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The Modern Operating Model is an updated approach to business operating models. It describes a new way of thinking regarding how to best align, run, change, adapt, and optimize your business. In turn, you can bridge the strategy execution gap and better navigate a fast-changing world.&nbsp;As an overview, here’s what the model looks like:&nbsp;<ul><li>Component 1 — Define the destination: Mission, cultural values, vision, and strategy</li><li>Component 2 — Change the business: Create alignment with strategic objectives and OKRs&nbsp;</li><li>Component 3 — Run the business: Business observability through OKRs and KPIs</li><li>Component 4 — Do the work: Organization architecture, culture, systems, and procedures to empower work&nbsp;</li><li>Component 5 — Assess and adapt: Identify threats and opportunities, navigate, optimize, and adapt&nbsp;</li></ul><hr>Get a detailed overview of the <a href="/resources/articles/what-is-the-modern-operating-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Modern Operating Model</a><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><a href="/resources/articles/what-is-the-modern-operating-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1670611664/site-v5/what_is_MOM_e096dd39be.png" alt="modern operating model diagram"></a></figure><hr>In this article, we dive deeper into why the model was created and how adopting the Modern Operating Model enables you to:&nbsp;<ul><li>Achieve goals and outcomes faster and more effectively through increased organizational productivity, efficiency, and speed.&nbsp;</li><li>Survive in a rapidly changing world through adaptiveness and agility.&nbsp;</li><li>Gain a competitive advantage and win in hyper-competitive, evolving markets.&nbsp;</li></ul>

With <a href="https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/3-ways-keep-managers-aligned-corporate-strategy">70% of chief strategists reporting challenges</a> with strategy execution, there is substantial evidence to suggest that conventional operating models are no longer meeting the demands of business today. In fact, the concept of the Modern Operating Model was created in response to three issues impacting businesses:&nbsp;<ul><li>The lingering strategy execution gap&nbsp;</li><li>Megatrends in a rapidly changing world&nbsp;</li><li>The fourth industrial revolution and the wealth of data</li></ul>

Strategy execution is arguably the hardest yet most important challenge for businesses to overcome. There is a reason for this — all goals and outcomes including market leadership and people retention are directly influenced by strategy execution. From this perspective, strategy execution can be framed as one of the key enablers of business success.&nbsp;&nbsp;But what makes strategy execution so difficult? There are many factors to get right including:&nbsp;<ul><li>Alignment: Bringing the organization together to work in sync toward common goals&nbsp;</li><li>Prioritization: Focusing on the most important things with strategic objectives and OKRs&nbsp;</li><li>Capabilities: Understanding the extent of your organizational bandwidth, market position, people, and resources&nbsp;</li><li>Efficiency: Making the best use of your capabilities and processes&nbsp;</li><li>Engagement: Unlocking the full power of your people&nbsp;</li><li>Change management: Leading and managing the difficult process of organizational change&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Culture: Creating a transparent, learning, and adaptive culture&nbsp;</li><li>Performance management: Reviewing and optimizing progress toward goals&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Organization design: Optimizing your structure and processes to improve decision making, collaboration, and information flow&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Observability: Pulling together and monitoring KPIs to identify threats, opportunities, make data-driven decisions, and continuously improve strategy execution&nbsp;</li></ul>For strategy execution to be effective, an operating model must account for and optimize these different variables. As it stands, many operating models fail to incorporate these factors into a cohesive, self-optimizing unit. Particularly, modern elements of strategy execution such as OKRs and AI driven observability are not utilized to their full potential.

But it’s not only these lingering challenges that need to be addressed. We also need to think about current and emerging trends that are influencing strategy execution.&nbsp;&nbsp;At the heart of these trends is one core idea: the rate of change across all dimensions of life is accelerating. Although change can be observed throughout the entirety of history, what’s different now is how quickly it’s occurring — all aspects of our lives are evolving at an increasing rate.&nbsp;Particularly at the business level, the rate of innovation, disruption, and competition is increasing. The ubiquity of data and information, direct-to-consumer channels, and greater access to capital mean market opportunities are filled faster by a greater number of vendors. What’s more, this rate of change will continue to increase as time progresses.&nbsp;<h3>Other megatrends include:&nbsp;</h3>A new generation of workers: <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/11/millennials-largest-generation-us-labor-force/">35% of the current workforce</a> are millennials and by 2025, <a href="https://www.zurich.com/en/media/magazine/2022/how-will-gen-z-change-the-future-of-work#:~:text=Born%20between%201997%20and%202012,of%20the%20workforce%20by%202025.">27% will be Generation Z</a>. These generations value autonomy, flexibility, and social impact. They also place less value on company loyalty and longevity of tenure.&nbsp;New ways of working: Accelerated by the pandemic, the way we work is changing. Remote and hybrid work, gig work, asynchronous, and decentralized work environments are becoming more common.&nbsp;The age of uncertainty: The business environment is becoming more complex and difficult to navigate. Risks have evolved in the form of pandemics, supply chain disruptions, climate change, war, recessions, inflation, interest rates, inequality and cybersecurity.&nbsp;With lingering strategy execution challenges amplified by a fast-changing world, a company’s operating model must not only optimize for efficiency, speed, and productivity, but also for adaptiveness and agility.&nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>Learn more about the <a href="/resources/articles/modern-operating-model-manifesto#new-trends-impacting-the-strategy-execution-gap" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">megatrends impacting work</a><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><a href="/resources/articles/modern-operating-model-manifesto#new-trends-impacting-the-strategy-execution-gap" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1670611664/site-v5/MOM_Manifesto_19f441117e.png" alt="MOM Manifesto.png"></a></figure><hr>

Aside from the accelerated rate of change, a core megatrend at the technological level is the fourth industrial revolution. This describes the level of technology that includes autonomous systems, microservices, edge computing, interconnectivity, artificial intelligence, data, and the <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/digital-transformation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">digitization of the physical world</a> through the internet of things.&nbsp;&nbsp;This new suite of technologies represents a significant opportunity to rethink conventional operating models — particularly when it comes to data. Factors such as how decisions are made can be completely overhauled through edge computing and interconnectivity — to become more data-driven, at the edge of the network, and closer to the points of execution.&nbsp;Artificial intelligence can be leveraged to gain insight and foresight to solve problems before they manifest. Overall, strategy execution can be optimized using the wealth of data and tools provided by the fourth industrial revolution.&nbsp;<hr>Learn more about <a href="/resources/articles/business-challenges">the top challenges of businesses today</a><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><a href="/resources/articles/business-challenges" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1670611664/site-v5/company_challenges_2023_4743f0ed94.png" alt="company challenges 2023.png"></a></figure><hr>

