Emotions in strategy implementation
Emotions in strategy implementation refer to the feelings and emotional dynamics that arise as individuals and teams execute a strategic plan. These emotions, such as excitement, anxiety, frustration, or pride, influence decision-making, collaboration, and overall performance. Understanding and managing these emotions is crucial for ensuring alignment with strategic goals, fostering motivation, and addressing challenges effectively across different organizational levels. When leveraged well, emotions become a powerful resource for driving successful strategy execution.
“Even when team members align on reflective, rational (C-system) goals, differing emotional and intuitive representations can lead to uncoordinated actions, undermining the success of strategic initiatives.”
— Healey, Vuori, & Hodgkinson, 2017
Aligning Minds and Hearts for Strategy Implementation
When implementing a strategy, ensuring everyone is on the same page goes beyond aligning rational thinking—it requires shared emotions as well.
Research by Timo, published in the Academy of Management Review, highlights the importance of achieving both analytical and emotional shared understanding in organizations.
Drawing on dual-systems theory, Timo’s work distinguishes between reflective (C-system) mental models, formed through reasoning and deliberation, and reflexive (X-system) representations, which are automatic, intuitive, and emotional in nature. While team members may appear aligned in their reflective understanding of a task (C-system), their intuitive-emotional interpretations (X-system) might differ. This misalignment, called illusory concordance, can lead to coordinated actions breaking down, as behaviors influenced by emotional disagreement undermine otherwise sound plans.
Creating true shared understanding requires integrating both systems. Focusing only on rational alignment might achieve superficial agreement but neglect the emotional cohesion needed for effective teamwork. Similarly, surface discordance—where emotional alignment exists but rational understanding diverges—can hinder strategic decisions despite a harmonious atmosphere.
To foster alignment that drives successful strategy implementation, leaders must:
Encourage open dialogue to align analytical reasoning.
Facilitate emotional connection to build intuitive trust and cohesion.
Recognize and address the dual layers of understanding to avoid hidden discord.
By bridging both rational and emotional perspectives, organizations can ensure that strategy implementation is not only coordinated but also deeply resonant across all team levels.
Sources:
Healey, M. P., Vuori, T., & Hodgkinson, G. P. (2015). When teams agree while disagreeing: Reflexion and reflection in shared cognition. Academy of Management Review, 40(3), 399-422.
“Leaders must recognize and manage both reflective and reflexive processes within teams. Focusing solely on rational alignment overlooks the powerful influence of emotions and intuition on team performance.”
— Healey, Vuori, & Hodgkinson, 2015
Strengthen Your Strategy with Emotions Using These Five Techniques
Creating and implementing strategic initiatives requires more than rational planning—it demands emotional leadership. If people don’t feel excited about an initiative, they won’t fully commit to it. Timo’s latest research (Vuori, 2024) identifies five ways organizations can systematically lead emotions to drive engagement.
These techniques generate enthusiasm across three timeframes: during the immediate interaction, shortly afterward, and over the long term as excitement leads to follow-up meetings and practices that sustain the initiative.
Make the Initiative Meaningful Beyond Daily Tasks
Organizational structures and communication practices often narrow employees' focus to what’s directly relevant to their roles. While efficient, this can cause them to see new strategic initiatives as distractions rather than opportunities.
To inspire enthusiasm, share information that connects the initiative to broader organizational goals or societal impact. For example, in 1960s NASA, the vision of landing on the moon made even janitors feel they were part of something extraordinary, motivating them to work hard toward a collective goal.
Activate Identities that Support the Initiative
People have multiple identities (e.g., manager, parent, sports fan), and the identity they align with in a situation affects how they react emotionally. By reminding employees of identities that align with the initiative, leaders can foster positive engagement.
For instance, when introducing a sustainability project, you might highlight employees’ roles as family members, encouraging them to think about leaving a better planet for future generations.
Create Physical Experiences
Strong emotions are often triggered by physical experiences rather than abstract information. Instead of telling employees why an initiative is valuable, show them.
For example, a company developing electric car infrastructure once invited partners to test drive electric cars, allowing them to experience their quietness, smoothness, and acceleration firsthand. This generated excitement and increased willingness to collaborate.
Facilitate Face-to-Face Interactions in Focused Spaces
Face-to-face interactions in closed settings foster emotional connection and energy. These interactions allow participants to perceive and respond to one another’s emotions, amplifying engagement.
Hackathons, for example, are often held in shared physical spaces to build collective enthusiasm, even though they could be conducted virtually. Similarly, Richard Branson’s highly visible events for Virgin Atlantic were designed to generate emotional energy among participants.
