Creating Team Alignment

Developing a desired culture is principally about alignment; alignment of action and story. When looking at alignment between human beings, the ontological approach distinguishes two types – ‘shallow’ and ‘deep’.

‘Shallow alignment’

Shallow alignment relates to aligning with each other, by observing the behaviour of those in our team or group and aligning with them. As human beings are social beings, most people seek to fit and to be accepted to some degree with those around them and so shallow alignment seems almost instinctive. The other approach is for a member to seek to shape the community around their own ways of being.  The structure, size and nature of the organisation, leaders and individuals within each group or team will create variances but regardless of which approach we take, we think of shallow alignment as an ‘outside in’ form of alignment which creates division within the teams and creates the formation of cliques and a ‘them and us’ mentality.

‘Deep alignment’

Involves alignment to the organisations values or principles. Whereas shallow alignment lives near the surface and can be very fluid due to shifting circumstances or environments, deep alignment provides for a more stable approach. The evolution of a sustainable culture across a wide and diverse community takes time and so needs a stable foundation on which to build. As such, it requires a process of alignment that is deeply rooted in values and principles that everyone supports. This is not to say that shallow alignment does not play a part just that a deep alignment has to be in place if a sustainable culture is to be maintained.

A culture always exists when a community exists for culture speaks to the ways of relating and acting within that community. A simple question stems from this recognition. Does your community want a culture that simply evolves or does it want a culture that is focussed, intentional and seeks to create? If a culture is to be purposefully designed then it will need more than “shallow alignment” within teams or groups. It will require a “deep alignment” to the values and principles it seeks to manifest. To create deep alignment, an organisation must ultimately bring their values to life. This means using the experiences occurring within the organisation to help shape the meaning of the values. It is one thing to have an idea of what is meant by ‘integrity’ in terms of a dictionary definition.  It is quite another to explore the meaning of ‘integrity’ in the context of a specific situation or culture.

Exercises to create organisational values are usually ad hoc affairs where organisational leaders come together, toss out a wide range of personal values and through a democratic process of agreement, define a shortlist of organisational values – generally very generic ones like ‘integrity’ customer focus’ accountability, passion and so on.  Generally very little thought is given to the relevance to the current situation or how they would or could be applied in daily organisational life.  This result is a set of espoused values which could apply to any organisation. They might be perfectly articulate but bear very little relevance to where the organisation is heading or the way that people behave or relate to each other.

To find out how we can help you create deep alignment in your organisation or team. Contact us