In my inbox this week, I came across a link to a great find: the Coherence Profiler from Booz & Company. We’re not the only ones who believe it’s important to be who you say you are and deliver what you say you deliver. Of course, the Booz consultants view coherence from the management perspective, while we tend to lean on the marketing side of the topic. Nonetheless, there’s wonderful correlation in our points of view. Sticking to one’s knitting and avoiding the “something for everyone” strategy are imperatives for both managers and marketers.

You may want to take the survey to determine your own place on their coherence scale. After completing the questionnaire, I was delighted to be rewarded with the “fully coherent” designation. It was almost like hearing those wonderful words from my best friend in the GPS system, who, at the completion of a trip, announces, “You have arrived.” Indeed, we apparently have. 

You’ll also want to read The Coherence Premium, written by Booz’s Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi, and published in the Harvard Business Review. It’s a great paper that also speaks to the incredible journey to coherence—arduous though it may be to stay focused along the way. (Here’s another take on the journey, RHB-style.) I am particularly enamored with their assessment of the benefits of coherence:

• First, it strengthens a company’s (you can substitute institution or organization here) competitive advantage.
• Second, coherence focuses strategic investment on what matters.
• Third, coherence produces efficiencies of scale.
• Finally, coherence creates alignment between strategic intent and day-to-day decision making.

Note: As coherence relates to higher ed particularly, you can find more benefits in Coherence: How Telling the Truth Will Advance Your Cause (and Save the World).

And I love this from the Booz paper: Coherence around capabilities not only shapes the leadership agenda; it enables leadership.