At the A/E Advisors CEO Forum that I attended in Scottsdale, AZ last month, one of the round table topics was “Ensuring Cultural and Organizational Alignment.”  What does that really mean?  I would define this concept in several ways:

  • Ensuring the people you employ fit the organization’s culture;
  • Ensuring the workplace environment that you have created matches the business and/or organizational structure;
  • Making sure the business you have created is aligned with the values, vision and mission for the organization.

Sometimes it’s hard to step back and take a close look on what you have created, whether it’s a new business, new department or new program for your organization.  Still, it’s critical to understand what you have in place and ensure what you create is aligned with your goals and objectives.  This is a fluid process and ensuring cultural and organizational alignment can mean many things to different people, but all of the above concepts are good food for thought for business leaders who want to have a greater understanding of their staff’s engagement and the success of their organizations.

A few examples:  Recently we worked with a small federal contractor who is growing by leaps and bounds.  As a result of this growth, they are concerned about losing their cultural identity and don’t want to lose what they created when they started the business many years ago.  As a result, we’ve been working with them to keep the organization’s leadership involved in the recruitment, selection and on-boarding programs, which is a valuable step to ensuring the sustainment of their culture.

Another example of cultural and organizational alignment is when you may have a senior member of your team that is not connected and/or is no longer matched with the company’s mission.  Along the way in his/her career, this individual became disconnected, disengaged and therefore is not effective in his/her role.  How does that happen?  As the key decision maker in your organization, what do you do about it?  Do you allow this individual to continue to be ineffective, look the other way and possibly negatively impact others in the organization?  What message does that send to the rest of your staff?  Not a positive one.  The appropriate solution is not always an easy one.

In either example, here are a few tips and/thoughts to consider that will assist you to align your organizations’ culture and values:

  • Revisit your core values and instill them in everything you do in the organization
  • Integrate these core values in the recruitment and selection process to ensure you’re hiring the right people
  • Communicate your values and culture to ‘new employees’ during the on-boarding process
  • Mention these values in your staff meetings  and provide examples on what they mean to you, your employees, customers, constituents and/or clients, and how they impact the business
  • Make management accountable for living, breathing and communicating what’s important to the staff
  • Stay involved with your staff
  • Tie your organizational values to the annual performance review cycle/program
  • Help employees understand your organizational values and  how to apply them to what they do on a daily basis
  • Integrate your values into training and development programs
  • Step back and revisit what the culture is in your organization and help your employees understand it
  • Evaluate whether your organizational culture has changed over the years
  • Define your organizational values and culture, then ask your employees to define it and compare

Finally, sometimes you have to make the difficult decisions when people are not performing and as a result are no longer aligned with the organizational culture.  Not taking action can be costly in terms of business, retention of staff and your ultimate success.  If you always remember what you are trying to create and the passion and commitment that you are trying to instill in others, you will find success in aligning your organizational and cultural values.