Why Is Goal Alignment So Important?
Before we discuss why goal alignment is so important we should mention what it means. Goal alignment or the act of aligning goals in an organizations involves ensuring that both people from top to bottom in an organization, AND, divisions, branches and departments, are working to achieve similar goals.
There are two parts. First, we want people, from the top to the bottom, to contribute to the achievement of the same set of goals -- goals that are important to the success of the entire organization. We also want everyone to understand how their own individual contributions (job responsibilities) contribute to the attainment of organizational goals.
The second part is largely ignored when talking about goal alignment. We also want the work units in an organization to aim at the same goals. So, the HR department, let's say, and the IT department, should make their operational decisions in light of the overall goals and objectives of the organization as a whole.
Why is aligning goals so important? Clearly, we want people to be pulling in the same direction within an organization. We don't want everyone going in different directions, any more than we want a dog-sled team or a team of horses pulling in different directions.
We also want the work units to do the same. Often sub-units get so pre-occupied with their own day-to-day tasks that they forget why they exist in the first place. HR may do things that actually get in the way of achievement of larger organizational goals, or, for that matter, so can accounting departments, IT departments, etc.
Getting both people and work units to align goals with the overall organization results in much less effort, higher productivity, and much less frustration within the organization.