There is an old story about a newly married couple who decided to host a dinner at their home for their families.  It was the first time they hosted such an event.  The husband was busy preparing a roast when his grandmother walked in.  The grandmother was puzzled when she watched the man cut about two inches off the end of the roast.  She asked him why he did that.  He responded, “I’m making it just like my mom used to make it.  She said she followed your recipe and that the first step was to cut off the end of the roast.”  The grandmother smiled and said, “Well, that’s how I did it, but it was just because my oven was never big enough to hold the entire thing.”

You’d be surprised at the number of your employees who are mindlessly “cutting off the end of the roast” without really understanding the purpose or reason for their actions.

Too often leaders focus their most of their attention and communication on details and actions (e.g., new processes, policies, or systems) without providing the context for why they are being done in the first place.  While this increases compliance, it often decreases judgment and impact as your employees start to act mindlessly, on auto-pilot.

Good leaders help their people both understand the actions they must take to be successful as well as the context for which those actions are being taken.  In a rapidly changing, ambiguous world, context is increasingly important.  If your people understand WHY they are doing something, they are often more adaptable and can even figure out HOW to do it, even as things change.

A common complaint on employee engagement surveys is a feeling of constant, never-ending change in the organization.  Employees lose confidence in leaders who appear to routinely change course.  Most organizations go through a lot of change.  However, the change is not nearly as dramatic as it appears.  Often the changes are in the mechanics of the work rather in the intended result.

If you want to give your people a sense of stability, frame your conversations around the things that change less frequently.  What is your primary product or service?  How do you make money?  Where do you spend money?  Who are your customers?  Those things probably aren’t changing very much.  What is changing is how you address them.  Keeping the conversation focused on what you do as a business will help your give your people the stability and direction for which they are looking.

The following model provides a simple way to organize your communication.  The top part of the model focuses on the context or the things that change most slowly.  The bottom part of the model focuses on the various activities needed to succeed within that context.  When communicating changes, be sure to start with the context and then link the actions to them.

Context – this is ultimately for what you are striving

• Goal – What are you ultimately trying to achieve?
• Metrics – How will you know and measure whether the goals are being met? What would look different because of this?
• Success Criteria – What must you get right in order to achieve the goal?
• Levers – What does each person control to achieve the Success Criteria? What actions can s/he take to influence the outcome?

Action – the tools for achieving success

• Key principles – What should remain in the back of people’s minds as they pursue this goal?
• Frameworks and processes – What processes and frameworks exist to support decision making in this area?
• Trade-offs – What are the key trade-offs that must be managed?
• Obstacles- What common obstacles exist that prevent us from reaching this goal?
• Unlearning – What attitudes or beliefs do we need to change in order to truly meet the goals of this role?

Success isn’t about simply executing the actions properly.  Success is defined by the context.

Think about your business and what it ultimately provides the customer, how it makes money, and how it works.  That probably hasn’t changed in a long time.  What’s changing is the way that the company is doing those things.
—————————-
Brad Kolar is an Executive Consultant, speaker, and author.  He can be reached at brad.kolar@availadvisors.com.