In an earlier article, “The state of Alignment in the Organization,” we have described the processes organizations can implement that establish the state of alignment. They include creating a shared and meaningful mission, vision, and values; building the infrastructure for Alignment through the Alignment Map; defining individual scorecards for all jobholders; and providing timely and relevant information through the software, TOPS. Brief mention was made of the twin processes of Team Review and Vertical Review for sustaining the state of alignment. In a separate article we gave further details about the Team Review process. Here, we provide more information about the Vertical Review process. This key process is a systematic one-on-one conversation of every manager with his or her direct reports. In this article we illustrate the connection of Vertical Review with Team Review as well as the cultural impact of Vertical Review on sustaining the state of alignment.

The twin processes will have the greatest impact on the success of the organization when the alignment infrastructure is in place.  This means that every jobholder from the CEO down to the frontline manager has a scorecard that defines the added value of the job in measurable terms. The scorecard includes KPIs he influences directly in his position at the lowest appropriate level of the organization or strategic projects he influences directly at the highest appropriate level. It also includes KPIs and strategic projects he influences cross-functionally as a peer or vertically as a manager or dotted-line manager. It means that three goal levels, minimum, satisfactory, and outstanding, have been set for each entry in the scorecards. It means timely and accurate push-information on the performance of the scorecards is provided periodically to jobholders and their managers transparently and automatically through the software TOPS. These have been described in our book, Total Alignment.

Vital Units of Execution

In our article on the Team Review process, we referred to the vital units of execution in any organization which will number anywhere from a few to thousands of natural teams. Each unit is comprised of a manager and the people reporting to him or her. These units have tremendous power in helping the organization advance towards its vision. We reinvented the workings of these teams by turning their focus upward toward improving the scorecard of their leader instead of the scorecards of the individual members. Vertical Review complements the working of these teams by focusing downwards on the scorecards of each team members in a separate space. This process is essential for vertical alignment to be maintained in the organization.

Suppose you are the manager in one of these vital units. In Team Review, you and your direct reports work together to develop action plans to help you improve the performance of a KPI in your scorecard. During Vertical Review, you meet with your boss (one on one), present the action plans, and welcome his input to improve the plan and support it.

The conversations in Vertical Reviews are specifically designed to address the needs of the jobholder through systematic accompaniment. Everyone needs accompaniment from someone with more knowledge and experience. The accompaniment in Vertical Review varies from continuous supervision for beginners to encouragement and support for competent jobholders.

Your boss also has his own Team Review in which you, your peers as well as cross-functional influencers of a KPI, help to develop action plans for improving his scorecard. Then, in a Vertical Review of your boss with his boss, this plan is reviewed to receive input and support. This upward cascading process continues up the line to the CEO level.

The Structure of Vertical Review

While every Vertical Review is different, they all follow a uniform structure. They are comprised of four conversations, Culture, Performance, Development, and Other important topics. The time allotted to each can vary depending on the needs of the direct report, but all four conversations are indispensable for sustaining vertical alignment.

The culture conversation is a reflection on the core values of the organization. Its aim is to assure alignment with values.  This is important because paying lip service to values and violating them when it is expedient is an affront to the integrity of the core values and robs the organization of the energy needed to fulfill its mission.

One of the elements of the infrastructure of alignment mentioned in our book is a value tree that is constructed such that the main branches are the core values, and the sub-branches constitute the pinpointed behaviors that demonstrate them. During the culture conversation, both the boss and direct report reflect on the values as described in the value tree and discuss what pinpointed behaviors related to a core value look like in the work setting. This conversation serves as incentive for each person to advance his understanding of the values, and to strive to be a better example of putting them into practice.

The second conversation is about the performance of the scorecard of the direct report. It is not a forum for viewing the scorecard for the first time. Prior to the Vertical Review, the boss will have received notification of the positive and negative recurring exceptions in the scorecard of the direct report through TOPS. The direct report also will have fully studied his performance status. As stated above, he will have picked a KPI with his role of direct influence and will have conducted a Team Review with his own natural team as well as those who have indispensable influence on the KPI cross-functionally to develop an action plan for improving the factor. The performance conversation of the Vertical Review serves to study this action plan already developed. The conversation provides the opportunity of not only informing the boss of how a problem is being solved, but also obtaining his input for improving the action plan.

The third conversation is about the developmental needs of the collaborator. It is a forum for the boss and the direct report to identify the key skills needed by the direct report to improve the factors of his scorecard. Once the skills have been identified, they are evaluated together on a scale of beginner to fully competent. The evaluation serves as the starting point of advancement to higher levels of competence. The direct report is asked to prepare a plan, taking full advantage of the training and development services provided by the HR department or other sources, and to review the progress of the plan in further cycles of Vertical Review.

The fourth conversation is about other important topics. This is an important space to allow the direct report or the boss to talk about topics important to them.

The Culture of Vertical Review

The cultural characteristics of Vertical Review are substantially different from most one-on-one encounters that take place in organizations between a boss and his direct reports.  While in the traditional one-on-one meetings between the boss and the direct report, the boss often sets objectives, and dictates courses of action, none of that is necessary in a Vertical Review. The direct report already has a scorecard that lists his objectives aligned with the vision and strategy of the organization, and he is empowered to determine the course of action with the help of his team in his Team Review.

While in a traditional one-on-one meeting, the boss evaluates the performance of the direct report, this is not necessary in Vertical Review as evaluation is already done by the performance of the scorecard and is available to both through the TOPS software.

In Vertical Review each participant adds value to support the processes of alignment.  Among the contributions of the boss to the conversation in Vertical Review are perspectives he shares based on his scope, that is, based on where he is standing. It is a perspective the direct report doesn’t have. It is like a person standing in a second level of a building looking through the window down at the parking lot. He has a wider scope seeing what the person on the ground cannot see and can even predict accidents waiting to happen. The boss can add such value based on his perspective. Additionally, he can give advice based on the knowledge and experience he has acquired.

Among the contributions of the direct report are input based on the reality he sees at his level. Following the example stated above, the person at the parking lot can see conditions on the ground more clearly than the person on the second floor. The information the direct report can offer helps to inform the boss what is needed at the level of the direct report. This provides upward flow of information in the organization from the frontlines through the levels above.

The boss and the direct report are equals. They are collaborators in serving the organization. Both have much to learn. Among the learning objectives of the boss is how to facilitate the Vertical Review to provide systematic accompaniment for the direct report. Among the learning objectives of the direct report is how to receive the accompaniment for improving his competence in handling his scorecard and for developing general skills he will need when promoted.

We refer to the conversations aimed at arriving at specific actions, consultation. The guidelines for consultation described in our previous article are equally valid in Vertical Review except that some additional items might be needed, and some others require higher priority. Here is a sample that might be appropriate for a Vertical Review:

• Be on time for the meeting.
• Do not cancel the meeting except for emergencies.
• No cell phone use during the meeting except for emergencies
• Do not interrupt the meeting.
• The purpose is to find the best solution.
• No hierarchy
• Listen to understand not to respond.
• No put downs in words or body language
• Be detached from your idea once presented.

The first four are particularly important as managers with their busy schedules and often influenced by the false traditional mindset of boss vs subordinate might have the tendency to arrive late or be tempted to cancel a meeting with their direct report, something they would not do with their bosses. Also, they might feel that it is okay to have the meeting interrupted by answering their cellphones or excusing themselves to attend to other matters.

Most people would agree with the guidelines for consultation. Therefore, it is not difficult to establish them upfront. However, it is often challenging to change the behaviors of managers.

To assure the adoption of these guidelines in all Vertical Reviews, the three roles we discussed in our article on Team Review apply equally here. The boss is the facilitator who creates an agenda based on the performance of the direct report’s scorecard and sends it ahead of time. He or she facilitates the meeting respecting the agenda and the guidelines for consultation. The monitor who observes the meeting is the direct report who is empowered to request a pause and point out any deviations from the consultation guidelines. The recorder is also the direct report who manages the software during the meeting, displays screens from the TOPS software along with the action plan created in his Team Review, and enters the commitments generated from the meeting into the software.

The Learning Model

Vertical Review also follows the three elements of the learning model: Consultation, Action, and Reflection. * The Consultation element focuses on the action plan already developed by the direct report in his Team Review. It also includes conversations aimed at improving the action plan with the boss’s input. The Action element is looking at the action items implemented. The Reflection element is reviewing the outcomes of the implemented action items and articulating the learning that has taken place. The cycle repeats itself in future Vertical Review sessions as the learning feeds the consultation.

The outcomes of the Consultation, Action and Reflection model from each Vertical Review are concrete action items or commitments for the boss or the direct report aimed at implementing the decisions made through consultation. The commitments are entered into TOPS by the direct report along with deadlines. After the Vertical Review, each party implements the commitment and posts its completion into TOPS along with the documents that show how the action steps have been done with quality. TOPS provides notifications and reminders to each person’s smartphone via the TOPS mobile App.