Ensure Physical Well-Being
People’s physiological state significantly impacts their emotional energy. Hunger, fatigue, or cognitive overload can reduce emotional resilience and enthusiasm.
Simple adjustments, like ensuring meetings occur when participants are well-fed and rested, can make a big difference. Separating operational and strategic discussions into distinct sessions can also prevent exhaustion and improve focus.
Emotions as Strategic Tools
Emotions are like tools—they must match the task. Leaders should ensure that both they and their teams feel the right emotions for the challenge at hand. By intentionally designing organizational structures and communication practices, leaders can create an environment where people are motivated to engage with strategic priorities.
Originally published here in Finnish: https://www.boardman.fi/ljt-blogi/ljt-tutkijablogi-vahvista-strategiaa-tunteilla-naiden-viiden-tekniikan-avulla/
Creating Shared Emotions for Strategy Implementation
Creating Shared Emotions for Strategy Implementation
Effective strategy implementation requires more than rational persuasion—it demands shared emotional engagement. Research shows that “emotional sensegiving” plays a crucial role in aligning emotions with strategic goals. This approach involves using communication and practices that generate emotional arousal unrelated to work and associating it with the desired change, creating a powerful connection to the proposed organizational reality.
Practical Insights:
Vivid Communication: Engaging storytelling and emotionally charged language can evoke emotional responses, making strategic initiatives feel personally meaningful.
Concrete Practices: Physical experiences, like workshops or immersive activities, help tie emotions to the change process. For example, leveraging AI can feel less intimidating if team members experience hands-on applications that showcase its benefits.
Responses to Emotional Sensegiving:
Research identifies three typical reactions to emotional sensegiving:
Engagement: Positive emotional arousal can inspire action intentions aligned with strategic goals.
Indifference: Lack of emotional resonance can lead to disengagement.
Rejection: Identity threats or painful emotions might provoke resistance and withdrawal.
Leaders can foster excitement and reduce resistance by crafting emotionally vivid messages and aligning them with team identities. However, caution is needed—identity threats may backfire, causing rejection of the strategy. By thoughtfully using emotional sensegiving, leaders can turn resistance into enthusiasm and create alignment at both rational and emotional levels.
Sources:
But even before you start, it’s good to understand how people actually feel. Here, you need empathy and understanding:
Understanding employee experiences is key to deepening your organization’s cultural insight. Empathy and understanding are essential when creating a thriving, responsible, and humane organizational culture.
Key Steps for Conducting In-Depth Interviews
Preparation
Understand organizational practices: Familiarize yourself with the company’s structures, practices, and metrics. This ensures you can ask deeper, meaningful questions rather than relying on surface-level descriptions.
Research your interviewees: Learn about their roles and backgrounds through sources like LinkedIn or organizational profiles, while keeping an open mind to avoid bias.
Review relevant theories: Equip yourself with frameworks on organizational culture, emotions, and psychology to guide your analysis.
Conducting the Interviews
Create a safe and trusting environment where interviewees feel comfortable sharing their experiences. Show vulnerability and authenticity to build rapport.
Use open-ended, exploratory questions, such as:
What does your typical workday look like?
Can you share an example of something that excites or frustrates you at work?
How do you feel about recent organizational changes?
Focus on concrete examples rather than abstract ideas to uncover actionable insights.
Analyzing and Interpreting Interviews
Thematic coding: Identify patterns and themes, such as "lack of human-centric leadership" or "trust issues."
Synthesize insights: Combine findings from various interviews to form a comprehensive view of cultural dynamics.
Link to organizational practices: Understand how structures and policies impact employee emotions and behavior.
Sources:
Vuori, S. T., & Vuori, T. O. (2022). Työntekijöiden kokemuksen ymmärrys syventää organisaatiokulttuurin ymmärtämistä. Työn tuuli2| 2022.
Vuori, T. O. (2017). An open-ended interview approach for studying cognition and emotion in organizations. In Methodological challenges and advances in managerial and organizational cognition (pp. 59-71). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Vuori, Suvi-Tuuli. (2023). Using Researcher’s Emotions for Doing Qualitative Emotion Research. Presented in Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2023 in Boston.
Examples from Practice
Uncovering Mismatched Expectations
A CEO assumed their leadership style was open and transparent, yet employee surveys revealed low scores on trust. Through in-depth interviews, it became clear that employees defined "trust and openness" differently, which allowed the leadership team to make targeted improvements.Revamping Unmotivating Metrics
In one organization, operational metrics didn’t resonate with employees as they felt these measures were outside their control. This led to disengagement and uneven workload distribution. In-depth interviews identified the problem, resulting in adjusted metrics that employees could influence, fostering motivation and self-direction.
