Misalignment: Unnoticed culprit in organisational ineffectiveness

Organisational misalignment is the silent killer of a business’s effectiveness and prosperity

Achieving the level of organisational alignment needed to provide a competitive advantage is not an easy task in today’s fast-paced business environment. Businesses today are more complex than ever before. Market conditions and working environments are evolving at an accelerated pace, making it imperative for businesses to react and make decisions quickly. To respond successfully to change, organisations need a clear understanding of their processes, tools, and data and how they all fit together. If this does not happen effectively, an inevitable corollary is the formation of organisational silos

Organisation misalignment, whether it be in terms of strategic fit, human capital, communication philosophy, support functions, information systems or planning and control structures et cetera is a common occurrence. What is most disconcerting, however, is that organisational misalignment often goes unrecognised, and unnoticed, over long periods of time and hits the mind and eye only when there is a negative movement of important key performance indicators (KPIs) over a prolonged period. 

Organisational misalignment is the silent killer of a business’s effectiveness and prosperity. Therefore, it is paramount that leaders periodically perform a pulse check of organisational misalignment, if any, in a deliberate and proactive manner. The telltale signs of a misaligned organisation include, amongst a host of others, lots of bickering, arguments and misunderstandings between employees and teams, employees struggling to find the information they need to make decisions, deadlines being routinely extended or missed or too much time being spent on unproductive meetings. Organisational misalignment if left unaddressed will lead to faltering employee engagement, a toxic work environment, decreased employee retention, increasing customer dissatisfaction, plateaued, or diminishing market and revenue growth, damaged public image, inefficient utilisation of resources, increasing re-work, wastage, lack of accountability and the creation of value destroying silos. 

Organisational alignment is the coordination, collaboration, and cohesion across all aspects of the business from the high-level vision, mission, and strategy to the tactical plans, action items and timelines. It is an approach which leadership teams adopt with the intention of increasing employee engagement, innovation, and productivity. Achieving real alignment, where strategy, goals, and meaningful purpose reinforce one another, gives an organisation a major head start because there will then be a clearer sense of what to do at any given time and employees can be trusted to move in the right direction. The result is an organisation which acts rather than wasting time on deciding what to do. 

Long-term success only possible through teamwork

History abounds with anecdotal evidence which clearly shows that while ideas, inspiration and inventions may come from extraordinary individuals, long-term success of an organisation is only possible through teamwork. Teamwork is, and will remain, the key factor which determines whether an undertaking is successful over a long term or whether it peters out after an initial flurry. Putting the most intelligent, skilled, and hardest-working employees into a room will not guarantee that something exceptional will come out of it. On the contrary, if they collaborate and work together the probability of a positive outcome becomes that much higher. 

Though not a connoisseur of classical music, I have always been intrigued by the amazing sounds of a symphony orchestra where individual instruments harmoniously integrate to produce an ethereal effect which overwhelms the sound of all the individual instruments. More importantly, from a leadership perspective, an orchestra personifies exemplary teamwork. While acknowledging that the individuals in an orchestra are experts of their own instruments and contribute their unique sounds to the ultimate blend, it is the conductor who makes the alignment happen with movements of hands and arms. The conductor is the equivalent of the leader of a contemporary organisation. He is, usually, assisted by concertmasters who oversee different clusters of instruments and ensure that their cluster performs the role assigned to it and that its output is in sync with the sounds envisioned by the final product. 

The concertmasters are the equivalent of department heads in an organisation, and they play a vital role in creating the ultimate ‘magic.’ An orchestra is a vast ensemble of many unique and distinct instruments. Each instrument family is representative of teams in a modern organisation. These teams bring different skill sets, passions, perspectives, cultures, and backgrounds. However, all this will be of nought unless the team members share a common goal and vision. Just like the conductor of an orchestra, organisational leaders must inspire a shared vision among their followers and must be astute in recognising the strengths, weaknesses, and unique characteristics of each team in fusing such differences into products and/or services which delight the customers. 

As a leader, does your organisation work in harmony in making beautiful music come to life? Are the different teams in your organisation perfectly aligned to achieve the organisation’s goals and vision? Are you leading your team in a way that frees their latent potential and enables them to weave their magic? These are the questions leaders must ask themselves in seeking organisational alignment. As corporate leaders, we, too, have a variety of instruments at our command, and we must become the Leonard Bernsteins, the Malcom Sargents, and the Zubin Mehtas of the corporate world in aligning such instruments in sweetening the tune of organisational effectiveness. 