The Power of Disruptions

When Team Reviews and Vertical Reviews are cascaded throughout the organization from the CEO to the lowest level, there is a natural disruption of the way things are done from period to period in a company. The disruption has immense power as experienced in organizations that have adopted the change. **

During the implementation of Total Alignment, managers might experience discomfort in adopting the change and adapting to it. Often, they will need to embrace the new management model while continuing the old one. However, as they experience the benefits of Vertical Review and Team Review, the old ways gradually fade away and disappear naturally.

Summary of Benefits of Vertical Review

• It changes the posture of jobholders from being passive recipients of directions coming constantly from the top to active protagonists of their own scorecard.
• It reinforces the ownership of performance and empowerment at the level of the jobholder.
• It focuses on solving problems for the future and changes the culture of excuses to one of solutions.
• It enables jobholders to receive valuable input and advice from their boss to improve the quality of their action plans.
• It unites the boss and the jobholder in assuring excellent execution resulting in improved scorecard performance.
• It changes the role of the manager from evaluating, controlling, directing, and even micromanaging to supporting and encouraging.
• It relieves managers from many of the traditional responsibilities and allows them to take advantage of the time saved by increasing their span of control or spending time on other important issues.
• It facilitates the flow of information from the grass roots upwards in the organization.
• It contributes to a systematic process of talent development.
• It enables good management practices to be extended to all managers in the organization.
• It sustains vertical alignment in the organization.

Impact of the Twin Processes

As stated in our earlier article, “The state of Alignment in the Organization,” organizations of any size and in any industry can facilitate the state of alignment in their organizations by first constructing the infrastructure for alignment as explained in the article mentioned above as well as in our book, Total Alignment, Tools and Tactics for Streamlining the Organization.

The twin processes that sustain the state of alignment are Team Review and Vertical Review. Operating in a state of alignment has immense power and produces outstanding results. **

* Baha’í Writings

** See 2023 case study of ProlecGE, the largest transformer solutions company in the continent written by IPADE Business School in Mexico

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The post Sustaining Vertical Alignment through Systematic Accompaniment appeared first on Infotrac.

In an earlier article, “The state of Alignment in the Organization,” we have described the processes that establish the state of alignment in an organization. They include creating a shared and meaningful mission, vision, and values for the organization; building the infrastructure for Alignment through the Alignment Map; defining individual scorecards for all jobholders; and providing timely and relevant information through the software, TOPS. Brief mention was made of the twin processes of Team Review and Vertical Review for sustaining the state of alignment. Here, we give more detail about Team Review which is a new way to work within natural teams. The Team Review has a great impact on alignment in the organization.

Let us assume that the infrastructure for alignment as described in our article is in place. This means that every jobholder from the CEO down to the frontline manager has a scorecard that defines the added value of the job in measurable terms. The scorecard includes KPIs he influences directly in his position at the lowest appropriate level of the organization or strategic projects he influences directly at the highest appropriate level of the organization. It also includes KPIs and strategic projects he influences cross-functionally as a peer or vertically as a manager or dotted-line manager. It means that three goal levels, minimum, satisfactory, and outstanding, have been set for each entry in the scorecard. Timely and accurate push-information on the performance of the scorecard is provided periodically to the jobholder and his or her managers transparently and automatically through the software TOPS.

What we are covering in this article is how the alignment that is established through the construction of the infrastructure described above can be sustained over time leading to cultural transformation and extraordinary results.

Vital Units of Execution

Most organizations, whether hierarchical or matrix, have people working on specific jobs with managers overseeing their work. The organization might have a few or many levels of management depending on its size and industry. At each level jobholders and their boss form a natural team which is a fundamental unit of execution. Each unit could include two to a dozen people. In large organizations there are hundreds or thousands of such units.

Traditionally in these meetings time is spent on giving assignments for the week or the month as well as reviewing the results of the previous period. The focus is on the performance of the direct reports over the previous period. We see a need for a shift in the way these units operate, with a change of focus on the scorecard of the boss, which is really the scorecard of the team.

This change of focus is a fundamental paradigm shift. The shift is to focus upwards instead of downwards. We call the re-invented conversations in these units, Team Review. Team Review is a cyclical meeting of each manager with his or her direct reports plus other key individuals. It is a meeting that cascades down the many levels of the organization from the CEO to the frontline supervisor. It is distinguished by a set of unique characteristics that make it a powerful tool for sustaining alignment.

The Significance of the Paradigm Change

Typical downward-focused results meetings often last hours and are usually made up of a series of presentations by the direct reports about performance during the previous period. For example, at the CEO level, the downward focus requires presentations by the Sales VP, the Operations VP, the HR VP, and other staff functions. Considerable energy goes into preparing for the presentations that often include spreadsheets, graphs, and detailed explanations. The presentations communicate what happened in the past and give reasons why performance has been below or above expectations. Takeaways from such meetings include sharing of performance with the boss; sharing information with peers; and conversations about the actions of each direct report.

While these takeaways are valuable, we have found that the existing process is redundant when Total Alignment is in place. Most often these traditional meetings take too much valuable time of the participants who are listening to details that are not relevant to them but are mainly meaningful to the boss. Too much time is spent dwelling on the past, with the future opportunities often neglected or ignored. These downward-focused meetings also feed the destructive silo mentality that exists in most organizations, where each function competes to receive the attention of the boss, sometimes ignoring the overall health of the company. These meetings also feed the ego of the manager sitting and evaluating the performance of each direct report.

The Team Review has its own unique characteristic that make it both an effective instrument for alignment and a powerful instrument for execution. It takes away the unintended semblance of superiority of the boss that comes with the hierarchy and often becomes a barrier to alignment. It relieves the boss, from having to constantly provide direction and priorities for the direct reports, because scorecards have already been defined for them.  Jobholders who have direct influence on a KPI at the lowest appropriate level of the organization have clarity on what they need to focus on and are empowered to act. Team Review also distributes the power of decision making throughout the management pyramid with most operational decisions being made at the lower levels, and most strategic decision being made at the upper levels. It focuses all these vital units on the future, not just reporting about the past. Its main aim is to provide a solution to improve performance for the future. With Total Alignment, the performance evaluation is also changed to reflect the performance of each scorecard. Performance is visible and transparent in each individual scorecard through the TOPS software.

These changes are meant to relieve the boss from burdens that contribute to misalignment in the organization. They are meant to save the time of managers so that they can address other important issues. Middle level managers can spend the extra time to increase the number of direct reports they oversee, while upper-level managers can spend the extra time on executing strategic initiatives for the future of the company. Further, in Team Review, the boss benefits by engaging his team to help him improve his own scorecard performance through the creative ideas he receives.

As we described in our article, The State of Alignment in the Organization, the scorecards include those KPIs a jobholder has direct influence over. Other jobholders in the organization could have the same KPIs as influence factors. In a Team Review, the manager invites those cross-functional influencers to attend. The space becomes a forum for creativity and group effort to improve the status of the KPI in his scorecard. The action plan that emerges from this meeting becomes the product of the collaborative effort of the individuals who have indispensable influence on the KPI. Over time, the silos that might have existed in the organization disappear through this cross-functional collaboration.

Empowerment through the Team Review Process

The fundamental principle that inspires the state of alignment in the organization is the Oneness of Humankind. * There are numerous implications of this principle that encourage cooperation, reciprocity, and social justice. This principle eliminates the distinctions of “us” and “them” as well as other barriers to oneness that make the boss or certain classes of individuals appear superior. The boss has a function to perform based on knowledge and experience. The direct report can gain that knowledge and experience in time. Both are on the same path of learning; both have valuable contributions to make. By empowering the lower levels of the organization, we are assigning great value to their contributions no matter what their social status, age, or ethnicity. All are striving for excellence, and all can move as one to fulfill the mission of the organization.

Consultation in Team Review

The key to the cultural transformation that establishes and sustains the state of alignment is the principle of consultation.   By consultation we mean conversations that are not directed at proving a particular point of view, but rather offered to allow the group to grow the ideas toward discovering the best solution. * The difference is enormous. In the first case the conversation is aimed at convincing the team to adopt a particular point of view that serves individual interests. In the second case, the team is listening to conversations that can coalesce with other contributions to arrive at the best solution for the organization. The first case is the norm in debates and many of the discourses of society, when the presenters are not open to changing their points of view. The second is present in organizations that have intentionally adopted the principle of consultation where all participants are detached from their ideas and strive to arrive at the best course of action for the organization. It exists within the culture of Total Alignment.

We have found that transforming people’s thinking and orientation from the first to the second case requires guidelines for consultation that are adopted by the organizations. A sample of such guidelines are as follows:

• Everyone participates.
• The purpose is to find the best solution.
• No hierarchy
• Listen to understand not to respond.
• No put downs in words or body language
• One meeting, avoid side conversations.
• Wait to be recognized by the facilitator.
• Be detached from your idea once presented.
• No cell phone use except in emergency.

