It’s time to answer another question that got voted up (in Slido.com) by other attendees after my talk at the Prodacity Conference.

“How can we scale in an organization with no alignment on value or culture?”

This is quite the question! Many large books could be written on this topic. My initial thought was, “I don’t think you can”. Upon further reflection I think there are tools available to tackle issues related to misalignment on value and culture. Tools that inspire people to be curious and ask practical questions in a positive manner. Tools that offer people a reason to get excited about forthcoming change. Some of these tools require self-awareness (the ability to recognize one’s own emotional state). One such nifty tool that you can start using today is working agreements. 

Working Agreements

While co-authoring the 2021 forum paper, Winning Together, it was Elisabeth Hendrickson who inspired me to take a deeper look at working agreements. In it, we discuss the benefits of doing your best to understand your counterpart’s situation and the pressures they are under.

Consider the following questions:

• How do they define success?
• What are their near-term key business objectives?
• What measures are used to evaluate their performance? 

Listening to another’s perspective can go far toward improving alignment. Sometimes we just need to earn trust by demonstrating understanding.

There are likely things you can change about the relationship to strengthen the foundations of your partnership and set you up for better success. Start by identifying a few specific things that you need most.

For example, and some of my favorites, we need our counterparts (or customers) to: 

• Involve managers in plans being formulated, so they don’t feel circumvented/threatened and resist change 
• Reduce WIP for those involved so they have capacity to learn and do things differently 
• Make experiments visible & iterate 
• Present learnings in a safe supportive space without judgment 

People in other parts of the organization may not realize that the way they have engaged with you is making it harder for you to help them. And – they likely have requests of you too. The requests and agreements made as a result of these discussions can form the basis of a co-authored working agreement that will put you in a better position to bring coherence and integrity around organizational alignment. 

Once working agreements are in place, jointly prioritize the opportunities and socialize them broadly. Crystal clear communication on the most important thing signals alignment and lays a foundation for culture change – often a massive messy marvelous journey.