Driving toward Success with Organizational Focus

If you asked me to help you determine whether your team or organization is focused on what’s most important to the business, I would look at six indicators. They are all individually important, but together paint a comprehensive picture of focus. I can tell a lot of things about an organization from analyzing these indicators.

Rate your team or organization from 1-10
1 = Does not describe my team, 10 = Highly descriptive of my team

_____    The mission, goals, and top priorities are known and understood by all employees.

_____    The desired drumbeat is clear. The desired pace, speed or work, and sense of urgency is known and shared. Natural cycles are understood and managed.

_____    People are spending time on relevant work (relevance means that tasks support what’s most important).

_____    The organization is aligned. We are set up for success. Our structure, roles, systems and processes optimally support our goals.

_____    The organization is self-correcting. Problems are caught quickly and failures don’t often blind-side us.

_____    We achieve great results without overstressing the organization.

I would not expect all ones or tens, as most companies struggle with a few of these indicators. It is helpful to notice your organization’s most troubling barriers and see how these connect to the six indicators of focus. I link these indicators to focus because they affect how people make choices about how to spend their precious time.

Bring this checklist into your next staff meeting for a lively and helpful discussion that will help you determine which improvements will most help you and your team focus. You can also use this tool to assess the health and focus of your customer/supplier relationships.

Comments

[Wally Bock]

Congratulations! This post was selected as one of the five best business blog posts of the week in my Three Star Leadership Midweek Review of the Business Blogs.

http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2009/02/18/21809-midweek-look-at-the-business-blogs.aspx

Wally Bock

[Lisa Haneberg]

Wally - thanks so much for sharing this and other great posts - I hope people check them out!

[Skip Reardon]

Hi Lisa!

Great short list! I found these to be very much in line with the rhythmic business-building disciplines described in Six Disciplines for Excellence, by veteran CEO and best-selling author, Gary Harpst.

Here's how I see your focus indicators stack up with Six Disciplines:

The mission, goals, and top priorities are known and understood by all employees. (Disciplines I. Decide What's Important)

The desired drumbeat is clear. (Discipline II. Set Goals That Lead)

People are spending time on relevant work (Discipline IV - Work The Plan)

The organization is aligned. (Discipline III. Align Systems)

The organization is self-correcting. (Discipline IV - Work The Plan, and Discipline V - Innovate Purposefully)

We achieve great results without overstressing the organization. (Discipline VI. Step Back)

Great way to start the dialog for organizational focus!

Skip

[Lisa Haneberg]

Skip - thanks for the analytical comparison. Your match ups seem about right. I guess the only additional comment I would make is that drumbeat is both about processes but also the level of engagement in the workplace (the drumbeat of the social context).

[DEbashish Brahma]

Wonderful post,

If you look into success of an organizations, it's basically it's human manpower, as all strategies and business activities are drawn are drawn by human resource.

I think the most important part of success is a product of three major factors.
Success of an Organization = Success of it's human capital.

Success of human capital/manpower is the product of on three factors .

Success= Energy Management X Time Management X Law Of Focus .

In majority i,e 90% of the cases people mismanage the three factors , an that's pathetic.If the people are not successful the organization where they work will never be successful.

With Warm Regards