Blog Post

“Organisational alignment is the degree to which key elements of an enterprise are tightly integrated and working in concert with each other to drive customer delight, growth and profit.” George Labovitz, PhD, Author of The Power of Alignment

Aligned and integrated companies out-perform their closest competitors by every major financial measure, according to Harvard Business School research.

We look for competitive edges in our business through research, technology, and marketing, yet one of the most crucial advantages lives right in the hearts and minds of our people:  “How well aligned are we?”  Healthy organizations with a thoughtfully aligned strategy will always have a crucial competitive edge: Every employee from the CEO’s office to the loading dock understands the strategy and knows exactly how his or her work contributes to the success of delivering the organizational mission.

You know about ‘purpose’ or ‘mission’. Strategy is something every organization defines and redefines periodically. The defining difference that an aligned organization has is that it includes aligning Strategy (why), Process (how), Customer (for whom) and People (engaged team). When all of these elements are truly centered on the ultimate purpose of the business…what we like to call the Main Thing – you have your sustainable strategic advantage.

When people know WHY the company exists – and are aligned every day and every way with that Main Thing, success invariably ensues.

The Main Thing must be a common and unifying concept.  We’re not talking some fancy mission statement, either. It must be clear, succinct and memorable. FedEx has the purple promise: ‘Placing our customers at the center of all we do.’

Amazon’s vision is to be ‘earth’s most customer-centric company…’ and Facebook’s is ‘ to make the world more open and connected.’ These sentiments are important to the companies’ success. And their incredibly outstanding success is likely because they are powerfully aligned organizations.

And, there is more…

Each department and team must be able to see a direct relationship between what it does and this all-encompassing purpose. If the critical competencies are not all working together in measurable alignment a business will often lose it’s way, particularly as it grows.

It’s the idea of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, but on the larger, more complex scale of a corporation.

We see the difference that corporate alignment makes in the day-to-day operation of successful organizations. The Third Level team are proud to be working with George Labovitz to create bespoke alignment programs designed to measure and create alignment programs into our clients’ hands. The five-step process of Rapid Realignment™ is straightforward and powerful.

1. Aligning Leaders: what is the main thing? What matters most? How aligned are we?
2. Measuring – the Alignment Diagnostic: a bespoke assessment that measures what matters most to delivering outstanding results.
3. Mobilizing the Organization: using the results to identify the places up, down and across the organization that would benefit most from Third Level Rapid Realignment services.
4. Sustaining the Gains: deepening the alignment, adjusting the strategy as conditions change, and measuring repeatedly for sustained excellence.

Measurement is a critical step, and it is essential that the evaluations are detailed and thorough. If you don’t know where you are and have absolute alignment on where you are going, how can you succeed on your journey?

A company operating in alignment is firing on all cylinders. Bringing an organization into alignment produces simultaneous improvements in customer satisfaction and loyalty, employee retention, and return to shareholders.

Contact Third Level to discuss how we can bring your company into alignment – and into an optimal state of growth and profit! Info@ThirdLevel.com or +1-561-752-5505 (USA Office)/+44 345 056 3383 (UK Office).