Most people would agree with these guidelines. Therefore, it is not difficult to establish them upfront. However, it is often challenging to change the behaviors of participants.

To assure the adoption of these guidelines in all Team Reviews as well as all the meetings that take place in the company, we have defined three roles for the meetings. The first is the role of the facilitator, usually performed by the boss. The facilitator creates an agenda for the meeting based on the performance of his or her scorecard and invites his team as well as appropriate cross-functional influencers ahead of time. He or she facilitates the meeting following the agenda and the guidelines for consultation. The second is the role of monitor who observes the meeting and is empowered to request a pause and point out any deviations from the consultation guidelines. Finally, the recorder manages the software during the meeting and enters the action plans and commitments generated into the software, TOPS. When the consultation guidelines are implemented and adhered to, they prove extremely effective.

While everyone’s opinion is respected and encouraged, we know that not all contributions to the team have equal value, as some people have less knowledge or experience. But all contributions are welcome and add to the group effort to find the best option. Also, the Team Review is not a forum for consensus decision making. It is a forum for consultation and finding the best options. The power of decision rests not in consensus, but with the person who has accountability for a KPI no matter where he is in the organizational hierarchy. The Team Review process gives this person the best thinking of the group supported by data and analysis to help him arrive at a decision.

 Cultural Change through Team Review

The discussion above about the improvement of KPIs in Team Reviews is one of the main contributions of Total Alignment to the growth and prosperity of the organization. Yet, more is needed for cultural change and sustaining the state of alignment.

As the purpose of alignment is not just improving results but establishing a culture of all moving together as one, great emphasis is placed on culture rather than results. Results are among the byproducts of that culture. Beyond the conversations to improve the status of KPIs in Team Review, three other conversations have been added to the process. They include conversation on core values, conversation on development of teamwork, and conversation to promote synergies among the functions represented in the Team Review. The conversation about values centers on pinpointed behaviors that make up those values. Pinpointed behaviors are specific, measurable, and observable behaviors that combine to demonstrate adherence to the values. When the participants in a Team Review reflect on the pinpointed behaviors, they become more conscious of aligning their own behaviors with the core values of the organization. The full description of these three conversations is beyond the scope of this article.

The Learning Model

The Team Review follows the three elements of the learning model: Consultation, Action, and Reflection. ** The Consultation element usually consists of the conversations to improve one of the KPIs of the boss. It leads to action plans that are based on analysis identifying root causes, solution alternatives, action items with deadlines, and individuals responsible to meet those deadlines, all managed through a mobile app. The Action element is putting the action plan in place by executing the action items. The Reflection element is reviewing the outcomes of the implemented action items and articulating the learning that has taken place. The cycle repeats itself in future Team Review sessions as the learning feeds consultation to arrive at a revised action plan.

When this learning model is applied to all the KPIs in Team Reviews throughout the organization, the performance of the company improves substantially, often dramatically.  **

Summary of Benefits of Team Review

• The Team Review greatly reduces the time spent in preparing and sharing information in traditional results meetings.
• It avoids the long presentations on past performance that take place in traditional meetings where detailed information not relevant to all participants is usually shared and often excuses rather than solutions are offered.
• It focuses on solving problems for the future and brings together those who are directly accountable for a KPI with all those who share indispensable influence.
• It serves to eliminate silos in the organization through the cross-functional collaboration that takes place in all Team Reviews during each period.
• It changes the role of the manager from controlling, directing, and even micromanaging to supporting and encouraging.
• It changes the posture of jobholders from being passive recipients of directions from the top to active protagonists of their own scorecard.
• It engages the whole natural team in brainstorming and action planning and distributes the ownership of performance among all jobholders.
• It enables managers to receive valuable input and advice from below to shape their views and course of action.
• It contributes to a culture of problem solving, action planning, and collaboration across functional areas.
• It saves the valuable time of managers that could be spent on important issues.
• It sustains horizontal alignment in the organization.

Twin Processes

You might ask how the new model allows the boss to become aware of the results obtained at the next level below without asking each direct report to share their results in the meeting. Our answer is that all the information the boss needs to see is available through the three one-page reports from the TOPS software.

Additionally, the second management process of Total Alignment, the Vertical Review directly responds to that need. Briefly, in the Vertical Review, the boss conducts one-on-one meetings with each of his or her direct reports every period. Not only can they discuss what happened during the previous period, but also, they review the action plan that the collaborator has already prepared for the meeting – one which has had the benefit of cross-functional input and in-depth problem analysis and solution. A more comprehensive description of Vertical Review can be found in a different article.

* Baha’í Writings

** See 2023 case study of ProlecGE, the largest transformer solutions company in the continent.

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by Riaz & Linda Khadem

Many case studies are written expressing concepts aimed at boosting growth, increasing profits, reducing costs, gaining market share, etc. While these topics are important and worthy of exploration, the present paper is not about growth, profits, or other similar objectives. It is about how a company can operate wisely and intelligently in a state of alignment such that all employees move together as one.

With this approach, the desired results such as growth, profits, and the like become the byproducts of alignment, not its principal aim. The advantage of this approach is that emphasis is placed on processes, not on results, and the effective operation of the processes culminates in sustainable and outstanding results.

The tools and tactics for creating the state of alignment in organizations have already been explained in our book, Total Alignment. Our intention here is not to repeat what has already been stated but to provide a high-level summary of the interacting processes that create and sustain the state of alignment in an organization, and to share the thinking behind them.

To create a state of alignment in a company, we must go back to the basics of why an organization exists and what it aims to accomplish. If we consider the organization as a collection of people who come together to fulfil a need in the market, then each organization has a unique way of fulfilling the need it perceives, and thus pursues a unique mission.

In many companies, mission was articulated at some point in the past and the workforce might or might not be aware of it. In either case, not much attention is usually paid to it. Here, we put great emphasis on assuring that mission is articulated through the participation of the workforce, that it is clear, that it is a true motivator for action, and is understood by all. The closer the organization’s mission serves to better the world, the greater is its intrinsic value in motivating the employees with a meaningful purpose besides receiving a paycheck every month.

With the mission well defined and accepted by all, a vision of where the organization intends to be in five or ten years becomes essential. Vision must also be shared by all, not just by the CEO or top team. It must be crystal clear and inspiring. We say this because the keenness of vision causes the keenness of understanding, which is a powerful motivator for action. The picture of success in the future that makes up vision is like seeing the end in the beginning. * When the end is clearly visualized by all, it causes actions to occur by everyone that sooner or later coalesce into a force that produces the desired effect. Vision engenders creativity that turns into seemingly impossible outcomes.

The third element that together with mission and vision serves as the foundation of Total Alignment is the core values that guide the organization’s progress through time. Values are the guidelines for behavior for all. They are never compromised. The organization would rather lose a desirable customer or employee than compromise its values.

In summary, an organization, no matter how small or large, is a collection of people who work together to fulfill a worthy mission, with a vision of success in mind, and they follow a set of core values. What we have just stated is not new. All readers are familiar with these three foundational concepts. Almost all organizations have some statements of mission, vision, and values artfully displayed in the corridors of their companies and on their websites. What is new in Total Alignment is that these three are placed at the very center of everything the company does. Stated in another way, everything the company does is aligned with mission, vision, and values.

The three generate the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that measure the success of the organization. They create the end-to-end processes from sales and order entry to order delivery and after sales support. They cause the formulation of strategies necessary to achieve vision. They serve as guidelines for clarifying the expectation of all jobs in measurable terms and the value-add of every job through individual scorecards. They provide the standard for measuring the health of the business in business scorecards. They necessitate the establishment of cross functional accountability that erases silos. They call for a continuous flow of information to track progress towards vision. They mandate the establishment of fair compensation that rewards teams and individuals for their contribution toward the achievement of vision.

Total Alignment serves as the umbrella for everything that happens in a company. It has the methodology for all processes that flow from the three foundational concepts, mission, vision, and values. The implementation of Total Alignment follows four basic pillars: Vision & Strategy, Accountability, Information and Culture.

Vision & Strategy

 The key to the implementation of the vision & strategy as the foundational pillar of Total Alignment is the Alignment Map, a simple yet powerful construct that serves as the framework for action in the company. It is a map that connects the present with the future of the company and becomes the dynamic living instrument of alignment.

The mission, vision and values of the company are placed at its center. They illumine the company’s present operation as well as inspire strategies for the future. The left side of the map contains a tree of indicators of success or KPIs that measure the outcome of processes that exist or need to be created to deliver the vision. The right side of the map contains a tree of strategies with three main branches: market strategies for the business units or segments, support strategies and closing gap strategies required to build the future. Strategies formulated on the right side through a strategic planning process are converted into specific initiatives with project plans, milestones, and deadlines. The indicators of the success of the initiatives on the right side are designated by a measurable index we call INX that stands for initiative index.

When constructed, the Alignment Map tells the story of where the company is at the present and how it will advance in time toward its vision. The map stands apart and is independent of the organizational chart of the company. It is a document that is always kept up to date. When a new process aligned with vision is created, the KPI associated with it is added to the left side. When a new strategic initiative called for by the vision is initiated, it is added to the right side of the map.

