Lining Up The Pillars Of Your Strategy: Syncing Strategy With Operations

Is your organization’s strategy embodied in your business operations? How confident are you, as the champion of your strategy, that it is on track within the layers of your business operations?   Strategy alignment is the synchronization of strategic goals with operations and execution tactics.  Strategy “misalignment” occurs when operational initiatives are not in sync with the defined strategic goals of the organization. Most organizations inherently suffer from some amount of immaturity and unsophistication in their planning process, and this directly leads the the misalignment issue you want to avoid. Goals can be ambiguous; tactical operations may not be synchronized; the strategic plan may not be supported by overarching governance or underlying linkages to execution. When that happens, and it does, it must be remedied or it will compound quickly and lead to serious issues within the organization that will exact costly damage.

The “Corporate Chiropractor”

To maintain alignment over time, business executives and operational managers must work proactively to keep operational spending, energy and focus in sync with the corporate strategy and its goals. When they do not, misalignment creeps in pretty quickly. Call it plan governance or just responsible management – but it is required. You might think of their roles in this case as being “corporate chiropractors” that serve to re-adjust the alignment of initiatives within business units, divisions and departments.

The Cost Of Misalignment Going Unchecked

When an organization suffers from operational misalignment with strategy, the door opens for mission drift within the operations of the business.  Precisely what damage will occur and where is difficult to predict, not only because business organizations behave much like living organisms, but also because they are made up of inter-dependent systems that cause reactions to differ from case to case.

Two Actions To Help Avoid Misalignment Altogether

1. Plan Bi-directionally

Strategy misalignment begins to occur when there is a disconnect between the strategy-making body of the organization and the business operational managers whom are responsible for tactical execution and making day-to-day decisions within the business.  Misalignment between strategy and execution is more common when organizations take a one dimensional approach to planning that focuses primarily on strategy but fails to plan operationally as well. A bi-directional planning process better assures that hard links exist between goals and tactics. To conduct a top-down only planning process creates a default communication chasm to be overcome or an “us against them” mentality that also must be overcome somehow.  Regardless, such an approach tends to set up operational miscues in strategic implementation.

Instead of a perpetuating that scenario, consider adopting a top-down / bottom-up (bi-directional) planning approach that involves operational leaders in the planning process.  Bi-directional planning leads to more realistic and measurable goals because a healthy amount of disagreement enters into the strategy process, due to the mix of perspectives offered from the managers now providing input.  Operational plans that have the buy-in of all levels of managers will result.

2. Implement a Plan Governance Office

In the graphic below, a governance model is depicted showing the major components of strategy alignment.  On the right-hand side, the strategic key outcomes (e.g. strategic plan goals) become the “vertical stabilizer” against with organizational initiatives will be filtered.

All manner of projects, initiatives, optimizations, innovations, etc. must be filtered through the strategic key outcomes “sieve” to make it into the active portfolio.  The program execution management and initiative management functions serve as “horizontal stabilizers” in this governance model.

By implementing these two recommendations, your organization will save dollars by avoiding waste and perform far better in strategy execution.

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