Alignment - Essential job of leadership
Creating alignment in an organization is one of the most under-emphasized aspects of leadership. Tons have been written about a leader’s role in vision, values, strategy, structuring, communicating, role-modeling, goal-setting (BHAG anyone?) - and I could go on. But much less on the “secret sauce” of creating a higher performing organization.
To be clear, driving alignment is often in the sub-text of great leadership practices– but the goal of this note is to give alignment the prominence it deserves and some tips for how to more effectively manage it.
A leader really needs to pay attention to – and actively manage – at least four dimensions of alignment.
1. Organizational. Simply put, how all the elements of the organizational system fit together and are mutually supporting. For this, think about how your enterprises’ vision/values, strategy/goals, structures/systems, people/skills, culture/climate are aligned with where you see your market and broader environment moving.
In this role, you are a “systems engineer” constantly monitoring external forces and working to fine-tune your organization in response. A simple discipline is to just list all the above elements on one page -- and think through current status and where adjustments are needed.
2. Language and terminology. This is more subtle. A leader needs to be attuned to how the same word can have different meanings and implications to different people. For example, “empowerment” can sound very positive to some (“enabling our people to contribute to the fullest”) and negative to others (“let the inmates run the asylum”).
A leader needs to be alert to the potential for confusion and misinterpretation. Some powerful questions to ask include: When we say XYZ, what do you hear and understand that to mean? Where is there potential for confusion? Can we get sharper in defining and reinforcing what we mean?
3. Mental models. This is even more rarely discussed in a disciplined way but has big impact if addressed. Everyone has an implicit way of organizing and visualizing information in their mind. Here’s a simple workshop exercise to illustrate the point: Give a group 30 seconds to sketch out a house and hold up their drawing. No matter their culture, everyone will draw pretty much the same thing (4 walls, roof, door). Ask them to draw a balance sheet. Similar results (Two columns; Assets on left, Liabilities and Equity on the right.) Now ask them to draw an aligned organization. Most likely, the results will be highly creative but also chaotic. (Everything from people all flying in the same direction to a nice symmetrical org chart.)
Leaders need to recognize that effective management of a complex system or set of initiatives benefit from developing and reinforcing a collective mental model – so that everyone has the same collective understanding of how the pieces fit together.
4. Psychological Alignment. Finally, one of the deepest, and ultimately most powerful force, is the degree to which an individual’s own purpose and values align with the frame the leader creates? Facebook offers a good example: Mark Zuckerberg famously is about “moving fast and breaking things” and driving growth at all costs. An increasingly vocal group of current and former employees are now questioning this mantra in light of the costs to society and the health of our political processes. If this tension goes unresolved Facebook’s future health will be compromised.
A leader needs to be very attuned to the explicit and implicit messages signaled around purpose and values. This will define the types of executive, employees (and even customers) you will attract and retain. And ultimately, the collective effectiveness of the enterprise.
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With these three perspectives in mind, a leader should be much better equipped to lead their organization to higher levels of performance. Good luck!
In a separate note I will address two supporting and related perspectives:
· A recommended “mental model” for organizational alignment. Many are out there; this is one of the best.
· “The Fallacy of Best Practices.” Creating a high performing organization is not like ordering a Chinese meal – “pick one dish from Column A and one from B…”