Horoscopes: either they’re true or they’re not. Whether one believes in it or not, a certain influence of the stars on the world cannot be dismissed when one considers the ebb and flow of the tide. 2019 is the year of Mercury. Mercury is associated with communication. That gives us hope. If we look back at the year 2018, there were many issues that might have taken a different path with good communication. What is good communication? If the sender and receiver have exactly the same idea of what is being discussed. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the image they have is completely identical. Usually it is enriched with their own ideas and experiences. Nevertheless, there is agreement on the approach and the goal.
Strategic implications
And this is where we come to strategy: successful implementation depends on how similar the ideas are that all participants have of the path and the goal. The goal orientation of the individual comrades-in-arms is the be-all and end-all. If each individual knows what contribution he or she should and can make in order to work to the benefit of the big picture, everything runs smoothly in the company. The goals are achieved and the employees feel happy where they are. Priorities are thus clearly set, and conflicting goals can be quickly resolved.
I often find in my workshops that the experienced teams come up with the most different answers to the question “how would you describe your strategy?” That’s not bad in principle, but if the individual ideas don’t add up to a common understanding (i.e. the idea of the production manager and that of the financial manager have more or less nothing in common) then we have a problem.
Now that the year is drawing to a close, perhaps this is a good opportunity to once again review everything: are we all still pulling in the same direction? Or have our ideas moved so far apart that we are only vaguely going in the same direction? Especially when it comes to well-functioning teams that have been working together for a long time, a kind of blindness can often be seen. You simply assume that the other person will see things the same way you do. And since you are used to working well together spontaneously, you no longer ask yourself whether you have the same understanding.
If you would like to find out more about your status quo: I would be happy to help you! I wish you a peaceful end of the year and an enthusiastic start to the new year!
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