We offer a word of caution to companies devising market strategies on the right side of this map. To be aligned with the values that often include trustworthiness, excellence, and contribution to the betterment of the world, care must be exercised to not include strategies that violate the values. For example, a strategy of increasing market share is acceptable if it encourages the company to be more innovative, more cost efficient, and more conscious of continuous improvement. It is not acceptable if it tries to misuse the company’s financial strength to initiate a price war to eliminate rivals or to pay employees less than what their contributions are worth to increase profits, or to misrepresent the company’s products or services through misleading advertising. Such strategies do not belong to Total Alignment as they demonstrate a compromise of values in favor of a short-term positive bottom line.

Accountability

The implementation of the accountability pillar of Total Alignment assumes that the right organizational structure is in place. Depending on the size of the workforce and the type of business, the organizational chart could be two to several levels deep. Connecting the Alignment Map with the organizational structure involves the distribution of each KPI from the left side and each INX from the right side of the map among the many jobholders of the company. Someone must be accountable for each of the indicators and initiatives.

The methodology for this pillar requires delegating the KPIs from the left side of the map to the lowest appropriate levels of the organization while assigning the INXs from the right side to the highest appropriate levels. This is meant to empower the lower levels who are closer to the frontline and encourage upper levels to be more strategic and future oriented. As the success of most KPIs or initiatives is dependent on the collaboration of several functions, the accountability for collaboration is also included in the process of delegation and assignment. The outcome of the accountability process is the creation of individual scorecards for each jobholder containing a mix of KPIs and INXs with primary accountability or cross-functional accountability.

The construction of individual scorecards that emerges from the Alignment map is what we call top-down accountability. To this process must be added a bottom-up approach where each jobholder adds to the content of his or her scorecard important KPIs or initiatives that might have escaped the top-down process. The scorecard that emerges will have the benefit of including the priorities at the frontline together with the requirements of the vision of the organization. The example of scorecards thus created can be found in our book, Total Alignment.

A scorecard that is produced through this process should ideally have five to seven KPIs and INXs with weights of importance. The purpose in keeping the numbers low is to focus each person on the vital few factors that have huge impact on the success of the organization following the Pareto principle. The jobholders close to the frontline would have responsibility for mainly KPIs and those at higher levels will have responsibility for mainly INXs.

Information

The information pillar is supported by an alignment software that connects to the data warehouse of the company and displays information needed by all jobholders on the performance of their scorecards as well as the scorecards of collaborators in their pyramid of responsibility. The software connects the individuals accountable for a KPI or an INX with their horizontal or vertical influencers and gives feedback to each jobholder on his or her contribution to turning vision into reality. The system that supports this pillar is TOPS – the One Page Software, a state-of-the-art proprietarysoftware that has grown in its capability throughout many implementations. Its key reports are three – The Focus Report, Feedback Report and Management Report.

The Focus Report is the report of the performance of the jobholder’s scorecard. It contains each of the KPIs or INXs along with the status of performance for the current month, and three goal levels – minimum, satisfactory, outstanding – that determine the extent of advance that has been made in performance. The Feedback Report lists the positive and negative exceptions from the Focus Report. The positive exceptions are those KPIs that have reached or exceeded the satisfactory level stated in the Focus Report. Negative exceptions are those KPIs that have performed worse than the minimum goal level. This report also provides information on how many periods in a row the exception has occurred and to how many upper levels it has escalated. The Management Report is an escalation report that displays all positive and negative exceptions up the line in the organizational hierarchy. It serves to inform a manager on what is taking place in his pyramid of responsibility down the layers of the organization. A simple, adjustable escalation scheme is embedded in the software that reports exceptions to levels above the jobholder depending on the number of consecutive positive or negative exceptions.

Beyond serving as the information provider, the TOPS software supports the fourth pillar of Total Alignment, Culture.

Culture

Companies that have experienced the implementation of the first three pillars described above have already noticed a significant culture change. Their workforce has appreciated the transparency of the process. They have been involved in articulating their company mission, vision and values and have taken ownership for them. They have had access to the framework for action in the alignment map. And above all, they have gained a laser-clear understanding of the relationship of their scorecard to the vision of the organization, the line of sight that is truly meaningful. Yet, the cultural advance associated with all this is just the beginning of a more profound cultural change through the fourth pillar, Culture.

There are a few principles that guide the culture of Total Alignment. Among them are two: the oneness of humankind and cooperation & reciprocity. *  The first has implications for the way everyone in the organization views and treats others. It implies that the treatment of others is not stained by the lens of otherness, us and them, white collar and blue collar, managers and workers, old and young, bosses and subordinates, regular workers and temporary workers. All are equal and one, although each person has a different contribution to make based on levels of education, skills, etc. All contributions are valued, respected and their diversity is a true competitive advantage. The application of this principle stands in sharp contrast to the culture that exists in many organizations where the organizational hierarchy gives permission to managers to feel superior to those reporting to them and to feel obligated to continually issue orders and directives.

The second principle, cooperation & reciprocity, has the implication of turning self-interest into the interest of the organization in pursuit of its vision. There is an investment of time and energy in cooperation and reciprocity that comes with the sacrifice of self-interest. The application of this principle also stands in sharp contrast to the culture that exists in many organizations, where climbing to the top often follows the path of individual advancement and putting down rivals.

Bringing about the new culture of Total Alignment is not easy, especially when there are structures already in place in the organization that encourage the wrong habits developed through time. We believe you cannot build alignment upon the status quo. Some existing processes must change and be replaced with new ones.

One such structure is the performance appraisal system that involves managers meeting once or twice a year with their direct reports to evaluate them and to determine the objectives to be pursued for the coming year. Often employees reporting to different managers receive totally different objectives more aligned with the boss than with the vision and strategy of the organization. In Total Alignment, we have eliminated this practice. The scorecards already define the jobholders’ focus, and the evaluation of performance is transparent in the performance of scorecards. When Total Alignment is implemented, the traditional performance appraisal practice that feeds the ego of the manager can be counterproductive, with little value to the employer or the employee is replaced.

We have replaced this practice with what we call vertical review, a process that begins with one-on-one monthly or weekly meetings of a manager with his direct report, not for evaluation, but for assistance and empowerment. The meeting is followed by action and then reflection on action in the subsequent meeting. This practice also affords the opportunity of the two individuals to spend time sharing insights on the core values of the company and to consult on plans to improve competencies needed to excel. Other topics important to each person are also discussed.

The takeaway from a vertical review meeting for the collaborator is that he leaves the meeting with sharper focus on action plans to improve his competency and the performance of his scorecard than when he entered. He also leaves with learning gained through reflection and with higher motivation than when he entered the conversation. The takeaway for the manager is that he becomes aligned with the direct report in their common aim to advance the company, gains confidence that the collaborator has clarity on what he needs to succeed and feels more in control of what will take place in his area of responsibility. The systematic nature of vertical review allows him to increase his span of control by working with more collaborators.

Where Total Alignment is implemented, the performance appraisal system is not abruptly taken out. However, as the vertical review process is implemented and demonstrates its value, the necessity for performance appraisal diminishes in time and the practice discontinues naturally.

A second structure that we felt the need to eliminate is the staff meeting of a manager with direct reports to review results. It is often a downward focused meeting where the result of each area is presented. The meeting takes a considerable amount of time especially when there are many presenters. Besides the fact that much of what is presented by one person is irrelevant to the others, it feeds the feeling of superiority of the boss who sits in a position of judgement of the presenters. This type of meeting is not aligned with the principle of oneness discussed above. While it has the potential of supporting the principle of cooperation and reciprocity, usually this opportunity is not explored.

We have eliminated such downward focused meetings in Total Alignment and replaced them with an upward focused paradigm, the team reviews. In a team review we require the same group to focus on the performance scorecard of the manager instead of the scorecard of the direct reports. This is a shorter meeting, more productive, and future oriented. With this flipped paradigm change, the manager and collaborators become focused on improving performance. Each collaborator is equally invited to contribute to the improvement of the manager’s scorecard. This meeting unites the group in a common purpose. Here, again, we are not suggesting an abrupt action of elimination of the current result meetings, but a gradual phasing out of the practice as the new process of team review takes hold.

A space is created in the team review to reflect on the meaning of the core values of the organization and to assure alignment of everyone with the desired behaviors. Additionally, team reviews spend most of the time on performance of the scorecard of the manager. The team spends time thinking about how each indicator or initiative serves to advance the vision of the company, why its performance status has been above or below the satisfactory level, and how it can improve.

Prior to the meeting, the manager selects one KPI from his scorecard as the main topic of conversation and invites jobholders not reporting to him, with indispensable influence on the indicator. This brings the cross-functional influencers together with the entire natural team to the team review meeting. Together they apply in-depth problem-solving tools to arrive at a strategy to improve the performance of the KPI. They assign tasks required by the strategy along with deadlines assigned to appropriate individuals.

