For years, various employment surveys have yielded the same results. They tell us that employees value encouragement and trust over money, yada, yada, yada. Such surveys are inherently flawed, because we know that responses to such surveys often differ to the way people actually respond to various stimuli.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review reveals a vital lever in the execution of strategy. It appears that what employees truly value most is “progress”. In other words, workers want to feel a sense of accomplishment about their activities and that they are contributing to something that is creating value in some way.

This point may seem subtle but it has tremendous ramifications for the strategist. It reinforces a paradigm we have long since advocated; the more people who are involved in the formation of strategy, the better the execution will be.  It means that:

* As organizations develop strategies, they should retrieve data from a wide breadth of internal and external stakeholders.

* To tap innovation, companies should plunge deeper into the organization and seek out information from front line employees on what pain is being felt by customers and how the customer experience can be enriched.

* Key strategies must be communicated to all employees so that they have a better sense of how their daily activities align with the greater good.

* Measurement and accountability for execution must be shared throughout the enterprise.

* Decision making is vital to the pulse of an organization, and executives are well advised to push the envelope (and perhaps make a few bad decisions) as opposed to making slow decisions via paralysis by analysis.

The study, conducted by Harvard professors Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, was based on a more rigorous scientific method than merely asking for employees to provide their opinions. Instead of measuring their satisfaction on a given day, they measured their attitudes, behaviors and motivations in a diary format and synced them against achievement of specific milestones. When obstacles were overcome or key objectives were met, employee satisfaction and engagement spiked dramatically.

Amabile and Kramer concluded that management has control of the levers of both employee engagement and execution of strategy, and that they are one and the same.