Alignment Versus Coordination

This is an excerpt from Being an Effective Value Coach: Leading by Creating Value by Al Shalloway and Paula Stewart

It is part of the Amplio University's Coaching, Consulting, and Training Curriculum where more chapters can be seen.

Effective leaders and coaches use an effective mental model to create alignment to ensure everyone in the organization is on the same page and working towards the same overarching objectives. The goal is to align resources, people, communication, and decision-making processes to facilitate this goal. Alignment occurs when people have a common cause or viewpoint. ?Throughout this book, we have provided approaches to ensure you optimize alignment and reduce the need for coordination. In our experience, avoiding coordination improves flow, consistently focuses people on outcomes, creates resilient learning organizations, creates stronger team dynamics, allows for global optimization, and keeps a focus on customer value.? Given our human-centered approach, we are interested in eliminating barriers to people communicating, collaborating, and sharing information, and that is why we will always favor alignment over coordination. Every single chapter of this book provides ways to increase alignment. Here are some highlights:

Shared Vision and Purpose. When everyone understands the organization's mission, vision, and goals, they can independently make decisions that align with these objectives. This shared understanding reduces the need for constant communication and coordination to ensure everyone is on the same page. Establishing this shared vision across business and technology teams is incredibly important.

Autonomous Decision-Making. Aligned teams can make decisions autonomously within the organization's defined objectives. This empowers teams to act without waiting for constant approval or guidance, leading to more efficient processes.

Reduced Conflicts. Alignment ensures that teams and individuals move in the same direction. When conflicts arise, they are often due to differing perspectives or objectives. Increased alignment minimizes these conflicts, reducing the need for extensive coordination.

Streamlined Processes. Aligned teams are more likely to follow standardized processes and procedures. This consistency reduces the need for extensive coordination to ensure tasks are completed correctly and efficiently.

Focused Efforts. When everyone is clear about their roles and responsibilities, they can focus on specific tasks without constant supervision or oversight. This clarity reduces the need for coordination to monitor progress.

Improved Communication. Increased alignment encourages open and transparent communication. Teams share information proactively, reducing the need for coordination to keep everyone informed.

Strategic Alignment.? Alignment also involves strategic decision-making that considers the bigger picture. This reduces the chances of pursuing conflicting strategies, minimizing the need to coordinate different approaches.

Enhanced Accountability. When individuals are aligned, or better yet, collaborate to develop organizational goals as we detailed earlier in this section,? are provided context, and can define how they will get the work done, they take greater ownership of their tasks and outcomes. This accountability reduces the need for continuous oversight and coordination.

Focus on Creating Value.? When teams organize around value streams, they are already aligned. This reduces the significant coordination issues in matrixed organizations that are “waste.”

Team Design, Team Charter, and Value Creation Structures.? How we design teams affects both the teams and how they work with other teams. Properly done this can reduce dependencies between teams and provide increased alignment. It can also make onboarding new team members easier.

Learning Organizations. There are several ways that learning organizations increase alignment and reduce the need for coordination.

Information is shared freely, so the need for coordination is greatly decreased. Teams can learn from each other's experiences and avoid duplicating efforts.

• Employees are encouraged to understand the work of other teams and departments. This cross-functional understanding enhances alignment and reduces the need for coordination when teams know each other's goals and activities.
• Leadership provides transparency and visibility. When people can see organizational barriers being eliminated and are part of goal setting, trust is created, and surprises that create wasted efforts are eliminated.
• Learning organizations empower employees to make decisions and take ownership of their work. When employees have a deeper understanding of the organization's objectives and are trusted to act autonomously, they require less coordination to carry out their tasks.
• Learning organizations are adaptable and responsive to change. This adaptability means that teams can adjust their strategies and approaches as needed without extensive coordination to get approval. A learning organization encourages innovative thinking and problem-solving. When employees are empowered to find solutions independently, it reduces the need for coordination to resolve issues.
• Learning organizations foster a culture of collaboration and shared responsibility. Coordination becomes more organic and less formalized when employees collaborate naturally and align their efforts.