Jumpstarting Organizational Transformation and Effectiveness: The Importance of an Initial Assessment

As organizations prepare to transform their operations and elevate to the next level to meet business goals, it’s important for leaders to determine current state and future goals for where they want to be going forward. To establish a starting point, leaders need an accurate measurement of what their current state is and where to start their approach to transformation.

Our organizational strategy and design experts have found that there are five dimensions of an organization that greatly affect a team’s effectiveness – strategy, structure, processes, rewards, and people.

• Strategy - The organization's goals and direction, including the company's mission, vision, and objectives.
• Structure - How the organization is set up, including hierarchy, departments, and reporting relationships.
• Processes - How information flows and the decision-making procedures within the organization. It includes both formal and informal processes.
• Rewards - The systems for motivating and compensating employees, including salary, bonuses, recognition, and career development opportunities.
• People - The human resource policies and practices, including recruitment, training, and development.

Accelerated Initial Assessment

An initial assessment of an organization's current state in relation to these areas should be thorough and completed promptly to create a launching point to improve organizational performance, effectiveness, agility, and resilience, plus drive sustainable growth. Leaders need accurate and reliable information in an appropriate amount of time to make decisions that will shape their organization's future.

Avaap’s Rapid Organizational Assessment and Roadmap (ROAR) is a fast-tracked transformation initial assessment that includes a robust, three-phased data-driven review that provides comprehensive recommendations on organizational strategy, structure, processes, rewards, and people, using Galbraith’s STAR™ model.

This 10-to-12-week approach identifies and diagnoses current misalignment, pain points, and areas of improvement and prioritizes recommendations for organizational leaders to better align strategy and business goals through three phases:

• Phase 1: Initiation (2 weeks) – This first phase includes document gathering and structuring a workplan.
• Phase 2: Assessment (8 weeks) – This phase includes interviews, focus groups, listening sessions, and playback.
• Phase 3: Analysis (2 weeks) – This phase includes creating a heatmap, determining prioritization, and developing a roadmap and recommendations for the organization.

This approach leverages best practices and expertise in organizational strategy and design, business analysis and program design, and organizational change management. It provides an organization with an objective view of their current state and actionable recommendations based on unique organizational goals and challenges, thereby enhancing organizational performance. 

Organizations looking to gain a comprehensive understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement across various dimensions should consider prioritizing an accelerated initial assessment of their current state. In today’s competitive work environment there is a clear advantage to knowing your starting point, backed by objective data. Get in touch with Avaap to learn how to accelerate your transformation goals and determine the best game plan for success.