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Aligning your team for success

By: Michelle Welch, Learning & Development Consultant, 28 April 2016 Categories: Leadership

97% of employees and executives believe lack of alignment within a team impacts the outcome of a task or project. Source: Clear Company

Many organisations invest a great deal of time carefully crafting a mission statement and corporate objectives in the belief that this will provide direction and galvanise the workforce into action. All too often, these manifestos are not brought to life in day-to-day activity.

A team cannot perform to its full potential unless it is aligned with its organisation’s goals and objectives. To achieve this, every effort needs to be made to translate these objectives into clear deliverables.

So how can you breathe life into your strategy to achieve team alignment?

We recently held a workshop for a client, during which we focused on nine elements to form a team canvas that aligns with the organisation’s strategic goals.

We looked at:

  1. Purpose – why we are doing what we are doing?
  2. Identity and ownership – department responsibilities and team roles
  3. Strategic outcomes – what does the group/team want to achieve?
  4. Goals and measures – what are our goals? What are we measured against? What are we known for?
  5. Strategic initiatives (actions and tactics) – practical, clearly defined actions
  6. Individual goals – what are our individual goals in relation to the team, strategic outcomes? E.g. I’d like to see improvements on how we communicate with one another.
  7. Needs and expectations – to be our best, what do each of us need from the team?
  8. Utilising our strengths – what skills do we have collectively that can be leveraged to support success?
  9. Overcoming challenge and risk – What are the challenges and obstacles we see ahead? How can we overcome these as a team?

Inviting opinions and suggestions from your team promotes engagement and ownership. Ensuring your strategy is brought to life provides tangible direction and focus for each team member.

Why not try using the above elements to help facilitate the development of your team’s strategy? We’d love to know how you get on. Alternatively, if you would like The Juniper Co. to facilitate, please get in touch!