The execution of the action plan takes place after the meeting and throughout the month. When the same group comes together in a subsequent meeting, reflection on action and learning takes place and the action plan is modified as needed for another cycle.

Action plans are constructed at the lowest appropriate levels to improve the performance of a KPI. For those who have management influence on the KPI, their action plans become delta action plans in the sense that their effort is directed to the delta influence they exert on areas out of the control of the person who has the primary accountability for the KPI.

In summary, this fourth pillar, powered by the two interconnected management processes of team review and vertical review cascades throughout the organization, strengthens the culture change already initiated and ensures the quality and sustainability of alignment. Each of the conversations in team reviews and vertical reviews follow a unique methodology. A template for action planning accessible to all managers supports the action plans generated in these meetings.

Team reviews and vertical reviews are supported by the TOPS software on computers or mobile devices to obtain timely, relevant, and accurate information needed at any time. The software also facilitates the generation and distribution of meeting agendas, capturing of commitments for action with deadlines, and sending of reminders and notifications.

Conclusion

This note has covered the summary and thinking behind the interacting processes that lead to a state of total alignment in the organization. Where these processes have been fully implemented, the vision of the company has unfolded and gradually turned into reality, and the results show for themselves. Often vision is achieved sooner than expected and the results are obtained beyond the outstanding levels. The results tend to be both tangible and intangible, tangible in the top line and bottom line of the company financials, and intangible in the cultural environment affecting the quality of life of the workforce. There is no single leader who takes the company on a journey to the desired future. There are many acting as one.

The main ideas discussed in this note are the following:

• The paper is not about how to grow your company or maximize profits. It is about creating a state of alignment where many act as one, with the outcome being unity and progress.
• Mission, Vision, and Values are the most important assets of the organization and must be at the center of everything.
• The Alignment Map serves as the framework for action for the organization.
• The structure of the alignment map consists of mission-vision-values at its center, the KPIs that measure the vision on its left side and strategies that carry the company toward vision on its right side.
• Devising strategy must not violate the core values. It must avoid practices such as price wars that affect competitors, false advertising, taking advantage of employees by paying them less than their contribution is worth, damaging the environment, etc.
• Vying with rivals is a good thing if it encourages the company and its competitor to both excel in creativity and excellence thus contributing to the betterment of the world.
• Accountability for all jobholders emerges from the alignment map. Each KPI and Strategic initiative is assigned to one individual as the main person responsible as well as to others who have indispensable influence on the KPI or strategic initiative.
• The Total Alignment concept of accountability encourages cross-functional collaboration and eliminates silos.
• Individual Scorecards are created through a top-down assignment using the alignment map as well as bottom-up complement to add the main measurable responsibility of the job.
• Goals for each KPI and strategic initiative are assigned and listed in the individual scorecard.
• The software TOPS links with the company data warehouse and displays the performance status of each KPI or strategic initiative.
• Twin management processes of team review and vertical review serve to boost performance, sustain the state of alignment, and create knowledge through experience.
• Vertical review is a one-on-one process that begins with a meeting followed by action and then reflection in a subsequent meeting. The learning model of consultation-action-reflection on action is embedded in this process.
• The vertical review process also focuses on the necessity of aligning with values and development of the competency of the collaborator.
• Team review is a team process where the natural team aims to improve the scorecard of the team leader. It begins with a meeting followed by action and then reflection in a subsequent meeting. The learning model of consultation-action-reflection on action is embedded in this process also.
• Team reviews and vertical reviews are cascaded at all the levels beginning with the CEO down to the supervisor levels in organizations. They sustain alignment through time, both horizontally and vertically.

* [Bahá’í Writings]

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Total Alignment is now implemented in major international corporations, and case studies are available in major business schools. Often we hear the same questions from those investigating the management system. We have put together some of those questions with short answers. We hope this is helpful.  This blog is organized in five sections comprising of general questions followed by questions about each of the four pillars of Total Alignment, Vision & Strategy, Accountability, Information, and Culture and the Management Model.

General Questions

Q: Which companies can benefit from Total Alignment?

A: The concepts of Total Alignment are universal and can benefit all companies, from all industries.

Q: Which companies can expect similar results to those of ProlecGE

A: Any company that implements the complete methodology without allowing resistance to change to derail the implementation can expect excellent results. There were several factors to Prolec that caused its success to be remarkable, such as outstanding leadership, favorable market, and available financial resources.

Q: We have our alignment through Management by Objectives where the objectives for the organization are cascaded down through our managers, each assigning objectives for the year to their direct reports. Can we say we have alignment?

A: You have the semblance of alignment, but cannot be sure you have real alignment, certainly not total alignment. It is like the telephone game when one person in a group of five to ten people sharing a statement with the next person and asks her to convey it to the next person and so on. Often the message received by the tenth person is completely different.

In management by objectives, each direct report becomes aligned with the boss based on what he hears from the boss, and the original message could have been lost in the cascade process. Often two people doing the exact same job reporting to two different bosses have different objectives. Additionally, the performance appraisal system gives plenty of latitude to the opinion of the managers at each level that might not be based on facts. In Total Alignment, everyone is aligned directly with the vision and strategy of the organization. The evaluation of performance is based on the performance data in the scorecard of the person.

Q: Is Total Alignment another form of Balanced Scorecard?

A: Both are excellent programs, but completely different. The only commonality in the two systems is the word ‘Scorecard’!  The methodologies, the approach to implementation, the er resulting culture and sustainability after implementation are all different. Even the scorecards defined in Total Alignment is fundamentally different from those defined in Balanced Scorecard.

The Scorecards in Total Alignment are both business scorecards and individual scorecards. Great emphasis is placed on individual scorecards that combine to impact the business scorecards. The contents of the individual scorecards measure the added value of the job and the role of the jobholder in impacting the KPI. Embedded in the definition of the individual scorecard is a delegation process that empowers the lowest appropriate levels to be accountable for directly impacting a KPI and focuses the upper levels on strategic issues related to the future. Additionally, the individual scorecards defined in Total Alignment include accountability for direct impact on a KPI as well as accountability for cross-functional and vertical influence. The individual scorecards serve to increase collaboration across functions and eliminate silos.

Q: Do we need Total Alignment if we already have Balanced Scorecard?

A: The answer is yes. Total Alignment complements Balanced Scorecard with all the features that exist in Total Alignment.

Q: We are very good at planning, but not so good at execution. How can Total Alignment help us with execution?

A: You are not alone. Many organizations have this challenge. To have good execution requires more than having a few people who execute well. It needs establishing a culture of execution through adequate methodologies and processes to enable everyone to improve execution. In Total Alignment, an infrastructure is constructed first with methodologies that use a software for keeping track and encouraging execution. Then, the twin management processes of team review and vertical review utilizes the infrastructure to ensure excellent execution.

Q: Can we identify our areas of misalignment and treat them one by one with different sets of methodologies?

A: Of course, and that will help you a lot. The organization will have better alignment in several areas or functions, but you won’t have total alignment across functions and throughout the company. The solutions you create in each area will probably not be aligned with each other.

Q: Does the structured approach in Total Alignment diminish creativity?

A: On the contrary, Total Alignment structures promote creativity. One of the structural elements of Total Alignment is the cycle of Team Review, where teams including the owners of a KPI, and all the influencers gather to brainstorm and improve the performance of a KPI. Within this structure and aided by the guidelines for consultation emphasized by Total Alignment, the free flow of ideas leads to creative solutions that are adopted, acted upon, and reflected upon in the next cycle. The pursuit after creative solutions is embedded in the Total Alignment process.

Q: If we already have similar elements from Total Alignment implemented in our company, do we still need Total Alignment?

A: That is a question you will have to answer yourself.  It depends on how well those elements have been implemented, how aligned they are with one another, and how well they work together to boost the progress of your company.

Q: Some of our top managers were recruited from successful organizations. Implementing Total Alignment means they should change the way they manage. Will we lose in the process? 

A: These managers have no doubt gained competence in management and could produce results using their own approach based on the competence they have gained. They would, however, recognize the value of the Total Alignment process that includes much of what they have learned from their previous jobs. So, for the sake of alignment with their similarly competent colleagues and especially with the lower levels they supervise, we recommend that they embrace the Total Alignment process.

Q: Implementing Total Alignment will take time of our managers who are already on overload. How can they keep focused on delivering results and implementing a whole new way of managing at the same time?

A: Acquiring anything of value requires investment. In this case, your managers will have to invest their time to do both, continue to perform and produce results in their jobs and implement the Total Alignment process as necessary. This has been done in many organizations and has proven that the investment of time has been well worthwhile.

Q: We tried to implement Total Alignment after reading the book, but it didn’t work, people found the management process cumbersome and time consuming.

