When the stars align
If we know what disharmony looks like, we can begin to see what harmony might look like.
Harmony is:
Alignment
Effective communication
Learning
Let’s tackle these one by one.
What does alignment mean?
The answer in some ways is obvious.
A clarity of purpose.
An understanding of our roles in achieving that purpose.
What we can expect of others in the process.
But alignment is as much a felt sense as it is a rational one.
I’m sure we’ve all experienced some corporate exercise in alignment that spoke all the right language, but which we suffered through in boredom and felt little different afterwards.
Similarly, we may have worked on a team or completed a project without any clear team alignment exercises or workshops, yet we felt a buzz as we worked.
It’s not a process, or a set of rules, or a specific team structure that enables it (although some of these can be more conducive than others).
It’s an energetic state.
And energy is alive.
It is fluid. It changes every day.
This is as true for us as individuals as it is for teams and companies.
So achieving alignment, which is keeping an energetic state of an individual, team and company coherent, must necessarily be an ever-adapting and evolving process.
It’s human.
Systems can support, processes can smooth, philosophies can inspire, but they are not the goal.
They are the trellis, and are useful for exactly as long as they foster rather than hinder that energy, and not a moment longer.
So, how do we know when something needs to change?
We need sense.
We need feedback.
We need communication.
More tomorrow.