Organizations are complex entities. Effective leadership calls for developing strategy, structuring the organization to achieve that strategy, ensuring that internal processes are focused on customer needs and on aligning people within the organization.

The Data Indicating ALignment of Organizational Goals (D.I.AL.O.G.) assessment instrument provides an organization’s leadership with hard data as to where there are disconnects affecting results. The source of the data is the people within the organization.

There are eight critical areas that are measured. The first seven make up the Criteria for Performance Excellence as used in the Baldrige National Quality Program.

• Leadership
• Strategic Planning
• Customer and Market Focus
• Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management
• Human Resource Focus
• Process Management
• Business Results
• Sustainability

Applications

• Alignment and Allocation of Organizational Resources
• Restructuring the Organization
• Inputs for Strategic Planning
• Measuring Organizational Effectiveness
• Organizational Culture (i.e., capturing the voice of the employee)

Insights Gained

• Strengths and weaknesses associated with each of the 8 areas examined (see above).
• How various levels within the organization view the 8 areas (e.g., senior leadership, management, supervision, professional staff, operations personnel, etc.).
• Clarity on how to better allocate limited resources to achieve intended results.
• Areas to work on to drive greater employee engagement.
• Understanding what to continue, stop and start doing to drive a healthy, high performing and sustainable organization.

Structure

• The confidential DIALOGon-line assessment tool will take approximately 30 minutes to answer the 80 questions.
• Face-to-face interviews of designated assessment participants with a trained DIALOG coach will take approx. 20 – 30 minutes. Common themes will be summarized from the interviews with anonymity assured.
• A pre-assessment discussion with the client representative will be conducted to get clear on the face-to-face interview questions, the staff that will be involved in the DIALOG assessment and how best to communicate this initiative with the organization.
• A post assessment meeting will be held with the client representative to go over the comprehensive assessment results and to strategize on how to best communicate the results to the organization.

If interested, a sample DIALOG report can be reviewed as well as going through a demo of the on-line assessment tool.