Business Alignment Definition: Making Strategies That Work
Business alignment is essential if a company is to achieve its full potential. But for businesses wishing to achieve successful strategic alignment, there are many factors to consider.
In the last 21 years, I can’t remember an assignment where alignment with the stakeholders' perspectives wasn’t at stake.
Complete alignment on everything is improbable but a shared and meaningful sense of direction is critical.
Shooting For the Same Moon
The direction of every business relies on aligning the whole operation with the intention. We’ve never worked on a single case where outcomes, visions, missions, and goals were not a priority.
To achieve strategic alignment, what we really need to achieve is the alignment of hearts and minds.
Getting Everyone on The Right Path
Every organization is the sum of its individuals. And every individual I’ve ever met has their own unique take on everything. It is the sum of these individuals' contributions that's needed to make the strategy work.
Aligned organizations are created by finding ways to listen to everyone in the workforce. In some cases, this could mean discovering their thoughts on business processes, business goals, management systems, business purpose, as well as business structure and processes.
In order to become fully engaged, your teams need to feel included in the process of achieving the company's strategic goals.
Divided By Design - Aligned By Desire
A conundrum for every business.
Most organizations are separated and subdivided by function. Each function is a specialism.
Great leaders realize the importance of finding a smart way to get everyone pulling in the same direction and showing how that’s in the interests of everyone.
A leadership team with common goals is far more resilient when challenged by market changes.
A workforce with common goals is highly motivated and creative when it comes to problem-solving.
Most of us are more highly motivated when we feel heard and respected in the business environment. Your business employees are no different.
Explaining The Challenge
Left unchecked, each ‘division’ creates their own strategy. The smart ones will align their sub-strategies with the overall aim and objective of the business.
All too often, though, the overall objective of the business is out of date and unable to accommodate the individual strategies developed by divisional function.
Building The Visual Blueprint
The notion of a single-minded plan is simple to explain but a challenge to deliver. It takes humans to align. But what if they’re all at different starting points?
Making The Case Simply
Every strategy and successful plan is made up of a few pretty obvious things:
Where are we all headed and why?
What is gonna stop us from achieving it?
What do we need in place to get us there?
Non-alignment of everyone’s plans is always evident in strategies that don’t work.
Business success cannot simply be about the bottom line, the return on investment, or even the customer experience. Who are the people helping you to succeed? Do they know what you need from them? Do you know what they need from you?
Technology Alignment
On a more technical note, it’s also essential for a company's information technology systems and platforms to be working harmoniously and effectively throughout the business.
The use of technology must be unified across all departments and clearly defined as beneficial for achieving the company's goals. In other words, it should help to make things run more smoothly.
It should be fully aligned. And it should help to increase alignment.
Staff training may be needed to achieve alignment regarding the agreed use of technology and to ensure its maximum alignment with the company's vision and goals.
Untangling the Lines of Communication
Alignment is more than just another effective business strategy. It's a long-term plan for achieving harmony, collaboration, and improved communication. In this climate, intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction are easier to achieve and company expansion is simplified.
Collaborative Visualisation
We’ve proven that the quickest way to get everybody’s individual perspective into the mix is through collaborative and visual endeavour.
Collaborative - so that everyone gets to share their perspective. This is a powerful way to get everyone involved so that they understand where everything fits or where the lack of alignment collides with disastrous effect.
Visual - because it’s by far the quickest way to show where these connections and interdependencies are. Visually collaborating allows common definition and shared respect to emerge, as well as the blueprint of interdependence and critical connection.
Structured Visual Thinking
Structured visual thinking empowers and inspires everyone involved. For the first time, they can see their role in it all. They can achieve their individual and collective goals. They can create meaningful relationships with each other and with what really matters.
They can add compound value to the whole, through collaborating visually in a structured, logical and co-creative way.
Click here to find out how the team here at Group Partners is making strategies that work for everyone. Helping leaders and their teams to strive together, thrive together, and see the bigger picture!
