Communication fundamental to achieve goal congruence

By Pradeepa Kekulawala

Business organisations are expected to function and drive businesses according to a set plan. Call it a strategic plan, annual action plan, corporate plan or any other name, what is required is a clear direction and destination with a set of goals and objectives to take you towards your end target.

In this context organisations spend substantial resources on planning – monetary, time wise and human effort. Some organisations resort to specialist external help and facilitation, adopt global tools whilst some others may adopt generic approaches. But what is alarming is that in spite of all these endeavours in many an organisation, the set plans fail! In other words organisations fail!

It is indeed worthwhile to study these phenomena to inquire why and seek any remedial measures that may exist to prevent these debacles

What is a plan?

A plan by definition is a clearly defined anticipated series of actions to be taken to arrive at predetermined outcomes, by specified individuals, essentially with set timelines; and with required resource allocations. It is said that an ideal and effective plan must be “SMART” i.e. Specific, Measurable, Agreeable, Realistic and Time-bound.

The focus of this discussion is why plans fail and it is the writer’s opinion having studied, consulted and served in a number of corporate entities that plans fail due to the absence of one “key ingredient” in the “SMART” formula. That is the “Agreeable” component!

No plan however specific, measurable, realistic and time bound it may be will work if it is not agreeable. To whom? To the people who are required to work or implement the plan, the organisation’s human resource. If the people are not agreeable to the plan developed then it will die at the birth itself. This non alignment with the plan is a sure recipe for disaster.

Therefore it is paramount to get people to clearly understand, agree and be aligned to the plan – its goals and objectives or deliverable. This we call achieving “Goal Congruence” where people rally around the plan ready to contribute their share to achieve same. As opined here, non goal congruence is the main reason for failure of plans. Why does this happen? This happens when people fail to understand the plan as one of importance, or do not believe same as a charted course towards their benefit and organisational benefit or simply by having a totally different perception on the nature and motive of the plan, to that of the management – those who were instrumental in developing same.

The key points in the above paragraph – fail to understand, do not believe, and differently perceive – spell out into one single word: Communication – the lack of it! Non communication, miscommunication and part communication are the reasons for people to distrust, disbelieve and/or distance themselves from each other or any endeavour/exercise.

Therefore in implementing a plan too for the plan to be highly effective the plan has to be effectively communicated to the people or the stakeholders who are essentially a part of the plan.

More often organisations appoint few people to develop plans and communicate the “final document” top down to the lower levels. Feedback is taken very seldom – even them mostly inadequate; resulting in even the most effectively designed plans crashing.

Fundamentally for a plan to succeed it has to have all its stakeholder participation. In other words all those who are in the organisation have to in some way contribute towards the development of a plan.

Realistically all the people in an organisation cannot be involved in the actual planning process. However everyone has a role to play. Idea generation is an activity that all can participate in, scenario building and offering expert opinion is an activity for which some can be assigned. Likewise there is a role for everyone to play.

The success of this process is totally dependent on the person or people who are leading and driving the process. To get everybody’s participation and acceptance u need to build everybody’s confidence. To build confidence u need to “hit home” that this plan will be of mutual benefit to all stakeholders. To achieve that you need to effectively sell or communicate the pros and cons!

Effective communication is the only way. Having said that it is incumbent on the writer to expand somewhat on what effective communication is. The most basic definition of communication is “an exchange of ideas, views, information and opinions between two or more people.”  However for communication to be called effective it must generate or result in the desired outcome. Therefore effective communication or communication which brings the desired outcome has to be essentially practiced.

Without venturing into a detailed lesson in communication suffice to say that to achieve effectiveness “the field of experience of the sender must match or overlap the field of experience of the receiver!” Simply put you need to take into consideration the intelligence, knowledge, educational levels of the receiver on the one hand, and also the motives for working, expectations, and aspirations of the person on the other.

Totally understanding the socio-cultural and organisational behavioural dynamics and aspirations of the people only that you can communicate effectively or “sell a plan” to the people. You will never get anywhere by using the same approach as you would with the managerial staff, with the shop floor or junior level people. Therefore you need to “pitch right”.

To pitch right you need to study the receiver, respond to the receiver, recognise the feedback both explicit and unspoken – through signals and craft your message. Other ingredients such as assertiveness, right negotiating tactics will add spice to the process.

Therefore communication takes priority in ensuring that a plan is effectively implemented. All organisations must work on an internal (strategic) communication effort or programme, if not for any other reason but to achieve successful implementation of a business plan and also for industrial harmony. Communication shortcomings are not faults of plans but of planners. Plans are essential. As they say “if you don’t have a plan, any road will take you there!”

(The writer is a strategic human resource practitioner in the private sector and an executive committee member of the association of HR professionals and the management club. He can be reached at [email protected] or through blog site [email protected].)