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In many cases, organizations focus on modifying existing programs to fit within the framework of goals and objectives identified in the strategic planning process. If this conversion is not carefully thought out, the new programs will simply be repeats of the old ones and will lack the vitality to meet the new needs.

The difficulties of successfully aligning programs with the organization's strategic direction are related to one or more of the following factors:

1. The program aligners often are unclear about the exact nature of the needs to be met.
2. The planners are unclear about the customers to be served.
3. Personnel are anxious about the continuation of their jobs if a new program is perceived as supplanting one or more existing programs.

These factors rob the program alignment activity of its needed energy. Leadership will need to anticipate these and other factors by clarifying the vision and setting ground rules for the change. Where appropriate, leadership will want to offer assurances that the goal of strategic planning is not to reduce positions or to downsize the organization, but rather to strengthen the organization and make it more sustainable.

Having dealt with these concerns, the organization must focus on identifying the programs that contribute fully to the strategic direction, those that make only a partial contribution, and those that do not make a contribution. Programs clearly contributing to the goals must be strengthened to fulfill all of the requirements identified for them in the strategic plan. Programs that are only partially aligned must be retrofitted so that unnecessary activities are curtailed or eliminated. Programs outside of the strategic focus must be evaluated on whether they need to continue in their present form or at all. This prioritization ensures that the organization is putting resources squarely behind what is important.

In this section, we present tools to help you align and prioritize programs. Each tool allows participants to ask questions that, when answered truthfully, build consensus around how programs should be included, modified or deleted. This consensus will build support for the resulting alignment.