With the historic challenges of strategy execution and the megatrends in mind, let’s now look at how the Modern Operating Model is best suited to meet the business demands of today.&nbsp;From the collective components of the model, two key themes arise which produce various business outcomes:&nbsp;&nbsp;<ul><li>Alignment toward goals and objectives&nbsp;</li><li>Data-driven optimization&nbsp;</li></ul><h3>Theme 1: Alignment toward goals and objectives&nbsp;</h3>Alignment is achieved primarily through OKRs and strategic objectives, but other factors such as a <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/mission-vs-vision" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">strong mission</a>, transparent culture, and a more flexible organizational structure also contribute to alignment within the Modern Operating Model.&nbsp;Through greater alignment, your entire team can focus and prioritize the right things with a clear connection to top-line objectives. This creates less waste and a more outcome-focused culture which boosts efficiency and productive power. Alignment also contributes to adaptability — your organization will be able to change form or direction without operational lag or cultural resistance.&nbsp;&nbsp;Greater alignment serves to empower your employees through a clear line of sight, both vertically and horizontally. This boosts engagement as your people feel better connected to the company's objectives, in addition to improving collaboration as silos are removed. Decision-making power, backed by data, is distributed across the organization which increases accountability and ownership.&nbsp;This empowers employees to do their best work and provides freedom to innovate without needing higher-level approval. Finally, employees adopt a growth mindset and are continuously learning and improving through regular OKR reviews and retrospectives. Taken together, engagement, distributed power, and continuous learning contribute to boosting organizational output and problem-solving.&nbsp;<h3>Theme 2: Data-driven optimization&nbsp;</h3>KPIs, OKR data and reports, and market intelligence are used for monitoring and business observability. Through the interconnectivity and monitoring of data, your organization gains greater certainty, validation, and precision about working in the right direction.&nbsp;You gain a more complete picture of your organization’s progress and can identify any potential roadblocks toward objective achievement. This also serves as a mechanism for incremental improvement. The organization now has an embedded learning system which collects data and information, turns that into knowledge and then utilizes it to improve how the organization functions.&nbsp;Ongoing monitoring also boosts the speed of your business. As feedback loops are compressed, you don’t have to wait for quarterly or even annual reviews to make important adjustments. Speed is also increased through decision-making power being distributed and closer to the points of execution.&nbsp;Decisions no longer need to go up and down the chain of command so they can be made quicker. Combined, greater organizational speed, observability, and alignment improve adaptiveness. You will be able to more readily identify threats and opportunities in your business and move quickly in response.&nbsp;

Most executives know that improvements, sometimes major, need to be made to their strategy execution. But the discipline of strategy execution is often framed through the perspective of solving challenges such as a lack of alignment. Although this is valid, what’s less spoken about is the opportunity — what happens when your organization achieves mastery over strategy execution?&nbsp;Through an updated operating model and correct implementation, strategy execution can become the ultimate competitive advantage – achieve strategic goals faster and navigate the threats and opportunities of a fast-changing world.&nbsp;<h3>Opportunity 1: Achieve goals and outcomes faster and more effectively&nbsp;</h3>Effective strategy execution is the catalyzing force behind better goal and outcome achievement. The Modern Operating Model acts as an updated driver and engine of strategy execution.&nbsp;Hence, through the increased productivity, efficiency, and speed that the Modern Operating Model offers, you can achieve strategic goals and outcomes faster and more effectively. Your various strategic imperatives of growth, diversification, and innovation can be simultaneously optimized toward by updating your operating model and approach to strategy execution.&nbsp;<h3>Opportunity 2: Survive in a rapidly changing world&nbsp;</h3><a href="https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/only-52-us-companies-have-been-on-the-fortune-500-since-1955-thanks-to-the-creative-destruction-that-fuels-economic-prosperity-2/">Only 52 US Companies</a> have been on the Fortune 500 since 1955. Fundamentally, corporate extinction comes down to not adapting both strategy and strategy execution to a fast-changing world. Although change comes with new threats, it also comes with new opportunities — there will be a new generation of winners and losers.&nbsp;Through the Modern Operating Model and the adaptiveness and agility it provides, you gain the ability to navigate the threats and opportunities of a fast-changing world. &nbsp;The productivity, efficiency, and speed increases also ensures that your organization is operating at its best to overcome challenges.&nbsp;

By achieving goals and outcomes more effectively, in addition to navigating threats and opportunities, you gain two significant competitive advantages which help you win in hyper-competitive, evolving markets.&nbsp;Strategy execution, amplified by the Modern Operating Model, represents a hidden opportunity for all companies. Regardless of size, stage, or industry, you can gain a needed edge in the complex, uncertain, and hyper-competitive business environment of today.&nbsp;<hr>Quantive is your bridge between strategy and execution. Founded on the objectives and key results (OKR) methodology, <a href="https://quantive.com/products" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our Strategy Execution Platform</a> is where businesses plan successful strategy, focus and align teams to it, and stay on the leading edge of progress.As your company looks to achieve the best possible results, you need a modern approach to <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">run your business</a> and change your business. <a href="https://quantive.com/modern-operating-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Modern Operating Model</a> brings strategy, teams, and data together to help make decisions faster, optimize operations, and drive better business outcomes.Whether you’re a large enterprise facing competitive disruption or a small business leading the innovative charge, Quantive helps get you where you want to go.Ready to achieve the best possible? Start using <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Quantive for free.</a>

How Top Companies Close the Strategy Execution Gap

Why Use the Modern Operating Model?

