Alignment – The Foundation For Success – Part 1<\/h2>\n

I admit it… I confess… I have a few favorite words and I tend to overuse them. Some of these favorite words come and go, but some stay for a long time. One of my all-time favorite words is ‘alignment’<\/strong>. I’ve had it for a while and I plan to keep it forever. If you show me a problem, any problem, then I’ll explain why it is caused by a lack of alignment.<\/p>\n

In considering alignment as it relates to organizations, two questions arise – what does alignment mean and why is it important?<\/p>\n

What Does Alignment Mean?<\/h3>\n

The concept of alignment in organizations is consistent with the work of a chiropractor. The repositioning of a vertebra may cure the shooting pain that goes all the way through your leg. Working on your neck may alleviate the pain in your arm. Getting disks where they need to be can allow you to walk with more confidence. These are all true because our bodies act as a system. If a part of the system goes rogue (intentionally or not), it affects other parts of the system. The result is discomfort, loss of sleep, distraction, and a reduction in overall effectiveness. The same holds true for your organization.<\/p>\n

Why is Alignment Important?<\/h3>\n

Organizations have some of the same issues and pains as your body.<\/p>\n

\n
• If account management and sales are misaligned, then you may look foolish in front of the customer.<\/li>\n
• If alignment between employees and the mission of the organization is weak then individual decision-making will be poor.<\/li>\n
• If levels of the organization are misaligned then resources, financial and other, will be wasted doing the wrong things.<\/li>\n
• If employee communications and performance management feel inconsistent with the employees’ experience then engagement will suffer.<\/li>\n
• If your current talent is not aligned with your future talent needs (or if you don’t know what those needs are) then you are in trouble.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  So Why Do Organizations Continue in a State of Misalignment?<\/h3>\n

  Back to the analogy. People resist getting medical attention because they don’t want to take the time or they don’t believe it will help. The same is true with organizations. Establishing alignment can be a lot of work up front and require faith that it will pay off. But one thing is clear. Failing to ensure your organization is aligned will lead to continual discomfort and probably sleepless nights.<\/p>\n

  What Should They Do Instead?<\/h3>\n

  An upcoming article will provide a framework for further analyzing where alignment opportunities exist. The essence of the approach is to get clear on your organization’s priorities and drive them down and across the organization with maniacal focus. That bulging disk can’t be remedied with one visit to the doctor. It will take correction and then ongoing work to ensure that your organization remains in a state of alignment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I admit it… I confess… I have a few favorite words and I tend to overuse them. Some of these favorite words come and go, but some stay for a long time. One of my all-time favorite words is ‘alignment’. I’ve had it for a while and I plan to keep it forever. If you show me a problem, any problem, then I’ll explain why it is caused by a lack of alignment. <\/p>\n

  In considering alignment as it relates to organizations, two questions arise – what does alignment mean and why is it important?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,6],"tags":[17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":626,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions\/626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}