Organisational alignment: The secret to achieving your purpose and maximising business results
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ORGANISATIONAL ALIGNMENT: THE SECRET TO ACHIEVING YOUR PURPOSE AND MAXIMISING BUSINESS RESULTS
Think of any hugely successful organisation and you’ll find alignment towards a common goal. This kind of organisational alignment gives teams and businesses a mjaor advantage. Why? With a clear sense of objectives and key results (OKRs), all team members can move in the right direction.
What is the meaning of organisational alignment?
True organisational alignment is where business strategy, initiatives, resources and management systems support the company’s success.
But in many cases, it's hard to create. Our research on the importance of purpose shows just 28% of individual employees feel connected to company goals. Only 39% said they could see the value they create.
So, what can you do differently, and how can you achieve true organisational alignment?
How do you achieve organisational alignment? Key steps and recommendations.
1. Break down the language of success for everyone.
In board meetings, we discuss how we realise opportunities against today’s economic backdrop. We discuss quarterly, annual and three-year strategic plans. This approach includes how we’re tracking and what we need to do to achieve our key metrics.
But how many of us make sure weekly team meetings follow suit? This next step is where communications break down for many leaders. Weekly team meetings focus on reviewing to-do lists, fighting fires and discussing numbers. Failing to focus on the bigger picture regularly can create a disconnect in employee engagement. As a result, team meetings often move focus away from strategic priorities.
2. Turn vision into strategy into goals.
To tackle this, set out strategic goals and how you plan to get there. When writing our story at Hays, we include the impact on our employees, customers, organisation and wider industry. This helps build business organisational alignment.
Then, we cascade the story through leadership teams. As the story moves through each team leader, they become the storyteller. Each leader will meet with their teams to discuss and customise the story. The key is to maintain central themes to make it meaningful for them.
Remember, storytelling is just one method of sharing your long-term goals. The key is being transparent about company culture and business objectives. It’s not enough to just tell your colleagues what they need to do; you need to help them to make the right decisions independently.
3. Define organisational structure to share information.
Organisational alignment demands company-wide common goals, not silos. All strategy execution, whether at a team or individual level, impacts another group or individual. That’s why you need a clear definition of processes, roles and responsibilities.
When teams discuss your vision and strategy, it will soon become clear which priorities resonate more with one team than another. But you should caution your leaders: we must not neglect to discuss how the story and their efforts impact other areas. A lack of defined processes can lead to multiple calls and meetings where one would suffice.
4. Break your project down into measurable chunks.
Once everyone’s responsibilities and vision are aligned, you need to help your teams break it down into what it means for them. In particular, it can be tricky to keep your managers on track when faced with the pressure of short-term goal-setting. So, if you don’t change how you measure them, this will never reach all your people.
At Hays, we empowered our teams to discuss what they needed to change and monitor moving forward. We encouraged everyone to make alignment strategies into a recurring topic in their meetings. We also urged employees at all levels to hold their leaders accountable for organisational alignment.
We all then discussed how the company’s mission impacts annual plans, quarterly priorities and KPIs. Maintaining aligned company values requires empowerment and motivation for employees.
5. Communicate your plan effectively and often.
Communication is key. One announcement from one person is never enough when it comes to communication. Make sure every person in the entire company knows what the focus is for the next quarter, the next year and longer term.
However, alignment requires more than just top-down communication. You need to communicate up, down and across your organisational structure between teams. It also cannot be a one-way street. In an effective organisational alignment model, communication is as much about listening as it is being heard.
Just like Hays’ cascaded storytelling approach, there must always be a feedback loop. If not, you will never evolve or get stakeholder buy-in. Instead, empower your employees to find their own meaning connected to your higher vision. That way, each team member can drive the results you are looking to achieve.
Achieving true business organisational alignment
Strategic alignment is essential to any organisation’s success in today’s challenging economic environment. True business strategic alignment defines your processes, roles and responsibilities to maximise results from your organisation.
Remember, the successful adoption of strategic alignment begins at the top. But it doesn’t end there. So, don’t just discuss your strategic plan in your board meetings. Concentrate instead on building communication and teamwork while bringing your story to life for everyone.
Read more about building your workforce culture:
- How can leaders support their employees' mental health
- Creating an agile workforce by engaging an MSP
- How to improve your influencing skills with internal stakeholders
AUTHOR
Matthew Dickason
CEO (APAC), Hays
Matthew joined Hays in 2005 and is responsible for leading operations across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. The business works closely with strategic clients around the world to help them navigate the changing world of work and optimise their businesses for the success. Key is ongoing investment and collaboration to ensure clients retain a competitive advantage in talent acquisition and human capital strategies from the delivery of Hays Resourcing and Advisory services.
Prior to joining Hays, Matthew worked within Engineering, Research, Operations and Commercial areas at Johnson Matthey and Corning Inc. He holds degrees in Organisational Psychology, Philosophy, and Industrial Engineering.