Appendix A
Strategic Alignment Process Toolbox
Each chapter contained tools to guide your progress. Modify and adjust these tools as you see fit and for what is most appropriate given the performance context.
ALIGN Expectations
| Use This Tool | If You Would Like to | Pg. |
| Stakeholder Table | Identify relevant stakeholders for your project | 129 |
| Stakeholder Mapping Tool | Assess the influence and importance of your stakeholders’ thoughts and definitions of successful project outcomes | 130 |
| Discovery Meeting Focus Areas and Sample Questions | Gain information that deepens your understanding of the issues and factors that may affect successful project outcomes | 131 |
| Strategic Skills, Behaviors, and Attributes That Support Partnerships With Clients Checklist | Assess various perspectives of your business acumen, personal attributes, and technical skills | 132 |
| Calibration Matrix | Map and weight stakeholder perspectives of the problem or opportunity, understanding of context, and level of partnership and commitment to the project | 133 |
| Information Credibility of Stakeholder Expectations Worksheet | Assess the relevancy, reliability, validity, and thoroughness of stakeholder performance expectations | 134 |
| Alignment Mapping Tool | Map the various stakeholder perspectives according to alignment level | 135 |
| ALIGN Expectations Checklist | Assess various perspectives of your aligning expectations performance | 136 |
ALIGN Results
| Use This Tool | If You Would Like to | Pg. |
| Results and Gaps Template | To compare results and gaps in those results | 137 |
| Logic Model | Depict the relationships between organizational goals, strategic priorities, and stakeholder expectations | 138 |
| Sample Indicators Grouped by Level of Results | Identify relevant data at each level | 139 |
| Data Collection Strategy Template | Collaboratively design a data collection strategy with stakeholders | 140 |
| ALIGN Results Checklist | Assess perspectives of your aligning results performance | 141 |
ALIGN Solutions
| Use This Tool | If You Would Like to | Pg. |
| Align Gaps to Level of Results Table | Align gaps to each level of result | 142 |
| Gap Selection Criteria Rubric | Identify gap selection decision-making criteria of stakeholders | 143 |
| Gap Decision Criteria Scoring Worksheet | Assess gap selection decision making criteria of stakeholders | 144 |
| Root Cause Analysis Template | Analyze root causes of performance | 145 |
| Force Field Analysis Worksheet | Analyze drivers and barriers to performance within and outside your organization | 146 |
| Solution Selection Decision Criteria Checklist | Identify solution decision making criteria of stakeholders | 147 |
| Solution Decision Criteria Scoring Worksheet | Assess solution decision making criteria of stakeholders | 148 |
| Sample Environmental and Individual Performance Solutions Table | Create solutions specific to environmental or individual factors | 149 |
| Solution Options Rubric | Collaboratively select aligned solutions with stakeholders | 150 |
| Selected Environmental and Individual Solutions Template | Negotiate solution options with stakeholders | 151 |
| ALIGN Solutions Checklist | Assess various perspectives of your aligning solutions performance | 152 |
ALIGN Implementation
| Use This Tool | If You Would Like to | Pg. |
| Sample Transfer Strategy Considerations Table | Identify change management strategies | 153 |
| Timing and Sample Transfer Strategies Table | Derive thoughtful change management strategies to facilitate integration of your performance improvement work | 154 |
| Performance Measures for Each Alignment Level | Design a monitoring plan to ensure regular performance feedback | 155 |
| Sample Communication Planner | Design strategies that promote ongoing collaboration and shared accountability with your stakeholders | 156 |
| ALIGN Implementation Checklist | Assess various perspectives of your aligning implementation performance | 157 |
ALIGN Expectations
Tool: Stakeholder Table
Purpose: Identify relevant stakeholders for your project.
| Relevant Stakeholders | |
| What is the initial problem? | |
| Which individuals or groups may affect or be affected by this project? | |
| Who are the influential change agents? Describe their possible impact. | |
| Which individuals or groups may offer resistance to change? Why? | |
| What are potential barriers to adoption? | |
Tool: Stakeholder Mapping Tool
Purpose: Assess the influence and importance of your various stakeholders’ decisions and assumptions and their definitions of successful project outcomes.
Each quadrant can be analyzed in the following way, in a clockwise rotation:
• Quadrant one: Stakeholders placed here have high influence and high importance (for example, leadership, key managers, or supervisors) need to be fully engaged on the strategic alignment process. The style of participation for stakeholders needs to be appropriate for gaining and maintaining their ownership.
• Quadrant two: Stakeholders placed here can be highly important but having low influence or direct power (for example, employees directly affected by the potential learning or performance improvement program), however need to be kept informed through appropriate education and communication.
