Goals, Mission, And Vision
The terms Goals, Vision, and Values are often used interchangeably, but are actually different things.
- Mission - The Purpose of the organization as well as scope of operations. A good mission will be rooted in a business definition.
- Vision - Where you want to go.
- Values - Beliefs and principles.
- Core Values - Strong, enduring beliefs used as a foundation for decisions. They are the essence of corporate culture. They explain how you intend to act towards stakeholders and employees. They are values in action.
- Strategic Vision - Moves beyond the Mission to provide perspective on where the company is headed.
- Goals - These are Specific items, that can be Measured and Assigned to specific individuals or teams. They should be Realistic and have a Time frame for accomplishment.
Strategic Planning
If you are thinking about coming up with a mission, a vision, or values, it's important to understand that these things don't' exist in a vacuum, they are intended to be used as part of a business strategy and planning process. The process flows into a strategy that can then be implemented.
Organizational Purpose - Goals, Mission, And Vision
This is the first step, but also the last step in strategic planning. After plans are implemented, it's important to continually evaluate your plan, and determine your need to for strategic change. If you determine change is needed, you can focus on the important parts to change.Analysis - SWOT
Situational Analysis is a process of determining the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) in both the external and internal environment. It helps you This process should take into account the following attributes.- Internal Environment - Strengths and Weaknesses
- Determine Distinctive Competence - What can we make or do better than our competitors? What are we really good at?
- Determine Core Capability - Internal decision making routines, problem solving processes, and culture that turn inputs into outputs.
- External Environment - Opportunities and Threats
- Environmental Scanning - Important events or issues that might effect the organization such as new technology.
- Strategic Group Analysis - Compare yourself to other companies.
- Shadow Strategy Task Force - Think like an external competitor focused on your own weaknesses.
Implementation - The "7S" Model.
Once you have have a purpose and vision and understand your strengths and weaknesses, it's time to come up with a plan. One common approach is the McKinsey 7S framework which focuses on specific portions of the business.
- Strategy: Your overall plan for maintaining your competitive advantage.
- Structure: Team structure, departmental structure, lines of reporting. i.e. Vertical, Horizontal, or Matrix organization, Project or task force teams, etc.. - See Team Structures Below.
- Systems: The process and procedures to get things done. i.e. ticketing and inventory systems.
- Shared Values: Culture and work ethic.
- Style: The leadership style adopted by the organization's management.
- Staff: The people and talent within the organization. .
- Skills: What are the skills our people have and how do we address gaps, growth, and development.
Implementation - Departmental Structure
When forming departments within an organization, different strategies can be applied.- Functional Departmentalization - Departments are formed based on the kind of work they are doing. i.e. Help Desk, Software Development, Infrastructure, Finance, Human Resources, etc. This allows specialization on a kind of work, but may cause departments to focus only on their own needs.
- Product Departmentalization - This is a department focused on a specific product. i.e. Cars, Trucks, Toasters, etc. This allows more specific focus on the product, but may cause duplication since each department needs similar functions.
- Customer Departmentalization - Responsible for particular kinds of customers.
- Geographic Departmentalization - Targeted towards a specific geographic area.
- Matrix Departmentalization - Combine two different methods. You have more integration and less duplication but people report to multiple bosses.
Implementation - Team Structures
In implementation, Goals are accomplished by teams. If the team has a clear mission, vision, and values, it helps them make decisions more autonomously. Teams can be structured in different ways.- Cross Functional Teams - A group staffed with a mix of people from different skills, backgrounds or departments. It is formed to accomplish a specific objective. Cross functional teams are popular in the DevOps paradigm where deployment and development skill sets work together on the same team. Though, this is not common at WDAS since we don't often put a large group of people towards a single objective.
- Project Teams - A group formed specifically to design a new product or service. The members are assigned by their managers based on their ability to contribute to team success.
- Self-Directed Teams - Groups of highly trained individuals performing a set of job tasks within a natural work unit. The team members rely on consensus-type decision making to perform work duties, solve problems, and deal with customers.
- Task Force Teams - A team formed by management to immediately resolve a major project. These are often created for downtimes or events where incident response plans are implemented.
- Process-Improvement Teams -A group made up of experienced people from different departments or functions. The group is charged with improving quality, decreasing waste, or enhancing the productivity of processes that affect all departments or functions. The members are normally appointed by management.
- Low Autonomy - Traditional Work Group - Team is assigned a specific task to accomplish. No power is given to make decisions or change workflow.
- Employee Involvement Teams - Can make suggestions but not decisions
- Semi-Autonomous - Still answerable to a manager
- Self Managing - Team makes decisions without a manager.
- Highest Autonomy - Self Designing - A team that can change its members as well as structure.
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