By Catherine Quinn
Every leader wants their organization rowing in the same direction. Or acting as a well-oiled machine. Or playing like a well-tuned symphony. Or honking with the aerodynamic glee of geese flying in a v-formation. Metaphor quality aside, every leader wants an aligned organization. Building – and maintaining – alignment starts with a strategic plan.
An effective strategic plan connects an aspirational vision for the organization’s future to the daily activities of each individual employee. That’s a large gap to bridge. To do so, the plan is organized in cascading fashion, with each layer of the plan adding additional detail and becoming increasingly tactical, until it ties into highly specific action plans. In this way, employees can see how even the most mundane tasks drive the vision.
With this understanding, employees at all levels have a built-in decision-making framework. Should we go with option A or B? Green light a new project? Prioritize task one or task two? The strategic plan acts as a framework for these and other decisions. Which choice will most effectively advance the plan goals and objectives? Leaders at any level can use this as a clear framework for communicating the ‘why’ behind decisions – a change management technique to smooth adoption of new systems or processes.
The success metrics built into the strategic plan take this decision-making power a step further, creating a feedback loop. In the reporting period following a decision, did we see improvement across the impacted performance measures? If not, this is an opportunity to adjust the approach to better align actions with the strategy.
Of course, the strategic plan won’t create alignment all by itself. It’s just words on paper. Leaders need to communicate the plan across the organization, model using the plan for decision-making, and provide transparency into progress over time. Further, the organization should incorporate strategic performance indicators into existing performance management processes at the organizational, team, and individual levels. Collectively, that makes the strategic plan real – and that is what creates an aligned organization. The only thing left is your metaphor of choice.
