【正文】 depend on clarity from the top. Differentiation and alignment of rewards depend on managers using performance systems effectively. Dialogue is the glue that holds it all together. But not just any dialogue will do. It must be dialogue with purpose, focused on performance.Link to pany valuationCompanies that manage performance well—General Electric es to mind—have higher market valuations. Why? Because, more and more, institutional investors view strategy execution as a vital factor influencing stock prices.Just a few years ago institutional investors relied almost exclusively on financial measures for pany valuations. Now 35% of a market valuation is influenced by nonfinancial, intangible factors, according to a study by Ernst amp。 Young. Based on a study conducted by Sarah Mavrinac and Tony Siesfeld for the Ernst amp。 Young Center for Business Innovation. The study showed that “execution of corporate strategy” and “management credibility” ranked number one and number two in importance to institutional investors out of 22 nonfinancial measures. John Inch, a managing director and analyst at Bear Stearns notes that in some sectors, such as diversified industrial panies, intangibles account for even more—up to half a pany’s value. “You can take even a mundane asset and inject good management and have something pretty strong,” says Inch. 1. Achieve Radical Clarity by decoding strategy at the topThe first step in successfully executing strategy is achieving clarity on the top team, which is frequently the source of garbled signals. Lack of Clarity at the TopA recent Hay Group study Hay Group partnered with Richard Hackman of Harvard University and Ruth Wageman of Dartmouth College to identify the dynamics of top executive teams and their impact on performance. From an initial group of 48 teams, the researchers narrowed their study to 14 teams, many from large global organizations. Each team member represented the head of an organization, a major business division, or a major geography. shows a disturbing lack of clarity on top teams (organizational clarity measures the extent to which employees understand what is expected of them and how those expectations connect with the organization’s larger goals). The chart below shows dramatically higher levels of clarity on outstanding vs. average teams. In fact the biggest single difference between great and average top teams and typical ones was in the level of internal clarity. See Figure 1.Figure 1: Organizational Climate and Teams58%18%Figure 1: Measures organizational climate dimensions for outstanding top teams vs. typical ones. For each dimension of climate we asked how the team was performing in reality and how it should be performing. Then we measured the difference or “gap” in their answers. Gaps over 20% hurt performance. The “clarity” gap for typical teams was 58% pared with 18% on outstanding teams. [Change Hay/McBer to “Source: Hay Group, Inc.” in final version]And a Lack of Clarity BelowWorkers at lower levels strongly feel this lack of clarity. Figure 2 looks at satisfaction levels for workers planning to leave their organizations within two years versus those planning to stay longer. This study showed that a key reason people leave their jobs is that they feel their panies lack direction. Even among employees planning to stay more than two years at their panies, only 57% felt their organizations had a clear sense of direction. Figure 2: Key reasons why employees leave their panies Total % Satisfied Source: Hay Group, Inc. The results are from our Employee Attitude Survey, which sampled some 300 panies representing more than 1 million workers. Our survey queried management, professionals, salespeople, information technologists, and clerical and hourly workers. The “gap” referred to in the table is the “satisfaction gap” between workers planning to leave within two years and those planning to stay longer.Satisfaction with:Employees planning to stay more than two years (%)Employees planning to leave in less than two years (%)GAP(%)1. Use of my skills and abilities83%49%34%2. Ability of top management74%41%33%3. Company has clear sense of direction57%27%30%[NOTE。 HIGHLIGHT SECTION 3。 MAKE IT POP GRAPHICALLY]Clarity mattersWhy do employees crave clarity? Think about it. What could be more demoralizing than the realization that your hard work is not contributing to overall pany goals? Employees want to do the “right” thing, but they can only do so if they know what the right things are. Unfortunately, as we saw in our opening vignette, panies often don’t municate strategic goals effectively. An oil refinery client, for example, set a strategic goal to cut costs. To see how well the message had gotten through, an operations team leader held a strategy decode session where he quizzed his team members on what they felt was the chief priority. Ten team members produced four different “top” objectives, including costcutting, safety, environmental pliance and reducing sales processing time. The message hadn’t got through. The team leader called his team together and created a “transmitter opportunity.” “Don’t you guys realize that if we can’t cut our refining costs by three cents a gallon, they’re going to shut us down?” he said.“Is that all you need us to do?” replied the team members, taken aback. United by a clear direction and shared ownership of the cause, team members enthusiastically cut costs by five cents per gallon over the following year while continuing to maintain good safety and environmental records.Narrowing prioritiesHaving too many priorities can lead to lack of clarity. AeroMexico, for example, had worked with a strategy consulting firm that delivered a 249page report listing key performance indicators (KPIs) for measuring progress by the enterprise. Th