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This month’s Harvard Business Review has an interesting article by Joseph Bower and Clark Gilbert on ways that a company’s high-level strategy can be derailed (or enhanced) by decisions made down the line by staff. The authors state:

“What we have found in one research study after another is that how business really gets done has little connection to the strategy developed at corporate headquarters. Rather, strategy is crafted, step by step, as managers at all levels of a company—be it a small firm or a large multinational—commit resources to policies, programs, people and facilities.”

One story Bower and Gilbert tell is that of a newspaper company that tried to redirect corporate strategy to focus on Internet advertising instead of print. However, the new strategy foundered during actual interactions between ad sales reps and customers. The sales reps had existing relationships with customers that understood and wanted print ads, not online options. (And I’m guessing their commission structure favored a $40,000 print buy over a $2,000 online ad, although the HBR article doesn’t specify.) Of course the sales reps kept right on selling print advertising, no matter what they were saying at corporate headquarters.

Bower and Gilbert have a number of recommendations on ways to use the budgeting/resource allocation process to align organizational strategy with the reality on the ground. I’d like to make a few of my own (more general than theirs):

Understand what motivates your staff—and correct as needed. If your staff are primarily rewarded when their department comes in under budgeted expenses (or over budgeted revenues), they are motivated to make their department successful … potentially at the expense of other departments. Create a reward system that focuses on association-wide goals, not departmental goals; that way, you motivate managers to be willing to sacrifice their own revenue for something that will benefit the organization as a whole.

Hire (and retain) for your strategy. If your association wants to be nimble (for example), you need to hire people comfortable with nimbleness and change. Look for this during interviews and watch for it during introductory periods. Consider what behaviors are needed to make your strategy a reality and incorporate them into the review process. (Note: This idea was originally given to me by Christopher Worley and Ed Lawler, who I recently interviewed about their book Built to Change.)

Recruit volunteers for your strategy, too. The best staff in the world won’t necessarily be successful in implementing your strategy if your board doesn’t embody it, too. Actively reach out to volunteers who embody those same traits you’re hiring for.

What are some things you have done (or would recommend) to help make sure that your staff and volunteers are actually living your association’s strategy in their day-to-day decisions?