An essential first step

The synchronisation of an organisation’s vision, mission, purpose, goals, objectives, and values in the minds of all employees from top leadership to frontline staff is an essential first step in a quest for organisational alignment. A meaningful inspiring vision is not enough by itself. It must be effectively and constantly communicated to all employees, and it must be lived. It must become the DNA of the corporate culture. Very often the vision and mission are not communicated properly to the employees. They are just highlighted in annual reports, reproduced in internal web pages, and mentioned in isolated documents as a part of good public relations and promotions, usually in an effort of ‘keeping up with the Joneses.’ Most employees rarely see them or hear them. 

As a result, many organisations fall short of the ideals of high productivity because of their failure to match their vision with the daily activities of every team member. Further, top management, often fail in being the role models of the desired behaviours and values in reinforcing a culture of alignment in the organisation. I find that many Sri Lankan corporates are very lazy in clearly communicating their vision to their employees.

Whilst it is possible to run a business without a vision it is unlikely to thrive. The failure of Kodak is a typical example. Although the company’s espoused vision was to be the leader in photography, the company failed to effectively execute this vision and missed opportunities in the digital camera market. Kodak did not effectively communicate the importance of this transition to its employees and therefore failed to embrace digital technology. Needless to state, employees continued to focus on the company’s traditional film business, rather than developing and promoting new digital products. This lack of alignment between the company’s vision and the everyday activities of its employees led to Kodak’s decline and bankruptcy. 

On the other hand, Amazon constantly communicates its vision to its employees. Amazon’s vision, “Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online” has been, and is, the raison d’etre of the company. This vision is consistently and aggressively communicated to employees, customers, and stakeholders. Amazon’s commitment to its vision has helped to create a strong company culture and has driven employee engagement and motivation. Vision, undoubtedly, is the basis for all business strategies and decisions, large and small. It is a clear, inspiring, and long-term image of what the organisation wants to achieve. It represents the organisation’s purpose, values, and aspirations, and serves as an aligning guide for decision-making, strategic planning, and employee engagement. 

Working together towards common goals

Organisational alignment is an attempt at ensuring that an organisation’s components work together towards common goals. When an organisation is aligned, it will, *Catalyse growth. An aligned organisation will achieve faster, and higher, growth because all members of the workforce are working toward the same goals, *Enhance employee experience and thereby increase employee engagement. Employees who are engaged develop a keen sense of purpose and this, in turn, facilitates employee retention, *Facilitate collaboration. Team members working towards common objectives usually synergise their efforts and thereby improve productivity and interpersonal relationships, *Strengthen company culture. Each part of the organisation is aware of its role, how it functions within the company and supports the overall vision. This boosts company morale, *Improve customer experience. An aligned organisation is well positioned to enhance customer experience and thereby increase customer loyalty, *Enable effective risk taking. An aligned organisation can better anticipate the outcomes of changes or risks. This can lead to managed, and safer, risk taking, *Heighten brand image, and, *Improve customer/client relationships. 

A common organisational misalignment is the lack of congruence between the chosen generic strategy and resource deployment. For example, an organisation pursuing a ‘cost leadership’ strategy must use factors of production which give a ‘value for money’ outcomes. One cannot find a competitive price point for a ‘Toyota’ if the design of its features and the make-up of its components are the equivalent of a ‘Rolls-Royce.’ A hotel following a low-price room strategy via a limited services model will not be able to price competitively if it must absorb the capital and operating costs of multiple ballrooms and banqueting facilities. 

It is in this context that the existence of a strategic fit is vital. Strategic fit is the extent to which an organisation’s capabilities, objectives, and strategies support and complement each other. It focuses on ensuring that all aspects of an organisation’s operations align with the overall purpose. It is a way of filtering unnecessary activities and focusing on activities which contribute in part to the pursued whole. Studies reveal that organisational effectiveness improves, multifold, when all aspects, such as goals, objectives, competencies and capabilities, dovetail with each other. This is crucial for businesses looking to gain sustainable competitive advantage within their respective markets. 

Strategic fit is examined extensively in evaluating the compatibility of the strategies of the organisations who are the subject of a merger and acquisition. It is found that a high degree of ‘match’ between a business’ capabilities, resources and the business environment make it easier for organisations to evaluate opportunities and threats and take early action. The resources and capabilities mentioned above cover both tangible inputs such as materials, labour, machinery, technology et cetera and intangibles such as accumulated learnings/competences and developed systems and processes. 

