Page 203 - Successful Onboarding

“Limited Upside in Flying Blind”: Driving Strategic Insight • 187

establishing strategy orientation based on our general organizational devel-
opment and performance improvement experience.

Best Principle #1: Don’t be afraid of sharing the strategy.
It’s important that we address the perceived risks associated with teaching
business strategy to your employees. You might think that the more of your
strategy you put out in the open, the greater the chances your competi-
tion will learn of it. We believe that the benefits far outweigh the risks. You
already have employees, contractors, suppliers, and customers who talk to
your competition, not to mention ex-employees. Your company already
likely posts company performance against key performance indicators
(KPIs). Also, analysts may already cover your company. And, we can assure
you that if you have a distinct strategy your competition has already fig-
ured it out from the actions that your company has taken. Knowing your
strategy is quite different than being able to execute it or being able to
guard against it. And you likely have legal protection on your side in the
form of non-disclosure agreements with your new employees. The bottom
line is that the risks associated with letting new hires into the tent are far
smaller than the risks of keeping them away from it. You can always limit
how much depth you share, and you can also parse information on a need-
to-know basis (albeit with a potentially limiting impact on the Onboard-
ing Margin). Overall, we encourage you to share and realize the benefits
that come when your new workforce contributes as much as possible to
realizing your strategy.

Best Principle #2: Provide rich examples of how other employees
have delivered on your strategy.
Providing illustrative examples is one of the best ways to teach concepts to
new hires, and this is certainly the case with strategy. We advise showing
new hires the impact that individuals have had in furthering the
strategy through their own work. Ideally you should show two kinds of
examples: (1) the standard fare that shows how work activities are aligned
against the strategy; and (2) examples of employees making independent
decisions in the course of their work because of, and in concert with, the
strategy. Examples can come from any area of the business, and the more
you gather, the better. Ideally, you can select and craft these stories so that
every new hire has a chance to see themselves in the stories. At a minimum,
take care to provide stories that cover the largest groups of employees: