Even if everyone is rowing diligently, the boat won’t go anywhere if they’re paddling in different directions. Learn some approaches with no specific knowledge to ensure aligned progress.
Strategic alignment is the backbone of any successful organisation. Yet, a study published in the Harvard Business Review by professors Vikas Mittal, Alessandro Piazza, and Ashwin Malshe uncovers a stark reality: the gap between perceived and actual alignment is far wider than most companies imagine. Their research, which surveyed employees across various organisations, revealed that while 82% of employees believed they were aligned with their company’s strategy, only 23% could provide consistent and accurate descriptions of what that strategy entailed.
As the CEO of one of the companies in the study concluded:
“Everybody seems to be interpreting strategy based on their functional silos, even members of our strategy team.”
The gap between perceived and actual strategic alignment is a silent drain on organisational effectiveness. While employees may believe they are aligned, the data paints a different picture, and this misalignment manifests as slower execution, reduced quality, and workplace friction.
The findings indicate that employees are interpreting strategies through the narrow lens of their functional silos. This fragmentation has far-reaching consequences:
The authors offer a solution for the problem:
Okay, you already know the importance of alignment, but how to define the right priorities for your next move?
Strategic thinking consists of the mix of abstract and concrete thinking, linking strategy and everyday operation. It shall connect lots of data points built on metrics and exact figures. Besides quantitative elements, it may also use qualitative tools like benchmarking or SWOT analysis. As a result, you can define your conscious steps for advancing and you can make a conscious decision.
However, there is another way of setting the priorities in case of missing the systematic approach of strategy elaboration for whatever reason (resources, time, capability). It is collective wisdom.
Having various experts from all around the organisation in the same room can foster ideas that are widely acknowledged to be important for the performance and feasible for realisation. Experienced colleagues can ‘feel’ what to do next as they have seen many trials and their impact before.
Channelling the best ideas from within an organisation unlocks the power of diverse perspectives, fosters greater buy-in, and drives more effective execution.
However, leveraging collective wisdom requires a structured approach. Without it, discussions can become mired in personal preferences and conflicts, leaving potential innovations unexplored. Here’s how to guide collective input toward impactful strategic decisions.
Every corner of an organisation holds valuable insights—from front-line employees engaging with customers to back-office teams navigating operational challenges. Collecting ideas broadly ensures that:
- Diverse perspectives shape the strategy.
- Front-line employees feel heard, fostering engagement.
- Blind spots and untapped opportunities are addressed.
However, people naturally prefer their own ideas. Without a way to resolve conflicting views, strategic discussions can stall.
When personal preferences collide, principles become the resolution mechanism. Agreeing on a shared set of principles helps depersonalise decisions and focus on what truly matters for the organisation. For example:
Define business impact attributes, align ideas with measurable outcomes such as:
- Revenue growth
- Customer satisfaction
- Innovation and differentiation
- Competitive positioning
Also define feasibility elements, assess the practicality of implementation based on:
- Cost and resource requirements
- Complexity of execution
- Dependencies on other teams or external vendors
Agreeing on these principles upfront ensures debates centre on objective criteria rather than subjective preferences. Spend enough or even a lot of time on discussing the principles and their relations to each other. Sometimes the hot debates should be about these in order to save time and save comradeship when it comes to concrete ideas.
To synthesise diverse input into a clear strategy, create a scoring model that evaluates each idea against the agreed principles.
How it works:
1. Impact dimension: Score how each idea aligns with desired outcomes like revenue, customer satisfaction, and innovation
2. Feasibility dimension: Score how realistic the idea is to implement based on cost, complexity, and dependencies
3. Combine scores: Plot ideas on a matrix where high-impact, high-feasibility ideas take precedence.
By involving team members in scoring, the organisation taps into collective wisdom while also creating a transparent, inclusive process. The result is an ordered list of priorities that reflects both aspiration and practicality.
Effective strategies must balance bottom-up insights with top-down vision. Each has its strengths and challenges.
Bottom-up priorities leverage the expertise of front-line or headquarters teams, ensuring strategies are grounded in operational realities and existing strengths. Though they tend to focus on incremental improvements or "business as usual" ideas, which may lack transformative ambition.
On the other hand, top-down priorities provide a bold direction for change, ensuring strategies address big-picture goals and the company's long-term trajectory. Their risks may disconnect from operational realities if not informed by operational insights.
Now that you have your well defined strategic priorities, the next struggle organisations often have in today’s fast-paced business world is translating strategy into action. Franklin Covey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) offers a practical framework that bridges the gap between good ideas and effective execution. The model combines theory with real-life practices to help teams focus, align, and achieve their most important objectives.
Here’s a closer look at the four disciplines and how they drive results:
The cornerstone of 4DX is selecting the one wildly important goal that requires extraordinary focus and that would not be achieved without that special attention. While many good ideas exist, organisations have limited capacity to execute them all. Identifying the most critical objective ensures resources are directed where they matter most.
A well-defined WIG includes:
Success comes from saying “no” to lesser priorities and giving undivided attention to the WIG. Without focused effort, even the best strategies will falter. However, bigger organisations may have more than one WIG on company level, but only one at unit level.
Execution hinges on understanding the difference between lag measures and lead measures:
Focusing on lead measures ensures your team is working on controllable actions that move the needle on lagging indicators. This creates proactive momentum toward achieving the WIG.
Imagine playing a game without knowing the score—it would be hard to stay engaged. The same is true in the workplace. A visible, up-to-date scoreboard keeps teams energised and focused on their progress.
Effective scoreboards should:
People play differently when they keep score. The highest engagement occurs when team members can see the direct impact of their efforts on the WIG.
Execution thrives in an environment of accountability. Regular and frequent team meetings ensure progress stays on track and challenges are addressed promptly.
In these meetings, team members:
Commitments are powerful because they:
Accountability meetings create a rhythm of action. They foster a culture where individuals take responsibility for their contributions and continuously push toward the goal.
The 4DX model is more than a framework—it’s a culture of disciplined execution that aligns teams and transforms strategic aspirations into tangible results. The beauty of 4DX lies in its simplicity. Success doesn’t come from complex processes or overwhelming initiatives but from a disciplined focus on what truly matters most. As Covey’s model demonstrates, execution isn’t just about getting things done—it’s about getting the right things done in a way that drives sustainable, impactful results.
