The Alliance Health Check

The Alliance Health Check helps you to identify possible areas for improving your alliance. It also allows for timely adjustment of the timeline of your alliance, if required. It is one of my essential and most requested services.

Alliance Health Check topics

The Alliance Health Check is best performed on the same topics on which alliance partners are selected:

• Strategic value
• Operational effectiveness
• Cultural/relationship value

I survey these aspects through a number of selected questions that I pose to the participants involved in the alliance.

Are you due for an Alliance Health Check?

I believe that for alliance and business success, it is important to repeat Alliance Health Checks on a regular basis. In doing so, you will be able to measure the progress of improvement following the action list.

Regular Health Checks also allow you to make sure your alliance is working as it should be. Obviously, it depends on the type of alliance you have and the dynamics of your alliance as to how often you should repeat your Health Check.

As an example, for alliances that operate at a high speed or have a large turnover of personnel, I would suggest frequent Health Checks. For more stable alliances or those with a low turnover of personnel, a Health Check conducted once a year is sufficient.

Benefits of an Alliance Health Check

There are several reasons why it may be beneficial to perform a health check:

• Improved Performance: A health check can help identify areas where the alliance can be improved, allowing both partners to make changes to increase the alliance’s success.
• Better Communication: A health check can provide an opportunity for open and honest communication between partners, helping to address any misunderstandings or conflicts that may have arisen.
• Alignment of Goals: A health check can ensure that the partners’ goals and expectations for the alliance remain aligned and that both parties are working towards the same objective.
• Maximise Benefits: A health check can help both partners get the most out of the alliance by ensuring that all resources are being used effectively and efficiently.
• Increased Trust: By openly and honestly evaluating the alliance, both partners can build trust and confidence in each other, which can lead to a stronger, more successful alliance in the future.

Anonymous & Confidential Survey

The survey of an Alliance Health Check is anonymously and is confidential. Obviously, this is paramount so that participants can share their opinions in a trusted way without worrying about confidentiality.

I find this encourages genuinely honest feedback.

Stakeholder Interviews

Stakeholder interviews are an optional part of an Alliance Health Check. These are verbal interviews that allow for more substance in feedback. They are especially recommended for alliances that are experiencing difficulties in their relationship.

Participants: A balanced set 

I recommend always to perform an Alliance Health Check with a balanced set of participants. Balanced means that the participants from both organisations’ participants involved have similar functions.

This includes those people that are working as part of the alliance as well as the managers involved too.

Additionally, it’s worth getting executive sponsors and those in in the finance function involved in the health check.