Aligning your strategy: Why it matters and how to do it
Do you know why 52% of projects fail? Because the company’s strategic alignment is lacking. If your strategy is misplaced, your staff will feel as we did while watching Tenet—confused, frustrated, and unclear of where things are going.
strategy alignment is how a company aligns its project objectives, choices, and actions to support the broader corporate strategy goals. This organised plan should unite internal and external teams, employees, and important stakeholders.
If you want to succeed with business plan execution, your organization’s strategy can appear different from a Christopher Nolan apocalyptic, dystopian script.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this article:
What is the significance of strategic alignment in strategy execution?
What are the consequences of strategy misalignment?
What advantages can strategic alignment provide?
5 stages to achieving strategic alignment
What is the significance of strategic alignment in strategy execution?
Back in the day, a select group of executives would create a strategy initiatives cabal and climb the mountain to meeting room C. They would reappear weeks later with a stone tablet engraved with the new strategic aims. They may have also hosted a pizza party (but we can’t be certain because no employees were invited).
The task has been completed, and the approach has been implemented. So they reasoned. This top-down, archaic approach to strategy, however, does not function in the actual world. Fortunately, there has been a shift in strategy in recent years.
If your firm establishes rigid strategy goals without regard for the strategic alignment process, you have a flaming new formula for failure at every turn. Let us now discuss the consequences of inadequate strategy alignment.
What are the consequences of strategy misalignment?
When company executives keep strategy planning as a private reserve, the result is tone-deaf chaos. It becomes unrecognisable after being distilled so far from its beginnings.
Then, like some unfathomable totem pole, this intricate “plan” is thrust at staff. The CEOs wrap their neckties over their brows and chant in unison, “This is the future.” A wide-eyed CEO thumps an ominous beat on the bongo under the flickering light of a 417-slide PowerPoint presentation on the antiquated projector, while puzzled (and scared) staff place matchsticks in their eyes to keep awake.
Okay, we may be exaggerating a little (sometimes), but it’s safe to say staff buy-in is low. With such a strategy, business divisions try their best to ‘Exceed Success,’ or ‘Awesome the Day,’ but because there is no coordination or communication across departments, everyone goes their way, and the organization’s goals collapse at the foot of project disputes and siloed teams.
Employees in this work environment are disgruntled and separated from the leadership’s goal. Isolated expertise stalls and demotivation is rampant. Some people quit, staplers go missing, and Netflix viewing time in the office skyrockets. People can quote Denzel Washington’s kid, but no one understands the company’s strategy.
Employee involvement eventually plummets, and performance suffers. People lose interest in attempting since they don’t know what to do.
What was the result? Time, money, and skill have all been squandered. (And a quick and furious bongo rhythm).
A lack of strategic alignment has made strategy execution difficult to attain and futile to pursue in this circumstance. Every attempt by management to gain support is an expensive venture that creates more anger than ROI.
What advantages can strategic alignment provide?
Let us now contrast this bleak, Dilbertesque image of purgatory with the advantages of proper strategic alignment.
Assume your company extends the strategic planning process to include everyone in the company, with equal representation from production, operations, and leadership.
The new technique is simple and appealing to all stakeholders. Because everyone in the organisation has a hand in developing the plan, this collaborative spirit stimulates lively conversation. Your approach is alive and well. It is a continuous process with action plans that identify how each employee and team member may contribute to the overarching vision’s achievement.
You can increase involvement by instilling a stronger feeling of ownership. Team members understand their roles and what they can do to help with strategy implementation. Even better, they are motivated to submit new ideas. Bottom line: increased engagement and drive translate into high-impact work and a competitive edge.
Employees feel recognised and engaged with the firm in this high-performing workplace, which generates a happy, competent, human-centric work culture. People are pleased to work for this company, and they walk home smiling every day (rather than shooting staplers at a picture of the CEO’s face on the breakroom door).
