The Power of Alignment

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Strategic Alignment is the

seamless organizational

culture of shared purpose

“The #1 purpose of strategy is alignment” Michael Porter

The Reality

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• 53% of people don’t feel their company strategy will lead to success … Booz, 2011

• 80% of employees would leave if given the opportunity … The Economist, August 2011

• In 70% of the cases the real problem is not bad strategy, it is bad execution ... Fortune

• 73% of workers don't believe they are supporting organizational strategies The Duncan Group

• Once strategy is in place, only one in ten companies implement it effectively Kaplan and Norton

• Only 15% of CEOs believe strategic changes are well implemented … Grolman Group

• Good tactics can save a bad strategy, but bad tactics will destroy even the best

strategy ... George S. Patton

• Attaining alignment is a never-ending process of identifying and doggedly correcting

misalignments that push a company away from its core ideology or impede progress Collins and Porras

Leadership

Culture

Innovation

Employee Commitment

Goodwill

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Where the Value Lies

Intangibles will impact: • Customer retention • Employee satisfaction • Productivity • Profitability

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Ernst and Young, 2009

Relative contributions to market value

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• Nimble • Responsive to change • Innovative • Proactive

Well Aligned Companies

“Well aligned companies outperform their

competitors on every major financial measure.” Harvard Business School Research

More aligned

Not

aligned

Engagement and the Bottom Line

There is a 50% spread in performance between engaged and non-engaged teams. Towers Watson

The EPS growth rate of organizations with engagement scores in the top quartile was 2.6 x that

of organizations with below-average scores. Gallup

Engaged people are consistently more productive, profitable, safer, healthier, and 87% less likely to leave their employer.

Corporate Leadership Council

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Sustained excellence emerges when all the key elements of a

business are connected to one other and to the Customer.

George Labovitz ~ The Power of Alignment

Engaged teams are not enough, they must also be aligned to the goals of the entire organization.

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Common Symptoms of Poor Alignment

• High turnover and low morale

• Passive-aggressive behavior

• Inability to articulate strategy

• Reduced accountability

• Sub-optimal teamwork

• Little upward information flow

• Fragmentation and duplication

• Inappropriate or misguided initiative

• Short-term focus on results

• Team goals trump corporate strategy

• Institutional apologists

• ‘Quit but still showing up’ syndrome

• Indeterminate ‘referred’ pain

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Looking for Alignment Some key questions

• Is the strategy clear and well-communicated,

and the priorities understood by all? • Is the leadership team aligned to deliver clear

and unambiguous direction? • Do the processes work efficiently, or are there

built-in conflicts? • Do I have a clear understanding of the needs, by

each demographic, of our people ? • What do customers say, and how does it impact

attrition, retention and overall profitability and sustainability?

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Strategy

Customer

People

Process

“The main thing is to keep the main

thing the main thing” Jim Barksdale, the Barksdale Group

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The

Main

Thing

The Main Thing Why you are in business and how will you succeed

The Axes of Alignment

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Process Customer

Strategy

People

Horizontal Alignment

• Eliminating boundaries between

company and customer

• Understanding, creating, delivering and

supporting customer needs

• Value creation throughout supply chain

• Clearly differentiated and synergistic

functional responsibilities

Vertical Alignment

• The rapid and efficient deployment of

business strategy throughout the

organization

• Employee engagement and strategic buy-

in through consistent communication

• Two-way flow of information through

empowered employees

• Enabled by measurable and actionable

metrics

Leadership

Culture

Through Leadership and Culture

Survey Analyze Diagnose Adjust

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Steps to Align an Organization

Value of Alignment Analysis

• Development of long- and short-term action plans

• Pinpoint areas requiring management attention

• Launch improvement initiatives • Identify skill gaps • Isolate best and worst practices • Distribute effective leadership • Align people, processes and

strategies with market opportunities

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Process Customer

Strategy

People

Overall Alignment Index “The Main Thing”

Category

“Critical Success Factors”

Dependent Factor

“Key Indicators”

Survey

Questions

Q1

Q2

Q3

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Powerful Alignment Analytics

“The best business tool in America” Andy Greig, Division President, Bechtel Corp

Radar Diagrams Predictive Matrices of

Correlated Dependencies

And many, many more 15

Powerful Alignment Analytics

Powerful Behavioral Analytics

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