Alignment

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Whether you have a business or are part of a team in a large organization, one of the challenges you probably face is aligning on the question, what do we do next?

I have struggled with this many times in the past, with solutions that range from simply doing what the boss says, even if I disagree, to ongoing discussion that never comes to a meaningful conclusion.

My business partner and I recently went through this process, and had a very fruitful outcome. Thinking further, I realized that the process we used could be applied generally, and wanted to share it.

To start off, we spent time individually answering three questions (well actually more, but they covered these three areas).

1. What past success are you most proud of?
   This question helps bring the team together by celebrating a win and reminding you of where you have come from.
2. What is the biggest challenge we currently face?
   This is an important question because it makes you pick the most important issue, and highlights any disparities between what different team members are worried about.
3. What does the team or company look like in one year?
   This is the largest question, and may cover multiple areas such as team structure (hiring etc), revenue, products or services, and more. This question helps align vision, or at least shows where it differs, and can be used to create a realistic plan for getting there. This could also be a longer timeline (i.e. 2 or 3 years) where applicable.

After answering these questions individually, we reviewed our answers together. Some were almost identical, which was encouraging, while others showed us where we were thinking about the future with different perspectives. Overall it helped us better understand the other and create a plan that we could both get behind.

As summer wraps up and we are about to head into a new season, I encourage you to take the time to align with your team, so that you are all pushing in the same direction and doing the best work possible.

~ Sean