Tag Archives: Strategy

In 2020 Millenials will start turning 40 – GenX, are you ready?

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It is hard to believe, but it is coming!  Many companies are working on their 2020 visions and goals, but I’ve noticed that it is a lot of late Baby Boomers and solid Gen Xers making the plans. And yet, in 2020, Millenials will start turning 40 – just at the age when they will be coming into their own in their careers, with significant influence on how those plans go forward. As well, they will be the biggest consumers of the products and services that come out of the plans you are making now.  Are you ready for Millenials to turn 40?  Are you working with intention in your planning to make sure your company is ready?

Millenials are different in some important ways.  Over 30% of them don’t choose to get a driver’s license when they come of age. Many of them would prefer a smaller house than their parents. They are spending their time and money on different types of products and services, and have a different modality for integrating work and life. In America, they are the first generation to enter a workplace that is dominated by services, not product or manufacturing. Check out this article from the NYTimes about one father’s experience with understanding how to measure the success of his Millenial son.

What strategies are you putting in place for employees and customers to attract and maintain this up and coming generation’s affiliation to your brand?

The St. Louis Org Development Community

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For the second year in a row, I’m attending a program put on by the St. Louis Organizational Development Network.  What a great group of people who are passionate about organizational development!  Today’s focus is on the tie between OD and strategy, which is an interest of mine as well.  They did a great breakout led by Paradigm Consulting on how to apply some techniques of engaged strategy development to clarify the ODN mission, vision, and strategy for the members.  Great way to use the time, keep the energy up, and inspire membership commitment and understanding.

ODN Mission Vision Strategy

 

Want a strategy that works? Get more people involved.

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I continue to see clients investing in traditional strategy frameworks – balanced scorecards, strategy maps, 5 forces, etc. These are all good tools for working through how the company can grow and serve its clients. Sadly, the development process continues to be choked down to an elite corps – “a few good men (and maybe some women)” at very senior levels in the organization. This handful of people, by merit of going through the working processes, gains a clear understanding of what it’s all about. When it comes time to announce it (drum roll please…) at best we get some fancy communications, maybe some pretty pictures, but there is no effective way to communicate the experience of creating the strategy. And so it becomes the “flavor of the month/year” and most people simply continue on with their day to day activities, not really caring one way or the other especially after the initial flurry of noise about it. And then clients say “why didn’t it work”?

In today’s work environment it is absolutely possible to engage more people in the process of defining strategy, and not doing so means strategic success continues to be painfully throttled in most organizations. Through the creation process, people learn about how to make different decisions based on the strategic direction. They learn what their colleagues are weighing and considering in their decision making, and through the process, they change their approach to work. It is this change that carries through to embedding the strategy in the culture.

Without this vital step, all the lovely posters and catchphrases and marketing in the world aren’t going to get a strategy to stick.  The problem comes when the change is limited to a very small group of people very high up in the organization.

Even if you can’t break through the concept of strategy as belong to a privileged few, think about ways that help more people to use it in their day to day decision making. Otherwise, it is a lot of time and money spent for just a very few people in the company to get “strategically aligned”.