Fewer than half of workers are committed to the goals of their organization. That’s the key finding in a survey by FranklinCovey of 12,182 U.S. workers conducted in late 2003 and released in March, 2004.
The survey also showed that only 48% of workers believe their organization actually has a clear strategic direction.
“There is serious misalignment between the daily activities of the front line worker and the organizational strategy”, says Dr Stephen Covey, vice chairman of FranklinCovey.
“The top priority of every executive and team leader should be to clarify, communicate and assist workers in achieving their organization’s critical goals”, says Dr. Covey.
The survey measured how workers understand and apply six key principles of execution: : clarity, commitment, translation into action, enabling, synergy and accountability.
The “xQ” or Execution Quotient was calculated for individuals who were asked to relate their answers to the performance of their business unit. The xQ score is a number on a scale of 0-100, where 100 indicates flawless execution.
An overall xQ score and scores based on the application of the six key principles of execution at three levels were determined for each participant in the survey. The average xQ score was just 47 indicating that there is a large gap between organizational goals and the workers’ commitment to achieve them.
The details showed even more clearly that the majority of workers surveyed don’t take their organization’s goals on board:
– Only 54% said they understand what they are supposed to do to help achieve their organization’s goals.
– (And in a separate study just 15% of workers could actually identify their organization’s top three goals.)
– Just 44% feel their organization has clearly communicated its most important goals and only 37% feel they understand the reason for their organization’s strategic direction.
There is a notable lack of enthusiasm among workers. Only 22% said they are enthusiastic about goals they set with their work teams, and just 39% said they are “highly energized” and committed to the direction of their work team.
When it comes to fully utilizing workers’ abilities, only 41% said their jobs are tapping into their talents and passion.
Organizational goals are not being translated into individual goals. Just 48% say the goals of their work team are translated into their individual goals, and less than one third (32%) of workers take time each week to schedule their activities around their team’s most important goals.
Workers also perceived significant barriers that make it difficult to achieve their most important goals. Among the most important barriers were: overwhelming workload (31%), lack of resources (30%), and unclear or shifting priorities (27%).
26% said that political issues got in the way of achieving goals, and 26% felt there was inadequate recognition or reward driving them towards goal achievement.
Teamwork wasn’t very highly rated as a driver of achieving goals. Only 31% of respondents said that their team achieves better results because of how well they work together with other teams; only 28% say that work teams within their organization actively helped each other to achieve their respective goals.
Just 30% of workers believe that team rewards and consequences are clearly based on performance.
Why do workers rate their employers so poorly? FranklinCovey have identified a number of reasons that collectively will impede any organization’s chances of getting where it wants to go.
– Workers don’t know or embrace their organization’s priorities
– Workers don’t translate their organization’s highest priorities into action
– Workers spend far too much time on unproductive activities
– There is a lack of accountability and follow-up
Both the fault and the solution seem to lie with the organizations themselves. Dr Covey advises them to clarify their top goals and communicate them to all levels of the organization. They should show workers how their work aligns with these top goals and gain their commitment to achieve them.
Dr Covey also says that workers spend a “shocking amount of time” on work that’s unimportant and unnecessary — needless interruptions, minor issues and reports of dubious value.
“The greatest gap in organizations today lies between the determination of a few high priorities and following through on the details of those priorities with discipline and passion.”
“In today’s competitive, global marketplace organizations that do not focus and execute on their highest priorities will not excel.”
Copyright 2004, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com.
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