Often we want all the moving parts to connect together in
our business. We want everything and everybody rowing in the same direction together. This is not always easy to accomplish.
In today’s competitive climate
with global competition we need to break down internal barriers and align the strategic
thinking and goals and objectives of our departments.
The starting point is to ensure that you have developed the
key strategic vision and mission along with our strategic agenda items. Once
that is complete alignment planning as part of the strategic planning process
can be embraced.
Alignment planning as part of your strategic planning initiative
seeks to accomplish three main objectives:
• ensure strong connection among the
organization’s mission and its operational resources
• fine
tune departmental goals and objectives and discover implementation gaps
• address
issues that may exist around internal efficiencies and effectiveness.
There are generally four steps to the Alignment Planning Process
for the strategic planning team to engage in. These include:
- Outline the organization’s mission, programs, resources, and needed support areas
- Identify what’s working well and what needs to be adjusted
- Identify how these adjustments should be made and determine the best approach
- Include the adjustments as strategies in the strategic plan and roadmap with an alignment path
The challenge with the Alignment Planning is that you
require a solid model to follow prior to applying it. You must have gone
through a proper strategic planning approach to ensure your have identified and
defined the direction of the organization.
If that work is done then you can benefit from bringing your
strategic plans to the department and management level. You can engage them in
the process of aligning the organization. Your management can help you engage
the employees to avoid disconnects between your business strategy and
operational reality. The final objective is to link the strategic and operations
to establish employee commitment and motivation.
Alignment planning is part of the overall process when
making plans for your organization. It is important that you embrace the need
to establish business alignment.
This Weeks Red Question: What areas of your organization could be better aligned to ensure operational efficiencies and connecting to the strategic plan?