Organizational Assessment - Why You Get The Results You Do

by Bill Granda

Since 1991, as consultant, business coach, and advisor with Paradigm Associates, Bill Granda has been helping businesses and individuals improve their ability to overcome obstacles and get results. He engages with key players and teams, particularly those in or approaching important transitions, to develop and execute practical business and transition strategies. Clients have found him especially helpful when they recognize they have to do something different, but don't know exactly what that is, or they know what is needed but aren't sure how to best get it done. Many of his clients are closely-held and family businesses, non-profits, and professional firm owners who put a premium on professional competence and really helping their clients.

I've often used the term "operationalizing your strategy" for the process of getting every part and every person in your organization understanding and consistently doing whatever needs to be done to implement your strategy and achieve your business goals. In other words all parts of your organization are aligned, people, structure, processes, and working together, horizontally and vertically, to accomplish what needs to be accomplished.

Picture this scenario to illustrate the bad results from even one small piece being out of sync. In the middle of an unusually busy evening, a family restaurant experiences a problem in the kitchen that further delays service. The line of parents and children waiting to be seated extends out the door, and waits grow to half an hour. One family finally makes it to head of the line. They see wait staff and even the manager bypassing them in their frenzy. Finally a busboy stops to assist. With a friendly smile and apologies for the long delay, he finds them a table. There they wait 45 minutes; no one on the wait staff even acknowledges their presence. Finally the manager passes by. The father stops him to ask when they'll be served. The manager apologizes and then asks, "When you were seated, weren't you told that because of the delay, the salad bar is on the house?"

The busboy had gone beyond what he was normally expected to do to help this family, and did it in a very friendly manner. Unfortunately he didn't have that one important piece of information about the salad bar. It might not have completely saved the evening for that family, but it sure would have made their wait easier. If that one bit of information had been communicated to the busboy, his contribution could have made at least part of that family's experience more positive.

Along with the wisdom that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and the assumption that most people would prefer to know up front what's working well in their businesses and what isn't rather than learn from customers' bad experiences, some questions to consider include:

• What exactly has to work well for you to deliver products/services that attract customers and keep tham coming back for more at a reasonable profit or ROI now and even better ROI in the future?
• How well are the parts (people, processes, systems) working horizontally? Vertically?
• Are you sure you know what parts are working together? How do you know? What if you're wrong?

If (a) you've got a need for greater assurance of accuracy in your understanding of your organization and the answers to these questions and (b) you're committed to using what you learn to better allocate resources to improve results, it may be helpful for you to know about Paradigm Associates's D.I.A.L.O.G. organizational assessment instrument. D.I.A.L.O.G. provides information as to how well critical elements are working together to achieve business and strategic goals. It also identifies those critical elements that are working against you.

The D.I.A.L.O.G. instrument measures the interrelationships of the essential elements that become predictors of future strength. Measurements and assessments are made in the 7 areas used as criteria for the Baldridge National Quality Program: Leadership; Strategic Planning; Focus on Customers and Markets; Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management; Staff Focus; Process Management; and Organizational Performance Results.

The instrument has provided invaluable discoveries and confirmations in industries such as construction - related, consumer goods, distribution, defense, health- care, education, financial services, government, manufacturing, and non-profit. Organizational sizes have ranged from under 10 to more than 1,000 employees.

If you'd like to learn more about the instrument, how it's administered, or how it might be used in your company, call me at (702) 395-0380 for an informational, no pressure conversation or visit our website for contact information for anyone else in our firm Office Locations .