Strive for Resonance Rather Than Alignment

How many times have you walked away from a meeting feeling “aligned” and the next day everyone strays away to do their own thing as if the meeting never happened?

We often use the word “alignment” as a forcing function towards arriving at an unified position. Often that means short cutting the process towards achieving that “alignment” and missing the deeper understanding we need to?stay?aligned as things change.?

Webster defines Alignment as “the condition of agreeing a position.” The key word is?position.?However, if we merely focus on position, we may be walking away thinking we have an agreement, but that breaks apart quickly when new information arises or conditions shift.??

Perhaps what we need is focusing on achieving RESONANCE rather than alignment.?

A definition of?RESONANCE??is “being in deep, full, and reverberating connection with others.” In music, you can feel the resonance when a chord strikes in harmony with the melody. In physics, you can observe when the oscillation and frequency of one sinusoidal wave matches another.

In organizational behavior, RESONANCE is about a deeper level of adaptive convergence as a result of true connection and understanding?(rather than position and agreement).?

While?ALIGNMENT?is definitive, black and white (you are either aligned or not). and positional (agree or disagree),?RESONANCE?is sensing, inviting, building congruence, and being in rhythmic flow with the whole. Alignment requires enforcement and accountability. Resonance invites people to be part of a journey with you.?

There is significant intelligence of Resonance we all can learn from nature.

Starling?flies in dynamic formations with each other in flocks up to a million birds! They move in sync beautifully and organically despite the shifting in weather conditions and new obstacles along the way.?The process is called murmations.??A?Fish?stays in sync and moves relative to its position in its school by sensing each other through their pores and the line of organ on their side body. Fascinating right?!

Whether it is a school fish or a flock of starlings, they operate in a self-regulating and self-organizing fashion. What is felt, sensed, and noticed by one is passed on through the network as?“group intelligence” and the system makes an adjustment together to help them adapt to the new environment and stay away from predators.?

How does it apply to team and organizations dynamics??

If we have the will and desire to work towards a common goal, we can create resonance with each other.?It may not be the quickest solution to hack a decision,?but I believe creating resonance is the most sustainable, reliable and repeatable way to truly excavate group intelligence and stay in lock-step with each other throughout time.?

Here are 3 tips to begin building Resonance with your team:?

1.???Connect?– In the world of zoom calls, virtual meetings, digital communications, we forget that the person on the other side is a full human being. When we make an effort to connect in a caring way, we create?physical heart coherence?with one another. This does not take long to do, but if done with true presence, it can shift the quality of the dialogue towards one that truly address the underlying issues, rather than dancing around superficial symptoms.?

2.???Dialogue?– Dialogues can come in many forms. Most of the time, we stay in the lower end of the spectrum of informing and presenting, at best, we get into inquiring, discussing, and debating. To be in true dialogue that promotes connection and understanding, we need to move up the spectrum towards collective meaning-making, exploring narratives and shared realities. This integrates what we know individually and intellectually, with the collective wisdom of the group, allowing us to harvest true insights.

3.???Active Practice?– Our natural tendency is to default to what is most painless and path of least resistance (in the moment!) This means agreeing without truly agreeing, nodding without confronting, staying on the transactional surface rather than going deeper to truly understand all perspectives. Building resonance requires discipline and effort!?

My horse riding teacher tells me that you can temporarily use a whip to get your horse to do the thing you want to do (but be careful that it doesn’t buck you off when it gets pissed when the whip is overused). Practicing staying in connection and dialogue with the horse is what ultimately drives true partnership and enjoyable rides.?