Realign Your Business to Curb Inefficiencies and Reach Goals

If you’re looking to reach unmet goals for your business, you may be considering a realignment. Before you can do any realigning in your business, it’s best to do a thorough operational assessment. An operational assessment will help you identify gaps and inefficiencies occurring in your business. We spoke at length about doing an evaluation in our previous blog post, which you can read by clicking here.

If you recently conducted an evaluation or assessment of your business, you may have seen some inefficiencies in the operations, procedures, or the business model. Some examples of inefficiencies can be found in:

• Inadequacies with personnel (placement, skills, training, etc.)
• Non-existent accountability measures
• Inadequate processes and systems
• Unnecessary duplication of tasks
• Untapped opportunities

A realignment will serve to solve inefficiencies, such as those listed above. You’ll have to identify assets and gaps in order to make the adjustments that will best serve your business. See if you can use the assets you already have available to fill gaps and strengthen weak points in your processes, procedures, and strategy before you hire extra personnel or invest in extra technology.

Your team is your business’s best asset. Look at their strengths, skills, knowledge, and experience and see if there is a way for you to create opportunities for them to utilize what they have in ways that will benefit your business. Allow them to be intrapreneurs, if they’re inclined to think that way. Their innovations will help your business stay on the cutting edge, and they will innovate if you provide an environment conducive to this workplace practice.

If you discovered operational inefficiencies during your evaluation, you’ll want to begin your realignment with personnel handoffs, processes, and accountability. You may need to adjust procedures. Having clear and well explained SOP’s that are designed to consistently get your team from point A to point B will allow everyone to work productively and efficiently. Remove unnecessary duplications of tasks; they only slow everyone down. Implement systems to monitor reporting so you always know the team is communicating what is being done, when, and how. Click here to learn more about team accountability.

A need for realignment of roles and responsibilities may also present itself. You may find that they are unclear, overlap, or don’t exist where they should. Remember to treat them as an asset and look for their strengths and skills. Make sure they’re doing the jobs that encourage them to work within their abilities and they’re the best fit for their position in order to achieve tasks and operational goals. If there is a particular skill set that you need, figure out if you can train someone already on your team or if you need to onboard another person to fill that role.

Requiring a realignment doesn’t always mean something went wrong with the business. Realignments will be necessary in order for leadership to have the tools and processes they need to lead the team as your business evolves and sets higher goals. Having an aligned and stable organization will provide your business with the agility necessary to react quickly to changes in the industry and within the business, allowing you to stay productive, efficient, and profitable.