Deploying Strategy Takes More than a Town Hall
The moment has come. After countless hours, your team has carefully crafted your company’s new strategy. Your communication plans are polished and your team is ready to ignite your workforce with a compelling Town Hall presentation to engage them to whip that strategy into action. All it takes is their understanding and belief in your new vision and you can scratch “strategy cascade” off your list.
Or so most leaders think.
Because while a Town Hall may spark momentary excitement, leaders risk leaving their strategy on the table, by expecting their people to deploy it within the maze of their existing organization model.
No wonder the plans stall: it’s not possible to deploy strategy in an organization that isn’t aligned to execute it. Frustrated leaders chalk up this wilting momentum to “resistance to change”, and their strategy deployment unravels.
Deployment works better with Alignment
The good news is that you can significantly swing the odds of successful strategy deployment in your favour and accelerate its actualization. How? With better knowledge and support around the process of Strategic Organization Alignment – the often short-changed phase in-between strategy development and strategy deployment.
Strategic Organization Alignment is a holistic re-calibration of your organization towards the strategic goals of your company, based on the integration of 3 processes:
1. Structure and New Business Model Development:
The alignment of organizational systems such as organization structure, executive leadership portfolios, manager reporting relationships, new business processes, operating principles, tools, data, dashboards and incentives.
2. Integrated Planning Model:
The synching up of your strategic objectives, financial plan, KPIs, 3-year business plan, budgeting, project management of strategic initiatives, and development of strategy-driven management and employee objectives.
3. Leadership Development:
The understanding and belief of all Managers in Vision and Strategy, the capability for them to work together in new organization models, build teams and to inspire a shift in beliefs toward your company’s new purpose, mission, vision, values and strategic direction.
There are many challenges with strategy deployment when Strategic Organization Alignment is pursued too narrowly and not synchronized effectively. How many times have you:
Experienced bringing your team together to build a new business model without budget alignment?
Been accountable to deliver a strategic initiative while members of your senior management team aren’t on the same page with your initiative?
Or have been pulled between your ‘day job’ and a ‘special strategic project’ that feels like a side-hustle with no bandwidth to support it?
It’s this systemic lack of alignment that can drag momentum, confuse employees and erode belief and commitment.
Automated Tools and Data Accelerates Strategic Organization Alignment
We understand the process for Strategic Organization Alignment is complex, difficult to size and broad in scope.
That’s why we’ve simplified the process, and pioneered the automation of Navigating Strategic Organization Alignment. The platform:
Digitally collects your Executive’s and Senior Management Team’s perspectives to 30 statements that correspond to key success factors for Strategic Organization Alignment
Measures the differences in perspective between each group so you can get quick read on the strategic alignment of your management team and prioritize where you need to focus
Maps your results to our Strategic Organization Alignment Matrix™, a 9-cell navigation tool so that you can visualize the end-to-end process and synchronize the key steps and phases
Establishes a baseline, so you can re-assess the following year and chart your progress and plan for strategic alignment in year 2 and so on
Creates efficiency, as it supports you to seamlessly move from Strategy Development to planning for Strategic Organization Alignment
Helps you quickly recover if you have fallen off-track
When you put it all together, Strategy+People empowers your forward motion.
Let us help you increase your efficiency, create bandwidth and accelerate your progress — ensuring that your strategy takes flight, instead of just taking time.
For more information, or to discuss how you can ensure your Strategic Vision translates to the transformation you envision - contact joanne@strategypluspeople.com