Everyday Decisions That Create Alignment
When we think of alignment, it can feel like a destination, a place you arrive at and remain. In reality, alignment is achieved or broken through the decisions leaders make on a daily process.
Over the past six weeks, each post in this series has studied a single statement in the ALIGNment Snapshot and asked what it actually looks like in practice. Here's what the series covered:
Absorb
Listening is a Leadership Move looked at what happens in the moment someone shares a concern. The instinct to fix or defend gets in the way of the instinct to understand.
Legitimize
You Nodded Yes. They Nodded Yes. examined how two people can agree on a priority and still walk away with different interpretations of what it requires.
Does the Strategy Shape Daily Decisions? asked whether strategy functions as a guide for daily choices or sits separately as a document reviewed once a quarter.
Integrate
What Are We Learning? looked at the difference between a culture that says it tolerates failed attempts and one that structurally supports them.
Does Your Front-Line Reality Inform Your High-Level Strategy? looked at the gap between a finalized strategic plan and the daily work of the teams responsible for executing it, and made the case for a collaborative loop between leadership direction and operational intelligence.
Better Decisions Start With Disagreement made the case that diverse perspectives only sharpen decisions when they're allowed to surface as real disagreement, not just diplomatic variation.
Grow
A Page From the World Cup Coach's Playbook looked at leadership development through the lens of a coach who builds the next generation of players while still competing to win.
How Will You Help the People Who Got Your Company 'Here' Get to Its New 'There'? addressed staff development as the organization's needs shift and the skills that built its early success stop being the skills it needs next.
Nurture
The Launch Was the Easy Part looked at what happens after the launch party ends: the ongoing work of checking progress, recalibrating milestones, and keeping a priority visible long after the initial momentum fades.
This, or That
Each post in this series is anchored to a single statement in the ALIGNment Snapshot and poses choices that, consciously or unconsciously, are made every day in organizations.
1. Listen to learn about and appreciate someone's perspective, or listen to dismiss, disregard or solve
2. Name a real disagreement or let a nod stand in for understanding.
3. Admit a strategy isn't shaping decisions or point to the document that says it should.
4. Study what a failed attempt taught you or avoid trying again.
5. Tell leadership what's actually happening on the front line, or the version that fits the plan.
6. Raise the disagreement in the room or let it stay unsaid.
7. Get the coaching and support the role actually requires or presume that once you've made it to the top you're supposed to navigate it alone.
8. Invest in the skills the role needs next or let people rely on the skills that got them here.
9. Stay with priority through the uncertain middle, or move on to the next launch, where the energy is easier to find.
What are you choosing?
Most organizations have lived at least one of these moments. Many have lived all of them, more than once.
The ALIGNment Snapshot asks you to look at where your organization is actually choosing, statement by statement.
The Snapshot takes ten minutes. It asks you to assess your organization against each of the nine statements this series has explored, and it shows you where alignment is strong and where it needs closer attention. In return, I will send you your score and recommendations to become more aligned within your organization.