A: The success of Total Alignment depends on the way it is implemented. As Total Alignment impacts so many people, functions, and levels of management, it requires certified external facilitators who have experience in implementation. It is a cultural transformation that does not lend itself to ‘do it yourself’ by internal resources who are already ingrained in a culture that must change.

First of Four Pillars – Vision & Strategy

Q: We all have Mission, Vision, Values. We invested time creating them, why not use what we have?

A: Are they truly at the center of everything the company does? And are all activities in the organization aligned with them.? If there is true ownership of these statements by the owners of the business, the board, and the workforce, then you don’t need to create new ones. If you decide to create a new set, you can incorporate what you have into the new definition.

Q: About strategy, there are those who say, forget about strategy. Instead, be awake and grab opportunities that emerge dynamically because you can’t foresee opportunities ahead of time. What does Total Alignment say about that?

A: Total Alignment says that you should have a clear strategy for the future but be open to opportunities that arise and modify your strategy accordingly.

Q: We’ve implemented blue ocean strategy. Is Total Alignment another strategy we must pursue?

A: The Blue Ocean strategy as well as similar strategies available in the literature are different approaches to your market. In Total Alignment, market strategy is one of the components to consider. Your Blue Ocean strategy might fit that component. The other components are Support strategy and Closing Gap strategy.  The Total Alignment process includes guidelines for each of these three components. The guidelines are process guidelines, not content guidelines. In other words, Total Alignment does not suggest what you should do, but gives you a process to enable you to make your own decision to create the strategy you need.

Q: Why do you use the alignment map to capture strategies, why not let each area develop its own strategy and execute?

A: Implementing strategy involves investment. Different business units or areas of the company can indeed develop strategies for their own area. Without the Alignment Map, the area that gets a strategy funded could have a leader who is the most assertive or politically connected. It is possible that this area should not actually grow but be divested if the personality at the head is not considered. With the alignment map, Total Alignment brings transparency to strategic decisions at the upper levels of the organization. The Alignment Map becomes a tool for dynamically updating and always showing activities for the present and future of the company.

The Second Pillar – Accountability

Q: The accountability pillar appears to be time consuming. Why not make everyone accountable for the main indicators of the company – Sales, expenses, profits, and growth?

A: If everyone is accountable for an indicator, it means no one is. Each person assumes others will do something to improve the performance. You need one person at the lowest appropriate level to be accountable. That person could be the CEO for EBITDA or the supervisor on the line for % Rejects depending on the KPI. Other people who can exert their influence on the KPI would also have accountability for exerting their influence.

Q: You can’t measure many jobs, especially staff jobs, so how do you define a scorecard for everyone?

A: This is exactly where the cross-functional influence in Total Alignment comes in. If the job is necessary, the person performing the job can measure his or her added value. Staff jobs exist to serve line areas. Therefore, they can have accountability for their influence through what we call critical influence factors that can be defined in their scorecards. Their scorecards can also include strategic projects. If a job cannot be measured and does not serve other areas, then that job is not necessary and can be eliminated.

Q: What does a typical scorecard for a top-level manager look like?

A: It will have about five indicators or strategic initiatives the person is accountable for. At this level, there could be one or two management factors related to the basic KPIs of the company, perhaps one or two indicators of cross functional influence and two or three indicators for the execution of strategic initiatives of the company.

Q: What does a typical scorecard for a supervisor look like?

A: As this person is close to the frontlines of the operation, his or her scorecard will have perhaps three to four critical success factors of direct influence, perhaps one or two factors of cross-functional influence.

Q: What is unique about the Total Alignment scorecard?

A: There are five unique features in the Total Alignment individual scorecards. 1) it imbeds the delegation of responsibility across levels and functions of the organization, 2) it distributes the shared responsibility across functions to eliminate silos, 3) the numbers displayed in the scorecard for critical success factors are not averages or totals, they are source numbers, 4) the scorecard is aligned with the vision of the organization and shows the line of sight to advancing towards vision, 5)  the scorecard clearly defines the priorities of the job and the focus of the person.

The Third Pillar – Information

Q: What is the purpose of TOPS, the One Page Software?

A: The purpose of TOPS is to provide the performance status of each scorecard to its owner, to the influencers of the KPIs, and to management levels above, once a period. The period could be daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, although the most popular period is monthly. The information is provided in three one-page reports, the Focus report which is the actual scorecard, the Feedback Report that has the positive and negative exceptions of the jobholder, and the Management report that has positive and negative escalations of the collaborators’ performance.

Q: Can we do Total Alignment without TOPS?

A: If you do, you won’t have Total Alignment because the software is a big part of the infrastructure of alignment that has a complex internal network to facilitate information flow among people vertically and horizontally. Without it, maintaining alignment will be a real challenge.

Q: How does TOPS access source information?

A: TOPS access to source information is through interface templates connected to the information warehouse of the company. It is managed by the IT department and supported by the software provider.

Q: How secure is TOPS?

A: The security protection from outside of the company is ensured by installing it behind the firewall of the company, therefore, it is as secure as other information in the company. The security protection from inside is through username and passwords.

Q: Can I use TOPS on my smart phone?

A: Yes, a mobile version of TOPS has been created to enable users to obtain some basic information, also to send and receive notifications related to the fourth pillar, the Management Model.

Q: What is unique about TOPS?

A: TOPS uniqueness is due to its design for enabling the entire management from the CEO down to the frontlines to have visibility, depending on their password permissions, of business scorecards, and individual scorecards of every job. It sends push information that any jobholder needs to see every period and enables the jobholder to research further and pull information to assist him in developing action plans. It provides a template for action plans linked to every KPI and Strategic Initiative. It enables each jobholder to generate agendas for team reviews and vertical reviews and to capture the agreements and commitments that result from these meetings. It sends notifications via TOPS mobile to jobholders when their commitments are due and enables jobholders to close their commitments and upload support files. It allows additional commitments to be entered through smartphones. TOPS calculates a performance score for the jobholder that can be linked to compensation for a given interval. TOPS serves as the engine to facilitate alignment.

The Fourth Pillar – Culture, Management Model

Q: You talk about the culture of collaboration and alignment in your book, how can Total Alignment prevent diverse opinions to divide rather than unite the team? Sometimes, directors scream at each other in the leadership team of companies.

A: Expressing disagreements is good, but screaming is not. When companies engage us to facilitate Total Alignment, we first bring the top team together and explain to them that if they want alignment, they should define the ground rules for all their meetings and promise to make the effort to abide by them. We then engage them in defining the ground rules for all their meetings that often include everyone participates, no put downs, listen to understand not to respond, no hierarchy in expressing opinions, express your ideas clearly but be detached from them, no interruptions by cell phones except for emergencies, no side meetings that diffuse attention of the group.

These guidelines are usually adopted. They are called “the code of conduct” and are adhered to in every team review and vertical review of the company and beyond that in all spaces. It is amazing how this simple tool helps alignment.

Q: What is the purpose of Team Review?

A: The main purpose of Team Review is to improve the individual scorecard of the natural team leader. The natural team comes together every period to review the scorecard of the team leader, pick an indicator needing attention and use problem solving tools to create an action plan for the indicator. Through this team effort, a plan with action steps assigned to appropriate individuals is formulated and put in motion. The plan is then reviewed in the next cycle of Team Review and the learning is applied for continual improvement.

Q: What is the purpose of Vertical Review?

A: The main purpose of Vertical Review is to give each manager a time to review the scorecard of a team member, to reinforce the positives, and review the negatives along with the action plans developed in the collaborator’s Team Review. It provides the opportunity for the boss to suggest improvements to the action plan and lend his or her support.

Q: If the purpose is performance, why are there four conversations in team review and vertical review?

A: Because the aim of Total Alignment is not just to improve performance, but to create a culture of alignment in which good results will be only one of its main byproducts. For this reason, a few important conversations are added while these twin processes of Team Review and Vertical Review are being conducted. This is why the team review conversation includes conversation about culture, about teamwork and synergy. The vertical review includes conversation about culture, development of the collaborator, and other important topics.

Q: How can conversation about culture in Team Review impact culture?

A: The culture of Total Alignment takes shape as the core values of the organization are practiced by each person and the processes of Total Alignment become embedded in the organization. Conversation about the pinpointed behaviors that make up the values of the organization shows the team members that the company is serious about alignment with values. The conversation has an impact on how people behave on a day-to-day basis. Over time, the cultural transformation takes place.

Q: What about culture conversation in Vertical Review?

A: As the Vertical Review is a one-on-one conversation between a manager and his or her direct report, conversation about culture enables the two to explore gaps between existing and required behaviors that need attention.

Q: If we have values in the organization, why focus on behaviors? People can figure out what to do based on their understanding of the values.

A: Theoretically that is true, but values are such broad topics that everyone can interpret them in their own way. In Total Alignment, a tree of relationship between behaviors and values is constructed to give everyone a more exact definition of the values. For example, being responsible could be a value, but how can you tell if someone is responsible without looking at the behaviors he or she is demonstrating. Pinpointed behaviors for this could be arriving to meetings on time, or delivering the work promised on time, etc. Through the team reviews and vertical reviews in Total Alignment, everyone strives to align with values by aligning with the pinpointed behaviors that make up each value.

