Harnessing the Power of
Organizational Alignment:
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Static Alignment
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Dynamic Alignment
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The Goal of Strategic Alignment
A Seamless Culture
of Shared Purpose
“Well aligned companies outperform their
competitors on every major financial measure.”
“Alignment is the essence
of management”
George Labovitz and Harvard Business School
Fred Smith, FedEx
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The Reality
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53%
of people don’t feel their company
strategy will lead to success
… Booz 2011
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80%
of employees would leave if given
the opportunity
… The Economist, 2011
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70%
of the time the problem is not bad
strategy but bad execution
… Fortune, 2010
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73%
of workers don’t believe they are
supporting company strategy
… Duncan Group 2011
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90%
of companies do not implement
their strategy effectively
… Kaplan and Norton
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85%
of CEOs believe strategic changes
are implemented poorly
… Grolman Group
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68%
say organizational disconnects and
silos are the most significant challenge
… 2010 PMO 2.0 Trending Report
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Contributions to Company Valuation
Intangible assets are
responsible for 70% of value
Intangible
Assets
Leadership
Culture
Innovation
Engagement
Alignment
Tangible
Assets
Ernst and Young, 2009
Employee engagement
a pre-condition and result of correct alignment
Engagement is the outcome of one’s personal
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Satisfaction
Commitment
Pride
Loyalty
Sense of purpose
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Advocacy
Initiative
Persistence
Energy
Engagement and the Bottom line
A 50% spread in observed performance
Companies with high levels of People Engagement improved 19.2%
Companies with low levels of People Engagement declined 32.7%
Towers Watson
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Engagement and the Bottom line
Wealth Creation
The EPS growth rate of
organizations with engagement
scores in the top quartile was 2.6
times greater than organizations
with below average scores.
Gallup (survey of 89 organizations)
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Engagement and the Bottom line
Safety
Those with engagement
scores in the bottom
quartile averaged 62%
more accidents.
Gallup
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Engagement and the Bottom line
Productivity
Engaged people are
consistently more
productive, profitable,
safer, healthier, and 87%
less likely to leave their
employer.
Corporate Leadership Council & Fleming & Apslund
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But …
Engaged teams are not enough.
They must also be aligned to the
goals of the entire organization.
Aligned teams
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Know there’s a plan
Understand the plan
Agree with the plan
Buy into the plan
Energize the plan
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Looking for Alignment - Key Questions
1.
2.
3.
What is our strategy?
What do you do?
How does what you do support the strategy?
If a majority of employees feel aligned, the company is aligned
Common Symptoms of Poor Alignment
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High turnover
Inability to articulate strategy
Lack of accountability
Information hoarding
Poor teamwork
Little upward information flow
Fragmentation and duplication
Inappropriate or misguided initiative
Excessive focus on short-term results
Team goals trump corporate strategy
Institutional apologists
‘Vest and Rest’ syndrome
Looking for Alignment
The key questions
• Is the strategy clear and well-communicated?
• Is leadership aligned to deliver unambiguous
direction?
• Do the processes work efficiently, or are there
built-in conflicts?
• Do I have a clear understanding of customer
needs?
• How does alignment impact attrition, retention,
profitability and sustainability?
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The Main Thing
The Main Thing is to keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
Quantitative alignment analytics can help
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The Main Thing
Strategy
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The
Main
Thing
Process
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Customer
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Connecting employee behavior to
the mission and strategy
Linking teams and processes to
customer needs
Reshaping strategy with real-time
customer information
Creating a culture where all four
elements work seamlessly
People
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The Axes of Alignment
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
Strategy
Process
Customer
People
Vertical Alignment
• The rapid and efficient deployment of
business strategy throughout the
organization
• Employee engagement and strategic buyin through consistent communication
• Two-way flow of information through
empowered employees
• Enabled by measurable and actionable
metrics
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Challenges of Horizontal Alignment
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Customer requirements change
Customer voice hard to interpret
Customers speak in present tense
Few employees have direct interaction
Understanding the customer is rarely a
collective responsibility
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The Longitude Problem
Scilly Islands Naval Disaster 1707
Harrison’s Marine Timekeeper 1731
Big 5 Questions on Customer Focus
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What do our customers care about the most
What opportunities do we have to delight
How well are we satisfying them now
What are the “best-of-the-best” competitors
doing
What do we do to make us “difficult to do
business with?”
Horizontally aligned companies use the
voice of their customers as their beacon
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The Self-Aligning Company
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Invisible hand of culture
Adjustments made quickly at all levels
Organization senses needs and changes
Distributed leadership
Disciplined enough to continually monitor
the internal and external worlds
Do the right things right and concentrate
on key metrics only
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Steps to Align an Organization
Survey
Analyze
Diagnose
Adjust
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Powerful Alignment Analytics
Summary Wheel
Overall Alignment Index
“The Main Thing”
Category
“Critical Success Factors”
Dependent Factor
“Key Indicators”
Q1
Q2
Red – alert (1-55)
Yellow – opportunity (56-79)
Green – best practice (80-100)
Q3
Survey
Questions
“The best business tool in America”
Andy Greig, Division President, Bechtel Corp
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Powerful Alignment Analytics
Summary Wheel
Comparative Alignment Dashboard
Team 1
Team 2
Team 3
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Powerful Alignment Analytics
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Powerful Alignment Analytics
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Value of Alignment Analysis
• Develops long- and
short-term action plans
• Pinpoints areas requiring
management attention
• Launches improvement initiatives
• Identifies skill gaps
• Isolates best and worst practices
• Distributes effective leadership
• Aligns people, processes and
strategies with market opportunities
Strategy
Process
Customer
People
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Behaviour is complementary to personality
Personality
Situation
Behaviour
Performance
Behavior Alignment Instrument
from Behavioural Sciences Ltd
Accelerating
Sustaining
Blocking
Vision, change, increasing
effectiveness, and driving things
forward
Consistency, efficiency,
implementation, attention to
detail and maintaining quality
Responsibility avoidance,
conflict avoidance, or anger and
annoyance.
Management behavior impacts alignment
Return on Alignment
The trademarked AlignComm methodology to
aggregate, evaluate and prioritize remediation
alternatives to determine which have the
greatest impact on business results
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AlignComm
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Strategic planning support and guidance
Workshops and seminars
Alignment and engagement surveys
Executive coaching
Behavioral Alignment diagnostics for managers
Return on Alignment ® modeling for remediation
prioritization
• Messaging frameworks and collateral
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