What does an employee alignment process look like?

First, let’s get away from the old-fashioned notion that alignment is having everyone lined up thinking the same thing.  It’s not.

Alignment is about cognitive and behavioural compatibility.  In an organizational setting, this means that individuals and teams are able to make decisions and take actions that line up with the wider organization’s strategy and priorities. 

The alignment process is about including diverse views and using constructive challenge to build shared meaning. 

From the Van den Bossche et al study in 2010 on team effectiveness, we see there are four learning behaviours that together determine the extent to which teams can build shared mental models. When a team, their leader, and ideally the wider organization in which they sit put these learning behaviours into practice, the ‘we’ becomes more important than ‘I’, and alignment is better enabled.

For example, a key determinant of performance in a team is the ability of its members to take risks, challenge one another, and admit mistakes. People are less likely to behave in these ways if they fear they will be criticized, ridiculed, or excluded. If this is the case, people become more cautious and considerations of psychological safety take precedence over the interests of the team.

Conversely, if a team behaves in a way that promotes psychological safety, they are more likely to open-up to each other’s perspectives, trust that there is value doing so, and develop a better shared understanding about the what, why and how of delivering better together.

Find out about a rapid, measurable and repeatable way of managing alignment at https://mirrormirroralignment.com

Download the Mirror Mirror Whitepaper: The Alignment Imperative - Building Shared Reality to Drive Performance in a New Era

Register for the Mirror Mirror webinar - December 04 at 13.00 CET: Aligning People for Performance - What, Why and How

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