The traditional approach to strategy execution is failing modern organizations.Across every industry, leaders are struggling to:<ul><li>Create strategic plans connected to a mission</li><li>Align teams with strategy</li><li>Execute the strategy with certainty</li><li>Adapt strategy without friction</li></ul>If any of these challenges sound like what your organization is going through, this article is for you. It’s time to understand why committing to a platform is the key to mastering strategy execution.&nbsp;

Based on your organization’s unique challenges, a strategy execution platform fulfills various needs. But before we get there, let's establish a clear definition of what a strategy execution platform is to understand its impact on your workplace.&nbsp;A strategy execution platform coordinates a seamless approach to strategy in your organization through four components: plan, align and activate, execute, and assess and adapt.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><a href="https://quantive.com/products/results" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1670601550/site-v5/Strategy_Execution_65c948d364.svg" alt="Plan, Align &amp; Activate, Execute, Assess &amp; Adapt"></a></figure>Plan: Create a strategy that connects your teams and your data in one place.Align and Activate: Connect decision making and create clear definitions of success. &nbsp;Execute: Collaborate with certainty, transparency, and trust to accomplish the mission.Assess and Adapt: Clarify what works, what doesn’t, and make changes quickly.Through alignment with the different strategy execution components, a platform connects your teams to the clearly-defined, transparent goals of the organization. Whether you’re overhauling strategy or refining the one you’ve got, a strategy execution platform enables focus and decision-making autonomy where you need it most.<hr>Learn more about the full capabilities of <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/strategy-execution-platform" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">strategy execution platforms</a><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/strategy-execution-platform" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1670611665/site-v5/what_is_a_strategy_execution_platform_7ff56a27a1.png" alt="what is a strategy execution platform.png"></a></figure><hr>

The gap between strategy and execution is one of the biggest vulnerabilities businesses face. In this gap, teams lose alignment, disengage with each other, and silo into disconnected work chains with little impact.Most organizations are stuck in a traditional, industrial approach to strategy execution. Plagued by a top-down, hierarchical model, employees are stuck in disempowered, unfocused, and uncoordinated silos of execution.&nbsp;By shifting your organization to a culture of outcomes, a strategy execution platform is your stepping stone into <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/what-is-the-modern-operating-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">how a modern business should operate.</a><blockquote>Democratizing decision making. Breaking down the barriers to collaboration. Aligning teams with strategic objectives.</blockquote>This reality is no longer wishful thinking or a lofty ambition with the power of a strategy execution platform. Further supported by <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okrs-vs-kpis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OKRs and KPIs</a>, your organization can be guided by measurable results, not uncertainty.Features and benefits are great, but focus and structure are what today’s workplace needs the most. So, which platform capabilities are critical for guiding your organization to successful strategy execution?&nbsp;

Strategy planning is about building a gameplan to support your organization’s vision. The right strategy execution platform can help you define a strategy in line with high-level aspirations of the business.&nbsp;<blockquote>Planning a strategy that inspires teams is foundational to achieving the best possible outcomes — a strategy execution platform brings much-needed visibility to corporate and business strategy.&nbsp;</blockquote>By clarifying where the organization is trying to go, the time and resources needed to deploy a strategy aren’t wasted. Motivated by strategic purpose, a strategy execution platform furthers your team’s dedication by incorporating mission-critical data into the planning process.&nbsp;With everyone receiving the same information, a culture of transparency and trust is built from the beginning. Data helps validate strategy and prove direction, improving the collective buy-in between teams and leaders.&nbsp;With a strategy execution platform, teams are no longer inhibited by disconnection. They know what to focus on, why they should focus there, and how each person on the team is contributing to the collective focus.&nbsp;How Quantive helps you plan: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<ul><li>Monitor key insights on current progress and Confidence Level changes</li><li>Leverage KPIs and Key Results to make decisions on where to go next</li><li>Create an unconstrained safe space for ideas in Whiteboards</li></ul><hr>Learn more about Quantive's <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">plan </a>capabilities<figure class="image"><a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1669632159/site-v5/visual_mini_SE_Plan_Dark_BG_4d07b0c24c.svg" alt="mini strategy execution plan diagram"></a></figure><hr>

Your organization can plan the greatest strategy in the world, but it's useless without the ability to connect it to your teams.&nbsp;According to Kaplan and Norton in The Balanced Scorecard, ~90% of businesses fail at strategy execution — alignment and activation is an overlooked step in the strategy execution process.Everything concerning your strategy has one home in a strategy execution platform. This makes your data and all the decisions connected to it transparent, anywhere and anytime.&nbsp;<blockquote>Teams aren’t just unified and aligned on outcome(s) — a platform enables an organizational, cultural shift to focus on the metrics that matter and initiatives that move the needle.</blockquote>When teams have frictionless connection and alignment on desired outcomes, the stage is set for open collaboration. A strategy execution platform enables co-ownership of responsibilities, creating accountability and results for your most imperative initiatives.A strategy execution platform is the remedy for every employee’s “check the box” syndrome. With proper alignment and activation, there’s no more “cog in the machine” or busy-work sentiment in your culture — just purpose-filled, engaged teams.&nbsp;How Quantive helps you align and activate: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<ul><li>Start with the Alignment View and home dashboard to organize seamlessly</li><li>Use Cascading Key Results to align multiple teams/individuals to a single key result, enabling collaboration on a shared outcome</li><li>Link OKRs with projects, tasks, and other OKRs to show key dependencies in reaching goals</li></ul><hr>Learn more about Quantive's <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/align-and-activate" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">align and activate</a> capabilities<figure class="image"><a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/align-and-activate" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1669632157/site-v5/visual_mini_SE_Align_Dark_BG_2ddbe75feb.svg" alt="alignment strategy execution diagram"></a></figure><hr>

