Case Study: Creating Alignment with a Common and Agreed-Upon Strategy

Company

Mid-sized public transit agency

Challenge

The client wanted to create an organization-wide strategic management system that aligned department activities with the broad organizational vision and strategy, communicated strategic intent throughout the agency, measured desired outcomes, and allowed for data-driven decision-making.

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Intervention

Bâton Global (B|G) worked with the client to build a balanced scorecard system that aligned enterprise and unit-level projects and programs, monitored the implementation and effectiveness of strategic objectives, and steered employees toward a shared vision.

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Results

The new strategic management system has provided a means for the client to articulate, communicate, and execute a strategy that is aligned from the unit to enterprise level.

The scope of this project includes four main areas of activity:

Insight

The Insight phase of the project was focused on identifying internal and external strengths and weaknesses that would drive strategy creation and the approach to achieving future results.

B|G met with members of the leadership team to further understand their common and unique aspirations and challenges.
A peer group analysis was conducted that provided insight into the strategies used by other transit providers to achieve high performance.
Findings during this stage helped to inform the drafting of enterprise-level and unit-level scorecards.

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Innovation

During facilitated work sessions, the management team drafted an enterprise-level scorecard reflecting priorities in five key dimensions of performance.

The management team developed strategic objectives that aligned to each of these five dimensions.
Each objective was assigned a key performance indicator (KPI), a target by which progress would be tracked, and an owner to ensure accountability.

Integration

Once the enterprise-level scorecard was completed, facilitated work sessions focused on drafting unit-level scorecards.

Members of the management team broke off into groups and worked with individuals in their department to select objectives, measures, and targets that were oriented toward their specific business unit.
To ensure alignment, unit-level scorecards were organized around the five key dimensions identified in the enterprise-level scorecard.

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Impact

Enterprise and unit-level scorecards with realistic and sustainable objectives, metrics, and targets were implemented throughout the organization.

Structure was given to strategy making it easy to keep goals front and center and track progress toward achieving those goals.
Unit-level strategies were better aligned with enterprise-level focus areas and goals.
A culture of strategic thinking was created within the organization that included a common language, goals, and trust.
The client was given the tools to update and refine the scorecard system to reflect the new realities of the organization over the course of time.

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Creating Alignment with a Common and Agreed-Upon Strategy

Company

Challenge

Intervention