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Alignment
The Critical First Step to Develop Effective Teams
In previous Position Papers we have discussed the balance between People and Process that is critical to creating and sustaining a work culture focused on Performance Improvement. A foundational but frequently overlooked first step in developing that work culture is to establish what we call Alignment within the team. Alignment is designed to "get everybody on the same page" on a variety of practical and philosophical topics related to what the team is trying to accomplish regarding Performance Improvement and how it will be implemented. Alignment activities are straightforward:
- Identify and agree on desired Outputs (KPIs, etc.)
- Determine specific, actionable, measurable Inputs required to achieve Outputs
- Identify current barriers or capability gaps that prevent Inputs from happening
- Develop Action Plans to overcome barriers and close gaps
- Assign individuals for Action Plan execution and feedback
- Develop communication plan to inform and enroll team.
Each of these items will be developed more fully in this position paper. For a more detailed discussion of our Managing Inputs / Measuring Outputs ideas, please refer to another of our position papers, "Leadership Transformation."
Why is Alignment necessary?
When a racing car has its wheels out of alignment, a number of bad things happen. The first thing you may notice is that the handling is less predictable. The car seems to have a mind of its own, possibly displaying a tendency to turn when you want to go straight. Poor alignment also means the wheels are not rolling efficiently in the direction the car is moving, instead causing the surface of the tires to slide and grind on the pavement. This causes heat buildup which can wear out the tires much more quickly and create a potential safety hazard. Additionally, it takes more horsepower to keep the car rolling at a competitive speed. Alignment allows the car to go where it is pointed at high speed and with maximum efficiency. As the miles accumulate, there may also be the need for re-alignment to maintain top performance, especially if the track is rough or the track style changes completely from an oval to a road course. If we were just driving this car to work we might not notice the poor performance (not counting Interstate 10 in Houston of course.) But if we are building this car for competition at the highest levels, its lack of performance will become painfully obvious on the track. Further, if the problem is not corrected quickly, our sponsors may lose faith in the team.
Alignment within a rigteam works the same way. An effective team aligns its capabilities so that it can go where it is pointed at maximum speed, with minimum wasted energy, adjusting for all the bumps in the road, supporting its members, and meeting all the objectives of its stakeholders including time, cost, and HSE, among others.
How Does Alignment Work?
The required capabilities residing in an effective team include both Technical and Interpersonal competence. These capabilities can be viewed as having components similar to a vector that we studied back in physics class in that they have both magnitude and direction.
Magnitude of a technical or interpersonal capability vector is indicative of the quantity of knowledge and skill we possess in this area. As illustrated in Fig. 1, the larger the size of the Technical and Interpersonal arrow or vector, the more they potentially contribute to the overall movement of the team toward goal achievement. Team members are valued for the depth and breadth of the knowledge and skills they possess. This pertains to both technology applications and operational procedures on the technical side as well as their ability to communicate effectively and the positive attitudes and behaviors they display toward others on the team on the interpersonal side. As an industry, we have historically been fairly effective at building magnitude in both technical and interpersonal competence. In fact, the bulk of the training efforts offered in industry are focused on developing specific segments of technical or interpersonal skills.
But the key to the development of an effective team is the Direction of these capability vectors. And within Direction, we need to consider two aspects: Alignment and Will. Alignment is the orientation of the capability vector relative to the team's orientation and Will is the decision made by each individual to participate with the team (or not). To the extent that the capability vectors can be aligned with the desired direction for the team, the more effectively the available horsepower can be utilized, and the more likely it is that the team will achieve its goals. It is great to have lots of horsepower on a team, but if there is no alignment, the team does not perform. Just ask the 2004 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team. Despite their massive talent, Coach Larry Brown said their poor teamwork (and the excellent teamwork of their opponents) was the primary cause of their defeat. Working together as a team means we have identified and agreed to common goals AND a method to achieve those goals. In many teams, just providing a forum to establish this agreement on goals will shift their capability vectors into alignment toward those team goals. But this movement is sometimes short-lived unless we take the next step for each member to develop the will to contribute their talents in a sustainable manner. We need to motivate each member by identifying and then appealing to those needs that will encourage each individual's full engagement of their knowledge and skills over time.
How is Alignment Created and Sustained?
The challenge we address with an Alignment effort is to effectively employ the Technical and Interpersonal horsepower we have existing within the team members to deliver not only good performance, but the development of a working culture that will continue to improve its performance and the means of its delivery. How is this achieved?
