Every successful initiative requires alignment on the goals and scope of the program. Often problems that arise at later stages of program implementation, and hinder their success, are due to lack of alignment at the early stages of program inception and design.
Managers can gain alignment by asking a few simple questions:
- How do we want things to be?
- How are they now?
- Does the organization or team know what your expectations are?
- Is there alignment with key stakeholders including the sponsor?
- What’s the impact on the deliverables and milestones from moving forward without the right alignment?
- What’s the risk and cost of not gaining early alignment?
When there’s a failure due to lack of due diligence, lack of awareness, or hubris, then the failure is really a failure. But without failure, innovation is impossible. As a leader where do you draw the line. What is the business case to learn from current mistakes and continue on the current path versus shutting down the initiative. Businesses need to think through their innovation business case and make key, timely decisions to realize the expected value.