• Quadrant three: Stakeholders here have low influence and low importance, however, should still be monitored and kept on board, as their relative position could change at any time. For example, these individuals could switch roles, and with that there may be an increase in their influence within the organization, as well as a potential for greater decision-making authority over resources.
• Quadrant four: Stakeholders placed here can have potentially high influence but low importance (or relevance) to the potential performance improvement efforts. They should be kept satisfied with appropriate approval and perhaps brought in as patrons or supporters who “endorse” the strategic alignment process of the potential performance improvement program.
Tool: Discovery Meeting Focus Areas and Sample Questions
Purpose: Gain information that deepens your understanding of the issues and factors that may affect successful project outcomes.
| Area of Focus | Sample Questions I Can Ask |
| Perceived performance challenge or opportunity |
• What brought the requestor to seek help? • What is being requested (for example, a predetermined • solution or help in problem solving)? • How important is this problem or opportunity? • Who is currently being impacted, and/or whom will it impact? How? • Who may impact it? How? • What evidence has led each stakeholder to his or her conclusions? |
| Solution context and organizational environment |
• If a specific solution is being requested, in what ways will the solution be supported in the current work environment? • In what ways may the current work environment impede the solution? • What type of management support (for example, allocation of resources) exists for the solution(s)? |
| Expectations of performance |
• What does performance look like today? • What results (or outputs) are currently being accomplished? • What should performance look like after the solution is implemented? • What tangible results should be delivered by performers? • What criteria will be used to determine whether these results are satisfactory? • Who will determine/judge whether the results obtained are satisfactory based on these criteria? • What, if any, evidence suggests that employees are clear about the performance expectation? • What if any gaps exists between desired and current results. |
| Connections to organizational objectives |
• To what business objective(s) does the performance issue relate? How? • What business goal(s) will our selected solution affect? How and to what extent? • What skills are required to fulfill the performance objective? • In addition to skills, what else (for example, resources, support) may be required to fulfill the performance objective? |
| Partnership and collaboration items |
• What is the best way to collaborate with/support you? • What other partnerships are critical to the success of our solution(s)? • How do we ensure these partnerships are effective? • Describe the process of collaborating with your stakeholders (what they can expect from you, what you can expect from them throughout the life cycle of the solution)? • What barriers or challenges might you/we encounter? • How can we overcome these challenges? |
Tool: Strategic Skills, Behaviors, and Attributes That Support Partnerships With Clients Checklist
Purpose: Assess various perspectives of your business acumen, personal attributes, and technical skills.
| Skill, Behavior, or Attribute | Examples | Check |
| Your business acumen | You have an understanding of the emerging needs of the business | |
| You know the business value chain | ||
| You communicate in business language (writtenand verbal) | ||
| You have an understanding of the context in which the business operates | ||
| You are deeply aware of what is necessary to execute the organization’s strategies (short and long term) | ||
| You have an understanding of how your efforts are linked to the organization’s mission | ||
| Your personal attributes | Your teamwork approach to problem solving and decision making | |
| Your communication skills (good listener, probing for more information, confidence in speaking with all audience levels) | ||
| You work proactively and continuously to develop and foster trust (ethical, integrity) | ||
| You are sincere in your desire to create win-win outcomes for those who will affect and be affected by the solution | ||
| You are responsive to business and personal needs and can balance these appropriately | ||
| You are transparent with your work | ||
| You work proactively to gain support from management | ||
| Your technical skills | You provide the business case for all learningdecisions | |
| You plan how learning interventions will be integrated throughout the organization | ||
| You conduct gap analysis to inform the design and delivery of strategic interventions | ||
| You offer just in time learning solutions to address current business needs |
Tool: Calibration Matrix
Purpose: Map and weight the various stakeholder perspectives of the performance problem or opportunity, understanding of the performance context, and level of partnership and commitment to the project.
Tool: Information Credibility of Stakeholder Expectations Worksheet
Purpose: Assess the relevancy, reliability, validity, and thoroughness of stakeholder performance expectations.
Tool: Alignment Mapping Tool
Purpose: Map stakeholder expectations to alignment level.
