Left to their own devices, organizations become fragmented and misaligned. 

It happens slowly, almost imperceptively, but it happens.  In fact, we have yet to work with an organization that was not misaligned.  Sometimes, the executives are not on the same page.  Other times, the compensation plan is not aligned with the strategy.  Or the divisions are not aligned with corporate.  Or sales is not aligned with marketing.  Most of the time, it is all of the above!

Consider the following example:  an organization with 100 employees making an average of $100,000 / year running at 80% alignment is losing $2 million / year in productivity.  And that does not even count the losses from misaligned processes.

To address this problem, we developed the Drive One Direction process. 

The process starts with helping the organization define their One Thing, which provides clarity about what to align around.  Then, we use our 100 Points of Alignment toolset to systematically bring everything into alignment with the One Thing. 

So, is every person and every process in your organization 100% aligned?  If not, perhaps it is time for a check-up.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.  

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Alignment without agility creates a slow, unresponsive bureaucracy.  But agility without alignment creates chaos.

High-performance organizations keep these two (seemingly opposing) objectives in a dynamic tension.

There are some practical actions that leaders can take to create an organization that is both aligned and agile, including:

• Flatten the organization. The more management layers an organization has, the slower it becomes.  We’ve seen structures where a Vice President supervised just two directors … and each director had only two managers … and each manager supervised only three employees.  Imagine getting a decision made in that bureaucracy!

• Create smaller units. At Dell and Gore, they prefer units with less than 100 people.  When a unit grows beyond that, bureaucracy creeps in, formal controls replace interpersonal networks, and silos emerge.

• Shorten the planning cycle. In today’s turbulent times, it is silly to create a “5 year strategic plan.”   Therefore, we advise clients to implement a rolling 18 month plan, composed of 6 discreet quarters.  This ensures that the planning horizon is greater than the current fiscal year, but allows progress to be monitored in 90 day increments.

• Push decision-making down. Highly centralized structures are often implemented to give the CEO total control over decision making.  These are often created because of a lack of trust.  And far too often, the CEO becomes the bottleneck, preventing the kind of market and customer responsiveness that today’s economy requires.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Last week, my partner Clay Parcells and I spoke on the subject of Extraordinary Leadership to a group of CXOs.  Clay spoke about the extraordinary times we are living in, and how they demand new kinds of leadership skills.

I spoke about translating extraordinary leadership into extraordinary organizational performance.  Here were the key points from my talk:

• First, senior leaders must define the organization’s vision, strategy, and goals with far greater clarity.  In today’s turbulent times, casting a vague vision just won’t work.  People need to know exactly where the organization is going, and why.

• Second, senior leaders must communicate the vision, strategy, and goals with far greater frequency.  In our experience, senior leaders under-communicate by a factor of ten.  In advertising, we measure reach and frequency.  Executives would be wise to do the same.

• Third, senior leaders must make a more convincing case for the vision, strategy, and goals.   Just because you have explained them, doesn’t mean that people have bought them.  Many leaders assume and presume, often incorrectly.

• Fourth, senior leaders must really walk the talk, and must not tolerate any destructive, undermining behavior.  They must act as One Team.  Research shows that people are very skeptical of senior leaders, and as our mothers always told us, “actions speak louder than words.”

• Finally, senior leaders must “pull all the alignment levers.”  Everything in the organization must be brought into alignment with the vision, strategy, and goals.  They must systematically and rigorously root out all forms of “organizational hypocrisy.”

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Recently, I took my new BMW 335i into the shop to have an upgraded suspension installed.

Why would you throw out the brand new suspension of a BMW and replace it with a new one?  Because I was not satisfied with the handling and performance.

The experience provided many interesting lessons for leaders interested in improving the performance of their organizations.

First, a suspension, like an organization, is an integrated system, comprised of dozens of interrelated components.   You can’t change one component of the suspension (like the shock absorbers) without impacting all of the other components.  Likewise, you can’t change one component of an organization (like compensation) without impacting all of the other components.

Second, a suspension, like an organization, is architected and engineered to accomplish a specific purpose.  My BMW is my daily driver, not a race car.  Thus, the suspension package I selected was designed to dramatically improve handling and agility while maintaining a reasonable ride quality.  Likewise, organizations are architected and engineered to execute a specific strategy.  As we always say, strategy precedes structure.

Third, a suspension, like an organization, must be aligned.  Interestingly, my brand new BMW was significantly out of alignment.  Once the new suspension was installed, the car was re-aligned … and the results were amazing.

More on the concept of aligned agility next week.

And if you are interested in learning more about my suspension upgrade, you can go to:

www.atspeedmotorsports.com – the shop that did the work for me

www.dinanbmw.com – the supplier of the upgraded suspension system

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

I just returned from 10 days in Italy, including a visit to Venice – the city with no roads and no cars.

Venice has no road, no cars, but does have a Ferrari store.  Which was packed.

It is an amazing tribute to the power of the Ferrari brand that the city with no cars has a Ferrari store.

The store’s prominent feature was a red (of course) Ferrari Formula 1 car on display.  The store sold T-shirts starting at 40 euro, scale models of Ferrari cars, Ferrari sneakers, Ferrari hats, Ferrari luggage, Ferrari gloves, Ferrari pens, Ferrari sunglasses, Ferrari flags, and much more.

There was even a children’s section that sold Ferrari onesies, Ferrari baby shoes, and all sorts of other items to indoctrinate your child into the faithful.

I happened to be there on the weekend of the Formula 1 race at Monza Italy – the home of Ferrari.  The Ferrari Scuderia (Italian for stable) won the race, and the entire nation celebrated the win.

Very few brands achieve icon status.  Fewer still achieve the kind of fanatical evangelicalism of Ferrari.

The Ferrari brand and image has been carefully cultivated through incredible discipline … or what we have been calling brand cohesion.

So, as you contemplate building your brand, apply the Ferrari discipline, and maybe someday you’ll have fans buying your flags in a city with no roads.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.