Alignment Series #1: How to align people with strategy

Strategies change. At least they should – in order to even just keep up with the change around us.

This series addresses Alignment. How can you align your people with strategy? How do you know when strategy must change? (even when it hasn’t been a year)? How do you re-align people when strategy must change in a way that changes their daily work?

Let’s talk about the first step – aligning people with strategy (when the strategy does not require significant change in roles or the work people do). Continue reading “Alignment Series #1: How to align people with strategy”

Leadership -Connecting with (your) people to improve results. Step 5: NOW GET GOING

In this series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.

Let me intro this next step before we recap, so that those that have been reading along don’t have to repeat (thanks to those who gave me this good feedback; the recap is at the end of the post)…

In Step 4 you removed roadblocks to aligning people’s actions with Strategy. Woot! Let’s get going!

For Step #5, collect these materials:

1. Your 1-3 Critical Strategic Objectives, which are now mapped to show relationship and the priorities of these Objectives and their Steps

See the Recap below for links to these prior steps. Questions? Click to “Ask Lori

2. Your Annual Budget

If you do not have access to this, even for your department, you may want to pass this blog and Leadership series on to someone who does. Continue reading “Leadership -Connecting with (your) people to improve results. Step 5: NOW GET GOING”

Leadership -Connecting with (your) people to improve results. Step 4: Removing roadblocks

In this series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.

Recap:
In Step 1 you selected up to three of the most critical strategic themes or objectives. In Step 2 you mapped these themes to your Strategy so that key objectives can be prioritized and contrasted (it is not uncommon to have conflicting objectives that need to be sorted out). And in Step 3 you prioritized so that you’d be sure that what is most important gets done.

Now before we move on, it is critical to have a plan for identifying and removing roadblocks. You will face at least one. I’m going to list a few of the most common ones here, along with answers that have worked for others. I’d love to have comments and additions from readers.

Here are three common roadblocks to getting what you expect: Continue reading “Leadership -Connecting with (your) people to improve results. Step 4: Removing roadblocks”