous delivery system connecting and communicating to all the individuals within an organization. This is where the pathway is forged for strategy partners to involve themselves in planning and execution processes. The work of establishing such a system depends on leadership to exert equal measures of relentless “this is right” determination and focused “let’s get it done” discipline. The mindset for doing so is a simple one…an organization is a community of individuals that all matter equally.
Learn more about the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative at:
https://www.bscol.com/index.cfm
Learn more about Mike the Headless Chicken at: http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/story.html