Uncertainty is the greatest inhibitor to effective, <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/agile-meaning" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">agile</a> strategy execution.Confident decision making is a core value of strategy execution platforms and the counter to uncertainty. Teams have the clarity to execute with excellence through clear value-add pathways, easily accessible data, and channels for collaboration.&nbsp;<blockquote>The right platform shows you what’s happening in real time, enabling rapid feedback and performance check-ins for more effective execution.</blockquote>The transparency of a platform shows teams how progress is being made and why. Goal certainty strengthens the collaboration of teams, supported by clearly defined outcomes and data-driven decision-making.A strategy execution platform shifts human attention to where it’s needed most — collaboration and alignment — and away from where it’s ineffective — data inputs and manual processes. By reducing the risk around your data and lifting the burden of tracking insights, your teams are primed to focus on what matters most.How Quantive helps you execute: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<ul><li>Link everyday tools and reduce manual data collection with 170+ <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/integrations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">integrations</a></li><li>Build a transparent, data-first culture with automation of Dynamic Key Results, KPIs, and Insights</li><li>Stay alert to progress changes with OKR update reminders and aggregated OKR progress</li></ul><hr>Learn more about Quantive's <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/execute" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">execute</a> capabilities<figure class="image"><a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/execute" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1669632157/site-v5/visual_mini_SE_Execute_Dark_BG_99a8b4907e.svg" alt="strategy execution mini diagram"></a></figure><hr>

Strategy is an ever-changing process. Assessing what did or didn’t work, then making changes based on this insight, is how you transform a stagnating strategy into a resilient one.Feedback loops are ineffective for most organizations because they’re too slow.&nbsp;<blockquote>An OKR-centered strategy execution platform compresses the feedback loop with key results and KPIs informing your strategy along the way. You receive faster feedback, which leads to better optimization, and progress monitoring allows you to shift resources to initiatives driving the right outcomes.</blockquote>In traditional strategy assessments, critical insights are cascaded through levels of bureaucracy and the message is lost in translation. A strategy execution platform gives you performance insights in real-time, allowing your teams to pivot focus without a lag.Traditional business is plagued by slow adaptation — with a strategy execution platform, you can modernize your operations. Gain complete visibility on progress, full insights on which actions to take based on a data-backed “why” it should be taken, and how to do it quickly at scale.&nbsp;How Quantive helps you execute:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<ul><li>Analyze and pivot with executive dashboards through Insightboards&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Assign resources proactively through Process Automation and Task Management</li><li>Access voting in Whiteboards and reflect new initiatives and focus with OKR States</li></ul><hr>Learn more about Quantive's <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/assess-and-adapt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">assess and adapt</a> capabilities<figure class="image"><a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/assess-and-adapt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1669632157/site-v5/visual_mini_SE_Adapt_Dark_BG_f443ca8ecf.svg" alt="mini diagram for assessing and adapting strategy execution"></a></figure><hr>

Strategy execution will always be complex, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. A strategy execution platform is your solution to creating a mission-driven strategy, engaging teams, and delivering a proactive, outcome-driven approach to execution.<hr>Take the next step with Quantive's <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">strategy execution platform</a><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><a href="https://quantive.com/products/results" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1669937683/site-v5/key_results_updates_b705d6579d.png" alt="key results updates"></a></figure><hr>Quantive is your bridge between strategy and execution. Founded on the objectives and key results (OKR) methodology, <a href="https://quantive.com/products" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our Strategy Execution Platform</a> is where businesses plan successful strategy, focus and align teams to it, and stay on the leading edge of progress.As your company looks to achieve the best possible results, you need a modern approach to <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">run your business</a> and change your business.<a href="https://quantive.com/modern-operating-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> The Modern Operating Model </a>brings strategy, teams, and data together to help make decisions faster, optimize operations, and drive better business outcomes.Whether you’re a large enterprise facing competitive disruption or a small business leading the innovative charge, Quantive helps get you where you want to go.Ready to achieve the best possible? Start using <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Quantive for free.</a>

Unleash the power of a strategy execution platform for your business

Why Your Company Needs a Strategy Execution Platform 

If your organization suffers from poor employee relationships, miscommunications, and a lack of accountability, it may be misaligned. As misalignment affects resource deployment, <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/strategy-execution">strategy execution,</a> and employee coordination, effective organizational alignment should be a top business priority.&nbsp;

Organizational alignment involves coordinating efforts, resources, and procedures toward a common goal. This entails achieving both horizontal and vertical alignment, where departments, teams, and individuals work together to achieve primary objectives.&nbsp;<h3>Why you need organizational alignment&nbsp;</h3>Organizational alignment is essential for companies looking to ensure that organizational components work together toward common goals, where overarching visions and values are consistently prioritized. This creates an environment where synergistic efforts pull in the same direction, bringing cohesion at every level of the organization. &nbsp;<h3>The benefits of organizational alignment</h3>Cultivating a united front using organizational alignment has five critical benefits for your organization, including:&nbsp;<ul><li>Improved accountability, engagement, and productivity helps employees have a better understanding of how they contribute to the bigger picture&nbsp;</li><li>Better collaboration brought on by streamlined communication flows between departments, teams, and employees&nbsp;</li><li>Quicker decision-making as communication expands beyond silos&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Consistent work makes employees more aware of how everyone in the business operates &nbsp;</li><li>Greater visibility into resources as employees know what’s being deployed and how&nbsp;</li></ul>To reap the benefits of organizational alignment, you must first understand its separate components: vertical and horizontal alignment. Understanding these alignment frameworks’ strengths and weaknesses can showcase why you need both for superior performance.&nbsp;

The most researched form of organizational alignment is vertical alignment. Vertical alignment involves a clear, top-down flow of information, where high-level strategies, goals, and processes are passed down and converted to lower-level objectives. This type of alignment encourages you to break down, filter, and distribute goals to relevant stakeholders, ensuring organizational efforts converge to overarching priorities.&nbsp;When you manage vertical alignment successfully, you:&nbsp;<ul><li>Enable optimal resource use&nbsp;</li><li>Diminish ambiguity using centralized decision-making&nbsp;</li><li>Improve ongoing awareness of <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/company-okrs">company goals</a>&nbsp;</li></ul><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1673275173/site-v5/Vertical_alignment_1a139cf599.svg" alt="Vertical alignment"></figure><h3>Why you shouldn’t rely on vertical alignment&nbsp;</h3>While vertical alignment can act as a guiding light for your organization, you shouldn’t rely on it entirely — especially if you operate in a large, siloed organization. Doing so can give rise to several issues, including:&nbsp;<ul><li>Slow operations: Translating and passing goals down a bureaucratic organization may take months to execute&nbsp;</li><li>Inflexibility: As information distribution may be slow, limiting adaptive capabilities&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Complex goal setting: Once the arduous process of setting cascading goals is complete, executives may be more willing to plod along with irrelevant goals than produce new ones when the time comes&nbsp;</li><li>Resentment: As employees are often dictated around in hierarchical organizations, they may be less committed to delivering on goals they didn’t develop themselves &nbsp;</li><li>Limited collaboration: With limited employee engagement comes ineffective collaboration, impacting <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/08/when-teamwork-is-good-for-employees-and-when-it-isnt">well-being</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adigaskell/2017/06/22/new-study-finds-that-collaboration-drives-workplace-performance/?sh=8cbd963d0256">performance</a> &nbsp;</li></ul>Given these disadvantages, you must chip away at hierarchical layers and work on optimizing horizontal value chains. Adding horizontal alignment to the mix can help you mitigate issues brought on by vertical alignment, improving performance across your organization.&nbsp;

