I was talking with a CEO during one of the stock market’s recent wild fluctuations.  As he reflected on what is happening in the broader economy and what it will take for any business to succeed over the next 10 years, he noted two things:

1. The overall capacity in his industry has shrunk.  If demand rises quickly back to previous levels, the industry won’t be able to react quickly enough.
2. Since the “pie” itself is smaller, it’s critical that businesses figure out how to get a bigger piece of it.  In order to do that, he focused on the need to position your company well, finding agreement within your organization about how you are different — or should be different — than your competition.

Some businesses may wait for a “rising tide to lift all boats” — those broader economic conditions that will improve conditions for everyone.  On the other hand, is it wise to bet that conditions will improve substantially soon?  You may want to follow the advice of this CEO and truly distinguish your organization in some way.

What is unique about your organization?  If there is nothing truly unique, what are you the best at?  And does this characteristic generate loyalty from your clients and customers?

Why should a company invest time and money in clarifying and articulating its identity?

Companies invest in developing products, services, and in new product launches.  There are metrics that attempt to correlate the relationship between marketing investment and return on that investment.  But what about your identity – what you stand for as a company? Can we measure the value of understanding who you are as an organization?

This week, I read an article by Dan Pink on this very subject.  He focuses on purpose (only one element of a company’s identity), and he sheds light on the research of Adam Grant at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.  It’s a small study and it might not be convincing to everyone, but it demonstrates the effectiveness of employees connecting to a purpose. Studies like this begin to quantify the importance of organizational identity.  It’s a great article and worth the time.

I first used introNetworks software when I attended the TED Conference (Technology, Entertainment and Design).  The software allowed me to choose attributes that best describe me and then view the attributes of more than 1,000 people at the conference. Being part of this smart network allowed me to quickly recognize people, gave me ideas for conversation starters, and help me find people with common interests.

I hope that if you participated in the webinar today you found the conversation helpful.  If you missed it, you can listen to it here.  I think there is great potential to promote organizational sync with a resource like introNetworks.  Anything leaders can do to facilitate different ways to connect like minded people is helpful in promoting sync.

This raises an important question:  How does one measure the ROI of getting in sync?  It’s intuitively obvious that being in sync is helpful. Having an organization in which everyone is working to move you in the same direction is more cost effective than the alternative.  And having a customer promise that is in sync with the value you actually deliver will certainly get you better financial results.  But where’s the quantitative data?Booz & Company gives one example of how to quantify the connection between sync and the bottom line.

Research demonstrates that corporations driven by brand achieve margins about twice as high as their non-brand-guided peers. Brand-guided companies measure business success more rigorously than other companies and demonstrate sounder budgeting, planning, and decision support systems. These companies are driven by two simple but essential principles:

• They “live and breathe” the brand.
• They think like their customers.

Living and breathing the brand is a key indicator that you’re in sync. And demonstrating “sounder budgeting, planning, and decision support systems” are other indicators that an organization is in sync.

What’s the ROI of Sync for your organization?  How do you measure sync?

But what is sync?  Simply put, in organizational terms, it is departments and people using their strengths and understanding their roles, effectively working toward shared goals.

It’s the orchestra performance when each musician plays the right note with the right timbre at the right time and for the right duration.

It’s the basketball team making the extra pass at the last second as a teammate breaks for the basket behind the perfect screen because the team understands their own strengths, weaknesses, and roles and they understand the same about their opponent.

Pick your own favorite metaphor, but we all know when it’s happening.  And we all know when it’s not.  When an organization is out of sync, it can exhibit its dysfunction in different ways.  For example:

Why do we work hard to create brand promises that our organizations aren’t ready to live up to?  (Think about the last time you promised something and your gut told you, “We can’t deliver on that yet!”)

Why is it that most organizations have core values, yet the behavior of employees and of the organization often don’t match the claimed values?  (Think Enron.)

Why do the processes of some organizations not match the claims made to consumers or customers?  (Think of the “help” desk who keeps you on hold for 25 minutes with the oft-repeated recording of “… you’re a valued customer.”)

And the list goes on.

These are some of the topics that we’ve been discussing with organizational leaders, and we thought we should create another type of forum for these conversations and observations to take place.  We hope you will bring your insights into how you promote sync in your organization and also share what your challenges are as you travel the path to higher levels of sync.