Shownotes
What is Alignment?
- Alignment is a relationship to decisions.
- It's an approach to decisions that leads you to own decisions as if they were yours.
- Alignment is the most powerful relationship you can have to a decision.
- Alignment is a choice.
- It's also a commitment to have a decision work.
- If you're aligned, then you both own the decision like it's yours and you're committed to making the decision work.
- Also, alignment is not a one-time thing. It must be sustained over time. It's an ongoing commitment, an attitude, a state of mind.
Why is Alignment, especially, Executive Team Alignment important?
- Rational reason – when a group or team is aligned, it can get more done, with less effort than similar teams that are not aligned.
- Emotional reason – when a group is aligned, drama and dysfunction are reduced, people are happier and more fulfilled, and dedication and engagement go way up.
- Tangible reason – organizations that are aligned are 300-400% more profitable than those that are not.
How does an organization ensure Alignment?
- Teach everyone what alignment is and the benefit of alignment.
- Implement tools that support alignment, an effective and formal decision-making tools are a must, but there are others – see key tools below.
- Practice getting and staying aligned as you decide and implement at work.
- Reflect upon recent decisions and implementations with respect to alignment. Did we align? Did we stay aligned? How can we do it better next time?
- Keep this process evergreen. Talk about it all the time. Retrain. Reflect a lot.
Key Tools
