Strategy invites culture for breakfast — this is how it happened
What if Culture never meant to eat Strategy for breakfast? What if Culture and Strategy were colleagues trying to align their efforts?
Culture: “Hello…?”
Strategy: “Hi, C, it’s S — are you busy?”
Culture: “Always! I have a customer on hold — is it important?”
Strategy: “Yes, indeed — I want to invite you over for breakfast?”
Culture: “Now?”
Strategy: “Yes! I’m working on some new ideas, and I want to tell you about them, so you can be even better at talking to customers and solving their problems.”
Culture: “But if I’m eating breakfast with you, I am not talking to customers…?”
Strategy: “Good point. Do you have any ideas on what we can do?”
Culture: “I have lot’s of ideas — but what is it that you want me to do differently?”
Strategy: “Hmm… I’m not quite sure — I just want all of us to do better.”
Culture: “Yeah, me too… Maybe we should talk about how things work before we come up with new ideas on how to do better?”
Strategy: “That’s a great idea! So, will you join me for breakfast?”
Culture: “Actually, I think we should do it a bit differently.”
Strategy: “…?”
Culture: “As I told you, I have a customer on hold and they usually don’t like waiting.”
Strategy: “Oh, you’re right — one of my ideas has to do with decreasing customer wait time.”
Culture: “Perfect — then I suggest that I get back to our customers now, and when I have a minute later today, I will think about how things work and what we can do better.”
Strategy: “Okay — and what should I do?”
Culture: “If you can find a way for me to share my experiences and ideas without having to spend too much time away from customers, it would be great.”
Strategy: “I see… Don’t you want to hear my ideas?”
Culture: “Yes, of course — when we both know how things work, we should definitely join forces in finding ways to do better — and we should invite customers too.”
Strategy: “That’s a brilliant idea! I’ll invite you both to breakfast…”
Culture: “…”
Strategy: “No, you’re right — breakfast is not a good way for you to share your insights — I will find another way to get your input!”
Culture: “That sounds great — I can’t wait to collaborate on this!”
…
After she hung up with Culture, Strategy called me and asked if Qvest can help her map what’s important to Culture and what she should do to align her ideas with the customer-centric needs and expectations, Culture is facing.
I invited her to join me for breakfast :-)
P.s.: Stay tuned if you want to know how my conversation with Strategy went.
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Pia Lauritzen, PhD is the inventor and founder of Qvest, a digital platform for data-driven strategy. With Qvest executives get the context-specific data they need to make impactful decisions, and employees are empowered to execute effectively.
