organizational alignment

In many observations through working with organizations on a consulting basis, one particularly challenging theme seems to be the same. Consultants can provide specific consulting services in various subject matter areas, and service providers can help with back-office services such as bookkeeping, IT, HR, etc. They can also provide strategic advice around subject matter areas such as market entry, scoping the size of the market, or suggesting an organizational structure. The key symptom that often presents is that the organizational leader can bring in specialists to address more granular symptoms rather than viewing the entire entity as a whole. What then happens is these specific symptoms are hopefully resolved, but quite often the overall cohesion of the organization is not addressed. Sometimes a tweak to a particular operating area of the organization is all that is needed. At other times, any adjustment made to one aspect of the entity reveals that other systems also need attention.