The first step is to make sure that all key people have a copy of the vision, strategy, and the current year’s strategic priorities in front of them at all times. They should be brought to every staff meeting. They should be referred to constantly.

Bill Hannemann of Giro keeps a copy of the strategic priorities with him at all times. Not a staff meeting goes by without his referring to it. “I always try to make sure that our priorities are always being worked on in some specific way,” he says.

Sharing Information

1. Host a quarterly discussion that gives team members the chance to interact directly with internal and external customers they otherwise wouldn’t meet. Focus the session on identifying and solving unmet needs.

1. Ask the team if there’s additional financial or operational information that would be useful to them and do your best to provide it.
2. Help frontline team members better understand the strategic measures and screens that business unit or corporate leaders use to judge organizational effectiveness.

Last, move to the middle of the column and ask, “What are a handful of Key Initiatives we must complete this year to achieve our financial outcomes and hit our Critical Number?

We encourage management teams to set aside an hour or more each month to brainstorm ways to improve each of these cash cycle components. This is a powerful exercise to do with the broader middle-management team at a half- to full-day monthly management meeting. It will give everyone a better understanding of how cash flows through the business and how each function can contribute positively.

Two, take the time to listen before you do anything else. You will set the tone; it will be very difficult to reset it. If you start off by imposing your views on people, you’re not going to have what you most need when you most need it - namely, the commitment of the people you need to get the work done. Even if you’re right and you end up in exactly the same place as you thought you were going to end up, the experience of stopping and doing nothing but being a very good listener for as long as you can stand it is the most important thing to do. The whole act of talking to the top people is the first step towards gaining their commitment and understanding, which you must have if you don’t get it the first time. Until you get a consensus, that everyone agrees on - these are our priorities, and here’s who’s going to work on them, and here’s how our midcourse correction is going to be if we’re not right, and here are the things we can’t put off - take as long as you can stand to get that front end clear, committed, understood, communicated, massaged, and changed.” - Henry Schacht