Tool: ALIGN Expectations Checklist
Purpose: Assess various perspectives of your aligning expectations performance.
| Element of Alignment | Yes/No | How To |
| My System Thinking | ||
| I have carefully thought through the context of the performance challenge or opportunity | Y/N | |
| My Strategic Thinking | ||
| I have performed an objective analysis by investigating: what, when, why, where, and how | Y/N | |
| My Critical Thinking | ||
| I recognize that a problem (or opportunity) exists | Y/N | |
| I have developed an orderly approach in which tasks are organized and problems are recognized based on severity and urgency | Y/N | |
| I have synthesized information from a variety of sources | Y/N | |
| I have determined the credibility of the information provided by my stakeholders | Y/N | |
| I asked the right questions of my stakeholders | Y/N | |
| My Collaboration With Stakeholders | ||
| I have developed an openness to a variety of perspectives | Y/N | |
| I have encouraged my stakeholders to develop an openness to a variety of perspectives | Y/N | |
| I have used effective listening skills to better understand the expectations of my stakeholders | Y/N | |
| I have communicated my support of teamwork and shared accountability for the performance problem or opportunity | Y/N | |
| I have used business language with my stakeholders to communicate my understanding of the performance problem or opportunity | Y/N | |
| I have used business language to communicate the value increating alignment | Y/N | |
| Is this the right partner/project to try out a new process for responding to talent development and management requests? | Y/N | |
ALIGN Results
Tool: Results and Gaps Template
Purpose: To compare results and gaps in those results.
Tool: Logic Model
Purpose: Depict the relationships between organizational goals, strategic priorities, and stakeholder expectations.
Tool: Sample Indicators Grouped by Level of Results
Purpose: Identify relevant data at each level.
| Level | Required Results | Sample Indicator(s) |
| Value-Add | ||
| Organizational | ||
| Operational | ||
| Learning | ||
Tool: Data Collection Strategy Template
Purpose: Collaboratively design a data collection strategy with stakeholders.
Tool: ALIGN Results Checklist
Purpose: Assess various perspectives of your aligning results performance.
| Element of Alignment | Yes/No | How To |
| My Strategic Thinking | ||
| I identified gaps between where the organization is today and where it wants to be in the future | Y/N | |
| I have assessed the performance context | Y/N | |
| My Critical Thinking | ||
| I have identified gaps between where the organization is today and where we want to be in the future | Y/N | |
| I synthesized information from a variety of sources | Y/N | |
| I determined the credibility of the information I gathered from all relevant sources | Y/N | |
| I have carefully synthesized the data to identify the appropriate alignment level | Y/N | |
| I used existing information where possible to avoid duplication when I collected data | Y/N | |
| My Collaboration With Stakeholders | ||
| I presented coherent and persuasive arguments for controversial or difficult issues | Y/N | |
| I used my effective listening skills to better understand value from the perspectives of my stakeholders | Y/N | |
| I collaborated with stakeholders to identify the critical success criteria and measurable indicators for performance improvements | Y/N | |
| I drove teamwork by recognizing and rewarding the achievement of goals, rather than individual performance | Y/N | |
| I established partnerships and reduced silo work by teaming up with other groups in the organization | Y/N | |
| I supported and committed to group decisions that fostered teamwork and shared accountability for our efforts | Y/N | |
ALIGN Solutions
Tool: Align Gaps to Level of Results Table
Purpose: Align gaps to each level of result.
| Level of Results | Identified Gaps |
| Value-Add | |
| Organizational | |
| Operational | |
| Learning |
Tool: Gap Selection Criteria Rubric
Purpose: Identify gap selection decision-making criteria of stakeholders.
Tool: Gap Decision Criteria Scoring Worksheet
Purpose: Assess gap selection decision-making criteria of stakeholders.
Tool: Root Cause Analysis Template
Purpose: Analyze root causes of performance.
Tool: Force Field Analysis Worksheet
Purpose: Analyze drivers and barriers to performance within and outside your organization.
Tool: Solution Selection Decision Criteria Checklist
Purpose: Identify solution decision-making criteria of stakeholders.
| Criterion | Defined | Scoring |
| Probability | What is the probability that this solution will close the gap? |
3-High probability 2-Moderate probability 1-Low probability 0-No probability |
| Appropriateness | Does this solution make sense for our business, culture, and environment? |
3-Very appropriate 2-Moderately appropriate 1-Somewhat appropriate 0-Not at all appropriate |
| Ability to support | What is the organizational ability to support the solution long term? |
3-High ability 2-Moderate ability 1-Low ability 0-No ability |
| Barriers and constraints | What are the organizational barriers or constraints to implementing the solution long term? |
3-No barriers or constraints 2-Low barriers or constraints 1-Moderate barriers or constraints 0-High barriers or constraints |
| Acceptability | What is the anticipated acceptance of those who will affect or be affected by the solution long term? |
3-High acceptance 2-Moderate acceptance 1-Low acceptance 0-No acceptance |
| Time to implement | What is the anticipated total time required to implement the solution? |
3-Time is not a concern 2-Time to implement is reasonable 1-Time to implement is a stretch but manageable 0-Time to implement is unreasonable |
| Cost to implement | What are the total costs of the solution (effort, time away from current work, maintenance)? |
3-Below budget 2-Reasonable and within budget 1-A stretch, but manageable 0-Unreasonable, not doable |
Tool: Solution Decision Criteria Scoring Worksheet
Purpose: Assess solution decision-making criteria of stakeholders.
