Understand the power of alignment through metaphors. Find out how to go about organizational alignment.

1. How to get organizational alignment?
Birds in V formation Superconducting
Magnet
Fishing net
Symphony
Orchestra
Laser Beam Hanging Bridge Jigsaw Puzzle
Boat race
Understand the Power of Alignment thru Metaphors

2. Birds flying in V formation
The V formation greatly boosts the efficiency
and range of flying birds, particularly over
long migratory routes. The upward airflow
created by the bird in front, assists the bird
following it. The V formation helps in
increasing the range by 71%. The birds flying
at the tips and at the front are rotated in a
timely cyclical fashion to spread flight
fatigue equally among the flock members.
Ref Wiki.

3. Superconducting Magnets
At very low temperatures, in
certain materials, the particles
align and the conducting wire
offers practically nil resistance.
This helps in creating
amazingly powerful magnetic
fields.

4. Laser Beam
When light waves are ‘aligned’,
we get laser which has
immense uses in industry,
research and medicine.
Alignment creates focus and
high impact.

5. Symphony Orchestra
Hundreds or even thousands of artists play to
the same tune and rhythm according to the
gestures from the music director, generating
spectacular music in a symphony orchestra.
Another example is Olympics opening/closing
ceremony where participants perform in
unison. What a magnificence when people
perform in alignment!

6. Boat Race
A popular event in Kerala is ‘Snake
Boat Race’. It is amazing to watch the
rhythm, the coordinated hand
movements of about hundred
oarsmen and the synchronized
chanting of singers. Great excitement
is generated when people align to a
common goal (video of a boat race).

7. Golden Gate Bridge
Each string of the rope of a
hanging bridge may be too weak
to carry the heavy load it has. But,
with alignment, a bridge such as
Golden Gate Bridge is able to
carry the weight of thousands of
vehicles going through it at any
point of time. Alignment increases
strength and resilience.

8. Fishing net or Safety net
Each strand of a fishing net may be tiny,
but strong enough to catch big fishes,
because the strings align dynamically
and quickly to the forces (agility).
Similar is the case with a safety net
used in circus, where artists do flying
trapeze.

9. Jigsaw Puzzle
It is easy to solve a jigsaw
puzzle, if you know the big
picture. It is easy to align, if
you have a shared vision for
your team or organization.
Alignment brings simplicity.

10. So, there is beauty, strength, power, harmony, rhythm,
simplicity, efficiency, agility and magnificence in alignment.
Are your teams/organization aligned?

11. Observing these symptoms
in your organization?
• Frequent recurring issues, escalations, fire-fighting, rework and delays
• Poor visibility for Sr. Mgmt; difficulty/delay in getting the required info; poor data
quality. Spending time on reconciliation of reports.
• Absence of effective processes for Risk management, Root Cause analysis, Metrics
Collection and Reporting, Organizational Learning.
• Important goals are not documented, no measures of success, poor tracking of
progress against goals & plans. Team works on conflicting purposes.
• Ineffective utilization of resources and lack of skilled people; some processes may
not have any person responsible.
• Frequent customer escalations; unable to retain customers; no time for
innovation.
• Strategic priorities take a back seat (because operational issues take priority)

12. Cause
The primary cause could
be weak organizational
processes which are not
aligned.

13. Aligned Organization
• In an aligned organization, processes are streamlined , resistance is
low and things get done fast. Everybody rows in the same direction.
You experience exhilaration. Your organization becomes a magnet
of prestigious projects, profitable clients and top talents.
With organization alignment,
you can catch big fishes –
prestigious projects and
profitable clients.

14. How to get organizational alignment?
• Check the health of processes in your organization. Are
they weak?
• Get your organization vision, goals, strategy, processes,
resources aligned.
• For quick business results, contact CXO Dashboards.
Holistic, modularized, lean
process improvement solutions @
CXOdashboards.com