In our engagements with companies both large and small, we have often come across managers who are frustrated with their teams' effectiveness. In our experience, this is not due to a lack of ability or desire, but rather stems from the lack of alignment amongst the various projects in the organization.

Most people will agree that being able to generate agreement amongst a team is one of the fundamental elements of good leadership. Generating alignment goes beyond simply creating consensus or agreement. As Fred Smith, Chairman of Federal Express has been repeatedly quoted as saying, "Alignment is the essence of management."

Alignment reflects an active ownership on the part of the team members, not simply the absence of disagreement. Many leaders fall into the trap of assuming their team is aligned because of a lack of any active disagreement, and therefore do not direct any energy at improving the leadership team's understanding of the business priorities.

The frustration that managers face with the ineffective use of resources is often due to a misperception of the clarity around the organization's top priorities. Simply relying on visible disagreement is not the most effective way to discern the true state of alignment amongst the different stakeholders. As one of our clients found: "I thought my team was perfectly aligned -- until I asked them what our top challenge was, and got five different answers from five different members of the team."

What it Means to Be a Well Aligned Organization

How would you like to lead an organization in which every individual knows the business' goals, vision, and top challenges? "If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time," according to Patrick Lencioni, Patrick, author of "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team".

All activities performed by individuals in a perfectly aligned organization help move the business closer to its strategic vision. By ensuring that teams at various levels in the organization are aligned on their goals, we can move the business towards a culture of "working towards objectives." This alignment amongst the teams will help drive actions that are necessary in the medium term to deliver the required results.

Developing a well-aligned organization depends on two critical factors: First, the systems and structures must support the strategic vision; and second, the members of the organization must understand how the top strategic objectives translate to personal goals. Alignment is an agreement on the goals of the organization and on the process of allocating resources to achieve these goals. The first step in improving this alignment is being able to understand the opportunity, which can exist even without visible dissagreement. This article will explore an exercise to help leaders measure the degree of alignment amongst their teams.

View article on one page