One man’s vision may have sparked the foundation of an organisation, but for it to grow, survive, and thrive, there must be unity created through teamwork and clarity in communication.
A company composed of individuals fueled by different expectations and operating under separate initiatives and workflow makes for a boat that’s bound to sink. In a business environment that’s constantly changing, it’s crucial for everyone involved to be on the same page.
Cohesion in the Workplace Matters
Misinformation and misunderstandings are among the primary obstacles to growing your business. When your team members don’t share the same viewpoint, you risk creating unknown gaps in your customer experience while taking away transparency and accountability within the company.
One section of a railroad that’s out of alignment can cause an entire train to derail. This goes the same for your organisation—if just one person doesn’t share the company’s vision or goal, you won’t be able to deliver streamlined and personalised customer experiences.
Although defining your mission and spreading the message you wish to convey is effective to some extent, it’s not enough! For an agreed-upon strategy to be executed as planned, you have to invest in organisational alignment.
Organisational Alignment Leads to Success
You must ensure that teams and business functions are tuned to the same frequency to grow your business. When every member of your organisation—from your entry-level employees to the executives—share a common goal and vision, you’ll be able to collaborate and become a collective force that creates seamless and effective business processes.
Sure, each separate department could operate on its own goals, but working separately leads to a lack of communication. When departments don’t communicate effectively, contrasting efforts will be developed, negatively impacting a task or project outcome!
To put it simply, organisational alignment is key to having a thriving organisation. Prioritising team alignment and making it a part of your company culture is crucial to delivering the best employee and customer experiences.
How to Create an Aligned Organization
Every company must get all members to understand and enact the organisation’s mission, but achieving this is different for every business. Read through the three types of organisation alignment models below if you’re unsure how your organisation can meet your alignment goals.
Kotter’s 8-Step Alignment Model
Dr John Paul Kotter, Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School, author, and founder of Kotter International, created an organisational change business strategy that works best for organisations with a top-down management style.
Kotter’s alignment model can be outlined in eight steps:
- Create urgency
- Form a Powerful Coalition
- Create a Vision for Change
- Communicate the Vision
- Remove Obstacles
- Create Short-Term Wins
- Build on the Change
- Anchor the Changes in Corporate Culture
Transformative Storytelling
For companies that use town hall meetings or are led by someone who can speak passionately about their business, storytelling may be most effective in achieving organisational alignment.
Unlike email, texts, and instant messages, storytelling allows for an impactful way of communicating a clear and compelling narrative to establish commitment, drive motivation, and manage changes within team members.
Individual Organizational Performance Strategic Plan
This method drives organisational alignment by starting with the employees. Through meaningful, employee-specific strategic goals, each member of the company will perform at their full potential.
When you clearly express your long-term goals and expectations while providing learning opportunities to your employees, you’ll have an optimised workforce cohesively operating to achieve the business’s key objectives and overcoming challenges.
This method is best for businesses with a bottom-up approach, where all levels of the organisation feel like they’re part of the process.
Conclusion
If you wish to grow your business, you must invest in organisational alignment! Teams that collaborate on ideas and processes are more likely to produce outputs that align with the organisation’s goals and objectives. As long as you and your team members are on the same page, you’ll have a thriving business that can, later on, become a dominating presence in your industry!
Are you unsure how to lead your organisation and grow your business? Then, our resources at SKILLFIRE may be just what you need! Through our 8-Week OKR Quick Start, we can help you get OKRs working in your business, drive radical value for your customers, and unlock your team’s potential.