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Strategic Analysis Best Practice 4 – Independent Assessors

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StrategyDriven Strategic Analysis Best PracticeAn individual’s perception of circumstances and events is largely shaped by his/her knowledge and experience, beliefs, values, and biases. In the organizational setting, this perception is influenced by the organization’s shared history, its culture, and the individual’s relationships with seniors, peers, and subordinates. Additionally, event perception is often limited by the individual’s finite, relevant knowledge and experience, as well as his/her employment impact concerns and desire for self-promotion. To be effective, a strategic analysis must be free of the impairments and limitations individuals within the organization have when assessing internal events and impactful external circumstances.

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

New Model Release – Stakeholder Commitment Evaluation Model

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StrategyDriven contributors are proud to announce the release of our fifth model: Stakeholder Commitment Evaluation. This model provides decision-makers with a tool to assess and re-assess the relative importance and contribution of each decision stakeholder as circumstances evolve.

Decision-Making Best Practice 3 – Broad Commitment

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StrategyDriven Decision Making Article | Broad CommitmentAs stated before, effective decision-making provides the organization with a unified direction aimed at achieving a primary objective and possibly one or more secondary goals. Regardless of the decision’s complexity or its immediacy, the probability of realizing a desired outcome is directly related to the organization’s ability to execute the decision in a deliberate and focused manner. Broad organizational commitment to the decision and its execution is essential to achieving the unified action needed for a successful outcome.

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

StrategyDriven Organizational Accountability Forum

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Accountable organizations are unique creatures; standing out from others because of their superior performance, greater employee loyalty, and higher customer satisfaction. Although the rewards are great, many companies will not embark on the journey to accountability because attaining and maintaining high levels of organizational accountability is extremely difficult.

Organizational accountability exists when all members of the workforce individually and collectively act to consequentially promote the timely accomplishment of the organization’s mission. Examined more closely, this means that:

  • all members of the workforce: Includes executives, managers, and individual contributors. Executives and managers are responsible for holding their subordinates accountable for the effective and efficient conduct of activities supporting mission achievement. Subordinates, through their actions, set an example by which positive pressure is applied to their peers and seniors for greater accountability.
  • individually act: Enough individuals throughout the organization must act accountably in order to achieve the critical mass necessary for the existence of an accountable organization. Some individuals, such as the chief executive officer, must exhibit and reinforce accountable behaviors for the organization to be truly accountable.
  • collectively act: Often, groups of executives, managers, or individual contributors make and execute the organization’s decisions. Under these circumstances, it is critical that the group act in accordance with the organization’s values to accomplish its mission and avoid easy outs and the tendency to fall into a mode of group think.
  • consequentially promote: Accountability cannot exist without both positive and negative consequences. To consequentially promote the organization’s mission implies that individuals and groups will not only act in ways that seek to accomplish the mission but will recognize and reward those who do so exceptionally and appropriately act to minimize behaviors less supportive of the organization’s goals.
  • timely accomplishment of the organization’s mission: For accountability to exist, one must know what is to be accomplished and within what time frame. No one can be accountable for accomplishing an undetermined goal for there is no basis against which to measure their accomplishments. Likewise, a goal that is not bound by time can never be considered to be incomplete or have insufficient progress because the individual or group working toward such a goal has an infinite amount of time to reach it.

Focus of the Organizational Accountability Forum

Materials in this forum explore the key attributes of accountable organizations and why many executives and managers intentionally or unconsciously avoid raising their organization’s accountability. We identify the programs, processes, and actions that can be taken to help promote increased accountability. Finally, we’ll examine the many benefits that accompany higher levels of organizational accountability and why accountable organizations realize them while others don’t. The following articles, podcasts, documents, and resources cover those topics critical to establishing a highly accountable organizational culture.

Articles

Principles

Best Practices

Warning Flags

Resources

Books

Recommended Resource – The Accountable Organization

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The Accountable Organization: Reclaiming Integrity, Restoring Trust
by John Marchica

About the Reference

The Accountable Organization: Reclaiming Integrity, Restoring Trust by John Marchica illustrates how executives and managers can build a corporate culture based on integrity, accountability, and trust. Mr. Marchica provides practical methods for building a principled organizational culture through planning, communication, leadership, conflict resolution, and risk taking.

Benefits of Using this Reference

Highly accountable organizations realize several strategic advantages, including the ability to attract and retain the best talent and to more readily recognize and seize upon emerging business opportunities, because of their more engaging and productive work environment. While these rewards are substantial, many executives and managers will not embark on the journey of creating an accountable organization because attaining and maintaining high levels of accountability is extremely difficult.

StrategyDriven contributors believe there exists an interrelationship between an organization’s strategic planning and tactical execution and its level of accountability. We like The Accountable Organization because it illustrates this relationship and provides methods for leveraging planning and execution to build a culture of accountability. Many of the best practice recommendations found on the StrategyDriven website elaborate on the actions recommended in The Accountable Organization; making this book a StrategyDriven recommended read.