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What unites a team is shared purpose, shared values, shared rewards, and a strategy that encourages strong interdependence. If these pillars are in place, then traditional team building activities and social interactions can be used to support human connection.

If, however, these pillars are not in place, occasional offsites and staged team building interactions only serve to highlight the lack of substance in the team’s agenda, and its lack of genuine alignment.

Every leadership team wants to deliver high-performance, customer centricity, a constructive culture, etc. To actually get any of these things, that team needs to go beyond platitudes and get very specific.

What do these things really mean? How will we know when we have them? What will we see? Otherwise, with the best of intentions, that team will remain stuck in ‘high-level agreement’ and never achieve the ‘deep-level alignment’ that is necessary for high performance.

There is no disagreement at the level of platitudes and principles. All of the conflict and value is in the specifics.

INSPIRATION FROM OTHERS

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African proverb

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” – Henry Ford

QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON

• On the things that matter, has your team only reached high-level agreement or deep-level alignment?
• Do you focus on team building activities at the expense of real team alignment?
• What opportunities do you have to deepen the alignment in your team?
  

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