Assess Organizational Design and Policy

Assess organizational design and policy to ensure the promotion of human development and the flow of value.

Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic

It would be easy to pass over the first word in this sentence, but that would be an error. The word ‘assess’ is often overlooked and invokes assumptions of a very subjective nature. What does it mean to assess something? The dictionary tells us that to assess is to estimate or judge the value of something. To evaluate. The value comes from achieving a certain outcome. To assess organizational design and policy for human development and the flow of value suggests that we have taken time to establish the measures of these outcomes in the first place. Welcome back to strategy deployment. You didn’t think we were finished with that topex yet, did you?

Assess is also something we do on a regular and frequent basis. This is not a one and done activity. Everything changes or drifts over time. Anywhere a human is involved in a process we see drift, and as changes in the internal and external environments come, our processes require assessment and evaluation regarding their effectiveness in delivering our intended outcomes. The frequency of assessment is a topex for a later discussion but suffice it to say that frequency and recovery effort are very much related.

Assess Organizational Design and Policy

What then is the purpose and evidence of both human development and the flow of value. These two outcomes are very different, but very much related. The point I would like to emphasize is that unless we have defined each of these in some measurable and communicable form, we cannot create alignment first and assessment second.

Strategy deployment is the act of creating a condition of readiness. Our organization is ready when they understand the measure of success and have an idea regarding how to get there. When we agree with these two critical elements, then we are ready to execute. While executing, we should expect to assess progress and make the necessary adjustments to accomplish what we have set out to achieve. That is really all number 24 is challenging us to do. In this case, do it with human development and the flow of value in mind.