There’s a reason some companies succeed where others fail. It’s not accidental. The ability to achieve results is an outcome of the organization’s design—and can be changed for the better.
One of the world’s leading management consulting firms with more than 19‚000 employees‚ Booz Allen offers an array of services to help leading corporations‚ government agencies‚ and not-for-profit institutions identify‚ diagnose‚ and remedy common organizational “roadblocks” to effective execution. Whether the challenge is to enlighten management or motivate major change‚ through a Mission DNA initiative‚ Booz Allen can help your organization achieve its objectives.
While the Profiler is informative as a stand-alone diagnostic, sustainable solutions to problems inherent in a mission-oriented organization’s DNA can be culled out through the additional data collection and action planning activities. Therefore‚ for maximum utility‚ a full Mission DNA program comprises four components:
Mission DNA can easily be applied as a diagnostic tool to discover why an organization is not getting results. In these situations‚ senior management often knows that it confronts organizational challenges‚ but is hard pressed to pinpoint the root causes. The Mission DNA Profiler can help identify and prioritize these problems and align management around the solution. By providing quantifiable data about what is and isn’t working‚ the Mission DNA Profiler focuses attention on the right remedies.
Many of our clients begin using Mission DNA by asking us to set up a password-protected site where a cross-section of their organization—however targeted or broad—can take the survey; you may administer the survey to your entire agency‚ or to a subdivision with as few as ten people.
NOTE: On both the public site and custom organization sites‚ individual responses are strictly anonymous; no names are requested or revealed. The data collected are used only for analysis and comparison purposes.
Contact us at mission_dna@bah.com or contact one of our experts for more information on this offering.
Booz Allen Hamilton offers clients the opportunity to identify and improve their Mission DNA through a facilitated one-day workshop for senior management. Using the Mission DNA Profiler as a starting point‚ senior leaders (from 10 to 100 or more) come together at an off-site location to identify the impediments to superior performance in their organization and develop sustainable programs and processes to overcome them.
Senior leader interviews can take place at any time during the Mission DNA Profiler phase to assess organizational issues at a deeper level. Senior leader input is crucial to identifying the root causes and practical‚ suitable solutions for the gaps indicated by the Mission DNA Profiler. The senior leader interviews are especially valuable in identifying the differences in perceptions between management levels when there are gaps in Profiler results among layers of the organization.
The interview questions typically serve to provide a better understanding of the activities each organizational unit performs and how this “fits” into the larger organization. It addresses roles‚ responsibilities‚ reporting relationships‚ performance management processes‚ and how activities and information are coordinated within and across organizational boundaries.
Booz Allen can conduct interviews one-on-one or in focus group format, depending on the size of the organization, number of survey participants‚ and extent of the gaps in results between groups. Typically‚ the Director will review interview findings and report-out to senior leaders as a starting point for the Mission DNA Workshop‚ These report-outs may include direct interview quotes but no individual identifiers are attached; all input remains anonymous to protect confidentiality.
Booz Allen offers organizations the opportunity to identify and improve their Mission DNA through a facilitated one-day workshop for senior leaders. Using the Mission DNA Profiler as a starting point‚ division and staff leaders (from 10 to 100 or more) come together for a facilitated discussion to focus on the impediments to effective execution in their organization.
The morning is usually devoted to a discussion of the organization’s Mission DNA Profiler results‚ which helps attendees develop a consensus on what type of organization they currently manage and the root causes of execution problems. In the afternoon‚ attendees begin to develop sustainable solutions to these organizational “roadblocks” with the assistance of Booz Allen facilitators. Breakout discussions enrich the general sessions and serve to bring senior managers from disparate parts of the organization together in a problem-solving setting. At the end of the day‚ participants leave with a better understanding of the root causes of their organization’s behavior and performance‚ more productive relationships with their colleagues in other departments‚ and a high-level action plan to drive improved results.
This off-site workshop delivers the greatest impact when it involves the senior- and upper-middle management ranks of large organizations.
The Simulator is a hands-on game in which senior leaders can experiment with action plans to address organizational issues using the Mission DNA framework and empirical data. The simulation is a half- to full-day workshop with senior leaders who compete in small teams to improve their organizational performance in 23 rounds of play (each round lasts 60-90 minutes). The Mission Effectiveness Simulator may be used in conjunction with the Mission DNA Workshop or as a separate workshop.
The Simulator is a relatively rapid way to test possible organizational actions and events and learn about their expected benefits on the organization. Using this tool provides an active-learning environment and an engaging setting to discuss actions and implications as a management team.
The overall objective is to improve the “Strategy Execution Score” for the organization by selecting relevant actions that make a difference. Using Profiler results as a starting point‚ teams of senior leaders select five actions that they are willing to implement in their organization to improve their mission effectiveness for the current year and the following year. The tool’s automatically predicted impact of those actions depends on the Mission DNA profile summary for the organization and the combination of actions selected. The tool provides a selection of 28 actions that focus on one or more of the organization elements (e.g., decision rights‚ information‚ motivators‚ and structure). Teams can select from 98‚280 distinct, possible action plans for each year or nearly 10 billion two-year combinations.
Teams can compare their action plans to determine whose combination is likely to have the greatest impact on mission execution. From there‚ the management team can solidify their organizational improvement plans using the most optimal combination of actions as a starting point.
