Implementing Strategy: Alignment, Integration and Accountability

Whether the concern is quality, customer focus, productivity, cycle time or cost, the underlying issue is performance.

 

If you see a need for your company and top managers to get aligned or realigned, integrated, committed and accountable, consider this program.

In this program we take you and your e-team step by step through each of the nine variables we claim the CEO must manage to ensure success of her or his company. When these variables are successfully addressed the CEO and the e-team will have:

  • A strategy written in terms of organization wide goals and measures.
  • An organization structure and design that will support accomplishment of these goals.
  • Clear deliverables/commitments from each of your e-team members and the resources they need in order to produce.
  • You are clear what the e-team as a whole is committing to accomplish.
  • All major processes are defined, owned and managed.
  • Goals for lower level managers and key contributors are clear, owned and managed to meet organization wide goals.

Variable #1 Strategy to Organizational Goals

This variable is fairly straight forward in that CEOs know that they must set organizational level goals. Surprisingly, however, as consultants we never assume the e-team is clear and aligned on the goals. Often we find that strategy has not been formulated in operational or measurable terms, leaving too much room for misinterpretation.

Result: In this section we work to assure that the organizational goals you have committed to achieving for yourself and your board are fully understood by each of your e-team members. You have ascertained that your e-team members fully understand and agree upon the importance and priority of those goals. You have handled their concerns about whether they can in fact deliver and you have the resources required to support delivery. They have committed to the overall corporate goals, including the priority of each goal. You will have a strategy that is reduced to annual goals/measures that have been defined, articulated and communicated.

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Variable #2: Organizational Design/Architecture

In order to determine whether your organizational design or architecture will support the accomplishment of the corporate goals determined above, we will lead you and your team through a series of questions that reveal potential breakdowns or obstacles to productivity, as well as what is in place and working.

Results: You will have a clear understanding of areas that need to be addressed to support your company fulfilling on its commitments to shareholders.

 

Variable #3: Managing at the Organizational Levels

Organization level goals have been clearly articulated, communicated to your managers and you have secured their requirements for delivering their sub goals. Variable #3 is securing their commitments and managing these at the organizational level. In this section we take you through a process for actively managing goals, performance, resources, and interfaces of your VPs. We will work with:

  • Delegation and Commitment

Creating functional sub goals with commitments from your VPs that support the achievement of the organization wide goals

  • Performance:

Commitments tracked/monitored, supporting your VPs, confronting urgent issues or concerns with your VPs, Operating Guidelines determined and buy-in accomplished, checking to see that functional leaders are obtaining regular customer feedback from process owners regarding the leaders commitments and delivery, and with the help of your board, resetting corporate level goals so that the organization is continually adapting to external and internal reality?

  • Resource Management: Balancing the allocation of people, equipment and budget across the system.
  • Interface Management (Integration): Ensuring that various functions are cooperating/collaborating when they are interdependent (customer supplier relationships)?

Key Point: Clear Goals, Design and Management processes at the organizational level are the context or driver of human and system performance

 

Following the above three sections, we will lead the team through a similar set of steps (variables 4-9) to address Processes and Individual/Job level of management. The promise we make regarding this program, which includes ongoing follow-up with each leader, is that you will have an aligned, integrated, committed e-team that is ready to deliver on its commitments.

 

We encourage you to read our Article, CEO/Board Member Briefing: Implementing Your Strategy for background to this course.

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