McKinsey 7-S Model Checklist Process

The McKinsey 7-S Model is a great way to analyze coherence within your company. Important if you know that you need change, but you are not sure what to do. By running this checklist, you will understand what you need to do to obtain your objectives.

McKinsey 7-S Model: An introduction

The McKinsey 7-S Model was developed by McKinsey and Company in the 1980’s. Specifically, it was developed by Robert H. Waterman and Tom Peters.

The McKinsey 7-S Model analyzes the following 7 aspects of your company, detailing how each impact one another:

Hard S’s – Driven by management, more tangible

1. Strategy
2. Structure
3. Systems

Soft S’s – Driven by culture, less tangeable

1. Shared values
2. Style
3. Staff
4. Skills

The aim is to highlight the changes you need to make to create a united approach to business. The model can assist with:

• Organizational change
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Implementation of a new strategy
• Understanding the weaknesses (blind spots) of an organization

What’s good about it

The 7-S model shows weaknesses in your company. The model highlights areas that require the most attention for the deployment of change. Beyond that, the model makes sure that every aspect of a company supports others to give a formidable business plan that is strong and flexible to further change.

What’s bad about it

Running the 7S model is a long process. It is unlikely that one person will have the knowledge required to assess every element of your company meaning extra time and resources must be dedicated to build the overview and assess viable changes.

How to use this checklist

At the beginning of this checklist, you will be presented with a set of specialized questions given as form fields. You are required to populate each form field with your data.

The checklist is broken down into the 7 stages of McKinsey’s 7-S Model:

• Step 1 – Strategy
• Step 2 – Structure
• Step 3 – Style
• Step 4 – Staff
• Step 5 – Skills
• Step 6 – Systems
• Step 7 – Shared values

At the end of each stage, your supervisor/manager will review your work using Process Street’s approvals feature. Features used in this template include: 

• Stop tasks – To ensure task order.
• Dynamic due dates – To make sure your initiative is reviewed on time.
• Role assignment – To delegate tasks within your team ensuring your supervisors are appropriately assigned to the review tasks.
• Approvals – Tasks can be accepted, rejected, and rejected with comments.

In this McKinsey 7-S Model Process Checklist, you will be presented with the following form fields for which you are required to populate with your specific data. More information for each form field is provided via linkage to our help pages:

• Subtasks 
• Long text
• Short text 
• Date
• Approvals
• Website form field
• File upload form field
• Dropdown menu
• Role assignment

Let’s start by recording your business details, your details, and the details of your supervisor or manager.

This is a stop task, meaning you cannot progress in this template until the required form fields are populated.

Business details

Your details

Details of Manager/Supervisor

Checklist details

Once set, the due dates for each phase in this Lewin’s Change Management Model Process Checklist will be used to set a dynamic due date, notifying your manager for the needed stage approval when required.

Before going into the details of this McKinsey 7-S Model Checklist Process, take a look at your 7-S’s and for each briefly describe the current situation (now) with the proposed future (target).

Use the long-text form field to document your responses.

Structure

Systems

Strategy

Shared values

Skills

Staff

Style

On listing your strategy now, and then your strategy targets, you can identify the gap between the two.

Now: {{form.Strategy_-_Now}}

Target: {{form.Strategy_-_Target}}

Use the long-text form fields below to find the gap between now and the target.

The first step of the McKinsey 7S model is to assess your strategy.

Check off the subtasks below to indicate your strategy has been assessed against that objective:

Also, when assessing your strategy, you need to consider and answer the following questions:

• What are your objectives?
• What is your strategy to achieve them?
• How are you staying competitive?
• How can your strategy adapt to the current (and future) situation?

Use the long text form fields below to record your answers to these questions.

You are then presented with an additional long-text form field. Here you can record further information you deem relevant.

On listing your structure now, and then your structure targets, you can identify the gap between the two.

Now: {{form.Structure_-_Now}}

Target: {{form.Structure_-_Target}}

Use the long-text form field below to find the gap between now and your target.

Noting down a structure should be simpler that documenting your strategy as it is more tangible. It is, however, important to double-check with your teams. After all, not fully understanding your company’s structure will be detrimental to the effectiveness of your changes made.

To appropriately assess your companies structure, ask yourself:

• How is your company structured (departments, teams, etc)?
• What is your hierarchy?
• How are your departments organized and managed?
• How are your teams organized and managed?
• How do your team members organize themselves?
• Who makes the decisions?
• How are they carried out/passed down?
• How does everyone communicate?
• How often does communication occur?

To detail your responses to the above questions, you are presented with our:

• File upload form field – here you can upload a diagram representing your company’s, department’s, and team’s structure.
• Long and short text form fields to record your responses

Department

Team

Communication

On listing your systems now, and then your system targets, you can identify the gap between the two.

Now: {{form.Systems_-_Now}}

Target: {{form.Systems_-_Target}}

Use the long-text form fields below to find the gaps between now and your target.

You should have carefully documented processes that you can manage effectively. You can use Process Street to document these processes.

For more information on how to document your processes with Process Street watch our below video:

When documenting your processes include:

Next, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• What are the core systems in your business (HR, finance, document management, team management/meetings, etc)?
• How are these systems and/or processes stored and used?
• How are they updated (and are they up to date?)
• Are these systems accurate (are they being used word-for-word)?
• How do you track and assess the results of these processes?
• Who has access to these systems?

You can record the answers to these questions using the long text form fields below.

You are also presented with our dropdown form field. Select yes or no as an appropriate response.

On listing your shared values now, and then your structure targets, you can identify the gap between the two.

Now: {{form.Shared_values_-_Now}}

Target: {{form.Shared_values_-_Target}}

Use the long-text form fields below to find the gap between now and your target.

You need to analyze your shared values, which includes your official company values and your company’s culture.

Culture might first seem irrelevant to managing change, however, it is a powerful tool.

By linking your values and culture, your changes become more agreeable for your workforce, who will, in turn, adapt to them more readily. During this section of the McKinsey 7-S Model, you need to ask the following questions:

• What are your core company values?
• What is your company’s culture?
• What is your team’s culture?
• Is the culture of your teams at odds with your company’s culture?
• Knowing this, how strong are your values?
• How could you strengthen them in practice?

You can document your responses to these questions using the long-text form fields below.

Again you are presented with our dropdown form field. Select yes or no as an appropriate response.

On listing your style now, and then your style targets, you can identify the gap between the two.

Now: {{form.Style_-_Now}}

Target: {{form.Style_-_Target}}

Use the long-text form fields below to find the gap between now and then.

By style, we mean the management and leadership style used in your business. In this section, it is important to be frank about your own and upper management leadership styles. Ask yourself the following questions:

• How are your departments and teams managed?
• How active is this management/leadership?
• Is this style effective, and to what extent?
• Do you inspire competition or collaboration?

Document your responses to the above questions using the long text form fields below:

On listing your staff now, and then your staff targets, you can identify the gap between the two.

Now: {{form.Staff_-_Now}}

Target: {{form.Staff_-_Target}}

Use the long-text form fields below to find the gap between now and then.

Look at your staff list and decide whether you have the required positions filled, any gaps, and so forth.

For this section you will need:

Next, take the time to answer the following questions:

• What positions do you have filled?
• What skills do they bring to your company?
• Are you lacking a particular skill set?
• Do you need to hire someone?
• If so, who will your next hire be?

Use the long text form fields below to document your responses:

On listing your skills now, and then your skills targets, you can identify the gap between the two.

Now: {{form.Skills_-_Now}}

Target: {{form.Skills_-_Target}}

Use the long-text form fields below to find the gap between now and then.

Assessing the skills of your staff should not end with a basic description. During this stage, you need to gather feedback on how your company is perceived. You need to ask the following questions:

• Do your employees have the necessary skills to do their job to the desired quality?
• What skills are not present in your company?
• How vital are these missing skills?
• What are the strongest skills across your company/teams?
• How are you assessing these skills?
• What is your company perceived as doing well, and what skills does that reflect on?

Use the long, short text and dropdown menu form fields below to record your response:

Each one of the 7 S’s will impact another, you need to spend the time to figure out these relationships.

To begin with, schedule a meeting with upper management to obtain a more accurate idea of these relationships in practice.

Select a meeting start date using the date form field below. Next select members to attend using the member form field.

In the upper management meeting, you want to assess whether the 7-S’s support each other. If not, you need to plan for incremental change to make sure that they do.

Below is your final 7-S report. Present this report during the meeting with upper management.

The goal is to create alignment between each of the 7-S’s.

7-S Report

Strategy

{{form.Gap_analysis_for_strategy}}

{{form.Strategy_objectives}}

{{form.Strategy_to_achieve_objectives}}

{{form.Strategy_to_adapt_to_current_and_future_situations}}

{{form.Strategy_to_stay_competitive}}

{{form.Further_information}}

Structure

{{form.Gap_analysis_for_structure}}

{{form.Company_structure}}

{{form.Department_organization}}

{{form.Departmental_management}}

{{form.Team_organization}}

{{form.Team_management}}

{{form.Team_members_organization}}

{{form.Decision_maker}}

{{form.How_are_decisions_passed_down?}}

{{form.How_often_does_communication_occur?}}

Systems

{{form.Gap_analysis_for_systems}}

{{form.Core_business_systems}}

{{form.How_are_your_systems_stored?}}

{{form.How_are_your_systems_used?}}

{{form.How_are_your_systems_updated?}}

{{form.Are_these_systems_accurate?}}

{{form.How_do_you_track_and_assess_results?}}

{{form.Who_has_access_to_these_systems?}}

Shared values

{{form.Gap_analysis_for_shared_values}}

{{form.Define_your_company’s_values}}

{{form.Define_your_company’s_culture}}

{{form.Define_your_team’s_cultures}}

{{form.Is_your_company’s_culture_at_odds_with_your_team’s_culture?}}

{{form.Are_your_company_values_strong?}}

{{form.How_could_you_strengthen_your_values?}}

Style

{{form.Gap_analysis_for_style}}

{{form.Define_how_your_departments_and_teams_are_managed}}

{{form.Detail_the_activity_of_this_management_and_leadership}}

{{form.Define_management_styles_effectiveness}}

{{form.Is_competition_and_collaboration_inspired?}}

Staff

{{form.Gap_analysis_for_staff}}

{{form.Filled_positions}}

{{form.Skills_brought_to_the_company}}

{{form.Skill_sets_lacking}}

{{form.Hiring_need}}

{{form.Your_next_hire}}

Skills

{{form.Gap_analysis_for_skills}}

{{form.Do_your_staff_have_the_required_skills?}}

{{form.Skills_not_present}}

{{form.How_vital_are_these_missing_skills?}}

{{form.Strongest_skills_across_your_company/teams?}}

{{form.How_are_you_assessing_these_skills?}}

{{form.What_is_your_company_perceived_as_doing_well?}}

{{form.What_skills_does_this_reflect_on?}}

An example would be to look to see if your structure supports your strategy, and determine how they both helped your systems, and how all three reflect your shared values.

Use the dropdown menu to dictate whether the 7-S support each other, selecting yes or no as a response.

You indicated that the 7-S do not support each other. You need to plan to make sure this support between each S is achieved.

Plan out incremental changes that won’t disrupt regular operations to gain this support between the S’s. Use the file upload form field to upload your action plan.

Continual re-assessment is important in the 7-S model. Go through this process again to re-assess what you need to do next.

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