Organizational Strategy Assistance
Strategy Focusing System™
Leading a sizable organization in a new strategic direction is no easy task. With all manner of competing internal and external messages, forces and stresses impinging on your employees, maintaining the required focus can be very difficult. (We describe some of those forces and the problems that result in our article published in the Denver Business Journal February 2002, Difficult times call for a sharper focus on the bottom line) That’s where ELG’s Strategy Focusing System™ can help. This proven methodology provides an easy-to-use formula for making sure that the organization successfully understands, follows and imbeds the new corporate direction. Here are the elements of that system:
Whole Goals™
Strategies often do not take hold in organizations because they are not clearly and logically tied to the goals of individuals throughout the organization. That’s why our Strategy Focusing System™ starts with Whole Goals™. Whole Goals achieve a level of clarity unmatched by traditional goals. In addition to describing business-relevant outcomes, Whole Goals describe the parameters within which an individual must stay while achieving the outcome, as well as the cross-organizational dependencies related to that outcome. The importance of these parameters is described in our article publish in the Denver Business Journal March 2002, Look at the broad picture when measuring success. Having these additional clarifiers to performance goals ensures that each individual’s work aligns with the rest of the organization.
Compensation Alignment
Once relevant and organizationally aligned Whole Goals have been developed, employees have clear direction. We should not, however, mistake direction for motivation. Bonuses or other facets of compensation must quickly link to achievement of Whole Goals. This is the only way to ensure that individuals will take their new goals seriously.
Progress Reviews
Regular progress reviews, focused on the attainment of Whole Goals, are essential for maintaining focus on strategic results. They provide ongoing documentation for performance reviews, and they facilitate the amendment or replacement of Whole Goals as circumstances dictate. Our Strategy Focusing System™ employs a unique method for performing progress reviews to maintain and sustain a tight focus on strategic results.
Alignment of Organization Structure and Processes
Once Whole Goals have clarified the results expected of each person, and once compensation accentuates the importance of those results, any misalignments will quickly come into high relief. These problems more often involve organizational structure and process than individual performance. The Strategy Focusing System™ identifies structural and process misalignments and details causes and corrective approaches. Depending on the seriousness of these misalignments, ELG can help make the changes to create full Structural Alignment and/or Process Alignment.
When all the elements of the Strategy Focusing System™ are in place, leaders can be confident that the Implementation Strength™ of their organization will be significantly enhanced, their chances of achieving successful implementation of strategy will approach 100%, and their implemented strategies will become unequivocally sustainable. For a further description of how the Strategy Focusing System™ can be installed in an organization, see our White Paper, “Successful Strategy Implementation.”