The Strategy Gap: What It Is and How to Fix It
When I work with nonprofits and other mission-driven organizations, one of the biggest challenges I see organizations face is the strategy gap: a disconnect or lack of alignment between an organization's strategy and the work it's actually doing.
What is Strategic Alignment?
Strategic alignment happens when an organization's work (programs, projects, and initiatives) intersects with its purpose or mission, strategy, and resources or capacity.
Purpose: What the organization is trying to achieve.
Strategy: How the organization will achieve its purpose.
Resources/Capacity: The people, funding, operations, and infrastructure required to carry out the strategy.
A strategy gap appears when these areas are not aligned with the organization’s work.
Why the Strategy Gap Matters
When there's a gap between strategy and work, several problems can arise:
Loss of Shared Purpose: Team members may not understand how their work connects to the bigger picture.
Resource Mismatch: New strategies may not get the needed resources, or existing work may lose support.
Silos: Teams working on new initiatives may be disconnected from those working on existing programs or operations.
Burnout: When teams don't feel connected to the organization's purpose and strategy or don't have the resources to do their work, they can get frustrated and burned out.
Difficulty Communicating with Funders: A strategy gap can make it harder to articulate why support is needed.
How to Assess Strategic Alignment
A simple annual assessment can help organizations determine whether a strategy gap exists or is beginning to form:
List Your Work and Resource Use: Document your programs, projects, and initiatives over the past year and how much of your resources were used to support that work. Consider whether this work better aligns with your purpose, strategy, or operations.
Ask Key Questions:
For work aligned with strategy or operations, how well does it align with purpose?
For work that is out of alignment, what value does it bring? Could the resources supporting that work be better used elsewhere?
Talk to Your Team: Ask staff how they see their work and role connecting to purpose and strategy.
Our free assessment tool can help you facilitate consideration of your organization’s alignment.
How to Maintain or Improve Alignment
Transparency and embedding purpose and strategy throughout your organization are key to ensuring alignment. While there are many ways to maintain or improve your organization’s strategic alignment, here are three critical approaches:
Clarity: Ensure your organizational purpose and strategies are clear, understandable, and shared across the organization. Can you articulate your strategies in 1 or 2 sentences?
Implementation Planning: Include implementation planning in your strategic planning process. Break your strategic goals into actionable steps, assign responsibility, and set deadlines.
Strategic Budgeting: Make sure your budget reflects your strategy and purpose. Each budget line item should have a justification that connects it to your purpose, strategy, or critical operation.
NEED SUPPORT Creating alignment?
Schedule an introductory call with Jami Yazdani.