Horizontal alignment can flatten communication structures for better <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/cross-functional-collaboration" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cross-functional collaboration</a>. With horizontal alignment, employees work together to co-create complementary processes and synergies with minimal input from managers. Part of this process can involve bottom-up planning, where teams and departments create goals and communicate these to executives.&nbsp;&nbsp;Horizontal alignment can improve workflows by:&nbsp;<ul><li>Improving adaptability and flexibility&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Enhancing creativity&nbsp;</li><li>Increasing employee satisfaction&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Enabling employee autonomy&nbsp;</li></ul><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1673275173/site-v5/Horizontal_alignment_bad18b7ab2.svg" alt="Horizontal alignment"></figure><h3>Why you need both vertical and horizontal alignment&nbsp;</h3>As with vertical alignment, relying on horizontal alignment can bring several challenges. These include:&nbsp;<ul><li>Power struggles: Without established authority at lower levels, a power struggle may arise, creating confusion around roles and responsibilities&nbsp;</li><li>Limited productivity: With everyone encouraged to propose ideas, valuable time and energy may end up wasted on ruling out ineffective proposals&nbsp;</li><li>A lack of motivation: Employees may be less inclined to be productive with minimal top-down supervision&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>Given the benefits and drawbacks of using horizontal and vertical alignment separately, a holistic approach to organizational alignment is necessary. This integrative approach gives you optimal results, as one alignment method's advantages overcome the other's disadvantages — and vice versa.&nbsp;

If you’re looking to cement organizational alignment within your organization, there are five steps you need to focus on:&nbsp;<ol><li>Getting a top-level, strategic understanding of your goals&nbsp;</li><li>Passing this information down to the rest of the organization&nbsp;</li><li>Shifting to a matrix organization structure&nbsp;</li><li>Ensuring progress visibility&nbsp;</li><li>Regularly assessing performance and providing feedback&nbsp;</li></ol><h3>Top-level, strategic understanding of your goals &nbsp;</h3>Before aligning your employees, you need to know what you’re aligning them toward. First and foremost, your executive team must agree on the company’s main goals, strategies, and interdependencies. These should be based on your core values and competencies, enabling continuity across the business.&nbsp;<h3>Passing information down your organization</h3>Once you’ve established a North Star, you must communicate it across your organization. When conveying strategic priorities, consider mentioning your focus on organizational alignment. This should be fortified by a solid ‘why,’ describing the value of organizational alignment for your company. Once you have a definite ‘why,’ you can go on to explain the ‘how.’ This involves outlining expectations around collaboration, roles, and goal ownership.&nbsp;Keep in mind that organizational alignment doesn’t occur overnight. Allow for a transition period as employees gain decision-making confidence and grow comfortable taking ownership of goals. Do your best to support and empower employees during this time.&nbsp;<h3>Shifting to a matrix organization structure</h3>After updating employees on the company’s next steps, shift your focus to creating an organizational structure that supports these changes. Communication lines across departments and teams should intersect vertically and horizontally, resembling a grid-like layout. This is known as a matrix organization structure.&nbsp;A matrix organization structure enables cross-functional employees to rely on each other without being confined to restrictive silos. This structure encourages collaboration across relevant projects and value streams, with employees responding to multiple managers to cultivate a dynamic, aligned, and coordinated organization.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1674213702/site-v5/Matrix_organisation_structure_f0c33c99ad.svg" alt="Matrix organization structure"></figure><h3>Ensuring operational transparency &nbsp;</h3>The complexities of organizational alignment require transparency for efficient operations. This entails stakeholder visibility across real-time progress and goals. This company-wide visibility is key to maintaining superior performance, collaboration, and employee relationships as:&nbsp;<ul><li>Employees are held accountable for their goals, ensuring steady progress&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Transparency nurtures a trust-fuelled environment, where honesty is encouraged and everyone can ask for help&nbsp;</li><li>Visibility around goal progress enhances the quality of feedback and knowledge-sharing&nbsp;</li><li>Employees are more engaged with their work, improving productivity&nbsp;</li></ul><h3>Regularly assessing performance and providing relevant feedback</h3>While trusting employees is crucial, keeping an eye on their progress can help you overcome challenges before these cause workflow disruptions. For best results, establish a regular cadence of check-in meetings. During these meetings, managers should discuss upcoming tasks, goal progress, and obstacles with employees, addressing these using relevant feedback.&nbsp;

