Imagine you are the leader of an organization facing change. Are you excited about the opportunities that change provides? Or, is there fear, with everyone showing uncertainty about the future? For change to be successful, a leader needs to help people demonstrate cooperation versus resistance.
If you are excited, you probably have some sense of your future destination. You have begun to formulate a strategy to get there. If you are fearful and uncertain, it may be because there is not clarity about the future. Or perhaps the necessary strategy is lacking, leaving you and your team adrift and apprehensive. A well-defined strategic plan provides a roadmap for the future and replaces fear with excitement and possibility.
Business media reports about companies that have adopted new strategies to transform themselves. They often centre on the personal power of a highly visible individual who guides the company to its new position. This makes a compelling read, but truly successful strategies, including the ones featured in the media are usually the product of a team effort.
Dr. Kit Silcox, author of our Milestones strategic planning system states:
“Strategic [planning] is hard work. It is risky, requiring people to leave their comfort zone to make what are often irrevocable changes. Strategic change takes intensive introspection; it requires all the wisdom of the leadership team in order to create a new corporate strategy.”
Cooperation Versus Resistance
When a new strategy is imposed from the top upon those in an organization, they tend to resist it, even if the strategic initiatives are good. Involving the leadership team and other key stakeholders in the process overcomes this natural resistance because involvement transfers ownership of the resulting strategy from the individual leader to the leadership team. Since they have wrestled together with their ideas, experience and wisdom to create the new strategy, they become united and invested in its success. The team members then also become positive ambassadors of the new strategic direction to others throughout the organization.
You can write an excellent strategic plan document by yourself, but it will be resisted and will likely fail to be implemented well.
Effective leaders make the investment of time and energy to involve key stakeholders in the strategic plan development. Involvement changes resistance into cooperation. It inspires commitment and empowers the team with purpose and direction. And the new plan will be a success.