The importance of organisational alignment

The importance of building organisational alignment.  How to align activity to be greater than the sum of your parts

It’s a well known phrase, the strength of the team is greater than the sum of its parts. In business, there is often a trend to ‘de-centralise’ in order to build agility. And whilst that decentralisation can unleash creative growth, fi it isn’t controlled somehow, there is no guarantee that that growth will benefit the whole organisation. In this article, we intend to show the importance of alignment at the organisational level and how when we combine it with decentralised execution – we unleash the real potential!

The question we need to ask ourselves, is HOW do you enable de-centralised execution and all of the benefits that that accrues, and maintain centralised control?

In other words – how do we keep people moving in the same direction without constraining them?

Give them something to aim for…The first and most obvious thing is that as an organisation, we have a compelling purpose and vision. A purpose needs to be something that employees (and customers for that matter) feel like they can get behind and believe in. It transcends what the organisation currently does and describes why it exists in the first place.

A vision is more time-bound. Where is the company going over a period of time (let’s say 5years to fit with many investment cycles). What are we going to achieve,[perhaps in terms of growth, revenue, market share or indeed number of people we have helped.

Align the organisational activity to achieving the vision: Next, we need a well-planned out mission for the next 12 months that is tied to achieving the vision.  This is like macro level KPIs in a way – and should tie key milestones in organisational development into the overall plan to achieve the vision. 

Once we have these factors in place, we have the ability to look at how the organisation actually runs so that people pull in the same direction.

Step One: Teamleaders align their mission to their boss’s mission

Step Two:Individuals in the team align their activity with their boss (so they are nowaligned 2-up)

Step Three:  The team align amongst themselves. They understand what their peers are doing and why and work out where they need support – this creates a layer of ‘mutual support’ – where people actively look to where they can support each other.

Step Four:  Teams align with other teams... In much the same way as team members look to where they can support each other, team leaders look to see where they can support other teams activity where appropriate. They offer up that support whilst informing the wider organisation.

So at every layer of the organisation, each individual has:

·       A Mission

·       Measures of Success (KPIs)

·       Defined Operating Space

·       Key Tasks

·       Understand what everyone else is doing (interdependencies)

So in the end, they know what the company is doing, their boss’ part in that, what they have to achieve and what they are responsible for and how they can support their peers if needed.

In conclusion, the strength of an organisation lies in its ability to harness the collective potential of its parts through strategic alignment and purposeful decentralisation. While decentralisation fosters agility and creativity, it must be guided by a clear purpose and vision to ensure that individual growth contributes to the overall success of the organisation. By establishing a compelling purpose and a time-bound vision, organisations provide their employees with a unified direction to strive towards.

This alignment is further reinforced through a well-structured mission, defined success metrics, and an understanding of interdependencies at every level. When team leaders align their missions with their superiors and team members synchronise their efforts with their peers, a cohesive environment of mutual support and shared goals is created. Such a framework not only clarifies individual responsibilities but also ensures that every action taken is in service of the broader organisational objectives.

Ultimately, the interplay between decentralised execution and centralised alignment enables an organisation to move forward with agility and purpose, ensuring that the collective output is indeed greater than the sum of its parts. By embedding alignment into the very fabric of the organisational structure, businesses can unlock their true potential and achieve sustained growth and success.