NEWSLETTER

 

"De-railers and Alignment"

 

Alignment

 

One of the light bulb moments that attendees of our recent special event at Regents University, reported, was appreciating the relationship between competencies and business results. The way a manager, for example, goes about doing things impacts the business results achieved.

 

So, when debriefing 360s, don’t assume that all competencies are of equal value. Some are more pertinent than others to the achievement of that individual’s/the organisation’s objectives.

 

Too often we get so engrossed in doing things that we forget that we are part of a bigger system, and that each cog in the wheel affects all the other cogs in the wheel.

 

Successful organisations, by and large, get things aligned. Each piece meshes with and supports everything else in order to achieve their strategic objectives, so for example: -

 

• Talent Development is aligned with your business strategy
• Organisational and Culture Change is aligned with your business strategy
• Recruitment and Selection is aligned with your business strategy
• Leadership is aligned with your business strategy
• Team Development is aligned with your business strategy

 

And all are aligned with each other.

 

Strategic Partnership

The result of this is that HR, Learning and Development become strategic partners, demonstrating their role in the business, how they impact strategic objectives and most important, able to calculate and prove a financial ROI to the business.

 

Productivity

Alignment gets staff more engaged and infinitely more productive. There is a clear line of sight from each individual to their team/department and then to the organisation’s strategic objectives and the world outside.

 

Systems, Processes and Procedures become facilitators of efficient and effective working not bureaucratic barriers or obstacles that reduce productivity.

 

Engagement does not necessarily relate to productivity. But more productive people are generally more satisfied.

 

De-railers

Sometimes we come across organisations with brilliantly conceived strategies, an organisation structure that looks fine on paper and with systems and processes worked through for efficiency and logic. But when they let the people in, the result is less than ideal. People have this wonderful knack of ensuring that the best laid plans “gang aft a’glay”. De-railers prevent alignment. They are people based and significantly get in the way of effectiveness and efficiency. Some examples may be: -

 

Organisational – centralised control and decision making; silo working; too many layers in organisation structure; delegation upward; risk averse culture

 

Teams – Members working to personal agendas; ego trips or power plays; arguing for the sake of point-scoring; poor communications within and between teams

 

Leaders – Perfectionistic; doing and administering; inability to make decisions; conservatism; aggression; cynicism.

 

While these are among the most common, they are not the only de-railers.

 

If any of the above ring bells with you and you would like to discuss the best way to remove the de-railers or create a greater alignment, contact us immediately.