An operational alignment framework is one of the best ways to consolidate alignment in your organization. This involves integrating employees, operations, strategy, and IT using:&nbsp;<ul><li>Employee alignment: Employees can tackle projects that serve organizational goals&nbsp;</li><li>Infrastructure-process fit: Organizational structures support processes adequately&nbsp;</li><li>Strategic fit: Internal resources work together to ensure alignment with external environments&nbsp;</li><li>Functional integration: IT systems support organizational processes, operations, and infrastructures&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1673275174/site-v5/The_operational_alignment_framework_ae91cc2dae.svg" alt="The operational alignment framework"><figcaption>Adapted from <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263398304_Operational_Alignment_Framework_for_Improving_Business_Performance_of_an_Organisation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kwanroengjai et al., 2014</a></figcaption></figure>Using an operational alignment framework, your employees contribute to superior goals, strategies align with primary functions, customers' needs are kept top-of-mind, and your tech stack supports organizational activities. As such, cultivating a fully integrated business, with coordinated value streams ensuring ongoing efficiency.&nbsp;<h3>Leveraging the OKR framework &nbsp;</h3>One operational alignment framework you can use is <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okr-meaning">objectives and key results (OKRs).</a> The OKR framework is a <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/goal-setting">goal-setting methodology</a> that helps employees, operations, strategy, and IT have better organizational alignment. It does so using its two key components: objectives and key results. Objectives are short, qualitative descriptions of what you’re looking to achieve. Each objective is accompanied by 3-5 key results, which are quantitative metrics depicting goal attainment. &nbsp;As the primary aim of OKRs is to coordinate organizational efforts, they’re highly capable of facilitating organizational alignment. This is due to the seven core benefits of OKRs:&nbsp;<ul><li>Focus: As the OKR framework places a limit on the number of priorities, they orient performance toward the most important objectives&nbsp;</li><li>Alignment: Cascading, bottom-up, and bidirectional OKRs can be used to align organizations, with OKRs trickling top-level goals down to lower levels, bottom-up goals enabling employees to create supporting OKRs, and bidirectional OKRs encouraging collaborative goal setting&nbsp;</li><li>Collaboration: OKRs are a common language for organizational goals, assisting interdependent teams in working cohesively toward what matters&nbsp;</li><li>Transparency: With OKR visibility, employees are constantly reminded of what they’re working toward and how successful they are in achieving their goals&nbsp;</li><li>Flexibility: Although OKRs are commonly set per quarter or year, they can be <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okr-cycle">reassessed, adapted, or scrapped throughout the OKR cycle</a> when necessary&nbsp;</li><li>Accountability: As OKRs are trackable, transparent, assignable, and subject to progress reviews, employees are held accountable for OKR progress&nbsp;</li><li>Engagement: With employees involved in goal setting, they have a greater sense of responsibility toward their goals, driving engagement via a sense of commitment&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>Given these benefits, the OKR framework fulfills 75% of the necessary conditions for a robust operational alignment framework. That is, OKRs foster:&nbsp;<h4>People alignment</h4>As OKRs require cross-team coordination, they encourage interdependent employees to pursue OKRs collaboratively. Moreover, OKR visibility facilitates feedback and progress discussions, strengthening employee relationships and ensuring ongoing alignment with broader goals.&nbsp;<h4>Infrastructure-process alignment&nbsp;</h4>OKRs enable infrastructure-process alignment by directing processes toward organizational priorities. Cascading OKRs reveal how your OKRs work together, showcasing how lower-level OKRs serve primary goals. This provides a bird-eye-view of your operations, serving as a solid infrastructure for coordinating work.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1673373444/site-v5/Objective_25bd4ffc19.svg" alt="cascading OKRs"></figure><h4>Strategic alignment&nbsp;</h4>As company OKRs can be split into lower-lever OKRs based on team, departmental, or functional contributions, they help you attain internal strategic alignment. Moreover, as OKRs are adaptable throughout the OKR cycle, you can quickly adjust goals to changes in the external environment. This makes OKRs a robust tool for internal-external alignment.&nbsp;The last piece of the puzzle is functional integration, which involves using an integrative IT system to underpin organizational operations, processes, and infrastructures. This is where OKR software comes in.&nbsp;<h3>Strengthening alignment with OKR software&nbsp;</h3>If you’re using OKRs as an operational alignment framework, you need <a href="/solutions/results/okr-software">OKR software</a> for functional integration. OKR software streamlines the OKR process by making it scalable, accessible, and effortless, allowing you to communicate broad priorities to your entire organization. Moreover, incorporating OKR software into your tech stack helps you solidify OKRs as a fundamental operating system, allowing you to integrate OKR data with your favorite tools for technical organizational alignment.&nbsp;When <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okr-software-buyers-guide">choosing the best OKR software for your organization,</a> ensure it provides these key features:&nbsp;<ol><li>Real-time visibility into OKRs and OKR progress&nbsp;</li><li>Flexible OKR creation&nbsp;</li><li>Dashboards and progress reports&nbsp;</li><li>OKR ownership&nbsp;</li><li>Enables progress-based feedback&nbsp;</li><li>Integrations&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ol><hr>Read more on <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okr-software#what-are-the-features-of-okr-software?">crucial OKR software features</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okr-software#what-are-the-features-of-okr-software?" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1670611665/site-v5/what_is_an_OKR_software_b1a2b6ff02.png" alt="what is an OKR software.png"></a></figure><hr>

As your organization expands and business environments evolve, maintaining alignment — both vertically and horizontally — is no longer easy. Therefore, you must make active strides toward organizational alignment to stay adaptable.&nbsp;&nbsp;Creating organizational alignment within your organization requires you to first pinpoint upcoming priorities. After you’ve communicated these to your organization — and stated your commitment to organizational alignment — you should work on cultivating a flatter organization via a matrix organization structure. This ensures streamlined communication flows across both horizontal and vertical levels. As part of this organizational restructuring, transparency and ongoing performance assessments are vital, with additional feedback provided to ensure your company’s on track.&nbsp;To sustain and consolidate organizational alignment, you need an operational alignment framework that integrates people, strategy, operations, and IT. Using the OKR framework, you can establish your primary goals as centralized hubs connecting these four dimensions. This ensures all activities converge to your primary objectives. To further scale your OKRs across your organization and ensure alignment with your tech stack, <a href="/solutions/results/okr-software">consider using OKR software.</a> OKR software ingrains OKRs into your technical operations, ensuring OKR data is effectively deployed throughout your organization.&nbsp;<hr>Quantive is your bridge between strategy and execution. Founded on the objectives and key results (OKR) methodology, <a href="https://quantive.com/products" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our Strategy Execution Platform</a> is where businesses plan successful strategy, focus and align teams to it, and stay on the leading edge of progress.As your company looks to achieve the best possible results, you need a modern approach to <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">run your business</a> and change your business. <a href="https://quantive.com/modern-operating-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Modern Operating Model</a> brings strategy, teams, and data together to help make decisions faster, optimize operations, and drive better business outcomes.Whether you’re a large enterprise facing competitive disruption or a small business leading the innovative charge, Quantive helps get you where you want to go.Ready to achieve the best possible? Start using <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Quantive for free.</a>

