Improving Team Alignment

If you want a high-performing team, everyone must be aligned. But often, I find that teams make a cursory effort to get on the same page and then run off in opposite directions. Our client once described his team’s level of alignment as “PowerPoint Alignment.” He said they all agreed wholeheartedly with what it said on the five slides written in 28-point font. The issue was that they were miles apart when they had to execute their individual functions in the 8pt reality.

Now, I’m not advocating for spending every minute lashed together with your teammates, so there’s no light of day between you. That sounds awful. And unproductive. We’re aiming for team alignment that’s deeper than PowerPoint but not so deep that you spend all your time planning and none of your time executing.

Too Little Alignment

So, what’s the right level of alignment? Let’s discuss different ways your alignment might be insufficient and what you can do about it.

Aligned on Vision but Not on Objectives

Do you all share the same picture in your minds of what good looks like? Maybe you’re a marketing team in a SaaS company (software as a service), and you buy into the company’s brilliant vision that you will make the lives of small business people so wildly easier. Cool. That’s an amazing vision. But what are your objectives? Are you going to focus on growth first, without much regard for profitability? Will you make a market share play in one industry or try to grow across various sectors? Are you sticking to your native UK for now or going after the EU market from the beginning?

It’s not enough to share a vision; you must also know your objectives.

Aligned on Objectives but Not on Goals

Ok, maybe you are clear on your objectives, but do you agree on your goals? You know you want to focus on growth and expanding your user base in year 1, but by how much? Is increasing your user base enough, or do you need to see a certain percentage switch from your free account to a paid one? What about customer satisfaction? If you’re willing to remain unprofitable while you grow a loyal base, what’s your goal for loyalty?

Once you have a shared set of objectives, take the time to define your goals. How will you measure your success on your objectives, and how far do you want to get next year?

Aligned on Goals but Not on Strategies

Sometimes, I see teams aligned on their goals but completely adrift on the strategies they’ll use to get there. And I get really crusty when a leader tries to pass off their goal AS their strategy.

Me: ok, we can help you define your strategy

Leader: that’s ok, Liane. We already have a strategy.

Me: Oh, amazing! What is it?

Leader: We will be $10 million by the end of the year.

Me: 🤦🏻‍♀️

A strategy is a set of guiding principles that generates a pattern of decision-making. Do you have one? If not, you aren’t aligned enough. How are you going to achieve that $10 million? Where will you play? How will you win? Developing a strategy is a process that requires you to create insights about your unique opportunities to build an advantage. If your goal is for your marketing team to deliver 100,000 new users by the end of the year, how are you getting there? How will you generate demand? What groups will you target? How will your messaging appeal to them more than your competitors’?

Sharing a goal without sharing a strategy is likely to have you running off in all directions.

Aligned on Strategies but Not on Tactics

Being aligned on strategy is a pretty good threshold. And in some teams, it might be enough. If your team is cross-functional and each of you has autonomy to execute in your domain, you’re probably in good shape. But aligning on strategies won’t be enough if there’s a high degree of interdependence among you. You need to get to the nitty gritty and align on tactics.

In our marketing team example, you may have agreed on a strategy to go after small professional businesses with 5-50 employees. Still, if your events team starts attending conferences for medical practices and your demand generation team is paying for ads targeting law firms, your tactics aren’t going to line up.

Where your roles are interdependent, aligning on strategy won’t be sufficient. In that case, you must also make sure your tactics are in sync.

Aligned on Tactics but Not on Tone

One final consideration. We’ve considered various ways you need to be on the same page about what you will do, but there’s also value in aligning on how you will do it. What’s the tone you’re going to take? What pace will you go at? What’s the culture you want to foster, and how do you want people to treat each other?

I’ve seen teams in lockstep on what they’re doing that are still experiencing considerable friction because they’re communicating the story differently or putting different amounts of pressure on their teams.

The final step in reaching team alignment is to be sure you’re aligned on the story, tone, and pace you’re looking for.

Too Much Alignment

It is worth noting that there’s such a thing as too much alignment. Too much alignment creates rigidity and reduces your team’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Course correct if you notice any of the following:

You’re not paying attention to changes in the external environment and, instead, driving forward, oblivious to what’s evolving around youYou shut down dissent from people who challenge the prevailing wisdom on your teamYou’ve locked the plan without considering alternative scenarios if your assumptions don’t pan outYou stick with a plan for long periods without having a formal opportunity to evaluate and course-correctYou’re making decisions about novel situations at the same pace you make more mundane decisionsYou notice that your ideas are all beginning to look alike, and they’re all starting to seem a little vanillaYou seldom have any conflict. Things are usually harmonious and happy.

Teams that aren’t aligned tend to exert more energy than necessary and squander scarce resources doing things that don’t get any traction. I promise you that it’s worth the time and energy to get your team aligned so that your efforts make the greatest impact.

Additional Resources

Is Your Team Misaligned?

Your Strategy Should Serve Two Purposes

10 Tips to Prevent Misalignment from Destroying Trust

Amy Kan in Fast Company: How to Develop Goals that Align Your Team and Improve Performance

 

The post Improving Team Alignment appeared first on Liane Davey.