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Successful organizations are continually looking for ways and areas to improve in order to gain a
competitive advantage. Two critical questions that are often asked by senior management are:
“How do we know that resources are being properly allocated,” and
“How can we better utilize our limited resources?”
These questions moved us to examine the whole issue of what are the critical elements which
contribute to organizational success. As a result of this examination, we discovered that when an
organization’s systems and departments are aligned, their success is far greater. The research
showed that from 1991 to 2000 the stock of companies that were more greatly aligned
increased in value by an average of 51% per year versus the Standard & Poor’s increase
of 11.5%. Clearly alignment pays.
We know that the interrelationships of processes and departments within an organization are an
important element in determining overall success. If the marketing and R&D departments are both
strong, but they are not working together, the result will be the identification of products or services
that no one wants. By the same token if an organization’s structure does not support its strategy,
the organization is out of alignment and the strategy will probably not be achieved.
Organizations that learn to identify new relationships between what they do and the results they
seek can further increase the gap between themselves and their competitors. This is important in
today’s business environment. Constant radical change, uncertainty, new rules and regulations,
increased customer demands, and “alphabet soup programs” proliferate in our daily business
environment. How to manage it and how to thrive under these conditions depends a great deal
upon how well your organization is aligned.
What is D.I.AL.O.G.?
D.I.AL.O.G. (Data Indicating Alignment of Organizational Goals) is an organizational assessment
tool that identifies how well critical elements are working together to achieve business and strategic
goals. It also identifies which of these critical elements are working against you.
Our approach is unique in that we measure the interrelationships of the essential elements
which become predictors of future strength. We are not concerned with measuring communication
for communications sake, but rather how effectively an organization is communicating to its
employees. As such our approach is outcome focused.
Critical areas:
Seven critical areas are measured. After years of research and validation these seven areas have
been found to have the greatest impact on the development of organizational effectiveness. They
are also the seven areas identified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) and make up the Criteria for Performance Excellence as used in the Baldrige National
Quality Program. They include:
Leadership,
Strategic Planning,
Customer and Market Focus,
Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge,
Human Resource Development and Management,
Process Management,
Business Results.
see: www.quality.nist.gov/Baldrige_Process
How to get started:
First, senior management must determine there is a need for data in order to better understand
their organization. Second, they must be committed to using this data to better allocate their
resources to improve results. After these determinations are made an approach is developed to
gather data from the organization.
Gathering the data:
Two methods are utilized to gather organizational data:
Personal interviews, and
Questionnaire survey.
Personal interviews are conducted by trained facilitators to gain an understanding of the intensity of
feelings within the organization.
The survey is used to gather the depth of understanding, and the views of the employees, and to
determine directional trends.
Key activities:
Personal interviews
Administration of D.I.AL.O.G. questionnaire
Scoring of responses
Presentation of results
Discussion of positive and negative influences
“Gap” analysis and directional recommendations