Workplace strategy should be a story you constantly adjust
By Leslie Santos
The widely accepted view that story, strategy and execution are separable activities sets companies up for failure in a fast-paced world.
As a positive psychology organizational consultant, I help individuals and companies flourish. In psychology, we think of mental and organizational health on a continuum from negative ten (failing) to plus ten (flourishing). Leveraging positive psychology, I work with teams in the middle of this spectrum, in their learning zone where they are flattening, to help them upskill and flourish.
Recently, while conducting interviews in an earth sciences organization on recent cases of strategic failure, I discovered a common pattern: what started as small gaps in execution, spiraled into relationship chasms when strategies were not updated to embrace the changing workplace ethos. This company’s strategies were viewed by their top executives as analytically sound; performance gaps were blamed on execution, delivered by younger leaders. When we looked deeper, we discovered that behind the strategic failure was a mismatched workplace narrative.
The problem companies face in a fast-paced world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) is updating workplace narratives to support the rising leaders. Companies who fail to embrace changing cultural narratives as distinctive ways of working won’t attract, or keep, the next generation of knowledge workers.
Workplace ethos is driven by a narrative, the distinctive spirit of a culture or an era, and this story is always changing. Our grandparents worked in a production economy. Our parents worked in a service economy. We now work in an identity economy, where work becomes the seminal conduit to self-expression and self-discovery. In this new model, individuals are seeking identity fulfillment in the workplace, and companies must compete for high performers by supporting them.
Each of these economies tell a story about the workplace, and the worker. For our grandparents, the narrative was contribution, commonality and character. For our parents, the narrative was stalwart steadfastness, role hierarchy and earned authoritarian respect. Today, employees are demanding diversity, inclusion and equity in the workplace. They expect to work in psychologically safe teams, to feel a sense of meaning that what they do matters. And in this identity economy, they are seeking to grow and develop, as an individual, through their place of work. They want to bring their whole self to work then receive the candid feedback and coaching that will propel them forward as leaders of the future.
“Workplace ethos is driven by a narrative, the distinctive spirit of a culture or an era, and this story is always changing”
Every new initiative requires people to change. This is where the earth sciences company got stuck. Legacy leaders resisted the new narrative that rising leaders were requesting. Their stories conflicted. Legacy leaders value the hard work ethics that demonstrate a steadfast loyalty of ‘paying one’s dues.’ Rising leaders value diverse opinion, regardless of stage or age. Every voice matters. This translated as inclusion -- to show up without filters, to be unique and still belong. For rising leaders, membership has no dues, and hard work is a way to approach all aspects of life. They value the interdependence to integrate life into work.
An alternative perspective on story, strategy and execution — one that I argue is more in tune with the nature of value creation in a VUCA world — conceives of story as the structural framework that strategy and execution build on. I call this approach story as learning, which contrasts sharply with the view of story as stable.
A story as learning approach views workplace narratives as the structural foundation from which strategy and execution originate. A company cannot continuously execute well when strategies are constructed from old or mismatched narratives. The ‘this is the way it’s always been done’ leadership model worked for our grandparents and parents; this authoritarian model won’t hold rising leaders with golden handcuffs today. When leaders approach the changing workplace ethos with curiosity rather than with control, they are able to loosely hold the beliefs that govern a company’s strategy.
“A story as learning approach becomes the strategy. The strategy is a story you constantly adjust.”
In her book Inclusify, Dr. Stephany Johnson argues that cultivating a learning orientation toward inclusion enables companies to increase their effectiveness. Yet, Johnson’s research showed that while organizations give lip service to inclusive values, they are unwilling to make the structural change, because they cannot see what those changes should look like. This blindness is true for workplace narratives too. We cannot see how story creates culture, and culture forms strategy, and strategy determines execution. We often only see the binary effect of failed execution and poor strategy. Neither the legacy, nor rising leaders, could see what changes should look like, and therefore how to align their narrative.
Following a two-day leadership bootcamp, both legacy and rising leaders reduced the conflict chasm. They listened to understand the stories driving the belief behind the action. Empathy emerged and they were primed for collaborative definitions. Together, they investigated implicit biases. Through group exercises, they heard new perspectives and updated their narratives. Finally, they worked in teams to restructure their old strategies. They redesigned meeting formats to include all voices and communication styles. They redefined roles to better support a work life integration model. They incorporated self-learning meetings – forums for peer-to-peer feedback and feedforward – to practice and develop a story as learning strategy.
Story changes culture, and the people of that culture will write new narratives that embody the ethos of the era. Today, work and life are integrated, and employees want more autonomy to determine the boundary lines. They are demanding more organizational support to navigate these murky, confusing lines, and they want support that is inclusive and equitable for all members. In the identity economy, it is the organizations’ job to create the culture where high-performing talent want to produce and grow by investing in the individuals’ pursuit to manage themselves across work demands. Should a company fail to meet the standards of the new narrative, the leaders will be forced to divert their resources to repairing ruptures, or they will be recruiting new staff when the high performers leave.
If you are a leader of an organization experiencing execution failure, relationship ruptures or attrition consider looking more closely at the story driving the strategy. Four questions to ask yourself to uncover your narrative are: What story am I telling myself about this strategic situation? What biases would benefit from investigation? Whose alternate perspective will diversify my thinking? How can I update my narrative?
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