In today’s ForbesWomen, senior contributor Kathy Caprino points to a knowledge gap we talk about all the time at MBM: the distance between what the C-Suite believes is critical to the success of the organization, and what the employees know is critical.  A new IBM Institute for Business Value global study validates the gap that Sidney Yoshida found in 1989, including these two findings:

  • 74% of executives believe they’re helping their employees learn new skills needed to work during the pandemic yet only 38% of their employees believe the same
  • Nearly 80% of C-suite executives say they’re supporting the physical and emotional health of their workers right now, but only 46% of employees agree

How sad that knowledge gaps between the top and the bottom of companies uncovered over 30 years ago still exist. And sadder still is the fact that these gaps are centered around employees’ ability to do their jobs — from a skills perspective and a health perspective.

These gaps are the difference between a company’s ability to deliver 100% on its brand promises, or not.

And if a company is unable to deliver on their brand promise, they’re going to lose customers, employees and market share. The company will stagnate and, without intervention, lose money and possibly go under. It’s a distressing situation too many companies are blind to.

But there is good news!

The gaps are often easy to easy to fix. And as Yoshida and IBM found, the employees in the organization know what the issues are. It’s just a matter of asking the right people the right questions.

But how do you know the right questions to ask? And how do make sure employees are 100% candid with their insights? There’s often too much at stake for an employee to feel comfortable opening up.

MBM has a proprietary four step process designed specifically to uncover the gaps (and hidden strengths) within an organization. We’ve found employees more than willing to share with us what they really see happening within their organization. And we provide strategic recommendations to act on what we find.

Because we believe for a company to be successful, they must deliver 100% on their brand promises.