Aligning your organization with external trends is a key skill for organizational leadership. It helps you stay relevant, competitive, and responsive to the changing needs and expectations of your customers, partners, and stakeholders. But how do you do it effectively and efficiently? Here are some tips to help you align your organization with external trends.
The first step is to scan the environment for the external trends that affect your organization. These can be social, technological, economic, environmental, political, or legal trends that create opportunities or threats for your business. You can use various tools and methods to scan the environment, such as PESTEL analysis, SWOT analysis, scenario planning, or horizon scanning. The goal is to identify the key drivers of change and their implications for your organization.
If you are truly great organisation you should set the trends not be part of rat race copy paste mission. While all said and done when it comes to technology please feel free to embrace it . When it comes to change bring them to your range adapt fast or you may fade . So few things you trade off few you choose to improve please do without second thought upgrade now. The area that you need to be worried about Policies matter that couldn't be served on your solution platter so better align to stay back in business as Governance is to be strictly complied with zero mess . Trust this would help as of now God bless !!! .
Understanding the Landscape Before you can align your organization with external trends, you need to understand how to research, and then identify the trends that matter. This involves a mix of market research, customer feedback, and industry insights. Given my extensive background and experience, I've found that direct customer interaction often provides the most valuable data.
Going forward, it could well help to also scan and assess/map the internal Skills with the development of those externally across key functions and employer attractiveness. Could be a driver for all the other things in the coming decade
One of the top things I found to be helpful in scanning the environment is becoming fully immersed in the culture. Attending conferences and webinars hosted by industry experts as well as engaging those who are in the industry butt are not recognized allows for a well rounded view of trends and what people who are "boots on the ground" are actually doing or experiencing.
Be up to date by proactively reading through news and papers that have an impact on your industry. Learn from the leaders and be bold in disruption yourself.
The next step is to assess how well your organization is aligned with the external trends. This means evaluating your current vision, mission, strategy, goals, values, culture, processes, products, services, and capabilities in relation to the external trends. You can use various tools and methods to assess your alignment, such as gap analysis, benchmarking, feedback surveys, or stakeholder mapping. The goal is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your organization and the areas of alignment and misalignment.
Adapting to change is a very underrated trait - Useful and sometimes the single biggest advantage one can have over peers. Change is the only constant, they say. And in this rapidly evolving world, it is very true!
Be as close to the customer and the client (in case both are different) and engage. Frequency of engagement could be shorter even for top management given the state of the environment. else it could be too late to spot and be reactive in catching on trends
In assessing our organizational alignment, it is important to enlist the expertise of those who are engaging in the work. We have found that surveys are a great way to gauge input from those who can benefit from the services we provide. It is also important to share with the executive leadership the trends we see and offer suggestions on what actions could possibly allow us to pivot.
You gotta zoom out and see how your move lines up with the big, bad world out there. I'm talking trends, market shifts, the whole nine yards. Look inward at your vision, mission, and strategy. Then peek outside—what's the market telling you? Are you riding the wave or swimming against the tide? Use tools like gap analysis and benchmarking. Get data-driven but stay gut-smart. Involve everyone—your team, stakeholders, and customers. Use surveys and stakeholder mapping; to get the 360-degree view. You're not just checking a box; you're hunting for gaps and opportunities. Don't just identify your strengths and weaknesses, ACT on 'em! If you're aligned, awesome, go full throttle. If not, pivot and realign. Your adaptability is a must-have.
'Bias' is the unseen and mostly unrecognised Hazard. Independent auditing, due diligence, peer review or cross company observations are both powerful and generally effective. Be prepared to make material changes to the 'policies' as the business matures and responds to the changing sophistication and expectations of the community, the market and legislative environments. Develop & implement regular compliance audits with upstream & downstream customers. In short, 'talk', have effective & transparent 'dialogue' to ensure your relevance and alignment to expectations, nominated deliverables and shared outcomes. Say what you do, do what you say! This eliminates any 'drift' or 'alignment issues' as may be present should there be no intervention.
The third step is to adjust your strategy to align your organization with the external trends. This means revising your vision, mission, strategy, goals, values, culture, processes, products, services, and capabilities to match the external trends. You can use various tools and methods to adjust your strategy, such as strategic planning, change management, innovation management, or project management. The goal is to create a clear and coherent roadmap for your organization to achieve its desired outcomes.
You shouldn't need to adjust your vision - this is the bold purpose for existing - the thing you want to see better in the world. Nvidia's vision is "transform how the world experiences computing.” They saw a trend in AI and doubled down on converting their tech to meet the need - almost abandoning their existing customer base to do so - their vision didn't change though and the adjusted product strategy is pumping profit margins of 1000%. Stick with your vision, that is your aspiration that drives you and your customers to a better now and future.