Buyer's Guide: How to Choose the Right OKR Software for Your Business

Organizational Alignment: A Step-by-Step Guide 

Business adaptability refers to a company’s ability to quickly respond to market changes, trends, industry shifts, and economic disruptions by adjusting operations to fit the new normal. This requires businesses to hone a specific set of skills, consisting of:&nbsp;<ul><li>Agility: Rapidly reacting to changes in the market environment while keeping long-term goals in mind&nbsp;</li><li>Innovation: Continuously building on top of competitive advantages to reach new heights of innovation&nbsp;</li><li>Organizational transparency: Ongoing visibility into strategic priorities and decision-making processes&nbsp;</li><li>Flexible resource deployment: Aptly relaying information and resources when necessary&nbsp;</li><li>Value-driven collaboration: Relevant stakeholders collaborating to drive favorable results&nbsp;</li></ul>

The increasing pace, severity, and complexity of competitive and environmental challenges are never-ending in today’s environment. Forces such as globalization, technology, and big data are severely impacting how businesses function, while additional market jolts create turbulent business environments. In the past twenty years alone, we’ve experienced:&nbsp;<ol style="list-style-type:decimal;"><li>The dot-com bubble of 2000&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>The financial crisis of 2008&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020&nbsp;</li></ol>With <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/business-challenges" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">global business challenges</a> occurring more often than we’d like, organizations must hone their business adaptability, learning to closely align with industry shifts to remain relevant. Doing so is necessary as businesses can't thrive in challenging environments if:&nbsp;<ul><li>Decision-making takes weeks instead of minutes&nbsp;</li><li>Employees focus on personal directives instead of company objectives&nbsp;</li><li>Teams are misaligned and create duplicative or conflicting work&nbsp;</li></ul><h3>A new operational approach to business adaptability&nbsp;</h3>To be successful amidst such large-scale challenges, organizations must leverage a comprehensive business adaptability framework. This involves a novel take on strategy execution — one adaptable enough to maximize productivity, coordination, and engagement whilst fending against obstacles.&nbsp;&nbsp;<blockquote>“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” - Charles Darwin&nbsp;</blockquote>This modern business adaptability framework involves establishing <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okr-and-agile" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">agility</a> using adaptive strategy execution. Adaptive strategy execution is a sure-fire way of encouraging flexibility, close communication, and routine operational assessments, ensuring ongoing alignment with internal and external changes.&nbsp;Before looking at how you can embed this business adaptability framework into your organization, let’s take a closer look at two of its core concepts: the agile framework and adaptive strategy execution.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The agile methodology is a <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/product-management-okrs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">product management</a> approach initially created for software development projects. It involves a collaborative, iterative, and feedback-driven process to streamline processes, align employees, and improve products continuously.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1670601550/site-v5/Agile_550b46f02e.svg" alt="A diagram showcasing the components of agile, including collaboration, alignment, continuous improvement, adapting to change, creating remarkable customer experiences, and process management"></figure>While agile is now widely adopted by worldwide enterprises such as Apple, IBM, and Google, it didn’t happen overnight. Rather, it rose to success in three distinctive waves of adoption.&nbsp;<ul><li>First wave: Agile's growth in individual development teams in the 2000s</li><li>Second wave: Agile at scale in product development and IT in the 2010s</li><li>Third wave: Business agility deployed throughout the modern-day enterprise&nbsp;</li></ul><hr>Learn more about <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/agile-meaning" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Agile in full detail</a><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/agile-meaning" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1679429465/site-v5/What_is_Agile_695ff681d4.png" alt="Bullseye outline, with arrows inside the bullseye margins, and an outside circular line with an arrow, on a green background, to convey agile meaning"></a></figure><hr>Nowadays, enterprise agility is hailed as a critical driver of innovation, efficiency, and customer engagement. It enables organizations to respond to market changes in a quick, value-focused manner by bringing decision-making closer to customers.&nbsp;&nbsp;Given the importance of agility in navigating unstable environments, your organization must proactively incorporate agility into your business processes. How can you go about doing this holistically?&nbsp;

While agility is paramount to adaptability in business, it’s insufficient for creating maximum organizational efficiency. For long-term business adaptability, you must use agile as a steppingstone to a more all-encompassing approach: adaptive strategy execution.&nbsp;<h3>What is strategy execution?&nbsp;</h3>Understanding adaptive strategy execution requires you to first grasp the basics of strategy execution. Strategy execution is all about ingraining high-level strategic vision into practical, day-to-day execution. It involves creating a plan for your goals and taking actionable steps toward achieving these using available resources. A well-thought-out <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/strategy-execution" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">strategy execution process entails four steps</a>:&nbsp;<ol style="list-style-type:decimal;"><li>Planning a cohesive <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/business-strategy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">business strategy</a> at the corporate, business, and functional levels&nbsp;</li><li>Aligning individuals across the organization to clearly defined goals&nbsp;</li><li>Executing and managing your strategy at scale&nbsp;</li><li>Assessing and adapting your strategy in line with market changes&nbsp;</li></ol><h4>Making strategy execution adaptive</h4>Adding the “adaptive” component to strategy execution is achieved through the Modern Operating Model. This model focuses on continuous flexibility, alignment, agility, and cross-functional accessibility using <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okrs-vs-kpis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">key performance indicators (KPIs)</a> and objectives and key results (OKRs). KPIs are used to run standard operations, while ambitious goal-setting frameworks such as <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okr-meaning" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OKRs</a> establish business adaptability and growth.&nbsp;<hr>Read more on the <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/what-is-the-modern-operating-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Modern Operating Model</a><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/what-is-the-modern-operating-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/gtmhub/image/upload/v1670611664/site-v5/what_is_MOM_e096dd39be.png" alt="modern operating model diagram"></a></figure><hr><h3>Solidifying adaptive strategy execution with organizational design</h3>To sustain business adaptability, you need a supportive organizational design. In the current knowledge economy, a top-down command and control structure can stop you from attaining business adaptability. As such, you must strive for flatter, network-based structures. These are necessary for today’s <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/hybrid-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hybrid work</a> environment, facilitating ongoing alignment, coordination, and flexibility for optimal operations.&nbsp; &nbsp;<h3>The high cost of non-adaptive organizational designs</h3>Sticking to traditional corporate designs can cause (or aggravate) multiple issues within your organization, affecting your ability to attain adaptability in business. For example, non-adaptive structures inhibit effective communication, alignment, and employee ownership, leading to disempowered employees and subpar work. As <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace-2022-report.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">79% of employees</a> are already disengaged, this can exacerbate pre-existing issues, with non-adaptive designs fueling the fire of misdirected efforts, minimal value creation, and costly turnover.&nbsp;Using adaptive organizational designs, you can effectively deploy resources in response to market needs. This motivates employees to address threats, opportunities, and obstacles promptly, subsequently improving engagement, productivity, and business adaptability.

