Leadership Line of Sight

A “line of sight” means that everyone is able to describe how their current work is part of supporting the larger vision and the organization's core strategies.

Many organizations have an annual process to create goal alignment that cascades down the organization. Such a top-down approach is helpful but incomplete as it typically improves clarity–but shortchanges adaptability.

In a dynamic environment, direction that is too rigid constrains innovation and experimentation. However, innovation and experimentation without a structure to test against tends to wander off course. Either lead to rationalizing failures as due to unforseen circumstances.

How do you accommodate the need for top-down clarity
and bottom-up innovation?

Signet shows leaders how to build alignment through sets of cascading priorities, and find the balance between rigid alignment and situational reactivity. They learn to separate the what from the how at each organizational level. This allows an emphasis on intended results and measures on one hand, and on the other, deliberately innovation against the intent using an Emergent Learning practice built into the execution.

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