The Challenges of Translation with the Telling Stage

 

Picture yourself in a meeting where you are talking a download of the vision of your organization from the top management and you are tasked to translate it to the teams to get the work done. I am sure it's not difficult to picture this as we all have been there and done that.

In my previous blog, I discussed the 5 stages of shared vision as pointed out by Senge in his book Schools that Learn. I will like to share my experiences of each stage in the coming blogs. 

The Telling stage of shared vision development: Today, I want to explore the challenges I faced as an HR manager when implementing a top-down vision.

While the Telling stage can be effective in providing clear direction, it can also present challenges for those tasked with translating the vision into actionable steps. In my experience, one of the biggest hurdles was ensuring that I fully understood and internalized the vision before communicating it to my team.

When the top management outlined the company's strategic direction, I often found myself grappling with how to translate abstract concepts into concrete actions. For example, if the vision was to become a "customer-centric" organization, I needed to determine what that meant for my team and how we could operationalize it.

This process required careful consideration and analysis. I had to understand the implications of the vision for my department, identify potential obstacles, and develop strategies to overcome them. It was not enough to simply relay the vision to my team; I needed to ensure that they understood its significance and were committed to its implementation.

The Telling stage can be particularly challenging when there is a disconnect between the vision and the day-to-day realities of the organization. In such cases, it is essential to bridge the gap by providing clear explanations, examples, and case studies that illustrate how the vision can be applied in practice.

This was early in my career, when I always heard from my teachers, that as an HR, you must be empathetic towards the management and the people. Now that was delicate. Imagine the management saying we are having a crunch of delivery timelines and we need our people to comply to working longer hours and be okay to not get paid overtime. In that case the HR is tasked to communicate this and check other ways to motivate the employees to get the work done. 

The idea is that the mid level manager in the organisation needs to translate the top level's ideas to the people and make them feel valued, while balancing the requests from the senior management.

By taking the time to fully understand and internalize the vision, and by effectively communicating it to my team, I was able to play a crucial role in its implementation. However, I also recognized the limitations of the Telling stage and the importance of moving towards more collaborative and inclusive approaches in the future.

*Note: This is a personal experience when I was playing the role of managing the HR department in a manufacturing firm.