Before a successful working culture can be established, the leadership team must decide and agree what they want the culture to look like. It is up to the leadership team to establish the culture that they envision by reaching agreement among themselves and then "walking the talk" with their subordinates. The leadership team then guides the team on the agreed course by:
- Establishing a set of core values to enable specific behaviors that support creating and sustaining a performance improvement culture
- Confirming understanding and buy-in for this effort exists within the team
- Committing the organization to long-term change
- Ensuring that a clear vision of creating a performance improvement culture has been communicated
- Establishing work processes that insure consistency and sustainability of the effort
With prior agreement on team goals, we need to further agree how progress toward those goals will be measured. As shown in Fig. 2, teams will frequently specify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that reflect the type of operation facing the team with objective, often numerical, target values for those KPIs. These are the desired Outputs of their team's work that support the agreed team goals. In fact, the main Alignment theme is to identify and discuss desired business Outputs (i.e. HSE, time, cost, Days/10K, etc.) and then focus on business Inputs (i.e. work processes, people, equipment, behaviors, procedures) that are required to achieve these Outputs.
The next step of shifting focus from Outputs to Inputs is one that many teams find challenging. As we have discussed in previous Position Papers, consistent control can only be gained by carefully choosing and managing Inputs that, by experience, we have determined are required to reliably deliver the desired Outputs. It often takes some practice to identify Inputs that are clear, relevant, actionable, and measurable. A gap analysis then allows the team to focus on specific barriers that may preclude managing Inputs as needed. Finally, the deliverables from an Alignment effort are a clear understanding of these gaps that are preventing the team from performing and action plans to close these gaps. The identified gaps may range across interpersonal skills and behaviors, work processes, support systems, and organizational philosophies. As a result, the gaps and required corrective action decided in the Alignment phase will directly impact how the team handles the Leadership and Performance issues that it will face in the future.
Once the leadership sets the direction for the team in this manner, it should be clearly and frequently communicated throughout the organization. A major component of the action plans should be a communication plan for this effort. This is an opportunity for the leadership team to spell out the "what we expect and why it is important" of the performance improvement initiative and to engage the team in determining "how" the process will be implemented. It is critically important that the entire organization understand what the journey looks like; what should be expected on the road to performance improvement; and what is required to create a working culture that keeps us out in front of the pack.
Following an Alignment effort and as the performance improvement process gets under way, it can also be useful to occasionally check the pace and uniformity of progress against objectives. The following chart provides a list of diagnostic questions that might help the leadership team to discern the current state of the team, possible causes of failures, and actions to remedy problem areas.
Diagnostic Chart
Diagnostic Questions |
Cause of Failure |
Need |
Diagnostic Questions |
Cause of Failure |
Need |
Has the vision for the team been clearly articulated? |
Lack of focus; No vision or vision does not reflect reality |
Create meaningful vision |
How many leaders are charged with achieving the vision? What is the status of their work? |
Visible leaders are not walking the talk; Weak coalition |
Form strong, visible guiding coalition |
Are leaders seen regularly explaining the vision and what is being done to achieve it? |
Undercommunicating vision; vision lacks buy-in; those charged with implementing vision had no say in its development |
Communicate vision; seek feedback |
Have the members internalized the team vision? |
Lack of buy-in; members do not trust vision; No change in leaders? behavior |
Leaders walk the talk; reinforce positive behaviors |
Is performance improving at an adequate pace? What performance improvement expectations have been expressed to staff? |
No sense of urgency; status quo is acceptable |
Create a sense of urgency |
Has staff undertaken changes in their work to support vision? Does team know what changes will be required to achieve the vision? |
Organization does not respond positively to behavior that supports vision. |
Public recognition of desired Inputs |
Is operation achieving goals stated in vision? |
Not removing obstacles to vision; inadequate communication |
Empower action; structured communication and workshops |
Are team members aware of actions required of them to support vision? |
Lack of roles and responsibilities; lack of accountability |
Define and assign roles and responsibilities |
Do you celebrate successes often? Do you link success to the changes that caused it? Do you reward individuals? |
Lack of trust; no short-term wins; burn-out; loss of focus |
Create short-term wins; recognize publicly |
Does team know what success looks like? How much improvement is envisioned? |
Declare victory too soon; unwilling to identify gaps and take necessary steps to close the gaps |
Consolidate improvements |
Has the effort become a paper chase? Are team members just ?ticking the boxes?? |
Not anchoring changes in the culture |
Institutionalize approach |
Conclusions
Alignment is a deceptively simple and yet powerful concept. So simple, in fact, that we need to be wary of assuming that our team is already pretty much in alignment. Leaders that undertake to continuously align their teams have invariably built effective teams very quickly. And while it is more difficult to create and sustain alignment within a dynamic team environment than one might suppose, it is an essential and ongoing leadership responsibility and it has proven to be a powerful enabler of team performance.
