Aligning Organizational Execution: Six Pillars Versus Six Pitfalls

Photo by Jesse Collins on Unsplash

Many myths circulating in organizations lead to practices that break down peoples’ abilities to gain alignment and work effectively across functional and team boundaries. This two part series will provide an opportunity to reflect from our own experience on what fosters effective alignment and strategic execution and what tends to work against them.

1. Working to Realize the Whole Versus Polarizing

When we work from the perspective of the whole, we see forces that are already present in the current world and we also see those that are still only potential and waiting for development. We see in people what forces they currently hold, and we also see their potential and what they are striving to become. Thus we are aware of one set of forces on a material plane and another on a mental or essence plane. Our interactions are no longer based solely on the reconciliation of contradictions arising from current capability or current forces; we also seek to interact with others based on potential and becoming — both theirs and ours.

This kind of interaction is characterized by regard for what is not explicitly expressed and questions that invite everyone to see potential that is not apparent. It employs mental frameworks that reveal what is not yet actual…