Senior executives complain they don't understand why their managers can't execute. While managers complain that senior executives don't understand what it takes to win in the real world. Result: Failure to launch...anything.
The victim of this communication breakdown is strategy.
What's happening here?
The secret lies in the narrow-focused world of the manager. Much like Larry the Cable Guy, the manager lives in the world of "Git'r done!" And the pure workload for the manager has been doubled in the past 10 years. Managers are working with much smaller staffs, and being asked to perform more work. For most of them, their day never ends. With their Blackberry's they're connected 24/7. Their role has been reduced to simply moving rocks as fast as they can.
Senior executives still believe managers are thought leaders, innovators and organizers.
On the flip side, the world of the C-suite has grown more complex. Winning strategies integrate market dynamics with product development with manufacturing with distribution with marketing. When a senior executive explains their strategic priorities to a manager, the manager is trying to figure out how much more work that means and how they're going to get it done.
The marketing manager doesn't understand the manufacturing manager's world. What's worse, managers no longer are learning. They don't have time. Senior executives have become the learners. They introduce new ideas to their managers. 10 years ago it was the managers responsibility to bring new ideas to senior management. Not anymore.
This is not a lack of communication. This is a complete systemic breakdown. No one has time to "run the business". Everyone is spending all of their time just getting things out the door.
Why can't companies innovate? They have no time.
How Companies Are Solving the Problem
One of the ways senior executives are addressing this problem is with outsourcing. Not to India, but to specialized service firms that are focused on "program development and execution."
Outsourcing has largely been limited to tasks. But now companies recognize they need specialists to fill the gaps between C-suite strategic objectives and their "tactical" managers. These specialists bring the following value to the company:
- Strategic expertise
- Awareness/command of new technology and techniques
- Ability to construct tactical programs that will fulfill strategy
- Ability to define specific tasks for each key area within the company
- Ability to supplement expertise and workforce where and when needed
- Performance measurement
If you feel lost in translation. You need to find one of these firms quickly.
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