Building an Organization Capable of Good Strategy Execution
Building an Organization Capable of Good Strategy Execution
Core Concept
Good strategy execution requires a team effort. All managers have strategy-executing responsibility in their areas of authority, and all employees are participants in the strategy execution process. At the operational level, managers need to be able to motivate their subordinates to participate in the strategy execution process. Some authors believe that there is a paradox of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is far stronger a motivator than extrinsic motivation, yet external motivation can easily act to displace intrinsic motivation. When people are motivated to act based upon internal factors, rather than some external reward they are driven do things just for the fun of it, or because they believe it is a good or right thing to do.
Examples
To put this in perspective, most people's hobbies are intrinsically motivated. The observable action can be the passion with which people collect little bits of china or build detailed model ships. Several years ago, I was in charge of an outreach program that satisfied our company’s strategic goal of connecting our company’s core beliefs about the importance of education with K-12 initiatives in the state. I knew that only intrinsically motivated students would participate. I also knew that their mentors or coaches had to possess this quality as well. The students committed to studying materials above and beyond their core subjects. The students committed to meeting before and after school, on the weekends and during the summer – if they wanted to be competitive on a national level. We offered scholarships as an external motivation; however, what we observed was that the students who participated did it because they “loved a challenged.”
Lesson Learned
If you can get someone to believe in an idea or align their values with what you want, then you have set very powerful motivation in place. Seek to make them
Core Concept
Good strategy execution requires a team effort. All managers have strategy-executing responsibility in their areas of authority, and all employees are participants in the strategy execution process. At the operational level, managers need to be able to motivate their subordinates to participate in the strategy execution process. Some authors believe that there is a paradox of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is far stronger a motivator than extrinsic motivation, yet external motivation can easily act to displace intrinsic motivation. When people are motivated to act based upon internal factors, rather than some external reward they are driven do things just for the fun of it, or because they believe it is a good or right thing to do.
Examples
To put this in perspective, most people's hobbies are intrinsically motivated. The observable action can be the passion with which people collect little bits of china or build detailed model ships. Several years ago, I was in charge of an outreach program that satisfied our company’s strategic goal of connecting our company’s core beliefs about the importance of education with K-12 initiatives in the state. I knew that only intrinsically motivated students would participate. I also knew that their mentors or coaches had to possess this quality as well. The students committed to studying materials above and beyond their core subjects. The students committed to meeting before and after school, on the weekends and during the summer – if they wanted to be competitive on a national level. We offered scholarships as an external motivation; however, what we observed was that the students who participated did it because they “loved a challenged.”
Lesson Learned
If you can get someone to believe in an idea or align their values with what you want, then you have set very powerful motivation in place. Seek to make them