Tool: Sample Environmental and Individual Performance Solutions Table
Purpose: Sample solutions specific to environmental or individual factors.
Tool: Solution Options Rubric
Purpose: Collaboratively assess multiple solution options with stakeholders.
Tool: Selected Environmental and Individual Solutions Template
Purpose: Negotiate solution options with stakeholders.
Tool: ALIGN Solutions Checklist
Purpose: Assess various perspectives of your aligning solutions performance.
| Element of Alignment | Yes/No | How To |
| My System Thinking | ||
| I outlined relationships and consequences for the various solutions | Y/N | |
| My Strategic Thinking | ||
| I recommended appropriately aligned improvements to help the organization realize our desired results | Y/N | |
| I planned ahead by anticipating multiple scenarios and appropriate courses of action | Y/N | |
| My Critical Thinking | ||
| I generated a reasoned method for selecting among several solution options | Y/N | |
| I applied metacognitive knowledge so that I could monitor my own performance | Y/N | |
| My Collaboration With Stakeholders | ||
| I have communicated a commitment to foster teamwork and shared accountability for group decision making about the performance solution | Y/N | |
| I facilitated an openness to a variety of solutions | Y/N | |
| I presented coherent and persuasive arguments for controversial or difficult issues | Y/N | |
| I drove teamwork by recognizing and rewarding the achievement of goals, rather than individual performance | Y/N | |
| I established partnerships and reduced silo work by teaming up with other groups in the organization | Y/N | |
| I supported and committed to group decisions that fostered teamwork and shared accountability for our efforts | Y/N | |
ALIGN Implementation
Tool: Sample Transfer Strategy Considerations Table
Purpose: Identify change management strategies.
| Transfer Considerations | Transfer Strategies |
| How will the solution be used on the job? | |
| How will the solution be supported on the job? | |
| What are the anticipated supports and barriers of the solution being used on the job? | |
| What are the employees’ opportunities to use and integrate the solution on the job? | |
| Who are the SMEs for this solution, if applicable? | |
| What is the plan for the design of the solution? | |
| What is the deployment plan for the solution? | |
| How often will you follow up with stakeholders after the solution is implemented? | |
| How will you follow up with those who are using the solution on the job? How will you monitor its progress? | |
| How and when will you communicate progress with stakeholders? | |
| What tasks are required to implement the solution? | |
| How will you cascade the solutions? |
Tool: Timing and Sample Transfer Strategies Table
Purpose: Derive thoughtful change management strategies to facilitate integration of your performance improvement work.
| When to Use Transfer Strategy | Transfer Strategy Tasks and Activities |
| Before Implementation | |
| During Implementation | |
| After Implementation |
Tool: Performance Measures for Each Alignment Level
Purpose: Design a monitoring plan to ensure regular performance feedback.
| Alignment Level | Result | Performance Measures |
| Value-Add | Aligning solutions to the needs of external clients, society, or the community | |
| Organizational | Aligning solutions to the organization’s bottom line | |
| Operational | Aligning solutions with specific accomplishments of a person or a group | |
| Learning | Aligning solutions with how work is done |
Tool: Sample Communication Planner
Purpose: Design strategies that promote ongoing collaboration and shared accountability with your stakeholders.
Tool: ALIGN Implementation Checklist
Purpose: Assess various perspectives of your aligning implementation performance.
| Element of Alignment | Yes/No | How To |
| My System Thinking | ||
| I am able to make sense of how the change will influence performance at multiple levels in the organization | Y/N | |
| I am able to determine what will help desired performance happen | Y/N | |
| I was able to determine what may get in the way of desired performance | Y/N | |
| My Strategic Thinking | ||
| I did an objective analysis by investigating what, when, why, where, and how | Y/N | |
| I thought about how the people, processes, and structures will change | Y/N | |
| My Critical Thinking | ||
| I recommended strategies for use of the solution on the job | Y/N | |
| Collaboratively, a monitoring plan was developed to track the solution | Y/N | |
| I explored the short-term and long-term outcomes of the solution | Y/N | |
| I am able to forecast the impact of the solution | Y/N | |
| My Collaboration With Stakeholders | ||
| I presented coherent and persuasive arguments for controversial or difficult issues | Y/N | |
| I used my effective listening skills to better understand value from the perspectives of my stakeholders | Y/N | |
| I established partnerships and reduced silo work by teaming up with other groups in the organization | Y/N | |
| I supported and committed to group decisions that fostered teamwork and shared accountability for our efforts | Y/N | |
| I negotiated the next course of action with my stakeholders | Y/N | |