1.
Rapid
Team
Alignment
Assessment
To
conduct
a
rapid
team
alignment
assessment,
please
read
the
following
and
answer
the
questions.
Imagine
that
you
are
a
team
leader
and
that
you
want
to
assess
the
performance
of
your
team.
How
do
you
know
they
are
aligned?
Your’s
may
be
an
enterprise
team,
a
business
team
or
a
function
team.
It
might
be
in
a
small,
large,
for
profit
or
not-­‐for-­‐profit
organization.
In
this
document
there
are
some
revealing
assessment
questions.
These
questions
will
allow
you
to
conduct
a
mini-­‐assessment
of
your
team
–
and
enable
you
to
go
back
and
explain
a
way
forward.
They
will
help
to
reveal
the
highest
leverage
issues
for
your
team
and
business.
These
questions
are
based
on
a
leadership
philosophy
called
context
building.
A
context
is
a
set
of
key
conditions
that
determine
the
ways-­‐of-­‐thinking
and
acting,
relationships,
activities
and
results
that
are
sustainable.
Your
context
is
the
box
in
which
you
operate.
Context
building
is
about
create
those
key
conditions
that
make
success
inevitable.
Key
Definitions:
A
context
is
a
set
of
key
conditions
that
determine
the
results
that
are
sustainable
or
not.
These
key
conditions
are
the
box
in
which
you
and
your
team
play.
Alignment
is
when
the
key
conditions
in
a
context
work
together
to
make
success
inevitable.
It
is
an
optimal
state
in
which
there
are
no
constraints.
A
leader
is
someone
who
is
accountable
for
creating
those
key
conditions
that
will
make
success
inevitable
for
a
team.
Effective
leaders
create
alignment.
They
build
effective
contexts.
A
primary
constraint
(*)
is
the
one
key
condition
in
a
context
that
most
limits
sustainable
performance.
Resolving
primary
constraints
yields
the
highest
possible
return
on
investment
and
is
the
fastest
path
to
evolution.
One
of
the
goals
of
these
questions
is
to
help
identify
the
primary
constraints
in
your
team
and
business.
A
business
is
a
system-­‐of-­‐workflows
designed
to
develop,
sell
and
deliver
products
and
services
to
customers
with
the
help
of
partners
in
order
to
create
competitive
advantage.
1
©
2012
Growth
River
LLC,
All
Rights
Reserved.

2.
Part
I:
Identify
the
Constraints
to
Your
Team’s
Effectiveness
and
Your
Businesses’
We
have
found
that
if
four
key
conditions
are
optimized
(1-­‐4),
then
a
highly
effective
team
is
inevitable.
At
any
given
time,
one
of
these
four
key
conditions
will
be
sub-­‐optimal.
This
one
sub-­‐optimal
condition
is
the
current
primary
constraint
to
a
team
reaching
a
higher
level
of
performance.
The
Four
Key
Conditions
for
Team
Effectiveness
2
©
2012
Growth
River
LLC,
All
Rights
Reserved.

3.
I.
Vertical
Ways-­‐of-­‐Thinking
and
Acting
The
vertical
impulse
(↑)
is
the
impulse
to
increase
strategic
possibilities.
In
contrast,
the
horizontal
impulse
(→)
is
to
manage
risk.
A
successful
team
culture
requires
both
horizontal
and
vertical
impulses.
The
right
mix
is
critical
as
it
profoundly
affects
innovation
and
the
kinds
of
business
models
that
are
sustainable.
1. What
is
the
dominant
impulse
of
your
top-­‐leader
and
team:
vertical
or
horizontal?
One
important
implication?
What
should
it
be?
5
4
3
2
1
n/a
↑
Vertical
Horizontal
→
To
expand
possibilities
To
control
risk
II.
Complete
System-­‐of-­‐Roles
In
a
complete
system-­‐of-­‐roles
every
key
issue
and
relationship
has
a
dedicated
owner
with
sufficient
authority
to
play
their
role.
A
complete
system-­‐of-­‐roles
requires
champions
who
have
the
authority
to
innovate
and
drive
performance.
2. Do
all
critical
issues
and
key
relationships
have
dedicated
owners?
5
4
3
2
1
n/a
Almost
Always
Sometimes
Rarely
III.
Aligned
Strategies
Strategies
are
aligned
to
the
extent
that
they
create
competitive
advantage
across
an
organization.
Competitive
advantage
is
measured
by
four
factors:
market
potential,
scalability,
sustainability
and
return.
Any
strategy
can
be
evaluated
by
its
contribution
to
one
or
more
of
these
factors.
In
this
way,
disparate
strategies
across
an
enterprise
can
be
compared
and
integrated.
3. Are
strategies
aligned
towards
competitive
advantage?
5
4
3
2
1
n/a
Almost
Always
Sometimes
Rarely
3
©
2012
Growth
River
LLC,
All
Rights
Reserved.