Horizontal alignment

Whilst the role of senior leaders in bringing about vertical alignment is obvious, what is often overlooked is their role in facilitating horizontal alignment by breaking down silos and instilling a culture of collaboration across departments and functions. This involves eliminating barriers to information sharing and encouraging ‘free flow’ communication in promoting constructive interaction. Senior leaders play a vital role in enabling cross-functional collaboration by promoting teamwork and joint problem-solving initiatives. 

Achieving the level of organisational alignment needed to provide a competitive advantage is not an easy task in today’s fast-paced business environment. Businesses today are more complex than ever before. Market conditions and working environments are evolving at an accelerated pace, making it imperative for businesses to react and make decisions quickly. To respond successfully to change, organisations need a clear understanding of their processes, tools, and data and how they all fit together. If this does not happen effectively, an inevitable corollary is the formation of organisational silos. 

Working in silos is a culture where teams or departments operate in isolation without actively sharing information and resources or collaborating across organisational boundaries. When teams work in silos, they function as separate entities rather than interconnected parts of a larger whole. Each team focuses on its tasks, goals, and priorities without considering the organisation’s broader objectives. This siloed mindset creates barriers to effective communication, knowledge sharing/exchange, and collaboration. Within the siloed teams, knowledge becomes proprietary, and, paradoxically, it is common to find departmental and functional heads frowning on team members who, in the best interest of the organisation, engage collaboratively with their colleagues in other departments.

Communication, overall, becomes fragmented and limited. The lack of information sharing between departments invariably results in some sections of the organisation missing valuable market information. The lack of transparency and unity lead to duplicated efforts, misaligned objectives, and missed opportunities for constructive collaboration.

Whilst silos may optimise work within a team by allowing team members to sharpen their technical expertise, the reluctance of the team to share this knowledge outside of its silo makes cross-functional alignment and cross-selling difficult. A recent study by Forrester Consulting concluded that cross-functional collaboration is a challenge because collaboration workflows are often confined within a silo. As a result, many teams have a limited view of the business and are often unaware of the work, goals, and findings of other teams. 

Adding to the woes, the advent of hybrid work arrangements is diminishing the original benefits of silos. But neither silos nor hybrid work is the problem in, and of, itself. The benefits each model offers are valuable. The problems occur when organisations are unaware of the misalignment caused when silos, hybrids and the general organisation fail to connect. 

Employee recognition and rewards

In avoiding misalignment, an organisation must ensure that employee recognition and rewards are consistent with the organisation’s vision, mission, purpose, and objectives and are in harmony with its culture, values, code of conduct and generic strategy. Aligning employee rewards with business goals is crucial for success. Surveys find that a carefully designed rewards strategy is pivotal in motivating employees and in propelling the company towards its bigger goals. And let us face it – with the rise of hybrid and remote work, keeping everyone on the same page is more important than ever. That is where a clear reward strategy shows its true hand. 

The first step to building a successful rewards program is setting clear, measurable goals that link with the organisation’s vision, mission, purpose, and strategic objectives. When such goals are well defined, the crafting of a rewards strategy becomes much more focused. A clear understanding of the measurable goals also allows the targeting of specific departments and employees whose contributions are crucial to achieving corporate objectives. There is nothing unjust about such an approach. Integrating the company values into the rewards program is essential for reinforcing the unique culture and purpose which defines the business. These values, the pillars of the organisation, guide employee behaviour towards colleagues, clients, and managers. 

A well-designed rewards program which considers these values encourages employees to embody them in their daily work by fostering a sense of shared purpose. For a rewards program to remain impactful, it must evolve alongside the changing needs of both business and employees. Understanding what motivates the workforce and what drives them towards achieving the company’s goals is crucial. As these motivations shift, so too should the rewards strategy, in ensuring that it stays relevant and effective. Offering a variety of rewards is a key aspect of this adaptability. Employees can then choose incentives that they personally value thereby amplifying the positive impact of these rewards. 

In closing, an aligned organisation is one that continuously synchronises the work, structure, metrics, people, rewards, culture, and leadership style to strategy. Alignment endeavours can be time consuming and even politically charged at times. But the outcome of an alignment exercise can be exhilarating and fulfilling. In any case, regular organisational alignment is not an option. It is a must. 

(The writer is currently, a Leadership Coach, Mentor and Consultant and boasts over 50+ years of experience in very senior positions in the corporate world – local and overseas. www.ronniepeiris.com.)