Are we aligned?
A lot is said, and I totally get where it comes from, about the need for alignment - after all, ideally everyone and every unit within an organization should in principle be going in the same direction. The problem is a common direction doesn't necessarily assure that in every step of the way there is full clarity on who is doing what, and whether that is well-aligned.
I don't know about you, but I have been, more often than I would like, put in a position of having to justify myself and my team on why we were doing something, because that came across to someone else as not aligned. Typically, that surfaces because reality is a bit 'messier' than we'd think - and there are gray zones, and fuzziness in the borders, and even good-purpose "duplication" (or similar needs/concerns)... And perhaps we've decided to accelerate that thing because we are suffering the pain now, only then to be questioned or second-guessed.
Not a good place to be… Because it typically means to turn defensive.
In an idealistic world, that shouldn't be a big issue - as everyone would exercise the benefit of the doubt, and assume good intentions, and that perhaps others know something you don't, and all of that. Again, reality is messy - and that is often almost the opposite of what happens.
So, that has led me to think more deeply on what is the alternative - or the way around that. Put in other words, what can I do about it? And I would like to offer a twofold suggestion - first, a demystification, then a couple of principled behaviors which I believe ultimately can help us properly managed it (with the caveat that the myth which I'd have talked about on the first part by definition implies there is no solution but only a trade-off).
The myth of full alignment
That is right - I said it! Full alignment is a myth. I actually would regard it to be part of one of the most fundamental trade-offs corporations need to get to grips with. Although in principle it is rather clear and even made famous by an African Proverb - "If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together". What that actually alludes to is a trade-off to be balanced out:
If you want to ensure that everyone, every small component unit in your organization, is 100% aligned all the time, that will come at the cost of moving very, very slowly. The other extreme being you leave fully up to each unit to move as they believe they should, that will be fast, and at some point you will have to pay the cost of too much self-inflicted complexity for lack of alignment.
Now that we understand that should be largely deliberate choice and a trade-off to be dealt with - and from what I observe one of the problems is the lack of being more explicit about it (by putting some level of constraints and sensible boundaries so that there’s sufficiently a common sense of direction, while still allowing some variability for exploration and speed purposes), which then nurtures uncertainty and varying interpretations; we can only talk and focus on what are the options for us to better manage it.
And the way I tend to look at it is by means of an enabler behavior that (hopefully) leads to an alternative (to alignment).
How to go far without being too slow
If you really think about it, I almost gave it away when I referred to what an ideal world would look like. The enabling behavior we need is transparency. As far as I can tell, that is the only way to largely ensure people will give more of a benefit of doubt, assume good intentions, and all of that. Being transparent goes a long way to show that you don't mean anything else than just move a bit faster on that thing, and why that matters to you, now.
And by doing so, hopefully though time things evolve in the direction that ultimately provides an alternative to alignment…
A deeper alignment we could call "shared understanding".
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