Just imagine that you were thrown onto a basketball court mid-game; all without knowing which team you were supposed to play for; which was your team’s end; what position in the team you were and your team’s game tactics.

This idea is clearly ludicrous and needless to say, your team would be foolish to rely on you!

But so often in business, whole teams of people are unaware of the basic fundamental context information they require to effectively participate in their company.

Despite the basketball team analogy appearing obvious, in business, many leaders don’t see how it is equally ineffective for people to participate in their organization without the fundamental information about the context of their role. Take a moment to ask yourself; “can every person on my team coherently answer each of the following questions”?

• What is our company’s business model?
• What is our company’s strategy?
• Who are the internal and external stakeholders?
• How does my team help to create value for the company’s customers?

I have never met a company leader who could be confident that all their people were ‘solid’ on all of the above questions. In my experience, most leaders themselves struggle with these questions!

Instead of equipping people with the fundamental information they require to understand their purpose at work, when people are hired, too often people are handed go-by’s, processes and procedures to follow.

Why context today is more important than process?

Having a solid understanding of company process, in lieu of the big-picture context, may be ‘fine’ for business environments that are infrequently changing. ‘Process’ allows for focus on efficiency and standardization.

However, the world today and for the foreseeable future is characterized by rapid and constant change – organizations must be capable of agile shifts in direction. Where process focused approaches may have once worked in industrial era business conditions, a solid understanding of one’s context is the first thing that should be provided to people joining an organization.

If you want to be sure that your team is ‘fit to play ball’, then ensure people at all levels of your organization (not just leaders) have a solid understanding of your company’s business context!

Improving people’s understanding regarding business context is one of the most underrated yet simple ways to improve your organization’s performance!