Sustaining Change
The strategic plan identifies the approach the organization has chosen to achieve it’s goals and objectives. In order for a strategic plan to be effective, it must close the gap between the vision and deployment. The challenge of deployment is dependent on the organization’s ability to align the goals and objectives of the strategic plan across all levels and to all functional units. Getting employees aligned with the company’s strategy is the most important and most challenging task facing any organization.
Creating Buy-in is a complex matrix of empowerment, accountability and communication. The failure of most change initiatives is a result of inadequate communication with insufficient volume.
The use of balanced scorecards can create the will to align strategic goals between the macrosystem and the microsystem and between the microsystem and the macrosystem. They can provide information between the two systems for future strategic planning. Leaders who take action to “grow” microsystems’ create a capacity for improvement that can achieve superior microsystem performance. This success is dependent on creating simple rules with linked metrics to evaluate the success of microsystem initiatives and to provide timely feedback to staff.
Tools are needed to provide this critical interface and to create the institutional memory, effective communication and monitoring essential to driving and sustaining performance objectives and outcomes.
