(by Integro Leadership Institute)
Employee alignment is critical. When employees are not aligned with the organization’s goals and strategies, the right work does not get done… or it does not get done right. What many managers fail to realize is that if employees are not aligned with the organization’s Purpose, Values and Vision, or have failed to establish their own intrinsic purposes for their daily work, they are very unlikely to be aligned with your goals, strategies and processes.
When employees feel connected to the purpose and vision of the organization, they have a clear understanding of how important the products and services you provide are to your customers and the community. They also see a clear connection between what they do and the success of your organization in fulfilling its purpose. As a result, aligned employees see their work as meaningful. They look forward to coming to work, and have a sense of pride in what they do and the organization they work for. When there is a high level of trust throughout the organization:
This is a place where people want to work… a workplace based on trust and personal responsibility. The Strategic Alignment Survey measures four key areas that have an impact on employee alignment and engagement, and provides critical feedback across the organization. LifeWork Systems will collect, summarize and report on the four sections of this survey:
Section One – Group Trust Level Report – this section includes 16 questions/statements describing:
Section Two – Group Alignment Report – this section includes 23 questions/statements that describe:
Section Three – Values That Build Trust – this section has 8 categories describing:
Section Four – Kinds of People – see descriptions in this section identifying the percentage of:
This report will measure the degree to which each employee perceives that the four elements of trust are present in their work group. The elements of trust and the behaviors measured are:
– the degree to which employees (1) have clearly defined and agreed behavioral standards, (2) make sure expectations are clear, (3) are willing to discuss and resolve disagreements and (4) practice what they preach.
– the degree to which employees (1) openly share information and opinions, (2) discuss feelings with one another, (3) do not withhold relevant information from one another, and (4) are comfortable receiving feedback from each other.
– the degree to which employees (1) are really listened to, (2) are accepted for who they are, (3) feel it is safe to express conflicting views, and (4) encourage and support each other.
– the degree to which employees (1) can rely on each other to get the job done, (2) do what they say they will do, (3) take ownership of their jobs and, (4) have high standards of quality in everything they do.
Although it is common to get a spread of responses on each, there is usually a tendency for some consistency in group scores, so the elements that need most work can easily be identified.
The percentages for each element represent the raw scores from the questions asked compared to the maximum possible score.
Often, the most underrated element is acceptance. It is this element that creates the climate for the other three to increase. When team members feel that they are valued and respected, they are more comfortable being open and honest with each another.
This report is measuring two things:
– how clear each individual believes their work group is on the purpose, values, vision, goals, procedures and roles.
– to what degree each employee approves of the purpose, values, vision, goals, procedures and roles.
It is important to understand the difference here between what we are measuring on clarity and approval. With clarity, we are measuring each employee’s perception of how clear they believe their work group is, not how clear the individual is. When people are asked how clear they are, some individuals may not want to admit not being clear. By asking whether they perceive the group to be clear, we get a more accurate picture of clarity.
It is also possible that an individual, the team leader for example, may be very clear on the vision themselves, but believe that the team is very unclear about that vision.
With approval, we are measuring the individual’s personal approval. It is possible to have an individual that shows approval in a very unclear position on the report. This would tend to indicate that this person is clear about that item themselves, and approves of it, but believes that the team is very unclear.
The percentages for Team Clarity and Team Approval represent the raw scores from the questions asked compared to the maximum possible score.
The main benefit of the Group Alignment Report is that you can see which of these key areas you need to focus on increasing clarity, and where there is a need for more approval.
Section One of this report looked at the Trust Building Behaviors in this group and this section measures the Values that must be present to drive the trust building behaviors. We have identified two values that need to be present for each of the four Elements of Trust.
The eight values are:
In the questionnaire employees are asked two questions about each of these values:
Employees do not see the Elements of Trust or the name of the value, just the description.
Reading the Graph: Each of the eight values shows the average score on the first bar (on a scale of 1 to 10) of how important these values are to your employees. The second bar represents the average score for employees’ perceptions of the organization’s performance on each value. The column on the right shows the number of respondents who completed these questions. The Trust Values Gap Score in the box at the top of the page shows the sum of all of the gaps.
Interpretation: The difference between “personal importance” and “organizational performance” can have a significant impact on employee engagement and commitment. If employees indicate that these values are “important” to “very important” to them, and then rate the “organization’s performance” significantly lower, they are saying is: “This is important to me but my organization doesn’t operate this way.”
This section is measuring employees’ perceptions of the behavior of their co-workers, based on the kinds of people described in our Personal Responsibility Model.
This model identifies three kinds of people:
Self-Directed – people who are personally responsible, and two kinds of
Other-Directed people – those who tend to be Compliant, and those who are Rebellious.
