Strategic Alignment
ARE YOU STRATEGICALLY ALIGNED?
An organization is strategically aligned when everyone’s attention and actions are focused in the same direction and are sustained over time by collectively shifting under changing circumstances. Picture the synchronized, yet spontaneous, movements of a flock of starlings or the dynamic coherence of a jazz ensemble.
At Aliniad, we work with clients to establish an aligned strategy that is clear and nimble, and then to build the organization’s capacity to implement, sustain and shift that alignment as needed. We are not dogmatic about a particular approach for crafting strategy. Rather, Aliniad’s approach to building strategic alignment integrates leading research on strategy and innovation, the urgency and complexity of the client’s circumstances and a disciplined, time-bound planning process. We have found that sustained strategic alignment relies on both discipline and flexibility; reflection and action. Consequently, we provide a clear roadmap for any strategy process.
The combination of a time bound planning process with many conversations for discovery and reflection, generates momentum toward, and confidence in, a real shared strategy. Like any good roadmap, a disciplined planning process provides people with a tangible way of knowing where they are today in the journey, how far away the next destination is (and in what direction with how many turns), how to measure progress, and where the rest stops can be found.
- Are your employees able to spontaneously describe where the organization is going and how they are contributing to it?
- Do employees, when alone, choose to make decisions and take actions in service to the organization’s goals, over their own or their team’s interests?
- Do teams, plans, and activities in various parts of your organization support and connect with each other rather than compete with, detract from, or disregard each other?
- Do strategic conversations routinely happen at all levels of your organization? Do staff anticipate changes in the external environment; explore new opportunities and synergies; rigorously test disparate views about initiatives; and refresh their own passions and vision?
