As our Blue Ocean Strategy Basics series continues, we highlight building execution into strategy and the three E Principles of Fair Process. Once featured, each principle is made accessible through the Blue Ocean Strategy Basics archive. For an introduction to the first ‘E’ Principle of Fair Process, we turn to page 175 of the book Blue Ocean Strategy (co-authored by Professor W. Chan Kim and Professor Renée Mauborgne).
There are three mutually reinforcing elements that define fair process: engagement, explanation, and clarity of expectation. Whether people are senior executives or shop floor employees, they all look to these elements. We call them the three E principles of fair process.
Engagement means involving individuals in the strategic decisions that affect them by asking for their input and allowing them to refute the merits of one another’s ideas and assumptions. Engagement communicates management’s respect for individuals and their ideas. Encouraging refutation sharpens everyone’s thinking and builds better collective wisdom. Engagement results in better strategic decisions by management and greater commitment from all involved to execute those decisions.
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