The survey asks employees to respond to the following question:
What percentage of the people that you work with would fit each of the following three descriptions? Please ensure your total for all three equals 100%.
Person 1 – Will not be told what to do; feels frustrated; feels entitled to better treatment; does the absolute bare minimum they have to do to keep their job; tends to blame others when things go wrong; this person is generally or frequently uncooperative or actively working against others, sometimes openly sabotaging; sometimes through action or inaction. (Actively Disengaged/Rebellious)
Person 2 -Does what they are asked to do but does not feel much commitment to the tasks, or to the organization…it’s just a job, a paycheck; sticks to the rules and stays out of trouble but is switched off and non-creative. (Disengaged/ Compliant)
Person 3 – Works intentionally with a strong commitment to their purpose; maintains a high level of engaged passion on the job. They’re eager and willing, personally and intrinsically responsible for their performance, their relationships, and have strong self and social interest; they are open-minded, eager and willing to learn; and uses initiative and creativity to improve results. (Fully Engaged/Self-Directed)
Reading the Graph: The pie chart shows the average percentage of scores for the three descriptions, for all employees in this group that respond to the questions.
Important Note: While we have used the title “Kinds of People” for this section, we are really talking about how employees are currently behaving. It is important to understand that Rebellious and Compliant behaviors are natural responses from employees who perceive themselves to be in an Authoritarian environment. It is also possible for the same person to use all three types of behavior in one day.
This result is not a portrait of the employees in your group, merely a snapshot of how they were behaving at the time this survey was taken.
This report shows the distribution of answers for each question with both the numbers of employees at each point on the scales, and the percentage of the whole group that number represents.
The questions are listed on this report by item, making it easier to respond to questions others have about what is actually being measured. It also shows whether there is any significant difference in the spread of answers.
This report is provided for the organization as a whole, not for individual workgroups. Employees have been advised that their responses are confidential, and for smaller work groups it can become obvious that one employee has answered the questions differently from the rest of the group. This can lead to unnecessary and unhealthy speculation as to who this might be.
The Strategic Alignment Survey has a total of 73 questions that will be asked prior to implementation of a LifeWork Systems Leadership Development Process and again after all services are completed. The survey extensively measures four key areas that impact employee alignment and engagement, and will provide feedback critical for LifeWork Systems and you in developing an effective, comprehensive and customized leadership development plan for your organization.
The resulting process will be tailored to the specific areas needing improvement as well as to leverage and expand your organizations strengths and assets. The results of the initial survey provide a benchmark for the current state of trust and alignment and allow a comparison of post-service data to measure improvements.
Ntrinsx is a temperament survey that helps people understand each other’s highest priority values, how to interpret one another’s behavior with understanding and how to best interact with each other. Ntrinsx makes it easy to learn, store, view, share, and leverage one another’s intrinsic (internal) values to improve relationships – with individuals, teams, and more. After you take the Ntrinsx survey (which takes no more than 5-10 minutes to complete and does not require comments) you receive a full report about yourself.
You can access the Ntrinsx dashboard on your phone, tablet or computer making it easy to search for information on the temperament of any co-worker as well as the composition of any team you form, to determine if you have the right mix of people for any given task. This is a very positive tool. You can generate reports on your organization as a whole or within departments and sub-groups within your organization. Ntrinsx also has a documentation library of support information and a translation feature so you can invite people in a multitude of language options. In this way, anyone can complete the survey and review their report in the language they are most comfortable.
Another benefit of Ntrinsx is that you have access to a free account for you family. You are the administrator for your family account, which is separate from your organization’s account. This feature allows you to invite up to three family members to also take the survey at no additional cost. Should you have more family to invite, you can purchase additional surveys right from your family account.
Once you are registered and have your Ntrinsx profile in the systems, you will access it by going to beta.ntrinsx.com/login and putting in your email address and your password.
Enjoy what you learn about yourself and others!
You are getting ready to implement your culture transformation. In order to be best prepared before, during and after the project, we have put all pertinent information into a client lead handbook (under Materials) for you in order to reference needed information as you go through all the various activities in this project, including:
It is critical that you are clear about the steps, key components and roles in your culture transformation project. In this second pre-project training module, you gain the following information needed for your success:
This Module has four parts, be sure to watch all four below.
Everyone in your project will be mentored every month during the project and ongoing thereafter. Not only is it important that you understand this process and the mentoring tools provided, so too should every person on your team. In your LifeWork Systems project, you will come to see that our mentoring process and tools are not necessarily the same as mentoring in other programs.
This topic is the one that requires the greatest clarification on the following:
Everyone in your organization will take a turn leading a group facilitated training session. In order for this to be effective, it will be important that each person gains an understanding of the following: