90 Days - Part 6: Achieve Alignment

Summary

Elements of Organizational Architecture

As part of the learning plan, assessing the architecture of your team, and identifying areas for improvement should be a key part of the 90-day plan. Think of alignment in the areas of:

• Strategy
• Structure
• Systems
• Skills
• Culture

Mis-alignments are commonplace, and culture, a 5th element can play a key role in creating stronger alignments across the previous 4.

Identifying Misalignment

When looking at the diagram, common types of misalignment included:

• Skills - Strategy
• Systems - Strategy
• Structure - Systems

Traps

Be alert to common traps which are used to address complicated alignment problems:

• Using restructure as a way out of deeper problems
• Creating structures that are too complex
• Automating problem processes
• Change for change's sake
• Overestimating group's capacity to absorb strategic shifts

Starting Alignment

1. Start with strategy - all begins and branches out from core strategy
2. Look at supporting structure, systems and skills
3. Decide how and when to introduce the new / adjusted strategy
4. Reshape structure, systems and skills simultaneously
5. Close loop

Crafting Strategy

File:SOAP.jpg

Strategy On A Page Example

Well crafted strategy is key to enabling group to accomplish its objectives and contribute to larger org's success. Ensure strategy addresses:

• Customers: Clear definition of who we are serving, any areas we are entering/exiting
• Capital: What units are we investing in, drawing $s from, where is additional cap needed, sources?
• Capabilities: What are we good at, what aren't we, where can we leverage capabilities, what do we need to build up, acquire, or create?
• Commitments: What and when do we need to make critical resource commitment decisions.

Consider using strategy on a page model, defining:

• Vision statement: Driving innovative workforce solutions to deliver world best in class service
• Strategic Intents: Bucket into areas: People, Process, Technology, Vendor Mgmt, Reporting/Analytics
• Business Outcomes: In each bucket, what our the singnifcant business outcomes we seek to achieve. Ex. under people we might want to pilot innovative staffing options, or technology might involve leveraging IPAgent for visibility into outsourced resources.
• Business Operating Implications: Projects, Programs: Items that support the business outcomes.

Additional data offline - specific to 90 day plan, development of strategy.

Coherence

Check for logic between market segments, products, technologies, plans and goals that compose the strategy. Have those who developed the strategy thought through all ramifications...

• Examine documents that describe strategy.
• Disassemble; marketing, products, technologies, functional plans, goals
  • Do the various pieces support one another?
  • Logical thread between?
  • Connections?
  • Tie to capital plan?

Adequacy

Is the strategy sufficient for upcoming 2-3 years, supporting larger organization's goals?

1. Ask probing questions: Does boss believe ROI to implement and expand? plans to secure resources?
2. Leverage SWOT method to analyze
3. Probe history of strategy's creation

Assessing Implementation

Has or will the strategy be implemented with energy, what are people doing, not just saying.

• Performance metrics in place?
• Performance aspects consistent with strategy's emphasis?
• Are people acting as teams, collaborating across functions?
• Infrastructure in place to support training and development associated with what strategy will required?

Shaping Group's Structure

After determining group's strategy needs, addressing structure, structural changes is required to support strategy and the desired outcome. This is a distinct build portion of developing the Target Operating Model, and includes:

• Organizational Structure
• Decision Rights, Governance
• Roles and Competencies
• Measures and Scorecards

The Target Operating Model also includes these 4 areas + Strategy and finally Process.

In assessing structure, items to think about:

• Team members grouped to achieve strategic goals? Right people in right places?
• Decision making structure support efficiency in decision making process?
• Measuring and rewarding achievements that matter most?
• Reporting relationships promote sharing the right info the right time, tied back to supporting strategy?

Alignments & Trade-offs

Items to keep in mind when considering the group structure:

• Team's knowledge base either too narrow or too broad
• Decision making scope (too narrow or too broad)
• Reward / Compensations scheme appropriately aligned
• Reporting relationships that lead to compartmentalization
• Clear lines of accountability

Process Analysis and Alignment

This section offline -speaks specifically to current state & future state, where we are, and where we want to get to, to ensure:

• Productivity, Efficiencies of scale
• Reliable, Experienced, Agile capabilities
• Timeliness, Precision and speed
• Quality, Best practices / pragmatic solutions

Developing Team's Skill Base

A key element of the 90 day plan is an evaluation on the skills and knowledge that the team possesses, and whether that aligns with the core processes and strategy. Mia-alignment in this area ensures failure in any strategy. Skill development is essential in not only ensuring success against the team's strategy, but in creating successful career paths.

Again, details of this section will be built out offline - focused on 4 core areas:

• Individual Expertise (group by functional area)
• Relational Knowledge (integrating individual to achieve group goals)
• Embedded Knowledge (core technologies which group's & performance depend)
• Meta-Knowledge (awareness of where to get critical info)

Overarching goal in skill base assessment is identify:

• Critical gaps between needed and existing skills / knowledge
• Underutilized resources (either in less than fully utilized technologies or in squandered expertise)

Cultural Alignment

Assessing how decisions were made in the past, who deferred to whom, understanding what energizes the team members the most, what their priorities are. Culture exercises to focus on two dimensions:

• Power: Who do team members think can legitimately exercise authority, make decisions
• Value: What actions do team members think create value - profits, CSAT, promoting innovation, etc.

Methods for shifting culture to align with overarching strategy, structure, systems and skills:

• Change performance measures and incentives
• Set up pilot projects
• Bring in new people
• Promote collective learning
• Engage in collective visioning