Q: There is a conversation about development in team review and in vertical review, what is the difference?

A: In team review, the conversation is aimed at improving teamwork. In vertical review, the conversation is about improving the competency of the collaborator.

Q: There is a conversation about “synergy” in team review and “other topics” in vertical review, what is the difference?

A: In team review, the conversation is aimed at sharing information with the whole team about learnings or best practices from one area aimed at cross functional collaboration and synergy. In vertical review, a space is opened to allow discussion of other topics important to the collaborator or the manager.

Q: Can we skip the three conversations in Team Review and Vertical Review and just focus on performance?

A: You can, but it is not recommended. You might wish, however, to schedule any of the other three conversations in team review and vertical review quarterly.

Q: Can our top performers who already know how to manage eliminate the team review and vertical review conversations.

A: Absolutely not, if you want to see a cultural transformation in your company. The team review and vertical review are not just for them, but for the people they manage down the layers of the organization. Although they might not need it themselves, their people do. If your top performers don’t practice these two management processes, what are the chances that the lower levels beginning with their direct reports would practice?

Q: What is the real value of Team Review and Vertical Review

The value is in what happens before, during and after the conversations in both Team Review and Vertical Review. The preparation before has the value of prompting the participants to pay attention to information by studying the performance of a scorecard and thinking about what is necessary to improve its status. The experience of the conversation during the Team Review and Vertical Review results in strategies for improvement and concrete action items assigned to appropriate individuals. What happens afterwards is the execution of the commitments generated in these sessions and tracked by the TOPS mobile software with notifications and reminders. Together, the Team Review and Vertical Review provide the attention necessary to assure excellent execution of action plans aimed at KPIs and the strategic initiatives. But the real value is cultural transformation that takes place through strengthening horizontal and vertical alignment among the participants, and alignment with the core values of company.

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In our book, Total Alignment, we have presented a systematic process for connecting the mission, vision and values to the activities of every job holder in the organization thus aligning their contributions with its intent.

Alignment is necessary if you are serious about reaching the high goals expressed in your mission and vision. Your mission and vision must not only be well-defined, but you need a process in place to close your mission gap and vision gap. What are these gaps? To clarify, let’s take a closer look at the definition of mission and vision.

Mission and vision

We define mission as the reason for existence. Your mission is the motivating force behind what you do. Your mission is your purpose. A worthwhile mission is one that serves others. Your vision, however, is the picture of your success in the future. It is the picture of success five to ten years out. Imagine it’s ten years from now, and you have succeeded in delivering your mission, what would that success look like? How would you describe it? Mission and vision each have an important yet distinct role to play.

We have often seen mission and vision statements that are overlapping. There is no need to state how successful you want to be in the mission statement, and there is no need to state what your business does in the vision statement. Both statements of mission and vision should be clear and inspiring for the workforce. Their value lies in their clarity and their ability to motivate your people.

What is vision gap?

Your company achieves its vision through the operation of your existing processes, such as the recruitment process, the training process, the sales process, the production process, the delivery process, the post delivery process, etc. With the right processes in place and adequate financial strength, achievement of vision is possible.

Often, vision statements are so audacious that existing processes, no matter how well executed, will fall short of delivering the intended results. If your vision statement implies doubling or tripling the size of your company, you will have to overcome the distance between what you can achieve through your existing processes and what your vision requires. This is what we call the vision gap. You overcome your vision gap through strategic initiatives that serve to create new processes. The following questions can help you determine the extent of your vision gap.

• What is the size limit that you can achieve through organic growth of your existing businesses to reach your vision for, say ten years, from now?
• What is the delta growth you will need to achieve to close the gap through in-organic growth?
• How will you finance your organic growth to achieve its limit?
• How will you finance your inorganic growth to close the gap?
• Closing the vision gap

To close the vision gap, you will need to consider both the organic growth and the inorganic growth. Here are some suggestions for reaching your vision through organic growth:

• Improve your main product, service or market technology to capture new customers, in current or new geographic markets.
• Improve a basket of products or services to introduce to existing and new geographic markets.
• Use synergistic strength among the basket of products or services to capture market share.
• Modify or develop new products/services into existing customer segments and later into new markets.

Here are some suggestions for closing the vision gap through inorganic growth:

• Acquire a major or equal competitor and apply your know-how to manage a larger organization. A merger could work also, provided you maintain control.
• Diversify with related new products or services in order to compete in selected segments of your business where growth has been slow. This can also improve sales of other segments of your business.
• Diversify with unrelated new products or services that serve your mission- targeting present customers with present distribution channels. You can augment sales with new products of cyclical sales patterns. This diversification can also increase revenue from your current products or services.
• Explore backward integration. In other words, move into an area that currently serves as your suppliers. Consider purchasing a supplier or establishing a subsidiary company. This strategy can also enhance your supply chain and improve the quality of raw materials or inputs into your production.
• Explore forward integration. In other words, enter into an area that is the customer of your products or services.
• Consider acquiring companies, establishing production facilities, wholesale systems or retail outlets. This strategy will enable you improve sales and increase stability in production by exercising greater control over marketing and better coordination between distribution channels and manufacturing.

What is the mission gap?

You are currently delivering your mission using today’s technology and infrastructure. Mission usually doesn’t change with time. When your vision window is five, ten or more years in the future, you will still be delivering your mission. However, as technology or infrastructure are bound to change, you might need to deliver your purpose in a different way. The difference between how you deliver your mission today versus in ten years is what we call the mission gap. For example, if you are in the retail business, most probably in ten years from now you will be selling to your customers through new channels and in a different way.

• Here are some questions to help you determine the extent of your mission gap:
• Will your mission still be understood and relevant ten years from now?
• Who will your customers be in ten years? What demographics & geography?
• How will your mission serve these customers in ten years?
• What products or services will deliver your mission to these customers in ten years using tomorrow’s technology, and how different will that be from today?
• How will these products or services be delivered to your customers in ten years using tomorrow’s infrastructure and how different will that be from today?
• How will you acquire or develop the needed technology?
• How will you acquire or develop the needed infrastructure?

Closing the mission gap

Closing the mission gap requires developing a new model for delivering your mission in ten years, a model that considers tomorrow’s technology and infrastructure. This will require you to be cognizant of the trends in technology and infrastructure and projections of your future customers’ demographics and consumption habits.

Mission and vision gaps in strategic planning process

While most companies have a mission and a vision, they are not at the center of those companies’ planning process and are consequently ignored. While the strategic planning emphasis is usually placed on growth, competitive strategy and on capturing new markets, few companies ascertain whether their strategy is adequate to deliver their vision. We strongly recommend adding the concept of closing the mission and vision gaps to your planning process. Not only will it increase the probability of success but will also serve as a key instrument for aligning your human talent on the road to success.

This article was originally published by Entrepreneur.com: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/321515

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• Is your company fully in tune with its customer base?
• Are your internal processes delivering your value proposition with quality and speed?
• Are your people fully engaged in running the processes at optimum capacity?
• Are your top executives fully engaged in addressing the future needs of your customers?
• Are your top executives spending the majority of their time addressing the future?

These are some of the key elements of an aligned organization. How can you get there? Here are five steps to help you achieve alignment in your company or organization.

Step One – Develop a Clear, Unified Vision and Strategy

When the vision of a company is clear and unified, people will make their best effort to contribute to its achievement. When a creative strategy is in place, you have a roadmap to vision. With these two you have a solid foundation for alignment, the energy to move forward, and the inspiration for everyone to find a part to play.

Step Two – A Frame of Reference for Strategy Execution

Why is strategy execution a challenge for most organizations? There can be many reasons but here are a few of the most common: There are too many strategic initiatives. The initiatives don’t match up with the budget.  People don’t understand the strategy.

To make it possible to turn your vision into reality, establish a frame of reference. The framework we recommend is the ‘alignment map’. Draw a diagram with the vision in the center. Link your key performance indicators (KPIs) to the vision on one side and the strategic initiatives on the other. When this map is constructed, it can serve as a powerful instrument for aligning your organization, and a mechanism for strategy execution. These concepts have been developed in our book, Total Alignment.

Step Three – Establish Accountability through Individual Scorecards

Most business scorecards consolidate important financial information for the KPIs of a company. But establishing accountability requires a different kind of scorecard – one for each person. The individual scorecard should show the roles of direct impact, horizontal influence and management influence for each KPI from the alignment map as well as the assigned strategic initiatives that build your company’s future. A well-defined scorecard provides a clear and measurable focus for the job and a line of sight to vision and strategy.

Step Four – Sustain Alignment through Feedback Information

Managers need information to do their jobs. They need feedback on their own performance and information on the performance of the people they manage. Accurate and timely feedback enables managers to adjust course for themselves and for their people. Without feedback information, how can they stay aligned? How can they manage?

