Alignment: What Happens When the Plan Gets Disrupted
When I think about what drives real success inside a company, I always come back to a simple alignment framework:
Senior Team | Strategically
Middle Team | Operationally
Portfolio | Aligned with the market
When all three are operating at the right level, the probability of sustained success rises dramatically.
My personal purpose has two parts:
Help people see the unseen.
Do wicked‑awesome things with the discovery.
The moment you discover something new inside your business, alignment is either strengthened or fractured.
Three Reflections:
1. Every Discovery Creates a Choice Point
When you look honestly at your business, you may uncover something you had not recognized before. It could be a risk, a gap, a pattern, or a new opportunity.
These discoveries force a decision: Will we as a team address it or ignore it?
If you choose to act, you immediately face questions around scope, cost, and urgency. With the assessment comes a decision on whether to solve the challenge internally or bring in external help, both paths have implications.
Where organizations get stuck is in pretending the cost is zero. That is where burnout and misalignment can show up.
2. Insight Reveals a Team Issue or a Business Issue.
Almost every meaningful discovery exposes one of two things:
A team issue (capacity, capability, or bandwidth).
A business or portfolio issue (strategic gaps or mispositioned offerings).
Team issues can sometimes be corrected quickly. Portfolio issues take investment, time, and marketplace feedback.
Problems grow when leaders assume people can simply ‘take on more’ rather than adjusting priorities.
3. The Real Test of Alignment Is When the Plan Gets Disrupted
Organizations love the language of innovation: lean in, fail forward, learn from mistakes, that is until the mistake is big.
Alignment is about how honestly you adjust the plan when a new truth emerges. Do you revise sequencing? Reallocate resources? Or push people harder while keeping the plan untouched?
Your response determines alignment.
This Week’s Ripple Effect
Example:
Imagine discovering mid‑quarter that a key product that you were counting on is underperforming because we are missing a key component/attribute. The market moved faster than your roadmap.
Now you face a choice: adjust the plan, add resources, or pretend you can preserve momentum without changing anything.
How you respond determines whether alignment strengthens or fractures.
Call to Action:
This week, ask your team:
What new truth have we discovered that impacts our original plan?
What are we willing to adjust to address it? (priorities, sequencing, resources)
Where are we pretending alignment exists when it doesn’t?
Seeing the unseen is only half the work. Doing something extraordinary with the discovery is where alignment becomes real. Sometimes it is just there!
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