Page 100 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

90 HBR Leader’s Handbook

practices to ensure that everyone understands your unifying direc-
tion and strategic objectives.

• In addition to communicating your vision and strategy, push as
much information as possible down to all your teams in order for
them to make the best possible decisions. The more they know, the
better they will be able to find the right ways to collaborate with
other teams in the service of achieving the strategic goals.

For example, to help his teams communicate with each other, Welch
challenged GE to become a “boundaryless organization” in which infor-
mation and resources could move quickly up and down the hierarchy,
across functions and business units, and between the company and its
customers and suppliers. To make this happen, Welch required all his se-
nior leaders to sponsor and participate in two-day “Work-Out” sessions
where people from different parts of the organization, regardless of title or
pay grade, came together to quickly solve business problems. Sessions also
were held between GE and its customers and suppliers. The Work- Outs—
which GE and many other companies still hold—not only produced untold
millions of dollars in business benefits, but also taught previously siloed
teams how to work together without waiting for the boss to bring them
together.
Creating your team and coordinating a network of teams are key steps
for navigating the balancing act between organizational success and indi-
vidual satisfaction. Talented people thrive in an environment where they
can effectively and easily work with others either day to day or as needed
and feel that they are making a difference. And the more these people thrive
and leverage their skills, the more successful your organization will be.

Harnessing performance feedback

Another key element in bringing people on board to execute your strategy
is making sure that everyone knows how they are doing, so that they can
continually improve and grow. We saw this at the Ford Foundation: Walker
used performance feedback to help develop the digital capabilities of exist-