Aligning operational activity with strategic objectives

Much of what we have talked about during this stage of the infoKit has revolved around ways in which decisions regarding the strategic direction of the institution can be cascaded throughout the organisation. As such it should be possible to follow a consistent thread that passes through your mission, vision and value statements down through your strategic plan to the local strategies, team and individual planning processes that coordinate work across the institution.

The Strategic Objectives of an organisation give a time-bound, measurable state or result to be achieved in order to move the organisation along towards the vision. The timescale may be the current financial year, or a longer period. The Strategic Objectives will suggest the business changes necessary to achieve the result. Often you will define a programme of projects or activities aimed at achieving each objective.

Each Strategic Objective of an organisation may be the responsibility of a single member of the Senior Management Team, someone who will have the ability and position to command the resources necessary to effect the changes necessary to achieve the objective.

There may be many individual projects needed to bring about the desired change to achieve each objective and in an ideal situation they will be grouped into programmes with each programme aligned to a particular strategic objective.

In the real world you may inherit a situation that is less structured and you will need to make judgements about whether all of the projects currently underway are adequately aligned with your strategic goals and likely to deliver worthwhile return on investment. Mapping out your activities in this way can be a useful first step in identifying duplication of effort and outliers that do not sit readily within the bigger picture.

Co-ordinating the numerous initiatives required to make progress towards the realisation of your strategic objectives is no easy task, but is essential for ensuring that the relevant issues are being addressed and that real progress is being made in pursuit of the institution's agreed strategic objectives (something which should then be confirmed by monitoring of the relevant KPIs).

Our P3M infoKit provides detailed advice in this regard based on a hierarchy of activity management approaches relating to each of the three 'Ps'

Portfolio Management

Portfolio Management is about making sure your organisation makes the right investments and gets the returns it needs for organisational growth and delivery of its Mission

Programme Management

Programme Management is co-ordinating a group of related, and interdependent, projects that support a common strategic objective. A single large or complex project may have the characteristics of a programme and require similar skills

Project Management

Project Management is a structured, 'lifecycle-based' approach to help you do the right things at the right time in order to meet your project goals