blahonga.yanson.org — On the word "Alignment"
From time to time, I find myself listening to a speaker at a meeting and I hear them say the word “Alignment”, and I wonder what they actually mean. It sounds like they want everyone in the room to come to a common understanding of something - like a goal, a strategy, or a plan. But there’s an ambiguity there. If deliberate, it could help reveal the speaker’s perception of the other participants in the room, or how they see themselves. Even when not deliberate, it can lead to delays or misunderstandings.
I’ll explore the complexities of the word below, and I hope it becomes evident that the ambiguity surrounding its usage can have implications, sometimes significant, in various settings.
Waste: Everyone agrees with the speaker that we need alignment, but it’s unclear how to achieve it. This could lead a situation where people wait to speak their minds, uncertain where to start or worried that their ideas will be scorned/ridiculed. Meetings like this are like pulling teeth - slow and painful. Another result could be turf-grabbing behaviour, where people try to be first to speak their mind in order to influence the room. Meetings like those are a slow descent to madness, where all options except the ones with the loudest proponents are discussed, often in an either-or fashion.
Nefarious: When a leader or speaker uses the word “alignment” without specifying who needs to change, it shifts the responsibility for achieving alignment onto everyone else in the room. This subtly shifts the burden of change away from the speaker and individuals can feel pressured to conform without understanding. This makes it a word of power; it can leave the listener feeling included but oblivious to the fact that they are the ones who need to change, not the speaker.
