Managing Alignment as a Process

Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge offers this article on Managing Alignment as a Process, authored by HBS professor Robert S. Kaplan and colleague David P. Norton (the creators of the Balanced Scorecard....)

Their premise?

"To create synergy, we require more than a concept and a strategy. The enterprise value proposition defines the strategy for value creation through alignment, but it doesn't describe how to achieve it. The alignment strategy must be complemented with an alignment process. The alignment process, much like budgeting, should be part of the annual governance cycle. Whenever plans are changed at the enterprise or business unit level, executives likely need to realign the organization with the new direction."

BOTTOMLINE: Six Disciplines for Excellence - Discipline III. Align Systems, shows HOW to achieve alignment, by identifying misalignments, aligning processes, policies, measures, technology - and people within your organization. Interestingly enough, it is this step that most organizations do not do well. Some are great at strategy formulation, others great at operational execution. But it is the alignment of all the resources that tees up the ability for an organization to execute consistently - and sustainably - on their strategy.