7-S Checklist Questions
Here are some of the questions that you’ll need to explore to help you understand your situation in terms of the 7-S framework. Use them to analyze your current (Point A) situation first, and then repeat the exercise for your proposed situation (Point B).
Strategy:
- What is our strategy?
- How do we intend to achieve our objectives?
- How do we deal with competitive pressure?
- How are changes in customer demands dealt with?
- How is strategy adjusted for environmental issues?
Structure:
- How is the company/team divided?
- What is the hierarchy?
- How do the various departments coordinate activities?
- How do the team members organize and align themselves?
- Is decision making and controlling centralized or decentralized? Is this as it should be, given what we’re doing?
- Where are the lines of communication? Explicit and implicit?[unique_solution]
Systems:
- What are the main systems that run the organization? Consider financial and HR systems as well as communications and document storage.
- Where are the controls and how are they monitored and evaluated?
- What internal rules and processes does the team use to keep on track?
Shared Values:
- What are the core values?
- What is the corporate/team culture?
- How strong are the values?
- What are the fundamental values that the company/team was built on?
Style:
- How participative is the management/leadership style?
- How effective is that leadership?
- Do employees/team members tend to be competitive or cooperative?
- Are there real teams functioning within the organization or are they just nominal groups?
Staff:
- What positions or specializations are represented within the team?
- What positions need to be filled?
- Are there gaps in required competencies?
Skills:
- What are the strongest skills represented within the company/team?
- Are there any skills gaps?
- What is the company/team known for doing well?
- Do the current employees/team members have the ability to do the job?
- How are skills monitored and assessed?
7-S Matrix Questions
Using the information you have gathered, now examine where there are gaps and inconsistencies between elements. Remember you can use this to look at either your current or your desired organization.
Use our McKinsey 7-S Worksheet, which contains a matrix that you can use to check off alignment between each of the elements as you go through the following steps:
- Start with your Shared Values: Are they consistent with your structure, strategy, and systems? If not, what needs to change?
- Then look at the hard elements. How well does each one support the others? Identify where changes need to be made.
- Next look at the other soft elements. Do they support the desired hard elements? Do they support one another? If not, what needs to change?
- As you adjust and align the elements, you‘ll need to use an iterative (and often time consuming) process of making adjustments, and then re-analyzing how that impacts other elements and their alignment. The end result of better performance will be worth it.