SBA Consulting - The Strategic Alignment Survey™

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The Strategic Alignment Survey™

The Strategic Alignment Survey™ helps leaders to identify differences of perspectives among key stakeholders on strategic choices and decisions facing their organizations. It is particularly useful for letting executives, including Boards of Directors, know that they have the alignment needed to move forward confidently with the implementation of strategic plans and initiatives.

This is because stakeholder alignment with strategic plans and initiatives exponentially increases the likelihood of success especially when compared to a lack of alignment which tends to result in significant barriers to implementation that are evident in churn, indecisiveness, and even paralysis. Unfortunately, the political nature of most organizations can make it difficult for leaders to determine whether or not they have the level of stakeholder alignment necessary to avoid these problems.

The Strategic Alignment Survey™ helps to overcome this difficulty by providing a safe and effective tool for allowing stakeholders, such as executive teams, boards of directors, customers, suppliers, alliance partners, mid-managers and employees, to say what they are really thinking about the strategic choices facing the organization. It focuses the debate and dialogue on more productive discussions of differences of perspective versus on differences of personality. This helps to move the discussion forwards towards achieving the aligned commitment necessary to get results.

Assessing stakeholder alignment on strategy

The Strategic Alignment Survey's flexible design provides leaders with the opportunity to customize up to 50 item statements so that they can assess stakeholder alignment on the strategic topics that are most relevant to their organization. Leaders can select from a menu of statements that includes categories such as competitive differentiation, growth strategies, internal capability development priorities, and vision, mission and values. There is also an option to develop customized statements that are unique to the organization's specific situation and needs.

The survey is fully web-enabled and is currently available in English and French. It also captures the background information of the stakeholder groups being surveyed, such as the name of the group and their location, to aid in the comparison of responses.

By reporting results in a scorecard format (green, yellow, red), leaders can quickly share results, hone in on any significant misalignments and identify which stakeholder groups need to be engaged in conversations about strategy. Gaining the ‘green light' allows leaders to move forward confidently, knowing that the commitment of all stakeholders is behind them.

Increase the success rate of your strategic plans and initiatives

Proven to significantly increase the success rate of implementing strategic plans and initiatives by achieving the stakeholder alignment needed to move forward quickly and confidently with strategy implementation
Identifies differences of perspective among stakeholder groups that can lead to new insights and potential opportunities
Identifies potential barriers to implementation during the early stages of strategic planning so that they can be dealt with in a proactive versus reactive manner
Creates a forum for productive dialogue that focuses on differences of perspective versus differences of personality
Provides an efficient and effective means to engage stakeholders in the development of strategic plans and initiatives thereby increasing buy-in and commitment to related decisions

Confirm alignment on decisions of strategic importance

Use the Strategic Alignment Survey™ as a key contributor to...

Strategic Planning Retreats

before

Strategy Implementation — Confirm the alignment and commitment of key stakeholders before proceeding with strategy implementation. If aligned, proceed confidently. If unaligned, a focused dialogue can take place

Goal Alignment — Identify ownership and accountability for each of the critical strategic goals and initiatives in your plan

Board and C-Suite Alignment — Assess the alignment of the Board and C-Suite executives on the strategic direction of the organization, strategic plans and priorities

Vision, Mission and Values Initiatives

Additional features

Fully compatible with the Culture-Strategy Fit Profile™
Customized to your organization's specific needs (menu option and full customization are available)
Surfaces what people are really thinking
Confidential, web-enabled survey that eliminates costly interviews and focus groups
Cost effective, fast and easy to use
Short lead-time set-up, few administrative requirements and rapid turnaround of results

Page last updated: July 21, 2005

‘A primary task in taking a company from good to great is to create a culture wherein people have a tremendous opportunity to be heard and, ultimately, for the truth to be heard .

Jim Collins
Good to Great

We are faced with an onslaught of issues that eliminate time to think and plan - we're too busy fighting the alligators to find a way to drain the swamp... This process (SBA) helps get the issues on the table in an incredibly fast and efficient manner so that they can be dealt with.

John Walter, Senior Director Standards Development
Canadian Standards Association

'What Accounts for the Superior Innovation Performance of High Growth Firms?

'...High Growth Firms may possess superior institutional capabilities including the leadership, structure and organizational culture that enables them to capitalize on their innovation investment. Less innovative firms may be able to assemble various innovation capabilities but may not necessarily know how to stitch all of the pieces together in a manner that yields the best possible results.'

The Conference Board of Canada
Canadian Standards Association
Nov 04

As specialists in organizational culture, Strategic Business Alignment helps business leaders accelerate strategy implementation, shift culture and achieve significant improvements in organizational performance. Our proprietary Culture-Strategy Fit Profile™; gives organizations an assessment of what their culture is, how it affects performance and achievement of strategy, and where to focus to improve culture-strategy fit. Our diagnostic tools and talent network bring leading-edge culture change approaches to clients in a broad range of industries and sectors.