The Power of Strategic Alignment

The traditional way most nonprofit organizations embark on their strategic planning process often begins with high hopes, but concludes in disappointment with little achieved and the report often ending up sitting on some executive's shelf collecting dust. This disappointment is commonly the result of most strategic plans lacking the following four components: · An upfront, comprehensive assessment of the organization to identify key strengths and crucial areas of needed improvement; · A clear vision with established measures of successful progress to align the entire organization's efforts; · A comprehensive funding plan to secure the necessary resources, and; · A detailed plan for implementation and execution with buy-in from both the board and staff. For nearly a decade, I have performed numerous organizational and/or board performance assessment studies. What became very obvious to me when conducting these assessments was the absolute lack of any real alignment of the organization in pursuit of an agreed upon vision. Many times the organization did not have a vision or future direction to follow. Even those who indicated they had a vision statement admitted it was often not more than a meaningless statement about “becoming all things to all people” or something like that. There was no organized plan of action to incorporate the work of the board and the efforts of the leadership team and staff towards this vision. Everyone worked very hard on many strategic initiatives but they were not all aligned towards a common goal. Nor was their culture of performance aligned towards the effort of collaboration and respect. To my amazement, far too many leadership teams never even take the time to collectively discuss the many strategic issues facing their own organization. Never. They are all too busy. No wonder they struggle to survive, let alone succeed! It became apparent to me that to successfully assist an organization in truly developing a strategic plan, all of their goals and actions necessary to achieve a vision have to be fully aligned. The entire organization, including the work of the board, leadership and staff has to be restructured to require individual goals to be fully aligned with organizational goals. Everyone has to be on the same page and motivated towards the one compelling goal - achieving the organization's vision. In essence, the organization needs to be in Strategic Alignment. Too many organizations focus solely on the external environmental challenges during the strategic planning when the major reason most organizations fail is their inability to address their internal obstacles. The overwhelming reason most nonprofit organizations fail is the result of not adequately addressing their internal issues and not because of their response to the changing environmental landscape of the sector. Internal obstacles often include the lack of trust and respect among senior managers, stale programs, board members who have stayed far too long and the lack of contemporary leadership skill sets. An organization needs to honestly address both challenges, internal and external, in order to be in Strategic Alignment. The “silo mentality” that so many organizations were working under is no longer acceptable and actually extremely detrimental to their very survival. Far worse, too many organizations have unresolved internal issues and conflicts preventing them from working more effectively together. The idea of a senior management team not talking, respecting or trusting each other has to be dealt with “head on” and eliminated. The culture of “my needs first” has to be transformed to “those we serve first.” There are enough external obstacles that every organization has to face but to also have to deal constantly with their internal obstacles of personality and egos is wasting valuable energy and time. A new effort to fully align the entire organization has to be developed. I begin to facilitate my strategic planning clients by first performing an organizational wide assessment to determine their strategic alignment or lack thereof towards their vision. Everything began to make more sense when I realized they needed a “coach and facilitator” to help with the implementation of their strategic alignment. Recently, I asked a number of clients who completed their strategic planning process with me under my new “strategic alignment approach” to describe “What has the process done for you?” The typical responses that I expected were “It provided us with a clear path forward” or “helped transform the organization” or “really engaged our board.” I have heard these responses before and I was always very pleased to hear them express their satisfaction with my work. However, I began to hear from many of my clients that “you helped revitalize our organization”. They told me that they now felt a greater sense of confidence to achieve their strategic goals and the know-how to accomplish them. They indicated that my new process of Strategic Alignment reenergized the entire board and staff and they were excited “to know who they were and where they were going.” I will also describe the new competencies and skill sets required of today's nonprofit leaders as well as the characteristics of high performing nonprofit boards. Today, more than ever before, the chief executive and board must be true partners in leading the organization forward to generate the positive social impact needed in their communities. In order for your organization to successfully pursue its vision and goals, it must be in Strategic Alignment. Organizations that are in Strategic Alignment have these characteristics: · Strong organizational self-knowledge · Engaged key stakeholders · Inspiring vision · Entrepreneurial Leaders · High performing boards · Impactful programs and services · Achievement and outcome driven · Investors seeking to contribute · Commitment to continuous improvement · Recognized for excellence As you read this book, you will learn on how to dramatically increase your organizational alignment and began to achieve new and dramatic levels of success. You will come away from reading this book with: 1. A new way to embark on a more effective strategic planning process to build organizational capacity for long term sustainability; 2. The hope, courage and motivation to achieve dramatically better results for your organization; I hope you enjoy this book and come away revitalized.