Context Alignment

Strategy Management Through Context Alignment

A better process for driving strategy execution

Introduction

Many organizations suffer from strategy-execution gaps caused by non-alignment. In industries dependent on specialized knowledge workers and self-organizing teams, the impact of non-alignment can be catastrophic. But existing management methods to drive coherent alignment are largely ineffective and executives find themselves reacting to the damage caused by non-alignment rather than the root causes.

Context Alignment is a new management science that uses the power of narrative and innovative metrics to identify and correct the causes of non-alignment.

The Challenge

Modern enterprises rely on the coordinated actions of workers networked across specialties, time zones and organizations. Their skills not only inform the strategy but also drive its implementation. Management’s challenge is keeping all teams coordinated.

A company's interaction with its ecosystem is a related challenge. Similar to employees, a firm's ecosystem will seek to self-align in mutually beneficial ways. The challenge for management here as well is to effectively align their efforts and leverage their contributions.

Distinctive Characteristics

Properly aligning all elements improves execution. But current methods to drive alignment fall far short of the challenge. Personal performance-based systems do not address external ecosystems, and incentive-based approaches often lead to unintended consequences.

The breakthrough distinctions between Context Alignment and all previous methods to drive alignment are;

1. its focus on the power of narrative as the primary alignment driver, and
2. its ability to identify misalignment through organizational (not personal) metrics.

The Power of Narrative

Narrative (or storytelling) is the most powerful cultural mechanism for aligning people. The corporate narrative is strategy in human terms. Powerful narrative is a learned skill, it conveys nuanced context and drives execution. Powerful narrative combines content, style and a call to action. Compelling stories are repeated through management layers to and from the ecosystem.

A strategy can be continuously evolved through its narratives. Valuable additions to the strategy and commitment to it are garnered by encouraging contributions from stakeholders. This bi-directional characteristic distinguishes narratives from market messaging. Analyzing the collections of corporate narratives for coherence and fidelity provides diagnostics for closing strategy-execution gaps.

Measuring Alignment

Newly developed metrics provide an authoritative way to measure organizational alignment. Incorporating elements of Situational Judgment Testing, the measurement quantifies the variations in responses from stakeholders to business scenarios. The method includes ecosystem perspectives and internal analysis of operating behavior.

The metrics immediately identify sources and topics of non-alignment. They plainly highlight the contextual gaps that need leadership attention.

Summary

The strategy-execution gap highly correlates to context misalignment. Context alignment is an innovation in strategy management that offers a better way to drive new strategies and a pragmatic way to measure alignment.

Executives responsible for strategy can improve operating results, respond faster to the market, and reinvigorate teams through these practices.