How is your organization functionally constructed? Do your offerings align with your capabilities, your firm's purpose, demand in the marketplace, the skill of your staff, and the overall strategy, vision, and goals for the company?
Organizational capability is as important as any other single thing in business. If your company has purpose, vision, and even sound strategy, but doesn't have the capabilities to execute you may never fulfill the goals for the business. However, when your firm has capabilities - the actual ability to fully realize your objectives and satisfy demand in the markets in which you operate - therein lies where you will achieve differentiation and success. This often starts and ends with alignment.
Jonathan Trevor and Barry Varcoe published an article in the Harvard Business Review specific to organizational alignment in which they dive into the complimentary relationships between resources (people), culture, business strategy, and organizational structure. Not only do we need to appreciate the different functions of a company, we must be conscious about how interdependent each component of an organization truly is on one another...meaning your whole firm might be, "only as strong as its weakest link" (see below):
conseri can help. We can work with you to achieve better business results by independently examining operational models - people, processes, systems, strategies, culture, leadership/management, and more. As always, it starts with your people. Do they understand the firm's objectives and are they in agreement on how best to execute? When teams have clarity on your vision, embrace a universal consensus on performance expectations, and have the tools needed to execute - they will support and help each other be successful.
In a McKinsey Podcast, Claudio Feser likens alignment to overall organizational health in that, "...when organizational members are aligned on a strategy, when they execute consistently and effectively, when they continuously scan the environment for opportunities, and when they continuously learn and renew themselves, that organization tends to overperform, or outperform, over long periods of time".
Although organizational alignment doesn't always happen naturally, when achieved it allows employees to join forces more freely, enhances trust, and creates an uptick on collaboration between divisions on common company objectives. The result - happier team members, more satisfied customers, and better work products.
At conseri we can help you universally understand and agree on what you do as a company, be able to communicate this effective both inside and outside of your firm, and develop measurable plans to execute on against your strategy.
Let Us Do The Work.
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