A conversation over lunch with a colleague on Friday reminded me of this and I feel it is something worth sharing.
In 1997, I was invited to participate in starting an IC (integrated circuit) design company. It was one of the earlier and possibly the first attempt by a non-government organisation to start such a design company in Malaysia. Being the first employee of that company, I was tasked with getting the operation going. Setting up of policies, procedures, hiring, acquisition of equipment etc etc. Not too long after we had hired a few design engineers, a managing director was also appointed. I was reporting to this newly hired managing director who sat at an office located in a northern state in west Malaysia while I was sitting at another office fairly close to Kuala Lumpur. I was also the design manager responsible for the team of engineers at my office. Somewhat isolated from the operation of the northern office, I formulated a strategy for my team and I talked to my colleagues about this strategy regularly. I can see that everyone bought into the strategy and could even put it in their own words whenever they need to explain this to someone else. Very happy that I had aligned everyone I stop talking about it. What I noticed is that over time, everyone seems to have lost this alignment and hence it effectiveness as a team.
The key learning I gained from this experience are as follows. Set strategy that is not too complex. I would even suggest that you have only one main/key target! Even what you need to do to achieve this target should not be too complex. In other words, it should be easy to understand and remember. Next, keep talking about it. Make sure it remains at the top of everyone's mind. This is like programming everyone with one and only one target and constantly reprogramming them to ensure the target reminds at the top of everyone's head.
I think, too many of us don't have a single target and may have a plan/strategy that is not easy to understand/remember. Or have one that changes too regularly creating confusion in everyone's mind. Or it was not discussed/talked about regularly to remind in everyone's mind. Without aligning everyone to the same goal, achieving it could be accidental!
