ˌôrɡənəˈzāSH(ə)n/
noun
1.
an organized body of people with a particular purpose, especially a business, society, association, etc.
Organizations can be complex. And they can be simple. Sometimes they are effective. And sometimes they are inefficient. As a leader, one of the biggest challenges is transforming your organization to support your business strategy and committing to that particular purpose.
Too many companies ignore the need to include organizational strategies when they define their overall strategies. Which is crazy, because if your organization doesn't also have a plan to achieve the culture needed to build and sustain those strategies, it will not be successful. Think of all the work that you are putting into the vision for your products or services, establishing the market goals and defining the differentiation needed to achieve those goals. Translating from the strategic vision and into tactical plans is the most important step if success is to be achieved. If your management team responsible for translating does not understand the critical success factors, have the key roles to operate, or appropriate performance levers to drive to that future state, how will you get there?
You have probably worked in companies that do not seem to have a common "Particular Purpose". Where achieving the documented company objectives seems impossible because the "culture" of how the work is defined and implemented does not seem in alignment. Companies trying to grab market share through rapid growth might require quick spending decisions and speedy design efforts to attain that growth, However, if they have established formal decision governance in the past to ensure financial and product design supports a low-cost strategy to maintain markets, there is a misalignment between the business strategy (establish market growth) and organizational strategy (ensure lowest cost).
So what can be done to prevent this misalignment? it is quite simple actually. You place the same importance on the strategies of your organization as you do on the rest of your business areas. Transforming your organization to establish the foundation for executing cannot be an afterthought.
Is leadership on board and acting as change agents?
Are your processes aligned?
Do your reward and performance processes and systems drive the behaviors to enable success?
What skills and competencies does the organization need to acquire that don't exist today?
Is your current culture an enabler or is there work required to redefine?
Are you communicating that a new Particular Purpose is coming or is fear of the change paralyzing your teams?
Ensure you build this concept into your overall Strategic Planning efforts. Be realistic about the time it might take for organizations with significant culture gaps between the purpose today and the purpose you need in the future. It may take some time and concerted effort to ensure your achievements are both obtained and sustained.
