CHAPTER 4

Understanding Your Organization’s Strategy

Your organization has an overarching plan for developing its competitive advantage, likely served by a series of cascading goals for business units and individuals. As a manager, you work through your employees to support the company’s overall plan; your own strategies and goals must align with the priorities set from above.

But before you can align your work with a larger strategy, you need to know what that strategy is. Simply reading a strategy memo isn’t enough. You must actively work to clarify what are you’re supposed to be delivering and how you’re supposed to do it—by clearly understanding your company’s strategic vision and goals, and assessing potential risks.

Step 1: Gather Information About Strategic Objectives

Review any strategy documentation that your team, division, or organization may have. This information will be vital to understanding what targets the company aims to meet and how leadership teams are communicating this direction. But don’t stop there. Set up a “listening tour”—a series of conversations with key figures in your company that will help you clarify its strategic objectives. It’s obviously important to interview your boss, but you’ll want to understand the perspectives of other leaders in your group or organization as well.

Don’t just look up for answers. Consider coworkers below or lateral to you. You also want to hear from people with insight who may not have positional power to act on their ideas, but will have a good read on what’s really going on. Who’s been at the company for a long time? Who’s worked closely with the current leadership? Who recently transferred from a company that went through a similar change process? For example, a peer in R&D might have niche knowledge about how technology in your field is likely to evolve, while someone in market research may have the most up-to-date information about how your customer base is evolving. (Use the sample language in the box “Defining Strategic Objectives” as a template for these discussions.)

As you conduct these conversations, press for clarity and specificity. Ask questions such as, “I hear you saying that innovation is a priority for my team. Where would you like to see us focus?” If open-ended questions aren’t getting you answers, offer limited choices: “I think there’s a lot of opportunity to innovate with the way we conduct client relations and with our inventory technology. Where would you like us to focus?”

Reflecting on your conversations, note the gaps and contradictions in what you’re hearing. Do different people emphasize different strategic goals? Is your supervisor tasking you with projects that don’t match the priorities they’ve defined? If you can, press to figure out where these inconsistencies are coming from: “How do you see this special assignment supporting the overall direction you’ve sketched for my department?”

Step 2: Analyze Risk in Strategic Objectives

Once you’ve identified the goals and opportunities in front of you, review all the information you’ve gathered and ask where the biggest risks are:

• What are the major sources of uncertainty in your team’s future?
• What external risks can you identify? Think about categories like funding; competition and conflict with other units in the company; the status of your patrons or protectors within the company; and potential reorganization.
• What internal risks can you identify? Consider upcoming personnel changes, team dynamics, and office politics.

Filter everything you’re learning through a more personal question, as well: What will it take for you to be successful in your role? This isn’t vanity on your part. Your bosses expect you to be a strategic thinker, and that means learning to evaluate the risks and opportunities that you must navigate yourself.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What are the major sources of uncertainty in my own future?
• What are professional risks to my success? Think about categories like your professional goals; your experience, training, and accreditation; your network, especially within your company; and work logistics (for example, a difficult commute).
• What are personal risks to my success? Think about your health, your family, your finances, and your personality and disposition.

Once you understand the major risks to your success, analyze them from a few different angles. First, which of these risks are most likely to have a direct impact on your success? What do you absolutely need to plan for? For example, if you know that your workload makes it hard to meet important deadlines—say, submitting legal filings to a court—you must find a strategy for dealing with this problem.

Second, which risks are impossible or impractical to counter? What can’t you plan for? For instance, you may not know if your company or division may be sold in the coming year, but if you haven’t seen any indications that this will happen, it may not be worth planning for. You can compensate for this risk by solving a related problem—say, planning for delays or creating new ways to strengthen relationships with other team members.

Third, which are easy to plan for? Are there high-value actions that would be easy for you to take? If your inexperience with a particular coding language compromises your ability to lead a new product rollout, for example, find out if your company will pay for you to take a course in the language or bring an expert in from outside the company.

Finally, who else in your organization do these risks touch? Who can be a strategic ally? Perhaps if your team needs expanded IT support to meet its performance targets, you might look for another unit in the company that’s also underserved to help you press for more resources.

Understanding your company’s strategy is crucial to ensuring that your work and the work of your team align with overarching priorities. By asking the right questions of key individuals in your organization and assessing the risk associated with these objectives, you can get a fuller picture of what your company strives to do and take steps toward this strategic direction.

Adapted from Harvard Business Review Manager’s Handbook (product #10004), Harvard Business Review Press, 2017; Harvard Business Essentials: Manager’s Toolkit (product #2896), Harvard Business School Press, 2004; and “Worksheet for Clarifying Strategic Objectives,” New Leader Program, Harvard Business Publishing, 2016.