Alignment

Every October, we finish our strategic plan for the upcoming year. It is important for us to do this work BEFORE the end of the year so that our team knows where we are going. I have used the analogy of going on family vacation to strategic planning before. We can say that we are going on vacation, but if we are not specific then some might pack for the beach and some might pack for the mountains. Both are vacations, but definitely different things are needed on each respective trip.

Our annual strategic planning at KB Building Services gives us a chance for all to have a say in our direction. If our strategy is wrong then the tactics will not matter. That statement itself emphasizes the importance of the annual plan. In the past, the journey was all about what and where I wanted to go. That has changed over the last seven years. We found out that when it was mine and mine only it made it difficult to get buy in from everyone on our management team. Our alignment is simple. Ownership plus measurement equals accountability. That sentence includes three important words. O+M=A. It is written on our conference room wall. It is like a three-legged stool. Without any one of those three it would fall over. We assign owners to our priorities, we measure the results, and then we hold them accountable to the outcome. It really is that simple. But like most things in the cleaning business, simple does not mean easy.

If your team is running in different directions, take a look at that equation. Where is there imbalance? Do your priorities have owners? Is the measured result ARM’D (actionable, reasonable, measured, dated), and how are you holding your team accountable to those results? It those three are right……your team will be aligned.