Now that we’ve covered the basics of adaptive strategy execution, we’ll look at how you can implement it into your organization. For starters, you must take a critical look at how value is created within (and across) your business departments. By assessing your operations, you can steer them toward business adaptability using agile principles and adaptive strategy execution — turning these into a core competitive advantage for your organization.&nbsp;<h3>Building adaptive resilience with agile</h3>After choosing to prioritize business adaptability, you must understand the individual benefits your business can derive from agility. A great place to start is with a deep, yet limited implementation of agile on a handful of customer-impacting processes or value streams.&nbsp;A crucial part of this involves leadership clarity on the expected benefits of implementation. That is, you should be able to fill in the blank of “We are optimizing for ____.”&nbsp;Some examples include:&nbsp;&nbsp;<ul><li>Increased value realization&nbsp;</li><li>Increased productivity&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Improved responsiveness and adaptability&nbsp;</li><li>Increased innovation&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Faster time-to-market&nbsp;</li><li>Increased customer responsiveness and satisfaction&nbsp;</li><li>Improved quality&nbsp;</li><li>Improved employee engagement and satisfaction&nbsp;</li></ul>While you can gain significant benefits from agile, attaining them all at once is rare, and it’s not practical to push for them all at the same time. With this in mind, focus on the most important benefits for your organization, using progress measures to track, align on, and prove success.&nbsp;

To support agile goals, you need a robust <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/goal-setting" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">goal-setting methodology</a> such as OKRs. OKRs provide actionability to goals while allowing you to make adjustments as needed, boosting business adaptability. As such, they're fundamental to adaptive strategy execution.Composed of objectives and key results, this methodology encourages you to set trackable, ambitious, and time-bound goals at every level of your organization. Objectives refer to short, qualitative descriptions of what you want to achieve. Each objective is supported by 3-5 key results, which are trackable metrics depicting progress toward your objectives.&nbsp; &nbsp;OKRs provide several benefits as you work to establish adaptability in business, enabling:&nbsp;<ol style="list-style-type:decimal;"><li>Focus: OKRs highlight the most important <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/company-okrs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">company goals</a>, improving prioritization amidst market changes&nbsp;</li><li>Accountability: Mandatory OKR ownership ensures everyone knows what goals they’re in charge of&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Alignment: Using clear overarching objectives as guiding lights, departments, teams, and individuals push in the same direction&nbsp;</li><li>Transparency: OKRs' transparency ensures everyone is aware of goal progress&nbsp;</li><li>Engagement: As OKRs encourage visibility around ambitious goals, individuals are empowered to push boundaries and make steady progress toward their goals&nbsp;</li><li>Flexibility: <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okr-cycle" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OKRs’ flexible cycle</a> allows them to be adjusted and adapted in response to progress metrics and changes in market environments&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ol>By using <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okr-and-agile" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OKRs to establish agile operations</a>, you can leverage unparalleled capabilities, prioritize value-added growth, and work cohesively toward a singular mission – all while accounting for ongoing changes in the business environment.&nbsp;

Given today’s tumultuous environment, as visionary leaders, you must take it upon yourself to courageously lead, transform, and reposition operations for success. This involves nurturing business adaptability throughout your strategy and structure using adaptive strategy execution.&nbsp;&nbsp;<blockquote>Weaving agility into your operations strengthens communication, keeps teams flexible, and aligns efforts toward prioritized outcomes as you keep tabs on the market environment.&nbsp;</blockquote>As OKRs spearhead adaptive strategy execution by helping create, align, and track actionable goals, they're potent accelerators of business adaptability. OKRs encourage the much-needed mindset shift for <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okrs-in-business" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">organizations of all sizes</a> to establish quick decision-making, coordinated ecosystems, and flexible strategic management.&nbsp;If you want to deploy OKRs across your organization, you can leverage a <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/why-strategy-execution-platform" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">strategy execution platform</a> to make OKR implementation a breeze. The best <a href="https://quantive.com/resources/articles/okr-software" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OKR software</a> helps you create team OKRs, view live data, and continuously adapt OKR elements. Moreover, they can empower efficient operations by establishing goal ownership, generating performance reports, and ensuring visibility at every level of the organization.&nbsp;<hr>Quantive is your bridge between strategy and execution. Founded on the objectives and key results (OKR) methodology, <a href="https://quantive.com/products" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our Strategy Execution Platform</a> is where businesses plan successful strategy, focus and align teams to it, and stay on the leading edge of progress.As your company looks to achieve the best possible results, you need a modern approach to <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">run your business</a> and change your business. <a href="https://quantive.com/modern-operating-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Modern Operating Model</a> brings strategy, teams, and data together to help make decisions faster, optimize operations, and drive better business outcomes.Whether you’re a large enterprise facing competitive disruption or a small business leading the innovative charge, Quantive helps get you where you want to go.Ready to achieve the best possible? Start using <a href="https://quantive.com/products/results/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Quantive for free.</a>

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Organizational Alignment: A Step-by-Step Guide

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Features

Forecast

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Guide

Featured resources for management and strategy​

Why Use the Modern Operating Model?

Why Your Company Needs a Strategy Execution Platform

Organizational Alignment: A Step-by-Step Guide

How to Achieve Business Adaptability With Adaptive Strategy Execution

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