A cohesive team that can align to and forge ahead to achieve a shared vision is a remarkable thing. They’re able to seamlessly operate to turn an abstract vision and make it a reality. There’s something extraordinary about organizations that achieve this level of alignment. Every individual contributing to something greater than what could have ever been accomplished alone.
“Hmm… what’s that like?” might’ve just crossed your mind. Or maybe you wonder, “if I put a concerted effort into really nailing down total alignment, what would I get out of it?”
For smaller organizations, alignment isn’t terribly unwieldy to manage on the fly. But as you grow, it can get out of hand, fast.
The idea is to encourage the mentality of — everything I do, benefits someone else, and, gets them closer to their goal. Everything someone else does, benefits me and gets me closer to my goal. And on it goes — everyone contributes to successfully making that shared vision a reality. It’s win, win.
But if it feels like there’s a real lack of clarity, each team member has a different answer for what’s important or what we’re trying to accomplish here, departments pull in different directions, or people tend to do things differently than others — oh man I feel it. That lack of alignment is just crawl-out-of-your-skin frustrating. But, on the flip side, I also feel the deep sigh of relief when that’s been all but eradicated.
Planning is Critical
You gotta love this ol’ chestnut – “if you were king or queen for a day what would you change at this company?” So ridiculous — but for real, if you were king or queen for a day what would you change at this company? How would you go about effectively aligning everyone?
Make an outline. “OoOoOoHhHh” hah I know, it sounds super basic, but it’s amazing how just having the words written down in front of you can seem so much weightier than the thoughts floatin’ around in your head. This initial brainstorming is such a critical piece in the planning process.
Just let out your creativity. Ignore any concern for the details of execution, staffing, current systems or processes. Removing thought barriers like that allows you to activate your imagination and can help work towards removing mystery from the equation of what the organization needs. In a word, clarity.
Execute market research, involve cross-functional team leads, develop clear goals & KPI’s, and establish a roadmap with key milestones. Get everything out in the open. This compilation of ideas might not all be winners, but at least it’s out there for discussion.
Now all of that is just to get the conversation started. If it’s a CRM or some other system that you feel will help you get there, you are off to an incredible start. Pick the right partner, and you will have the ability to align your team. We’ll fast forward through that part because BORRRRING. Just kidding, it’s awesome, but that’s not what we’re here to dig into. You can, however, learn about Microsoft 365 & Dynamics 365 and what makes them such powerful tools.
Going through the planning and implementation phases get you to a point where you’ve created an aligned team. Some of these things may not be new to you but, then again, some absolutely will. Your systems, policies, and procedures unobtrusively enforce the alignment you’ve worked so hard to cultivate. And, pretty quickly, you’ll begin to experience some changes.
Rally Up
Now that your exemplary goals, strategies, and systems have been established, be very clear about your dedication to communicate this focus and the team’s priorities with regular updates through meetings or digital platforms.
Rallying behind a common goal with like-minded folks fosters a collaborative environment. Especially when paired with strategic processes. Each team operates within the systems you’ve built to enforce these critical pieces and data points that must be captured throughout the various sales cycles. Departments are activated at different times, and everyone understands how critical the success of each phase is to their own success, so they do everything they can to help each other. That’s a collaborative environment where everyone builds off each other’s momentum.
When you’ve explicitly stated that this is the directive, this is what we have to accomplish, it’s incredible how much focus that allows for. Your team knows exactly where their focus should be and anything that doesn’t align with that, is out. On the flip side, if the directive is for your teams to generate more revenue, that’s hardly inspiring, let alone clear. And kinda lazy, to be frank. Yes, of course, profit is important. But more often, it’s a byproduct of doing the right things everywhere else in the business. Cart before the horse, and all that. Whichever way you wish to slice it, vague directives ensure vague, misaligned attempts at execution from each part of the business. So stop it. Let’s focus.
Bring Clarity in Messaging
In line with focus, your messaging becomes clearer to the customer. The human brain is a tricky thing. One of the thing it does is consistently works towards conserving calories. It’s a survival thing. If it has to work too hard to understand something that should be simple, it becomes very likely it will abandon it Have you ever been following behind a company’s wrapped vehicle and thought, “oh that’s a cool design… what uh—what do they do…. eh, forget it”. You’ve got enough to worry about other than some sloppy branding. Maybe there was just a fun tagline and website. Maybe there were paragraphs of information on the vehicle (and if this is you, shame on you). Maybe there were cool pictures, but they didn’t really convey any clear message. There are countless combinations that contribute to shutting down your audience’s brain, and they extend to everything. Your online presence, promotional materials, the way your people talk to customers over the phone or email – the list goes on and on. Basically, anything that touches your audience’s eyeballs or ears. It’s crucial to establish clear and concise goals for the team because that also establishes clear messaging for current and potential customers alike. Folks want to buy what you sell, they just need to be able to find you, and when they do, easily understand the value you bring to the table.
Align to Achieve Results
An aligned organization is an efficient organization. Instead of folks pulling in different directions, employees are more engaged, so they work together to focus their efforts towards the shared vision. Effort, resources, and personnel are allocated in the right places, and less in the wrong ones. All of which maximizes the impact on the overall goal and is an unbelievably powerful competitive advantage.
Clarity creates the possibility for alignment. Alignment fosters collaboration. Collaboration breeds focus. And focus… well, now, that ensures results.
You can achieve results without proper systems or processes in place. It’s an unbelievable pain and super not recommended but you can technically do it. And the results might not be great, but they’re technically still results. What I can say is that a respectable implementation of Microsoft 365 and/or Dynamics 365 can make a world of difference. It becomes the framework in which your team operates. You provided your team with a shared vision. With purpose. Give them the tools they need to achieve just that. Let’s get started.