The first (the y-axis) is vertical. A vertically aligned organization has related mission, strategy, operational goals, individual priorities, and job functions at all levels of the organization. The result is an obvious connectedness between the focus of the organization and the priorities of all employees. So success for the leaders translates to success for the organization. And the leaders\u2019 priorities transparently cascade all the way down to the lowest level of the organization.<\/p>\n

Horizontal Alignment<\/h3>\n

The second dimension (the x-axis) is horizontal, referring to the alignment of people across<\/em> the organization. This dimension has increased in importance because of the greater need for collaboration and agility. Horizontal alignment allows people to work together without competing priorities and political maneuvering. In its absence, organizations move slowly, leaders spend their time negotiating, and results are marginalized.<\/p>\n

Context Alignment<\/h3>\n

The third dimension (the z-axis) enables the effectiveness along the first two.<\/strong> This dimension relates to the context in which vertical and horizontal alignment are managed. It includes culture and the processes\/practices that shape and reinforce it. Much of what needs to be done to achieve alignment along the x and y axes is mechanical and can be achieved with effort and focus. This third dimension is about sustainability and congruence and the softer side of leadership.<\/p>\n

Assessing Organizational Alignment<\/h3>\n

Self-assessing alignment is a bit tricky. It is easier to detect its absence than its presence. No organization is perfectly aligned (bold statement, I know), so how do you know if your organization’s degree of alignment is good enough? This is where leadership intuition kicks in. If you think you are leaving some amount of organizational performance on the table, focusing on alignment is a great place to start.<\/p>\n

Alignment Requires Constant Attention<\/h3>\n

You should pay attention to alignment as often as the Golden Gate Bridge is being painted – always. How would you rank your organization’s alignment across the three dimensions? Is your focus on the dimension that will produce the highest payback?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continuing on the topic of organizational alignment… In organizations, alignment has three dimensions. Vertical, Horizontal, and Contextual. It is this third dimension is about sustainability and congruence and the softer side of leadership. Read more about all three in this week’s article, and consider how you would you rank your organization’s alignment across the three dimensions. Is your focus on the dimension that will produce the highest payback?<\/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\/629"}],"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=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":634,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions\/634"}],"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=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}