5 phases for strategic alignment
GOLDEN GATE, our strategy execution team, excels at providing stunning examples of strategic alignment. That evolving perspective towards strategy is what we’re all about.
Let us walk you through our strategy to achieve strategic alignment in your organisation.
Align at the top and develop a plan.
The first stage for your leadership team is to establish clear priorities. But what about the corporate leaders? Aren’t we always saying that strategy benefits everyone?!
Yes (we are, and it is), but before you can motivate your team to accept new approaches, you must first have your leader’s ducks in a row. After all, evolution cannot occur if there is any misunderstanding within the ranks.
When you consider team alignment early on, you create the framework for more effective plan implementation. Your strategic plan should clearly explain your organization’s mission and vision for the future, as well as the values that will guide your firm and the final goals you will seek.
Discuss your plan.
At this stage, the traditional approach would be to have an internal town hall meeting and try to sell your vision to disengaged staff.
The traditional way of presenting your plan to your employees does not work since they are reluctant. They need input in developing the strategy framework, thus it is too abstract to have an influence. And if they don’t understand, how will they ever accept it? (Hint: They will not).
The new approach thrives on exposure. When you make your company strategy everyone’s responsibility, you assist people in understanding how their job relates to the business goals and where they belong in the overall plan.
Encourage cooperation and involvement.
When you open up your plan in this way, you show your team that you trust them to utilise it properly. You offer people a share in your company’s success, encourage companywide buy-in, and recognise that everyone’s contributions are valued. You demonstrate that your executive staff takes input and criticism.
A strategy execution platform simplifies this process and fosters a live, resilient strategy ecosystem in which empowered decision-making is the norm. Doesn’t it sound better than the old standby of a mysterious, unchangeable Excel spreadsheet buried on a dusty hard drive at the CMO’s house? (Shame on you, Matt).
There are no borders between company units, thus your strategic growth is unlimited. Transparency across teams and authority levels is persuasive and it has the extra benefit of demonstrating that failures and setbacks can be addressed together.
Measure strategy alignment.
Now comes the major stumbling block: you must assess strategic alignment. While some may like to listen to more bongo music in the boardroom, the plain reality is that if you don’t track your efforts, you’ll struggle to achieve the greatest results. You will let down your plan, your team, and ourselves.
If you stick to old-school methods, you’ll spend weeks chasing people around the office with your notebook, attempting in vain to gather notes for your major PowerPoint presentation.
GGP keeps your strategy plan current. Everyone may view the key performance indicators (KPIs), measure progress, and share successes.
Adapt rapidly and align everyone.
The previous approach was reactive. If a market or internal business disruption occurs, it may take months for the corporation to respond—implying that they are always playing catch-up.
Your plan should be evolutionary and adaptable to alterations in the digital world. We believe Washington State University got it right when it stated that strategic planning is not a “one-time project that produces a milestone document of its best thinking at the moment.”
Instead, accept advice from JD Washington (Denzel’s son) and be ready to adjust to quick changes continually. When everyone agrees that things may change in an instant, you will be in a better position to deal with unexpected changes. For example, suppose there is a pandemic and a group of time-travelling assassins rushes the Opera House during your evening celebration.
Share your plan with your team.
Tenet repeats the code phrase: “We live in a twilight world…and there are no friends at dusk.”
If you keep your team in the dark about your approach, we can promise they will not be your buddies. It’s time to communicate your plan with everyone in the organisation.
When you use a boundaryless approach to strategy, you may establish strategic cohesion while also assisting your team in adapting and evolving. You may abandon the dark ages of segregated strategy planning in favour of a new approach in which everyone thinks broader and can make the jump to execution.
You can get in touch with GGP Experts to analyze what does and doesn’t work in real time. You’ll be able to quickly identify underperforming areas and confidently shift focus to things that need more attention. You’ll be able to keep people informed and enable them to adapt to disruptions faster—before it’s too late.
Aligning strategies horizontally and vertically (coming soon)
