Corporate strategy is how organizations assess their capabilities and business environment, determine what’s important to them, set meaningful goals, and develop a roadmap on how to achieve success. Without strategy, the organization can easily fall into disarray, mismanage conflicting priorities, and become reactive (not proactive) to business issues or changes.
The same can be said for process management teams. Without a clear strategy, they can suffer from disorganization, conflicting or overlapping projects, and struggle to show the value process work brings to the organization.
This is where one of my favorite of the Seven Tenets of Process Management—strategic alignment—comes into play.
I like to think of strategic alignment as the tenet process teams use to drive sustainable value for their organizations. Strategic alignment is important because it helps process teams understand what’s essential to the organization and equally important, WHY others are working on specific initiatives. All of which helps teams know where to focus their energies to create the most value.
Three Key Components of Strategic Alignment
Strategic alignment refers to how well process management links to organizational objectives and is comprised of three key components:
- Alignment includes the integration with business and organizational strategies, as well as integration between the business on their process management strategy and approach.
- Execution refers to the standardized approach of conducting process initiatives (typically using project management methodologies).
- Strategy is a plan to achieve a specific end-state, goal, or objective.
Strategic Alignment Doesn’t Have To Be A Struggle
Strategy and process management activities should be integrated and form a symbiotic relationship. The focus of process management depends on current strategy, and process management activities and measures help decision makers track progress toward goals and determine where to make strategic changes.
Historically, organizations have struggled with this tenet. Over the years process teams report challenges in:
- engaging leadership in the value of process work—which makes it difficult to integrate with the strategic planning process—and,
- aligning process efforts to organization strategies—sometimes due to a lack of clarity or understanding of the process’ role in strategy execution.
APQC’s research on process programs and strategic planning indicates that process programs are starting to make improvements in this tenet because:
- Strategy Support is Paramount. Process teams’ primary purpose has shifted from driving incremental improvements (e.g., cost and cycle times) to supporting the execution of the organization’s strategy.
- Strategy Drives Process Efforts. Process teams’ efforts are typically guided by business and/or corporate strategic goals.
- Process is an Input for Strategy. Organizations use current process performance as an input for their strategic planning process.
In many ways, the last year has helped organizations see the strategic support that process teams and their capabilities can provide. Organizations have a greater understanding of the value of BPM efforts, particularly in their ability to fix broken processes, create new ways of working, engage people in change, and quickly adapt priorities and resources to support the organization’s priorities (e.g., digitalization). All of which may have helped pave the way for better strategic alignment.
To learn more about Strategic Alignment, the following are great recommended reads:
- Best Practices in Strategic Alignment: The Seven Tenets of Process Management,
- The Building Blocks of Process Management Maturity: Strategic Alignment, and
- How Process Programs Stack Up: Survey Summary Report
- Strategic Planning and Organizational Agility: Survey Summary Report.
Additionally, APQC has specific training on the Seven Tenets that you might find interesting. The two courses that really hit on these tenets are:
• Process Management Essentials
• Process Framework Essentials
For more process and performance management research and insights, follow me on Twitter at @hlykehogland or connect with me on LinkedIn.