Diagnosis:
You decide to undertake an initiative to alleviate a
problem your team has been facing for years. Leadership gives you
the green light. Your team moves full-speed ahead, spending time,
money, and resources to plan the initiative. Just when you get to
the critical turning point to go live with the initiative, the
emergency break is pulled; senior management is asking questions,
wanting information, pulling in other members of the company to
weigh in, ultimately deciding that it's not the right time for
your initiative. Your team members feel frustrated, let down, and
wishing they could get their time and energy back.
Sound familiar? If so, the suffering may be due to all-too-common strategic misalignment.
Symptoms:
Strategic misalignment occurs when operational initiatives
are not properly aligned with defined goals and desired outcomes of
an organization. This "malady" also occurs if these goals
and outcomes are not well defined at the top and communicated
across the organization, thus undermining a project team's
ability to align its initiatives with overall strategy. An
organization suffering from strategic misalignment is plagued by a
number of different symptoms at project, division, or enterprise
levels.
- Wasted time – Without proper guidance at the onset of a project, communicating decisions up and down the corporate ladder at critical junctions wastes precious time. Stalling a project that was gaining momentum frustrates all parties involved.
- Missed opportunities – Some decisions are time sensitive, and indecision as a result of an unclear action plan leads to missing those critical opportunities. Missing these opportunities can cause members to start playing the "blame game," which affects team morale.
- Back-tracking – In situations where senior guidance is unclear or changing from day to day, a team might make decisions based on either outdated or tentative guidance. This can cause decision makers to be perceived negatively, both internally and by third parties, as decisions may be later reversed or changed.
Any of these symptoms can lead to a negative team dynamic, with members feeling frustrated with each other and management. In the absence of a defined structure for decision making, people can get caught up in re-defining how to approach a problem each and every time, and waste time juggling logistics, rather than addressing a problem head-on. These symptoms can affect an organization's mission and bottom line, as extra time and resources are spent managing delays and making reactive decisions.
Treatment & Prevention:
The cure to all this frustration and angst is proactive
leadership, not only related to the project but also regarding
decision making in general. Leaders must develop a strategic plan
and governance structure in order to have a stable decision-making
framework that will enable managers to make reasoned and supported
decisions.
To ensure the successful development of your strategic plan, solicit involvement from all key stakeholders. This will bring a thoughtful and broad-minded approach while also garnering much needed buy-in. This cross-functional planning team will need support from the company's senior executives, although the executives don't necessarily have to be part of the team.
Early Detection:
Realizing that there is a problem is always a first step
to a solution. By being on the lookout for pain points such as low
morale, stalled growth, and unplanned spending, the organization
can redirect its efforts towards proactive planning for decision
making, which will make for a healthier long-term prognosis.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
