1.5 - About University

This graphical illustration of a misaligned organization speaks volumes about the need foralignment!Strategy Skills Style Shared ValuesStructure Systems StaffH OW TO USE THIS LEADERSHIP TOOL“In retrospect, what our framework (the 7S model) has really done is remind the world of professionalmanagers that ‘soft is hard.’ It has enabled us to say, in effect, ‘All that stuff you have been dismissingfor so long as intractable, irrational, intuitive, informal organization can be managed.’”—Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCEIf your organization is struggling, it could be because of a misalignment among the 7 S’s—oneor more of the S’s is not supporting the others. Often, restructuring is the first or only solutionconsidered. (We suggest that this solution, used in isolation from the other 6 S’s, has a lot incommon with reshuffling the chairs on the Titanic.) Don’t attempt change by focusing on onlyone or two of the 7 S’s. Rather, use this tool to examine organizational change from a systemicpoint of view.Another application for this tool is in planning change. Change often fails because it is notsupported by other interacting systems. Many leaders try to push through change by concentratingon the excellence of the change itself. More often, it is more effective and economicalto concentrate effort on aligning those subsystems that may impede or support the proposedchange. In planning change, leaders need to identify the 7 S’s, starting most often withStrategy, and ask:? Which S’s support our Strategy?? Which S’s (more specifically which parts of any S) might inhibit or be barriers to ourStrategy?? What can we do to turn around or reduce the barriers?WEB WORKSHEETUse the space here to systemically plan an organizational change with the help of the 7Smodel.The initiative you need to plan:46 SECTION 2 TOOLS FOR BIG-PICTURE THINKING