Alignment Excellence - Freeing the juice within your organisation
Getting Rid Of The Pips Without Squeezing The Juice
Getting a new organisation off the ground requires an enormous amount of vision, energy and dedication. In the early days the founder member(s) are more likely to have direct contact with employees, customers and partners allowing their enthusiasm to be contagious and the original energy or “juice” that got the whole thing started can easily be passed on. As the company, division or department grows the ability to replicate the original idea becomes key the founder member(s) quite often need to take on a different, more distant role, and the process people need to move in to ensure the products or services can be delivered on larger scales more profitably. No problem there, except that there is a danger that the “juice” can be squeezed out in the process and what once motivated employees to go the extra mile or attracted customers to buy can be lost.
Benefits
Authenticity
Vision and mission statements are actively lived out. Consumers and employees can see that an organisation´s intentions are genuine. In this increasingly ideologically and ethically conscious marketplace authenticity is key.
Empowered Employees
Alignment allows the adoption of unambiguous purpose, clear direction, well documented best practices, and appropriate reward systems. It eliminates the propensity to micro-manage and allows involvement by employees in critical decisions since they are held accountable for their actions through an aligned reward system. (Spreitzer & Mishra, 1999).
Efficiency
Drucker defined this as “doing things right”. The adoption of proven best practices installs a comprehensive set of tools and methods to enable uniform work processes that are consistent with its larger goals and provides a means for continuous improvement.
Effectiveness
Drucker defined this as “doing the right things”. Alignment allows the workforce to minimise work that is not consistent with the larger goals of the organisation. Good feelings are created by being rewarded for achieving goals consistent with the bigger picture, the right things get done, and the organisation is as a result more effective at consistently achieving the goals it sets for itself.
