How to get organizational alignment?

Birds in V formation Superconducting Magnet

Fishing net

Symphony Orchestra

Laser Beam Hanging Bridge Jigsaw Puzzle

Boat race

Understand the Power of Alignment thru Metaphors

Birds flying in V formation

The V formation greatly boosts the efficiency

and range of flying birds, particularly over

long migratory routes. The upward airflow

created by the bird in front, assists the bird

following it. The V formation helps in

increasing the range by 71%. The birds flying

at the tips and at the front are rotated in a

timely cyclical fashion to spread flight

fatigue equally among the flock members.

Ref Wiki.

Superconducting Magnets

At very low temperatures, in

certain materials, the particles

align and the conducting wire

offers practically nil resistance.

This helps in creating

amazingly powerful magnetic

fields.

Laser Beam

When light waves are ‘aligned’,

we get laser which has

immense uses in industry,

research and medicine.

Alignment creates focus and

high impact.

Symphony Orchestra

Hundreds or even thousands of artists play to

the same tune and rhythm according to the

gestures from the music director, generating

spectacular music in a symphony orchestra.

Another example is Olympics opening/closing

ceremony where participants perform in

unison. What a magnificence when people

perform in alignment!

Boat Race

A popular event in Kerala is ‘Snake

Boat Race’. It is amazing to watch the

rhythm, the coordinated hand

movements of about hundred

oarsmen and the synchronized

chanting of singers. Great excitement

is generated when people align to a

common goal (video of a boat race).

Golden Gate Bridge

Each string of the rope of a

hanging bridge may be too weak

to carry the heavy load it has. But,

with alignment, a bridge such as

Golden Gate Bridge is able to

carry the weight of thousands of

vehicles going through it at any

point of time. Alignment increases

strength and resilience.

Fishing net or Safety net

Each strand of a fishing net may be tiny,

but strong enough to catch big fishes,

because the strings align dynamically

and quickly to the forces (agility).

Similar is the case with a safety net

used in circus, where artists do flying

trapeze.

Jigsaw Puzzle

It is easy to solve a jigsaw

puzzle, if you know the big

picture. It is easy to align, if

you have a shared vision for

your team or organization.

Alignment brings simplicity.

So, there is beauty, strength, power, harmony, rhythm, simplicity, efficiency, agility and magnificence in alignment.

Are your teams/organization aligned?

Observing these symptoms in your organization?

• Frequent recurring issues, escalations, fire-fighting, rework and delays

• Poor visibility for Sr. Mgmt; difficulty/delay in getting the required info; poor data

quality. Spending time on reconciliation of reports.

• Absence of effective processes for Risk management, Root Cause analysis, Metrics

Collection and Reporting, Organizational Learning.

• Important goals are not documented, no measures of success, poor tracking of

progress against goals & plans. Team works on conflicting purposes.

• Ineffective utilization of resources and lack of skilled people; some processes may

not have any person responsible.

• Frequent customer escalations; unable to retain customers; no time for

innovation.

• Strategic priorities take a back seat (because operational issues take priority)

Cause

The primary cause could

be weak organizational

processes which are not

aligned.

Aligned Organization • In an aligned organization, processes are streamlined , resistance is

low and things get done fast. Everybody rows in the same direction.

You experience exhilaration. Your organization becomes a magnet

of prestigious projects, profitable clients and top talents.

With organization alignment,

you can catch big fishes –

prestigious projects and

profitable clients.

How to get organizational alignment?

• Check the health of processes in your organization. Are

they weak?

• Get your organization vision, goals, strategy, processes,

resources aligned.

• For quick business results, contact CXO Dashboards.

Holistic, modularized, lean

process improvement solutions @

CXOdashboards.com