Uniting Purpose Through Strategy Cascade

A cascade is a small waterfall. It’s often found in groups, one after another, in a river or stream, and this is why it’s an excellent analogy for how strategy must be cascaded through teams and across organizations to drive results and increase engagement.

Improving Results with Strategy Cascade

Done effectively organizations can achieve greater measures of success for the business, employees, customers/clients and other key stakeholders.

Strategy cascade has the potential to connect people, plans and processes by relaying critical goals, insights, priorities and focus from top leadership through to the individual level.

It connects everyone’s role to the organization’s vision and shows how day-to-day behaviours and actions impact achieving company objectives. Most of all it can serve to connect individual sense of purpose with that of the organization. It’s the passion people bring to work that drives results when they believe in what the company does and why it exists!

Using an Effective Strategy

Effective strategy will define the organization’s vision (the long-term goals, picture of success) the purpose/mission (why we exist and the impact we’ll have), and values (how we will work with stakeholders). Strategy will define the critical milestones and metrics on the journey towards realizing organization vision and purpose/mission. It reassures that our journey is meaningful by mapping out the what, how, why and when, such that the contributions of each individual can truly make a difference. 

Strategy cascade is a process of communicating with and aligning the organization, through all levels of leadership and individual contributors. It involves engaging teams in understanding, discussing and embracing the role they play in delivering individual and team results. If you would like to see what this process looks like, you can read, What Is Business Literacy and How Can You Use It To Mobilize Your Team?

Using Interactive Workshops

Interactive workshops help people to seek clarity, brainstorm approaches and ultimately agree on prioritized deliverables. People who have clarity on what they need to do, how their contributions are a critical component for success are more likely to own their accountabilities, drive for results and feel they are connected to the ‘bigger picture’. For larger, cross border or multi-national companies a great framework is Visual Explorer. Designed to ensure a consistent company story and future focus, it provides for the integration of cultural differences present in various countries.

Increasing Engagement In Cross Team Interdependencies

Understanding cross team interdependencies and priorities increases engagement and collaboration as ‘one team’. Focus on how teams can work together for common purpose and shared deliverables contributes to breaking down silos and the behaviours that may not be values based.

People Want to Be Part of a Winning Team

Once teams understand the journey, reviewing processes to ensure they are current, streamlined, effective and enable expected outcomes, increases people’s desire and ability to embrace their individual responsibilities and accountabilities. This is often part of a continuous improvement philosophy in many organizations.

Ultimately, people want to be a part of a winning team! Regular communication of on-going progress of deliverables, changes in priorities and most importantly celebrating successes – small and large, keeps people connected to the business.

Why Strategy Cascade Works

Strategy, effectively cascaded down through leadership to individual contributors and across the company, can help people feel that sense of purpose. With alignment of purpose comes engagement with and connection to the organization’s vision and greater purpose.

If creating alignment of actions and purpose is important to your company and you would like more information, please get in touch with Lighthouse NINE Group at info@lighthouse9.ca or visit our website.

Cindy McNichol

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