How to Align Company Vision with Work Planning

In order to have a successful business, it is important to have a clear vision. Not only is it important to have a clear vision, everything from your strategy and work planning must be aligned with that vision to ensure successful outcomes and a positive direction for the organization. If your teams aren’t aware of the company vision, how do they know that the work they are doing is effective? This article will look at how to align your company vision with work planning.

Why is Aligning Company Vision & Work Planning Important

Leading on from the intro question, the answer is, employees often aren’t actually aware of how their work is impacting the businesses as a whole. If the company vision is misaligned, everything from strategy and planning, to team performance and motivation will also be misaligned. This misalignment can be affected at any level of the organization and also as a direct result of communication/poor management. For example, if the vision was clear, but the strategy was misaligned with that vision, it would have a knock-on effect and cause misalignment throughout projects. 

Image Credit: McNally Brown

Often, when the vision is unclear, the management hierarchy needs to set its own vision, strategy, and work planning; this can also lead to misalignment with various areas of an organization, causing further misalignment on a team level. This then leads to other issues throughout the organization such as communication problems, frustrations, and even conflict. 

Here are some things you can do to help align company vision with work planning:

Immediate

Share Company Vision with Teams

Teams should be aware of the company's vision, mission, and values when onboarding occurs and throughout their employment. However, you should regularly remind teams of this vision, this allows you to discuss whether current tasks are working towards the current goals set, if they are related to the strategy, and overall if everything is achieving results related to the company vision. You can also use this as an opportunity to gather feedback on goals/targets to align with that vision.

For example, at Flowtrace, our vision is to provide management team metrics and organizational recommendations for every company around the world.

Educate and Motivate Teams on How Strategy Contributes to Company's Vision

Educating teams on how strategy contributes to the company vision can provide clear direction and understanding of work, leaving no question of “why is this important?”. Explain how their work and tasks contribute towards the overarching company-wide vision, how each goal they achieve is a step for the company achieving its goals, and what it means for their tenure/success within the company. Teams will need motivation and not to feel like they are there to just 'get the job done.

Short Term

Create Your Strategy Based on the Vision of the Company

The company's vision should be the foundation for your strategy. By understanding what the company wants to achieve, you can identify how best to utilize the resources, time, and budget you have available. This also allows you to focus the team's efforts on achieving these goals and not become bogged down on tasks that do not support the vision. If the strategy is not aligned correctly, everything else throughout the organization will be misaligned.

Gather Team Feedback on Company Strategy

Your team is in the trenches, they understand what is and isn't working on a day-to-day basis. Use this to your advantage and encourage team feedback on the company strategy. Ask how you can better support their efforts in achieving company goals and if there are any roadblocks in place that are preventing them from being as productive as they can be.

Long term:

Link Vision with Strategy, OKRs, and Work Planning

Every target, goal, decision, and even OKRs must link back to the company vision, and it should be considered at all stages of work. This ensures that teams are always working in the direction of the company vision and leaves no room for misalignment. This also helps to foster the purpose throughout the company culture.

Share Vision & How It Aligns to Everything Company-Wide

In order to ensure every team is in alignment and no one has been missed, you should share all important aspects of goals, strategy, and planning - demonstrating how they are impacting the direction and goals of the company.

You should regularly monitor and evaluate progress to ensure that the company strategy is still achievable and relevant. This also allows you to make changes to your work planning and strategy to ensure that you are on track to the company vision.

Conclusion

You can now see the importance of aligning work planning with your company vision and how it can impact teams. Flowtrace provides management team metrics and organizational recommendations to help ensure work is functional and effective.