Useful recognise incremental and strategic ones. Revalidate and good opportunity to press the pedal. Where it needs experimentation to explore an area from the findings - make that call earlier than later
Adjusting the strategy and explaining the why behind it to stakeholders is important to gain buy-in of necessary changes. Strategic planning with those who are severely impacted is key to ensuring the vision is actualize.
The Company 'Strategy' is to be robust, yet have agility to be 'adjusted' as the business grows, consolidates or metamorphises. The Executive Statements (Vision, Mission etc) are internal drivers for the existance & company identity (culture and reputation) for today and tomorrow. Depending upon the 'ownership' model of the organisation, the Executive Statements are to be reviewed regularly to support the workforce in their mission to create & deliver upon the vision. Awareness of the actual vector of the company direction & the perceived direction of the company may be two different directions. In order to prevent misallignment, consult widely & have transparent audits of the vision, mission to the actual position & mission parameters.
The fourth step is to communicate and engage your organization with the external trends. This means sharing your vision, mission, strategy, goals, values, culture, processes, products, services, and capabilities with your internal and external stakeholders. You can use various tools and methods to communicate and engage, such as storytelling, branding, marketing, social media, or stakeholder engagement. The goal is to build trust, awareness, understanding, and commitment among your stakeholders.
In the age of instant communication, we note the accuracy, the required fact checking & continual conspiracy theories that abound. In order to communicate effectively and have meaningful and lasting engagements, plan for regular follow up conversations with the workforce. A single 'hit' once a year is not appropriate nor is it truely engaging. Please avoid the 'tick the box' mentality. Be seen to be seen, speak to be heard, act the way we want our people to act.... A consistent message from the other contributors is 'dialogue', a two way conversation as opposed to lectures & monologues. Be prepared for brutal truths to be said, welcome them & respect their origin...(3 Truth Scenario) & be prepared to change.....and start the process again.
Aligning to external trends will often mean change, and communication is the key to all change projects. I've found that in order to be effective, communication must a) be two-way, and b) consider both "on stage" and "off stage" contexts: a) When informing stakeholders what the change is going to be and why (ie what the trend is), you need to elicit feedback and create a dialogue to engage. (two-way) b) As well as formal "on-stage" communications such as online briefs, newsletters, workshops etc, it is important to consider informal, often individual, communications that occur "off-stage" such as in the office or on the back of an ostensibly unrelated meeting. This is where the most honest feedback can be gained and trust earned.
Clarity in what trends mean, and how we are going about it is also valuable to show the organisation is surging ahead. Great opportunity to have this broken down into initiatives, ownership groups with smaller goals and participative ways of involving teams
The fifth step is to monitor and evaluate your alignment with the external trends. This means tracking and measuring your progress, performance, and impact in relation to the external trends. You can use various tools and methods to monitor and evaluate, such as dashboards, indicators, metrics, or feedback loops. The goal is to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of your alignment and to identify the areas of improvement and learning.
Make sure you have a set of org level KPIs that align to external trends. If your KPIs are in isolation from and do not incorporate external benchmarks, you may develop blind spots.
The sixth step is to adapt and evolve your alignment with the external trends. This means updating and refining your vision, mission, strategy, goals, values, culture, processes, products, services, and capabilities based on the feedback and learning from the previous steps. You can use various tools and methods to adapt and evolve, such as agile methods, continuous improvement, or learning organizations. The goal is to create a dynamic and resilient organization that can respond to the changing environment.
The ability to adapt and evolve your alignment with the external trends in changing business environments is not easy. Strategic flexibility refers to the company’s ability to adapt to the business environment. When the business environment changes, it raises uncertainties and risks. It can be a chance for innovation & source of competitive advantage for companies.
Another way to drive alignment with external trends is to embrace a culture of continuous learning as part of the DNA of the organization. When employees (regardless of the level) are encouraged to learn & to stay informed about the latest developments in the industry, it helps drive a proactive response towards shifting market dynamics than an impulse driven reaction. It helps make the teams stay agile, less resistant to change and drive collective ownership to stay competitive in a rapidly changing landscape.
Well thought. Customer focused and competitive enterprise must have to keep healthy work environment and culture of continuous learning. Workforce be at their highest level of satisfaction.
Recently, we surveyed the group of people who are services target to gain insight into if we are actually meeting their needs. Also, hosting listening sessions and asking for feedback has been helpful in assisting us in ensuring we are on track.