What Gets Talked About Gets Done

What gets talked about gets done ... How many times do you think you need to tell people “what the plot is” or “What’s going on” or even the “plan” for the future?

In my experience it’s not just at the corporate launch event and in the annual report. These things need planned, consistent reinforcement. If you want your strategy to succeed you need to keep people focussed on it.

Imagine the situation on a smaller scale, you start on a project in the morning; suddenly the phone rings so you answer the call. Following this you respond to the caller’s request that takes time effort and attention to create the solution. You then decide to go back to your original project, can you just pick it back up; not usually, you need to recap or even start again. This is what can happen to your plan if it is not part of daily discussions.

Another example on a small scale; annual appraisals - how many times have you set targets one year to find that when you appraise them nothing has happened for the bulk of the year? Or worse, the targets are no longer relevant!

Imagine these on a greater scale with a main strategy or vision and dozens of people. How often will they become distracted, loose the plot or get sucked into the day-to-day grind.

What gets talked about gets done ... You need planned activity to maintain the drive and focus of a vision. Organisations check the financials on a scheduled basis; every day through to every month dependant on the size and nature of the organisation. We all accept that the money is important so we keep it under control; surely the main strategy or vision is equally important. If that is the case it should have the same mechanisms and focus.

Examples of talking about it: relate your weekly team briefing to the strategy, how personal activity in one-to-ones relates to the big picture (how I contribute is a big motivator), in your monthly meetings have a small section on the plot, finally just use the language and objectives on a daily basis. Questions like” will that help us achieve the plan?” are a great way to reinforce what is important.

After all if it is important we should be talking about it and be focussing our activity in line with it.