Why Every Business Needs An Organizational Fitness Review

Helping Companies To Survive And Thrive

Piloting a business through calm seas can be challenging enough. You have a business plan in place, and you try to follow it. However, when skies darken, winds howl and the full fury of a storm engulfs your business, it is vital that a business owner take stock of the ‘fitness’ of the company. Signs of an unfit organization include leadership that is unclear about direction, lack of communication in planning and execution, inadequate skills, or poor horizontal coordination and implementation. ‘Fitness’ is particularly important in rapidly growing or changing companies that have lost their way in the competitive environment or are still growing but see no bottom line profits. In times like these, leaders must ask themselves “what will lead to sustainable success”?

ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS
• Are you willing to question assumptions and change them?
• Do you and your team have the capacity (and the will) to learn what you do not know about the business and your own effectiveness?
• Do you have the courage to confront difficult business, organizational and human issues?
• Will you listen?
• Are you willing to realign the basic design of the organization as needed?
• Will you replace those who cannot or will not learn?
• Is there a process in place of ongoing disciplined inquiry and norms that value valid data?

Conducting a comprehensive Organizational Fitness Review will challenge you to answer these questions and more. The review process forms a catalyst for growth for those who wish to get to the root cause of flagging revenue and profits. A review tests whether the organization is aligned with its objectives, strategy, tasks and governing values. When used effectively, leaders can steer a careful path away from tops down or laissez faire management styles, which avoid conflict, to a style that engages people and issues. Building Organizational Fitness is a disciplined and tested management process that accomplishes three fundamental tasks:

• Develops a compelling and coherent statement of business and organizational direction
• Creates a broadly validated diagnosis of the current state of your business
• Provides agreement on, and implementation of a shared agenda for action owned and driven by a broad partnership that spans the business
• Provides a road map by which leaders can lead learning and learn to lead

The Organizational Fitness Review provides the leadership team with clear priorities that lead to improved operational performance. Based upon the McKinsey 7S Framework developed by Waterman and Peters, our Organizational Fitness Review is formulated by strategy, structure, skills and capabilities, style of leadership, staff, and shared values culture. The goal is to convert “low hanging fruit” opportunities into an integrated approach of melding people, strategy and financial performance to deliver the desired results. The outcome will be a road map that improves management team effectiveness in planning and execution of the strategic plan.