5 examples of bad strategy that causes toxic cultures

It’s easy to state in a strategy document that well-being is a priority, in the hope of providing fulfillment to every individual. And quite another to do it in practice. Many companies struggle with the development of  strategy and associated approval process. Indeed, the strategy itself can become the source of toxic culture. Some examples include:

1. Unachievable goals
   Strategies are created to deliver to a set of goals and when these goals are seen as unachievable from the outset, then managers and employees will immediately disengage from the process of strategy creation. They will question the wisdom of the owners, executives or officials responsible for setting them. When these questions make it to the media, then the organisation is presented in a negative light and the existing culture – as well as their reputation – is affected.
2. Overly complex process
   Sometimes the toxicity can arise as a result of the process of creating it. Many forms to be completed, submitted and approved over an incredibly long period of time. Sometimes there are just too many layers to this approval process. Just when managers feel they have completed the actions of defining their plans, project definitions and the budgets and structures to deliver these, they will be asked to revise them for less money or else define other structures to do so. Too much complexity will ultimately lead to managers disconnecting from the process and undermining the quality of the strategy as a result.
3. Unnecessary demands on people’s time
   Strategy workshops, meetings, presentations and the associated documents to read and write can take up hours of management and employee time. Not to mention the follow-on meetings, revised presentations, pre-meetings before the actual meetings and endless iterations of the documents used to support them! And all of these things need to be done without compromising existing business as usual or project activity. Invariably, this will mean managers working late or at the weekend in order to keep up, which in turn will affect their emotional and physical health and generate toxicity towards those people overseeing the activities.
4. Poor communication
   The biggest issue that I saw when I was a senior manager was the utterly shocking communication around the strategy production process. At times there wasn’t any communication at all, just a meeting invitation with no further information. Other times, the CEO would talk about ‘progress made on the strategy production process’ when we had no idea that it had been started! But often it’s the meetings themselves that grind the most. Endless invitations with no context, no preparation notes, just a requirement to produce a PowerPoint of indeterminate length that may, or may not, be appropriate for the production and approval of the strategy. As a senior manager myself, I understood the need for strategy, but how it was communicated got to me every time.
5. Slow decision-making
   Senior managers have three jobs – I’m dumbing it down, but stick with me – as follows: 1) Be a role model for great behaviour. Demonstrate the behaviours that you expect of others and be a good human by showing empathy, vulnerability, humility and discipline; 2) Understand subject matter. In order to set expectations clearly and ensure that targets are hit, it’s important to be able to ask the right questions at the right time; and 3) Make decisions. Say yes or no to things based on the information presented to them so as not to impede progress.

And of course all of these things are important, but in the production and approval of strategy, decision-making is key in ensuring that the production process takes weeks, not months and that the ideas put forward are the ones that, at that moment in time, give the organisation or team the best opportunity of hitting its goals. Pontification will lead to frustration and this will manifest itself in the conversations and relationships between employees, some of which will turn toxic and in extreme circumstances never be healed.

Strategy is critical to every business. It doesn’t matter whether you have a five-person gardening business in Brunswick, Victoria or head up a multinational technology organisation in San Jose, USA, you need a set of objectives and goals to aim for and that act as a foundation to build a culture set up to deliver them.

Written by Colin D Ellis. Edited extract from Detox Your Culture (Bloomsbury, $42.99) by Colin D Ellis.
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