Strategic Alignment is Important
Strategic alignment is important because it is all about performance – for your people, for your customers, and for your business. Just as the tires on your car need to be in alignment to keep the all elements working at their peak, so, too, do the elements of your organization need to be aligned to perform at the highest level.
Why Strategic Alignment Matters
Just as a car has an engine, dashboard, brakes, and wheels, an organization has various strategies, systems, processes, and people. When a car’s suspension is out of alignment, it results in uneven tire wear, a decrease in fuel economy, and the potential safety risk of a tire blowout. When an organization is misaligned, it results in decreased performance and disengagement.
In fact, according to our organizational alignment research, the proper alignment of strategy, culture, and talent allows organizations to grow revenue 58% faster, be 72% more profitable, retain customers 2.23-to-1, and to engage employees 16.8-to-1.
The Organizational Elements Required for Strategic Alignment
Three main elements must be aligned to create organizational alignment and higher performance.
A good strategy guides the entire organization, provides rationales for resource allocation, and sharpens decision-making at every level. A bad strategy creates ambiguity and opens the door to politics, bad choices, and lower performance.
A healthy and aligned culture makes it easy to get stuff done in way that makes sense for the business and for your people. An unhealthy or misaligned culture disengages employees and makes it difficult to do the right things for the right reasons.
And getting talent right matters. On average, companies spend over one-third of revenue on employee salaries and benefits.
Three Steps to Make Strategic Alignment a High Priority
Making strategic alignment happen should be the top priority of every organization that wants to win.
A healthy culture has strong levels of leadership, Trust, Capability, and Climate. A high performing culture creates a performance environment for people to perform at their peak. And an aligned culture gets work done in a way that is aligned across ten cultural dimensions with the business strategy.
The Bottom Line
As businesses are becoming more complex and competition for customers and employees continues to intensify, winning companies make strategic alignment a high priority. They do not let things happen by default; they ensure that their strategy, culture, and talent are aligned for high performance. Is your organization firing on all cylinders?
To learn more about why strategic alignment is important, download Alignment – The Missing Leadership Ingredient for Success
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