Alignment Check

Alignment Check

Posted on 09. Aug, 2009 by Paul Andrew in Leadership, The Leadership Coach™

My first car was a Datsun 240K – complete with rally clips to hold the bonnet down (OK, it never got anywhere near fast enough to require them) and a kill switch that was identical to the air conditioning switch (as I first discovered while doing 110km/hr on the freeway). I remember wondering why the car seemed to pull to the right side of the road if I didn’t concentrate, and what the strange shaking & shuddering at high speeds was all about. The first service revealed I had an alignment problem. Even worse for a part-time waiter, it had worn out my tyres well before their time.

I see those same symptoms in so many teams… Unexplained tendencies in the team to get off course for no apparent reason. Results and relationships getting bumpy as the team moves forward and increases momentum. People burning out and getting tired long before reaching their capacity. For the wise leader these are signs that it’s time for an alignment check.

So could I suggest some aspects of your team or organisation that need regular alignment checks?

1. Vision and Values
One of the businesses I love to work with as a coach and speaker is Gloria Jean’s Coffees. Spend five minutes with them and you’ll discover that their ‘vision, mission and values’ are the yardstick against which they measure every activity and decision. The values have become embedded in the language of the organisation, constantly reshaping their current reality. By contrast far too many organisations are content to have their values be nothing more than some glib clichés on the company website which make no difference to the way we do business every day. So when do you last thoroughly realign your team against the vision and values you proclaim? Could they even articulate them?

2. Priorities and Plans
One of the fastest ways to burn out your team is to have conflicted priorities and plans. How closely does your actual activity this week relate to what you say your priorities and plans are? Where this really becomes clearest is when you start to pick up speed. The truth is that many teams would fall apart if they achieved the growth they’re hoping for. The faster you go the more critical alignment will become. On the runway you can get away with the door of the plane being open, but not at 30,000ft and 900km/hr. Are you ready to get ruthless with your own priorities and plans and get you and your team ready for the next level?

3. Your Customer’s Experience
Alignment affects your customers too. So what is the true experience of those who use your products or services… start to finish? You say you are all about results/ service/ relationships/ value/ quality/ innovation/ social responsibility. But what do people really experience when they interact with you and your team? I’m currently changing merchant facilities even though my current provider works well for me. Clunky forms, strange processes, ambiguous payments – I’m changing because the experience for my clients doesn’t line up with what I say Innovation Coaching is about. What would happen if you analysed the brutal facts about your customer experience and set about realigning everything that’s out of place?

It isn’t glamorous, but working on alignment might just save your team and prepare you for exponential growth.

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback
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5 Responses to “Alignment Check”

  1. Kyle Ryman

    09. Aug, 2009

    Wow, point number one reminds me of a certain, poster-child company that had a fundamental conflict between its “espoused” values, and its “real” values… *cough* Enron.

    Seriously though. The way alot of organizations go is just like you put it: “glib clichés on the company website.” The only way those become reality is if the organizations leaders step up to the plate and actually “lead by example” in living those values.

    Great post,

    -Kyle

    [Reply]

  2. Robin Dickinson

    10. Aug, 2009

    Paul, thankyou for your excellent post.

    As a wise colleague of mine used to warn me – if you are travelling from Sydney to Melbourne and you are one degree off-track, you’ll end up in Adelaide. Great city – wrong destination.

    I would add to your first point by saying that only once leaders have viscerally aligned themselves to the organisation’s strategic intent (vision, mission, values), then and only then should the wider organisation be invited to participate.

    One of the greatest sources of ‘cultural cancer’ I come up against is when the staff of a company, who are making every attempt to demonstrate the desired leadership behaviours, complain bitterly about hypocritical bosses with double standards.

    It’s a big, chewy topic. Thanks for inviting me in.

    How about getting that wonderful and mutual buddy of ours Don (DCW) in for his opinion? There is so much we can learn from him.

    Best, and congratulations on your excellent blog.

    Robin

    [Reply]

  3. Jacki McGeechan

    10. Aug, 2009

    Hey Paul

    Great thoughts and thank you. This really resonated with some work I am doing at the moment with a client who is experiencing growing pains. Have you read Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish? He provides 3 very simple habits that I think fit well here.

    1. Priorities – every org anisation or team should have 5 top priorities and 1 top of 5 priorities. Success can only come with focus. Every individual then needs to be aligned to those goals.

    2. Data – does the team or organisation have specific data to track progress and is it avaliable for use regularly?

    3. Rythm – Does the organisation have an effective rythm of daily, weekly , monthly , quarterly and annual meeting to align everyone and drive accountability.

    The overriding thing that lays on top of this is a set of core value to live by

    Thanks for a great blog!

    Cheers
    Jacki

    [Reply]

  4. Lyndon Apthorpe

    27. Aug, 2009

    Hi Paul,

    Firstly, reading about your Datsun 240K was like ready my own story. Same switches, same rattles, same tyres. It was my pride and joy while I was a part time waiter.

    What you are saying here really resonates with me. My team have spent so many years proclaiming our amazing abilities to find solutions to our business’s problems that we lost site of our own backyard. We are out of alignment with what we preach. Time for a service I think.

    Thanks for the great info.
    Keep up the good work.

    Cheers
    Lyndon

    [Reply]

  5. citibank

    10. Apr, 2010

    Hey, I just hopped over to your site via StumbleUpon. Not somthing I would normally read, but I liked your thoughts none the less. Thanks for making something worth reading.

    [Reply]

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