Due to increased uncertainty since the financial meltdown, companies have shrunk their strategic planning cycles, making it challenging to align internal structures and processes with changing strategies. EHS professionals have had to respond with greater flexibility and innovation in breaking down organizational silos to help generate alignment between strategy, structure, and process.
The recent issue of the McKinsey Quarterly included interviews with four corporate Chief Strategy Officers (CSOs). While the companies are diverse (Estee’ Lauder, Visa, Boeing, and Smith International) and the CSOs diverge on issues, there are several common points that EHS professionals should note. All of the CSOs discussed shrinking planning cycles—in many cases, what were once annual cycles are now quarterly or even monthly ones. They also echoed that business assumptions that once seemed indisputable are now coming into question.
Estee’s CSO cited flexibility and adaptability as being front and center in running a business today. Visa’s CSO elaborated on this, discussing the importance of aligning all parts of the organization—if a direction is to change, all organizational functions must move in unison. At Visa, she said, they “think a lot about the fact that strategy should drive structure and structure should drive process” and pay much attention to the alignment between these. With regard to alignment, Estee’s CSO stressed the importance of breaking down silos.
The CSOs also discussed the challenges of shorter planning cycles and the danger of the strategy process becoming too operational and short-sighted, when by definition, strategy historically looks at long-term horizons.
An opportunity for EHS professionals, suggested by the CSOs, is the license to breakdown silos in organizations. To do this, the first place to look is within the EHS department. Ask yourself, are there silos in within your team? At the corporate level? Between corporate and business units? Then examine the functions throughout the organization that EHS needs to impact. Are there units in which barriers or communication gaps exist?
There are numerous tools and techniques that can be used to generate alignment and to harness the collective wisdom within the EHS department and throughout the organization. The values expressed at the core of EHS activities are ones that can help start this process and drive alignment between strategy, structure, and process.
© Redinger EHS, Inc. (2010)