SOLIDIFY in Action: How Leaders Build Foundations That Hold
SOLIDIFY is the first tier of the Workplaces Made Clear Framework because it determines whether an organization can sustain performance, scale strategy, and operate without unnecessary chaos. Research on organizational learning and stability by C. Argyris consistently shows that clarity and consistency at the foundation level determine whether performance can scale.
This solidification happens at many levels within an organization. Executives stabilize direction. Directors stabilize systems. Managers stabilize execution. And HR as well as other support functions, stabilize the entire ecosystem.
When each level engages in SOLIDIFY in the right way, organizations become predictable, trustworthy, and capable of real performance - a theme reinforced across leadership and change literature such as Kotter; Ulrich et al.
The Executive focus: Solidifying Direction and Organizational Non‑Negotiables
Executives’ role in the Solidify phase is to focus on the things that will allow the organization to move forward in the right direction given the current business environment. They must focus on correctly identifying the core issues and areas of focus to point the organization toward the goal. It sounds easy but ask any executive and they’ll tell you that it’s not. Especially when the operating environment changes.
Executive clarity is a foundational source of stability because people change most effectively and lastingly when they understand the purpose behind the expectations and can see how they actions contribute to meaningful results – a principle reinforced throughout Influencer, which shows that lasting change comes from aligning clear expectations with personal, social, and structural motivation.
Executives strengthen foundations by:
Setting organizational non‑negotiables (compliance, data integrity, values, leadership expectations)
Establishing decision-making guardrails with communication at the inflection points or when they change and priority matrices
Clarifying what “success” looks like across the enterprise
Removing organizational and structural barriers that create inconsistency
Executives create stability by making the organization knowable — a concept supported by organizational learning research by C. Argyris.
Tools Executives Can Use
Enterprise Standards Charter — A one-page document outlining organizational non-negotiables: compliance expectations, leadership behaviors, communication norms, and decision rights. These can include organizational architecture standards (one example is linked here by The TOGAF Standard), project and governance standards (one example is linked here by Atlassian), or performance and practice models (which are prevalent and can be summarized at this video link by Jesper Lowgren).
Executive Alignment Sessions — Quarterly meetings where the executive team aligns expectations, decisions, and messaging to prevent drift and inconsistency.
The Director focus: Solidifying Systems and Cross‑Functional Consistency
Directors stabilize the organization by building systems that make the desired behaviors easy, supported, and consistent. As emphasized in Influencer, lasting change requires more than clear expectations — it requires environments where people have both the motivation and the ability to follow through. Directors create those environments.
They do this by designing processes that reduce friction, establishing cross-functional norms that reinforce shared expectations, and ensuring teams have the tools, training, and resources needed to perform reliably. When systems are clear and supportive, people naturally align their behavior with organizational standards because the path to success is visible and achievable.
Key Director Tools:
Process Integrity Audits — ensure systems support the behaviors leaders expect and that it’s easy for employees to behave in the desired manner
Cross-Functional Playbooks — create shared norms that strengthen social motivation
Capability Mapping — identifies where ability gaps exist so leaders can remove barriers
Supportive Resource Structures — reinforce the structural motivation needed for consistency
Directors solidify the organization by shaping systems that make the right behaviors the default behaviors.
The Manager Approach: Solidifying Daily Execution and Team Reliability
Managers stabilize daily execution by reinforcing expectations through consistent coaching, supportive relationships, and practical tools that help people succeed. In Influencer, frontline change is most effective when people feel personally motivated, socially supported, and structurally enabled — and managers are the leaders closest to those levers.
Managers create clarity in the moment: they explain the “why,” demonstrate the “how,” and provide real-time feedback that strengthens both motivation and ability. They build team cultures where positive accountability is normal, peers support one another, and expectations are reinforced through shared habits rather than pressure or fear.
Key Manager Tools:
Daily Clarity Huddles — reinforce purpose and personal motivation
Consistency Checklists — provide structural support that makes expectations easy to follow
Peer Support Routines — strengthen social motivation and shared accountability
Coaching Conversations — build ability through guided practice and real-time feedback
Managers solidify execution by creating an environment where people want to meet expectations and feel equipped to do so. Managers create stability by making the organization trustworthy — a concept supported by psychological safety research (Edmondson).
How HR Leaders Support SOLIDIFY Across All Levels
HR leaders stabilize the organization by shaping the conditions that make clarity, consistency, and healthy performance easy, supported, and sustainable. In Influencer, lasting change happens when people have both the motivation and the ability to meet expectations — and when the environment reinforces those expectations rather than working against them. HR is the function that is best positioned to build those conditions at scale.
HR strengthens personal motivation by helping leaders communicate purpose, meaning, and impact behind expectations. They reinforce social motivation by developing leadership behaviors, team norms, and peer accountability structures that make healthy performance the cultural default. And they build structural motivation and ability by designing systems, tools, and processes that remove friction and make the right behaviors the easiest behaviors.
Through coaching, capability-building, and thoughtful system design, HR ensures that every layer of leadership has what it needs to solidify direction, systems, and execution without relying on pressure, fear, or manufactured urgency. HR becomes the integrator that keeps expectations aligned, reinforces supportive conditions, and identifies early signs of drift before they become instability.
Key HR Tools:
Leadership Coaching & Skill Development — strengthens personal and social motivation
Behavioral Standards & Clarity Frameworks — make expectations visible and meaningful
Supportive Systems & Tools — reinforce structural motivation and ability
Cross-Level Alignment Practices — ensure consistency between executives, directors, and managers
Early Drift Detection & Correction — protects stability by addressing breakdowns before they spread
HR solidifies the organization by building the motivational, relational, and structural supports that help people succeed — not through applying undue pressure, but through clarity, capability, and shared commitment.
References
Argyris, C. (1999). On Organizational Learning. Blackwell Publishing. "On Organizational Learning"
Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change. McGraw‑Hill. Influencer
Edmondson, A. (2019). The Fearless Organization. Wiley.
Harvard Business Review. “The Power of Cross-Functional Teams.”
Gallup Workplace Research (2023).
Lowgren, Jesper. Capability Mapping Mastery in less than 15 minutes!; YouTube, August 9, 2021.
