Aligning the organisation with the strategy
A key part of strategic performance management
is aligning the organisation with the strategy.
We help our clients align their organisation with
their strategy in a variety of ways. Here are just a few examples.
Aligned Projects & Programmes
If your investments are focused on the wrong things
or your projects are delivering the wrong benefits, you are wasting
money. Whenever we do project alignment with the strategy, we
find projects that are not necessarily supporting it. In extreme
cases we have found £40m of a £100m portfolio. In
others, the programme was right but the timing and resourcing
over ambitious and unlikely to deliver.
Some organisations have well trained project managers
but do not provide a culture that supports them. Instead they
are fighting for clear business cases, the right resources or
a real commitments to the benefits.
Our approach aligns your programme of investment
with your strategy. A recent client reported how we helped the
project and systems managers to realise the extent of the portfolio
of projects, how the projects interacted and worked together,
so the project managers could work together more effectively as
well.
We recently spoke on aligning projects with the
strategy at a public conference.
Aligned Objectives
Whilst many organisations have well aligned senior
executive incentives, some fail to align their middle management
objectives and incentives with their strategy. Research suggests
that perhaps one in four organisations do not have their middle
managers' incentives linked to their strategy. This can clearly
hinder deliver of their strategy.
In other cases, the objectives are aligned, but
they don't encourage joined up thinking and working. Instead silos
and local optimization continues, when you want to break it down
so the organisation works together.
Similar things apply to personal objectives. Explaining
the strategy so people can see their role and contribution, makes
it easier to set personal and team objectives. As one client put
it, "I carry a piece of the strategy around in my pocket
now".
An example
Here is an example of a strategy for an engineering technology
group. This was part of the story used to create an overall group
strategy from disparate companies. A key element of the strategy
was identifying where synergy across the group could be identified
and used.
One of the techniques we use a lot is called "Strategy mapping".
The value of these strategy maps is that they describe the strategy
very effectively and help you communicate it better. They are
also make strategy easier to refine and adapt. You can easily
see how similar (yet subtly different) the various strategy maps
are. This reflects the diverse strengths of each of the companies
in the group.
Example of strategy maps cascading the
strategy through an organisation
Drivers of change
When organisations implement a strategy they are
usually bringing about change. There are many levers and drivers
of change that you might employ. Unfortunately these drivers of
change are rarely reflected in the performance management approach.
It tends to measure results rather than the influence of change.
You can tell if your strategy is going to work,
because we help you understand how your drivers of change are
working for you. This allows you to fine tune your pull on these
levers and so ensure that the changes happen more quickly and
effectively.
Aligned budgets
The finance and budgeting systems are extremely
influential mechanisms in an organisation. So, imagine the situation
where you are trying to execute the new strategy, but the budgets
are still operating under the old one. Or imagine a situation
where you are trying to implement the strategy and the budgets
don’t even reflect it. This sounds awful, yet, research
suggests that up to 60% of organisations do not have budgets that
reflect their strategy. Some organisations are struggling with
a strategy that wants to achieve one thing and a set of budgets
that are holding it back.
Usually it is not the investments (though it can
be). It may be the coding structure or the budgeting process not
being flexible enough. At other times you may be asking people
to do more with less. If you leave the accounting practices, structures
or budgets in place, they can do a marvelous job of contradicting
and undermining your strategy. It is not just the capital investments
and change programmes that need appropriate funding: The operational
budgets need to be tackled as well. More
on aligning budgets
Aligned meetings
Often our clients complain that their meetings concentrate
too much on operational issues, rather than the bigger picture.
We help them plan and run meetings that focus on strategic issues,
progress, risks and resources, as well as managing the operational
detail when they need to. They tell us this helps them keep a
perspective on what really matters and raises the whole quality
of discussion and debate. It also makes meetings sharper, more
effective and shorter.
Our clients tell us that our approach can make a
dramatic difference to the dynamics of a management team: changes
that carry through to their staff and to the end results.
Results
These are just some of the areas where we assist
with alignment. To explore what a difference alignment would make
to you, or discuss how to align your organisation with your strategy,
you can explore our strategic performance
management case studies, or talk
to us directly.
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