Why Employee Experiences Matter
Organizational culture stems from employees’ daily experiences—their thoughts, feelings, and interactions with their environment. To lead responsibly and sustainably, leaders must understand these experiences. In-depth interviews are a powerful tool to uncover the nuances behind employee behavior, offering insights that drive positive cultural and organizational change.
Listening to employees isn't just ethical; it's essential for creating a resilient, high-performing organization.
Turning Emotion into Strategic Power
Through Suvi-Tuuli’s research, including 145 interviews exploring emotion work across organizational roles, I found that even difficult emotions can be productive. The key is reframing them as inherent to the role—not personal shortcomings. When leaders understand and actively manage emotion work, they unlock a strategic resource that enhances both individual well-being and organizational success.
The main point is that emotions aren’t random; they’re deeply tied to the roles we occupy. Whether you’re an ambitious junior employee, a mid-level manager in the trenches, or a senior leader steering the ship, your role shapes your emotional landscape. Here’s how:
Junior-Level Emotions: Navigating Expectations
At the junior level, the emotional experience often revolves around meeting expectations, avoiding mistakes, and seeking recognition to advance. Anxiety and eagerness aren’t personal failings—they’re responses to the role’s built-in pressures. This emotional self-reflection fuels growth but can feel like a constant uphill climb.
Mid-Level Managers: The Emotional Load of Execution
Middle management is where cognitive empathy takes center stage. Anticipating client needs, managing team dynamics, and driving project success are emotionally taxing. The anticipation and responsibility often lead to exhaustion—not from personal weakness, but because the role demands emotional engagement for results.
Senior Leaders: The Weight of Confidence
For senior leaders, the emotional game is about projecting confidence and maintaining trust. They navigate intense client relationships and internal expectations, balancing grace under pressure with emotional resilience. Feedback, whether glowing or critical, can significantly impact their emotional equilibrium, shaping the tone of their leadership.
Why Emotion Work Matters
These emotional experiences aren’t flaws in individuals—they’re essential to organizational function. When managed well, they drive performance, strengthen relationships, and align actions with strategic goals.
However, in high-pressure environments like consulting, rigid “up-or-out” policies can amplify emotional strain, causing employees to focus more on personal survival than collective success. This can hinder long-term growth and morale.
On the other hand, organizations with supportive leadership and flexible structures can turn emotion work into a shared responsibility, making it feel less like a burden and more like an opportunity.
Sources:
Vuori, S-T. (2024). It’s not you, it’s the role: Hierarchically distributed emotion work in organizations. Unpublished manuscript.
Other resources
Academic articles
Vuori, T. O. (2024). Emotions and attentional engagement in the attention-based view of the firm. Strategic Organization, 22(1), 189-210.
Open access: Emotions and attentional engagement in the attention-based view of the firm
Vuori, S-T. (2024). It’s not you, it’s the role: Hierarchically distributed emotion work in organizations. Unpublished manuscript.
Vuori, S-T. (2023). Using Researcher’s Emotions for Doing Qualitative Emotion Research. Presented in Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2023 in Boston.
Vuori, S. T., & Vuori, T. O. (2022). Työntekijöiden kokemuksen ymmärrys syventää organisaatiokulttuurin ymmärtämistä. Työn tuuli2| 2022.
Open access: tyontuuli_022022-.pdf
Vuori, T. O. (2017). An open-ended interview approach for studying cognition and emotion in organizations. In Methodological challenges and advances in managerial and organizational cognition (pp. 59-71). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Healey, M. P., Vuori, T., & Hodgkinson, G. P. (2015). When teams agree while disagreeing: Reflexion and reflection in shared cognition. Academy of Management Review, 40(3), 399-422.
Vuori, T., & Huy, Q. N. (2013). Emotional sensegiving. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2013, No. 1, p. 10421). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
Timo’s doctoral dissertation
Open access: Microsoft Word - vuori_thesis_2011-10-20_3.docx
Other resources
August whitepaper: Winning Through Better Organizational Performance
Open access: August White Paper 1/2017: Winning Through Better Organizational Performance | PDF
Timo Vuori on shared understanding in organizations | Aalto University
https://www.aalto.fi/en/news/timo-vuori-on-shared-understanding-in-organizations
https://www.aaltoee.fi/en/aalto-leaders-insight/2024/5-ways-to-keep-everyone-onboard-with-change