Step Five – Sustain Alignment through Management and Leadership

Management is improved when individual scorecards are in place and when feedback information is provided to each person. But, to sustain alignment, a leadership process is needed.

Leaders can sustain alignment by inspiring collaboration among people who tend to be focused on their own agendas and work within their silos. Leaders have the opportunity to help their team become more aware of cross-functional needs. Leadership involves breaking the silos. It requires empowering the workforce to make their own decisions. It involves helping people develop their capacity and compensating them for their real contribution.

These five steps are key to establishing and sustaining alignment in your company. They will help you transform your organizational culture over time. You will progress towards total alignment and will see the great results continue year after year. To learn more about implementing these five steps, go to our website, www.totalalignment.com.

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But in today’s competitive corporate climate, it’s not enough to have just a basic and operational company culture. To succeed and stand out above the rest, an organization must encourage and foster a true high-performance organizational culture. A culture of performance provides a company with its single greatest source of competitive advantage since this type of environment inspires people to go the extra mile, and to make and execute good decisions even when management isn’t looking. So what breeds these high performing cultures? Typically the environment in these companies fosters beliefs, values, character, and rituals that create a deep bond among employees, making their work meaningful and rewarding.

So how do you create this culture in your company? The first step is aligning all levels of the organization. The leadership must connect today’s work with where the business is heading and provide employees with a unified message that reinforces the company’s mission. Every manager needs to model the high performance culture and show employees how to “live” the organization’s mission. Modeling the desired behaviors shows employees that the culture and the supporting behaviors are real.

Similarly, these cultures have employees who think like owners and have an incentive to action. The leadership and employees equally participate in discussions and decisions and are open to change. When individuals understand the boundaries in which they can operate, as well as where the company wants to go, they feel supported to decide and act, and most often make the right choices. They are empowered and begin to think and act like an “owner”.

Next, high performance cultures employ an effective performance management process that allows leadership to schedule regular and open one-on-one conversations with their team. Employees need to understand their individual and collective responsibilities and management needs to support them and ensure that they are aligned to the company goals. Good leaders disseminate and individualize key messages and follow up as needed to make sure employees understand those messages. Also, help your employees set challenging targets. Your team will rise to high standards and the more they expect from themselves, the more they will achieve. But be careful to differentiate between good stretch goals, which can energize a person, and bad ones, which can lower morale.

Finally, cultures that churn out high performers are customer-centric. Employees recognize and respond to changing information from the marketplace and feel empowered to develop innovative ideas to meet market demands and stay ahead of the competition. Contributions from high performing employees at varying levels allow the organization to connect with customers and create a branded and unique experience.

Starting with these basics, you can build and better your organization’s culture and put everyone on the path to high performance and success!

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Culture

Culture defines the way people interact. It is lived every day by your people. A strong and positive culture should be modeled by everyone in the organization from the CEO to tech support to the sales representative. Culture drives the company, its behaviors and results, and guides how employees think, act and feel.

So how do you become a true leader and implement a positive culture? By living it. When employees see that their leadership is committed body and soul to the organization, they are also likely to strive to embody those cultural tenets. If you feel a certain culture is important to the success of your company, you must show that commitment by demonstrating the culture in your own behaviors. Developing and exhibiting a strong and positive culture is one of the most important traits of a true leader.

Performance

Another quality of a true leader is performance. This means having great performance yourself and also enabling your team to operate at peak performance. When your team sees that everyone around them, including you, is aligned with the company goals, this encourages them to keep improving. Providing your employees the right framework and tools to perform at high expectations encourages your team to want to reach those goals.

Alternatively, when a mistake is made, true leaders address it, put a plan in place for improvement and move on to the next issue. A good leader will align the performance plan to the company goals, and encourage the employee to take responsibility for the improvement plan. This type of resolution motivates employees to take action and elevates their performance.

Mission

Finally, leaders align their organizations with a unifying mission. It sounds simple, but you’d be surprised at how many employees don’t know what their company mission or goals are, or how to articulate them. A mission should be something that everyone can rally around, including customers, and should also be clear and relevant.

And, like culture, the company mission shouldn’t just be mentioned on websites and printed on business cards. It should be woven through the fabric of the organization and should dictate what type of performance behaviors are valued and rewarded at your company. And of course, the mission is something that is reflected in the way you act as a leader. Modeling the mission statement garners respect from your team and inspires them to align their behaviors, too.

Implementing these three things in your organization will put you on the path to becoming a true leader!

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Envision a future

An organization’s vision is effective only if it balances multiple dimensions at once. It must convey the mission of the organization in a meaningful way to inspire everybody. It must be long term to provide the energy for outstanding accomplishment, yet it must short term to help everyone focus on the immediate future.

Communicate the vision

Integrate the vision and strategy into people’s daily work. Be sure everyone truly understands what the vision is, why it is important, and what behavior transformation is needed to achieve it. Make sure people understand that the transformation is not just another corporate initiative destined to fall by the wayside.

Align the entire organization

These requirements mean that organization leaders from the CEO cascaded down to the lowest levels, and not just the communications or HR staff, must be involved in communicating the message. This way, the leaders own it, use their own language in connecting with their collaborators, and convey a message they believe in.

Highlight success

As people at all levels begin to understand the need for the transformation and alignment, they also expect to see the transformation’s effects. What will fuel the alignment process is spreading the news of the successes that come from alignment. Celebrating success encourages more alignment towards company goals.

Check in for misalignment

There are tools and processes that leaders can use to measure the extent of alignment or the extent of misalignment. These alignment assessments and surveys can be analyzed to pinpoint quickly the specific areas of misalignment. Once they have a clear understanding of where the gaps are, the leaders can put a plan in place to rectify them.

Offer training

If periodic assessments show that your organizational competencies are out of alignment, offer training for your people. This support ensures that workers’ desired competencies and skills align with the company’s priorities. This may mean offering support with workshops and seminars, updating processes, or providing access to relevant resources. This continuing education helps employees understand and adopt new behaviors aligned with the desired culture.

Support the team

Training alone will not be effective. Training should be followed by accompaniment and feedback. When people develop new competencies they will need initial training but support in the form of observation and meaningful feedback until they master the skills.

Using the guidelines above, your organization will be on track to success.

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Some people embrace it and some people resist it. Experienced and successful leaders will agree that effective change demands planning. Developing the skills and a process to realize and manage organizational change requires enhanced leadership abilities. How do you gain the support of your employees for even the most drastic of changes? Let’s take a look at some key behaviors to facilitate change in others.

Communicate

We’ve all heard the phrase, “it’s not what you say, but how you say it” and that is paramount when rolling out change to an organization. When you’re intending to introduce change, the planning process should involve input from the workforce on the best way to implement the change. If your organization has conducted employee surveys in the past, draw on that information and discuss with employees the reason for the change. Incorporating their feedback and their role in the transition process will be received well because they feel like their voice is heard. You’ll find people will be far more committed to the change if they see that their feedback has been considered. They will embrace the change with a more open-minded stance and do so with a sense of ‘ownership’ over the proposed change. Also, align your proposed changes with the corporate and company goals. Positioning the decision as ‘progress’ towards these goals is a great way to enable your employees to focus on the positive side of the process.

Support

Good leaders recognize that their team is diverse and are aware that people adjust differently to changes. In the initial phases, people don’t know what to expect and wait with anticipation. Some employees may become angry and resentful. When they realize that change is actually going to happen, people experience sadness about leaving behind the former way of doing things. Finally, they begin to accept the change and move forward. Learn to be patient when helping employees deal with change. Provide adequate training for any new policies, technology, and procedures. Your team and the organization will need this time to develop a new comfort level and replace the old. Since it usually takes at least four weeks to develop a new habit, make sure to provide adequate training and support with this in mind. Don’t just give a hour seminar on a new procedure or technology and expect everyone attending to be proficient after one or two sessions. Encourage employees to tell you when they feel comfortable and confident with the new change.

Implement

Once you’ve communicated a change that aligns with the goals, and provided support for this phase, it is time for a successful implementation. Develop a timeline on specific actions of implementation and determine the priority of actions. Along the way, facilitate and support the change to ensure a smooth transition. Open communication is also important at this stage, and giving employees a timeline and expected outcomes will ensure everyone is aligned and is moving in the same direction. Finally, affirm, appreciate and reward your employees frequently during the period of change implementation. When employees feel your appreciation and praise, they are motivated to keep pushing through the transition phase.

Monitor

After the implementation phase, don’t just disappear behind closed doors and assume that everything has successfully transitioned and people have adjusted. Review the progress of the change and maintain open lines of communication. To do this, good leaders walk around their organization and talk to their teams. Set a good example and walk around to see how the change is affecting your organization. By doing this, your employees will trust in the change process and this quality communication reduces the low productivity and morale issues that typically come with transition. Timely information also helps you overcome resistance, complacency, and other obstacles to transforming your organization.

Overall, keeping an open mind and employing these behaviors will facilitate a successful transition in any organization.

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