Encyclopedia of Leadership

This graphical illustration of a misaligned organization speaks volumes about the need for

alignment!

HOW TO USE THIS LEADERSHIP TOOL

“In retrospect, what our framework (the 7S model) has really done is remind the world of professional

managers that ‘soft is hard.’ It has enabled us to say, in effect, ‘All that stuff you have been dismissing

for so long as intractable, irrational, intuitive, informal organization can be managed.’”

—Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE

If your organization is struggling, it could be because of a misalignment among the 7 S’s—one

or more of the S’s is not supporting the others. Often, restructuring is the first or only solution

considered. (We suggest that this solution, used in isolation from the other 6 S’s, has a lot in

common with reshuffling the chairs on the Titanic.) Don’t attempt change by focusing on only

one or two of the 7 S’s. Rather, use this tool to examine organizational change from a systemic

point of view.

Another application for this tool is in planning change. Change often fails because it is not

supported by other interacting systems. Many leaders try to push through change by concen-

trating on the excellence of the change itself. More often, it is more effective and economical

to concentrate effort on aligning those subsystems that may impede or support the proposed

change. In planning change, leaders need to identify the 7 S’s, starting most often with

Strategy, and ask:

? Which S’s support our Strategy?

? Which S’s (more specifically which parts of any S) might inhibit or be barriers to our

Strategy?

? What can we do to turn around or reduce the barriers?

WEB WORKSHEET

Use the space here to systemically plan an organizational change with the help of the 7S

model.

46 SECTION 2 TOOLS FORBIG-PICTURETHINKING

Strategy Skills Style Shared Values

Structure Systems Staff

The initiative you need to plan: