ValuExecBlog

The 9 Elements of Organization Health

In my last post, I wrote about organization health and how it was difficult for organizations to remain fit and healthy over time. I made mention of the 9 elements of organization health and the Law of Entrainment. I would like to expand on these 9 elements in this post, namely what they are and their impact on the organization when combined with other elements.

To recap, organization health is the ability of an organization to align, execute and renew itself faster than the competition so that it can sustain exceptional performance over time. As mentioned, there are 9 elements of organization health, namely:

1. Direction

2. Leadership

3. Culture & Climate

4. Accountability

5. Co-ordination & Control

6. Capabilities

7. Motivation

8. External Orientation

9. Innovation & Learning

The first 3 elements (Direction, Leadership, Culture & Climate) when combined determine how well the organization is aligned vertically. That is how well the objectives are shared and supported by the culture & climate of the organization and how meaningful they are to employees.

The elements of External Orientation, Leadership and Innovation & Learning when combined determine how well the organization is aligned horizontally and therefore its capacity for renewal. In other words, the combination of these 3 elements will highlight how effective the organization is at understanding, interacting with, shaping and adapting to its situation & external environment.

The final 4 elements, namely Accountability, Co-ordination & Control, Capabilities and Motivation together with the second element of Leadership when combined will determine the ability of an organization to execute its strategy and together highlight whether the organization has the capabilities, management processes and motivation to execute with excellence.

It is easy to see that if any one of these elements is out of alignment, it will have an impact on the performance of the organization. In addition each of these elements has a number of management practices associated with it and high performing companies must have a basic proficiency in all of those practices.

My next post will discuss these practices and how all are not created equal.

Yours in execution,

ian

Organization Health ~ Why organizations find it hard to remain fit (An Introduction)

Organization health is the ability of an organization to align, execute and renew itself faster than the competition so that it can sustain exceptional performance over time. There are 9 elements to organizational health which when broken down will determine how aligned the organization is vertically (i.e., where shared objectives are supported by the culture and climate in the organization and are meaningful to each employee), horizontally (i.e., where the organization is effective at understanding, interacting with, shaping and adapting to its situation and external environment. In other words, its ability to renew itself) and finally executionally (i.e., whether the organization has the capabilities, management, processes and motivation to execute with excellence).There are 34 practices linked to the 9 elements and organizations can not afford to ignore any of these practices and maintaining a minimum standard of proficiency across all the 34 practices is vital for the overall performance of the organization.

Alignment is the essence of execution success but constant change both externally and internally within the organization makes it difficult to maintain. The result being such that should any one of the 9 elements be out of alignment, it will throw all the other elements out of alignment thereby making it difficult for the organization to execute effectively and renew itself. This is only natural and is governed by the Law of Entrainment whereby the element with the strongest rhythm pulls all the other elements in synch with it.

But, not all elements are created equal and some when combined with others will have a greater impact on the health of an organization than others. However having a basic understanding of each of the 9 elements and the practices associated with that element is crucial for organization performance but unfortunately such an understanding is not always apparent in organizations and as a result the health of the organization is compromised.

We will explore the 9 elements and their corresponding practices in future posts. 

Yours in execution.

ian