When was the last time you considered whether your business organization was tightly aligned? It is never too early to evaluate your business organizational alignment. Whether your business organization is a 1 - 50 person concern, a 51 - 200 person concern, or employees over 1000 people; the organization that invests in a healthy discipline of alignment, is an organization that leverages a critical success factor. Alignment within your business organization has a direct and indirect influence on your bottom line and your competitive momentum. . Alignment within your business organization should be structured, systemic, and organic. A well defined and executed alignment effort synergistically includes every facet of your value chain including your business mission, vision, values, core competencies, strategies, staff, customers, products, vendors, and sociopolitical conscientiousness. Let's take a deeper look at defining, valuing, measuring, and achieving the right alignment for your business organization.
Defining Organizational Alignment - Organizational alignment refers to the existence (or absence) of a consistently clear understanding of the organization's purpose throughout the business organization's entire value chain. That clear understanding of purpose includes the stated mission, vision, values, core competencies, strategies, policies, procedures, staff, products, customers, vendors, and sociopolitical conscientiousness. Traditional definitions of organizational alignment were limited to processes, strategies, and communications. Such a narrow view of alignment today can lead to catastrophic problems for a business organization. The press has highlighted examples in recent years regarding the abuse of laborers in foreign suppliers to U.S. companies triggering sociopolitical issues for Wal-Mart®, GAP®, and JCPenney®. These companies missed a facet of their alignment strategy by overlooking certain vendors' production methods. Contemporary definitions of organizational alignment take on a value-based holistic approach evaluating the business organization from its core values to secondary and tertiary outside relationships encompassing vendors and suppliers.
Valuing Organizational Alignment - Organizational alignment can bring increased value to your organization through cost reductions, goodwill, employee morale, shareholder dividends, and customer loyalty. An aligned organization is more tactically and strategically efficient contributing to lower costs from errors, missteps, and competing priorities. Customers can sense that a business organization is well aligned through their interactions with the business organization. Consistently good customer experiences will create repeat and incremental business increasing the value of a business organization's goodwill. Employees and shareholders also benefit from the aligned business organization through profit gain sharing, the potential for sustained growth, and mutual commitment. Southwest Airlines® represents a terrific contemporary example of a company with a penchant for alignment and an appreciation for the values associated with organizational alignment. Southwest Airlines® is known for their fierce employee loyalty and perceived tight alignment from its customers, industry, and shareholders.
Measuring and Evaluating Organizational Alignment - Many of the tools your business organization needs to evaluate alignment already exist. If your company commissions routine customer and employee surveys, consider adapting these tools to also provide a periodic measure of alignment. If your company routinely tracks employee turnover, consider adapting this process to include information gathering related to perceptions of alignment or misalignment. If you organization acquires market research data, consider adapting that process to provide data reflecting customer and market perceptions of company, brand, and product alignment. So often, businesses overlook the opportunities to leverage the value of these tools to comprehensively and collectively evaluate survey results in light of alignment opportunities. Instead, surveys are viewed independently, and in narrow isolation, to determine faults in marketing, HR, operations, or brand recognition. Leadership Pinnacle provides a more extensive discussion and tools on measuring and evaluating organizational alignment as a gratis concierge service for those interested in deeper guidance on organizational alignment. Visit http://www.leadershippinnacle.com and click on "Pinnacle Solutions".
Achieving and Sustaining Organizational Alignment - Achieving and sustaining organizational alignment is easier said than done. At the core of the initial and ongoing success of this effort must be:
oA passionate, deep, and abiding commitment throughout the "C" suite to define, achieve, and sustain organizational alignment throughout the organization as a part of the organization's business strategies.
oDeveloping a benchmark measure from which to compare future measurements.
oDeveloping a valuation approach to affirm the tangible and intangible value of alignment focused efforts and the return on investment.
oAn honest appraisal of measurement results including current state, future state, gap analysis, and action plans that consistently complement the businesses iterative strategic plans.
oChange management integration of organizational alignment strategies, tactics, and measurements to assure continued alignment throughout the change process. Additionally, change management must develop contingency plans to detect and remediate alignment issues before, during, and after change occurs. Leadership Pinnacle provides a more extensive discussion on contemporary change management practices as a gratis concierge service for those interested in deeper guidance on integrating change management and organizational alignment practices. Visit leadershippinnacle.com and click on "Pinnacle Solutions".
oAn independently budgeted and supported high level iterative strategic initiative to create and maintain organizational alignment and not consider alignment merely an adjunct effort.
oA clear and compelling array of communications approached targeted to promote the alignment initiatives and results.
To merely assume that organizational alignment will "take care of itself as long as we're making bundles of money", is building a dangerous house of cards. On the other hand, a company that organically integrates organizational alignment initiatives into its core structures can eventually create an inertia that perpetuates alignment to a point that the effort is barely visible.
A final word of caution at this point is well noted. While enthusiasm and euphoria for alignment is well deserved, a tolerance for some non-conformity is part of a healthy alignment initiative. Misplaced or overemphasized alignment initiatives can create animosity, stifle creativity, and limit innovative thinking resulting in an organization with a cultish feel for employees. Every business organization has its uniquely collective corporeal personality and need for individuality. Most business organizations want to be viewed as tightly aligned and leverage their corporate identity as a market differentiator. Fortunately, the non-conformists are usually few and far-between. Cautiously and respectfully give fair-minded attention to those with a tendency to stray from the pack. Separate the malicious from the accidental or innovative event, take appropriate action, and continue moving forward with your alignment initiatives.
The rewards for an aligned organization are represented internally and externally. Internally, your staff remains committed, loyal, self-directed, efficient, innovative, and focused. Your organization has a better chance of remaining viable and producing shareholder dividends. Externally, your customers, suppliers, competitors, industry analysts, and general community acknowledge and respect your business organization as a well aligned enterprise.
Breene, R.; Nunes, P.F.; Shill W.E.; Timothy S.; (October 2007); THE CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER; Harvard Business Review, Vol. 85 Issue 10.
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