Why alignment is the most critical skill for executives in the 21st century

When I was a little boy, one of my favorite treats was popping popcorn. We had a traditional popcorn maker (this was before microwave popcorn) where you would pour oil in the bottom and popcorn on top. Part of the fun was watching the popcorn pop right up to the point where you had to put the lid on. If you missed the moment, popcorn would fly out of the pot and onto the floor (much to the delight of my dog, by the way).

I’ve worked with a lot of organizations and am seeing a trend. The most forward-thinking, cutting-edge organizations that I’ve worked with are suffering from a problem. They forgot the lid. There is a lot of activity, huge efforts in lots of directions, and no direction.

Lots of us have bought in. Deming and Goldratt are required reading (The Phoenix Project for those of us in IT). Kanban boards are on all the walls. Kaizen sessions are regularly scheduled occurrences. There are literally hundreds of people, process, and technology improvements to be made.

And some organizations are trying to do hundreds of them.

At the same time.

In my mind, the greatest strength of the lean/agile movement is the way it pushes innovation to the edges of an organization. Everyone is engaged in identifying and implementing improvements to people, process, and technology. The organization is energized and engaged in making the company and its offerings much better.

But this strength can also be lean/agile’s downfall. Without significant effort, hundreds or thousands of team members will be making changes to processes, tools, or offerings in hundreds or thousands of different directions with unintended consequences

I’ve seen some organizations spend time and effort prioritizing these changes.

But that’s not enough.

What the organization needs is alignment. Team members don’t need to limit their energy and commitment to improve. They need a common lens to evaluate and prioritize their changes. If the organization lacks a common area of focus, then the result is extraordinary effort with low impact on the business’ desired outcome. I see organizations fitting into one of these four categories.

Organizational leaders in teams with a strong commitment to improvement must provide alignment to drive sustained results. Otherwise, the pace and extent of change will quickly outstrip the ability of the leadership to manage it.

It’s not easy.

Leaders must understand where the organization is to know where it should focus its efforts, and then relentlessly communicate and guide team members within the organization to greater alignment with those goals.