4.
1.
IV.
Optimized
Workflows
* Businesses
growth
is
the
speed
at
which
products
and
services
are
developed,
sold
and
delivered.
A
team
that
shares
this
understanding
–
and
structures
metrics
around
it
–
will
align
to
create
growth.
The
Business
Triangle
is
a
way
to
visualize
the
workflows
in
a
business.
In
any
business,
there
are
Four
Key
Conditions
for
Go-­‐to-­‐Market
Effectiveness.
4
©
2012
Growth
River
LLC,
All
Rights
Reserved.

5.
IV.
Optimized
Workflows
(con’t.)
*
Different
kinds
of
businesses
or
industries
will
have
different
types
of
activities
around
their
business
triangles.
The
primary
constraint
to
growth
in
a
business
will
lie
within
the
activities
on
one
side
of
a
business’s
triangle.
Sample
business
triangles
with
key
functional
capabilities.
MANUFACTURING
BUSINESS
RETAIL
BUSINESS
5
©
2012
Growth
River
LLC,
All
Rights
Reserved.

6.
6
©
2012
Growth
River
LLC,
All
Rights
Reserved.

7.
IV.
Optimized
Workflows
(con’t.)
*
4. Using
the
table,
list
the
different
businesses
in
your
enterprise.
A
business
is
a
system-­‐of-­‐workflows
designed
to
develop,
sell
and
deliver
products
and
services
to
customers
with
the
help
of
partners
in
order
to
create
competitive
advantage.
To
ensure
clear
accountabilities,
businesses
should
segmented
in
an
enterprise
to
reflect
key
differences
in
how
products
and
services
are
developed,
sold
and
delivered.
Separate
businesses
require
separate
strategies.
They
often
have
separate
P&Ls.
A
business
is
not
a
function
like
marketing
or
sales
or
a
specific
market
but
it
is
a
complete
business
triangle
that
can
encompass
several
functions
working
together.
5. Identify
the
primary
constraint
to
growth
(pcg)
in
the
workflow
of
each
business
from
Develop,
Sell
or
Deliver.
There
is
only
one
pcg
in
each
business.
(Place
a
checkmark
to
indicate
where
the
pcg
is.)
ü Workflow
w/
pcg
identified
Sell
Capabilities
-­‐
gaining
access
Deliver
to
target
Capabilities
Develop
customers
and
-­‐
delivering
as
Capabilities
creating
promised
and
-­‐
developing
successful
generating
winning
value-­‐ purchase
positive
#
Businesses
propositions.
moments.
referrals.
1
2
3
4
5
If
the
location
of
the
primary
constraint
is
not
clear,
apply
the
following
logic
ü The
pcg
is
in
developing
if
you
have
a
weak
value-­‐proposition.
ü The
pcg
is
in
selling
if
you
have
a
strong
value
proposition
and
excess
delivery
capacity.
ü The
pcg
is
in
delivering
if
you
can
sell
more
than
you
can
deliver.
7
©
2012
Growth
River
LLC,
All
Rights
Reserved.

8.
Part
II:
Questions
to
Clarify
the
Path
Forward
*
* The
critical
objective
is
to
create
a
team
culture
in
which
every
member
knows
at
all
times
where
the
constraints
are
–
and
what
the
root
causes
are.
This
will
yield
maximum
alignment
towards
growth
and
return.
Your
answers
to
the
questions
above
(including
non-­‐answers)
point
to
where
your
team
may
be
out
of
alignment
in
a
way
that
is
impacting
performance.
To
clarify
the
path
forward,
ask:
6. Is
there
a
pattern
in
the
location
of
the
pcg’s
across
businesses?
Are
they
mostly
in
developing,
selling
or
delivering?
One
implication?
The
causes
for
this
pattern
will
lie
in
one
of
the
top
three
key
conditions
for
team
effectiveness
(Part
I):
Ways
of
Thinking
and
Acting,
Complete
System-­‐of-­‐Roles,
or
Aligned
Strategies.
If
there
is
no
pattern,
yet
business
constraints
are
not
being
resolved
efficiently,
the
root
cause
will
also
lie
in
one
of
these
three
top
conditions.
The
reason
for
this
is
that
these
are
critical
conditions
that
determine
the
kind
of
business
models
your
organization
can
and
cannot
sustain.
For
example,
if
your
team
is
risk
averse,
your
system-­‐of-­‐roles
may
be
unclear.
If
your
system-­‐of-­‐roles
is
unclear,
your
strategies
are
likely
to
be
unclear.
Therefore
your
workflows
could
be
inefficient
and
the
quality
uneven.
7. How
significant
is
the
impact
of
these
constraints
on
team
and
business
performance?
5
4
3
2
1
n/a
Very
significant
Not
significant
8. How
important
is
it
to
resolve
these
constraints?
5
4
3
2
1
n/a
Very
important
Not
important
9. Are
you
planning
to
make
a
case
for
how
your
team
and
businesses
should
align?
To
whom?
What
will
you
need?
8
©
2012
Growth
River
LLC,
All
Rights
Reserved.