Leadership teams must come together to discuss the company's vision and strategy, and identify the specific objectives they want to achieve. These objectives must be specific, strategic, and based on a shared vision that all employees can understand. To ensure that everyone is on the same page, objectives should be broken down into smaller, more manageable goals. The Balanced Scorecard method is a great way to ensure that results are realistic, consistent, and in line with the desired objectives.
It's important to regularly assess how well the organization is aligned with its objectives. The Organizational Alignment Survey is a tool designed to quickly and easily determine where alignment stands. Alignment workshops can also be used to help reach regional and global objectives, resulting in improved profits. Analyzing alignment structures and guiding teams through the process can take a lot of time and resources.
To get an idea of how well they are doing compared to their competitors, companies should compare themselves to their direct competitors and take action to improve their current position. According to Workboard, 72% of employees surveyed said that their performance would improve with more feedback. When a company has grown to include multiple departments, it's important to align teams horizontally and vertically. This makes it clear who is working on what issues and where support from other teams may be needed.
To improve alignment among its 10,000+ employees, one media company worked with Workpath. It's important for executives to recognize individual problem areas due to lack of alignment. With organizational alignment, departments, products, services, and individual work processes are all oriented towards a clearly formulated objective. IT processes that implement strategies and IT services that depend on them should also be linked.
If employees have concerns about new directives, they should be able to express them and ask how a particular project contributes to the organization's overall objectives. A simple expression of gratitude from management shows employees that their hard work is appreciated. Ultimately, striving for improvement is what drives executives forward. With the right tools and processes in place, organizations can ensure that process improvements are properly aligned with organizational goals and objectives.
