Navigate the Swirl

CHAPTER 18Conversation 6: Aligning Strategies

Is there a strategy and a strategic planning process in place?

What is the role of the team in this process?

Is the path toward competitive advantage clear?

As high-performing teams (HPTs) engage the third domain of change, moving into Conversation 6, important foundations have been laid. Ideally, leadership and culture conversations are robust and productive. The team has a clear focus and has built up a high level of trust and transparency. Conversations regarding capabilities and roles are productive and clear, including a shared understanding of how value is created in the business through the flow of capabilities. Creative tension between roles is being embraced. There is greater alignment across the enterprise, with ongoing attention being paid to points of interdependency. Next in our conversation cascade is a critical subject that is often (mistakenly) a starting point for change initiatives—strategy. Strategy, in its most basic sense, is simply a framework of choices designed to achieve a certain business or team goal that guides everyday work and decision-making. Notably, the placement of strategy so far down the cascade is not a reflection of its importance. In fact, it is hugely impactful. But for this conversation to take teams where they need to go, the foundations must be built to be able to surface and resolve strategic trade-offs. That's what the first five crucial conversations accomplish.

Strategy is not ...