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
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