Is this what it feels like to drown?
Although I know how to swim, I have never tackled long distances or had any formal training. I am generally athletic, but mastering swimming has proven to be terribly elusive.
After nearly drowning several times, I decided to start from square one, focusing on one part of my body at a time. First, I concentrated on my arms, finally finding a rhythm, only to shift my attention to my legs and feel my arms go completely haywire.
Lap after lap ensued, none of which resulted in a fluid pool length. Through trial and error, I learned that alignment is one of the keys to swimming successfully.
When every muscle and movement sync perfectly, they propel you toward your goal—the far end of the pool, or in my case, survival.
In the world of business, our goals differ from those in swimming—we are not only trying to survive but to thrive.
In business, misaligned teams can lead to inefficiencies, stunted growth, and ultimately failure. Just as mastering swimming requires aligning every part of your body, synchronizing the efforts of different internal teams requires intentional focus.
By exploring the following topics, we will uncover how effective communication, aligned incentives, and SMART goals can transform disjointed teams into a powerful force for innovation and success.
The answer lies in swimming. Let’s dive in.
The Missed Opportunity of Misaligned Teams
The consequences of misaligned teams can be severe for small- and medium-sized businesses. Imagine trying to complete a beautiful puzzle, while someone else is working on a different puzzle using the same puzzle pieces as the first. The conflicting goals complicate and hinder the success of each puzzle.
Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, renowned Stanford researchers who have devoted their lives to the study of entrepreneurial leadership, wrote the book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. In their book, Collins and Porras indicate that “building a visionary company requires 1% vision and 99% alignment." Although potentially dramatized, this quote emphasizes that alignment is critical for long-term organizational success.
Decades of research prove that when teams lack alignment, it often leads to inefficiencies, reduced innovation, and weakened company culture.
Indonesian business management researcher Elsa Nurhidayah led a study finding that teamwork, defined as working together toward a shared vision or goal, positively impacts employee performance. Nurhidayah and her colleagues concluded that without cooperation, innovation cannot occur.
Many business leaders recognize that aligned teams consistently outperform disjointed ones. Yet, in today’s fast-paced, constantly shifting remote business environment, prioritizing team alignment has become increasingly challenging—a neglect that can result in irreversible consequences.In the book The Founder’s Dilemmas, esteemed organizational psychology researcher Noam Wasserman discusses a significant consequence of team disconnect, asserting that 65% of high-potential startups fail because of conflicts among co-founders. Misalignment, whether within teams or between founders, can diminish team performance and result in the untimely downfall of promising companies.
Even if misalignment does not lead to company failure, a study conducted by team dynamics researcher Kyle Emich and his colleagues found that MBA consulting teams with misaligned proactivity performed significantly worse than teams where these traits were aligned.
Emich’s study demonstrates that, in addition to the potential for company failure, team disconnect may lead to coordination failure and hinder employee performance.
Today, dysfunction is pervasive. I have personally witnessed miscommunication between sales and marketing teams, and managers and employees undermine and ultimately destroy companies from within.
Just as misaligned body movements in swimming can lead to inefficiency and failure, cross-team misalignment in business can cause young teams and companies to fail prematurely.
Understanding the Problem of Misalignment
Many economic researchers have studied the intricacies of teams and how to influence individuals to work together efficiently. The economic concept called game theory is often used to analyze strategic interactions and offers a valuable framework for addressing team misalignment.
Colin F. Camerer, a professor of behavioral finance at Caltech, defines game theory as a method for modeling and predicting individuals' choices in situations where those choices impact others' outcomes.
The core of game theory is the idea that individuals generally act in their own self-interest. Therefore, to get a team to work together, one must structure the team members' required actions in a way that is personally and individually incentivizing for each individual involved.
Some people interpret this to mean they should allow team members to work autonomously, enabling personal incentives to fuel all actions. However, Figure 1 shows conflicting results from a study conducted by Danielle Lagree, Brian Houston, and Haeyung Shin, business professors at Kansas University and the University of Missouri. Their study compares the correlation between respectful communication and autonomy in relation to employee engagement and satisfaction.
As shown in Figure 1, respectful communication correlates around twice as strongly with employee engagement (0.36) and satisfaction (0.41) compared to autonomy (0.19 for both). This finding underscores the significant role that respectful communication plays in enhancing employee well-being and performance.
These results suggest that the key is not to focus on each team separately or let them operate independently, but to use intentional communication to align them.
By addressing incentive and communication gaps, leaders can prevent teams from drifting off course and prompt them to refocus on shared objectives. But how?
Steps to Successful Team Alignment
To harmonize misaligned teams, organizations must implement clear communication channels, cross-functional incentives, and shared goals.
Here are some actionable steps for business leaders to take:
1. Align Communication
Team members must feel involved in the decision-making process. Whether aligning members within a single team or across various company departments, creating seamless information-sharing channels ensures everyone is on the same page.
Involving team members in decisions also improves buy-in and the quality of outcomes. Referring to the disconnect between sales and marketing teams, Justin Funk, a sales and marketing leader at Agri Studies, recommends involving salespeople in strategic planning, as they often have closer customer relationships and insights. Their involvement gives them a greater incentive to buy into the mission at hand.
Figure 2 highlights the significant impact of internal communication satisfaction on employee engagement, as demonstrated by data from a study conducted by economics professor Ana Verčič et al.
Figure 2 demonstrates that communication satisfaction explains approximately 66% of the variance in employee engagement, whereas other factors have minimal effects in comparison.
These findings highlight the critical role of effective internal communication in boosting employee engagement. It can be reasonably concluded that as employee engagement improves, so does the attainment of organizational goals.
Essentially, communication is vital. If it is lacking in your company, here are a couple of ways to improve it:
- Maintain daily communication with each team member.
- Involve team members in decision-making and collaboration.
- Foster an environment of open communication and encourage diverse opinions to promote innovation.
2. Align Incentives
Influential leaders proactively seek to understand their employees' motivations and constraints. To truly conceptualize what motivates others, we need to see things from their perspective.
The goal is to understand your team well enough that you can create cross-functional incentives that include shared duties and rewards across teams. For example, linking marketing teams' bonuses to sales close rates or tying sales teams' incentives to new customer longevity may motivate revenue teams on a personal level to work together.
When incentives are aligned between different parties or teams, it suddenly becomes in the best interest of everyone to help one another, communicate effectively, and achieve better results.
If misaligned incentives are something your teams struggle with, here are some quick tips to improve:
- Take the time to put yourself in your employees' shoes to better understand optimal incentives.
- Offer opportunities for bonuses or upward mobility to enhance the incentive pool.
- Align incentives across functions so that different teams are motivated to work collaboratively.
3. Align Goals
Effective leaders spend time helping team members set and achieve their goals. Although it is a simple strategy, Gary Latham, a professor of human resource management at the Rotman School of Management, recommends using the "SMART" approach when creating team goals. This involves ensuring that goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
This method ensures that goals are clear and focused. Assuming communication and incentives are structured beneficially, if goals follow the SMART method and are communicated frequently and effectively while leveraging aligned incentives, positive outcomes can be anticipated.
In addition to applying the SMART criteria, here are a few more tips for improving your company's goals:
- Ensure your goals are displayed where they will be frequently seen and referred to.
- Confirm goals are in sync with your incentive structure for each individual or team.
- Be accountable to your goals and foster an environment where goal achievement is highly valued and prioritized.
What Now? Will You Let Your Teams Sink, or Help Them Sync and Swim?
In summary, aligning your teams is not a luxury but a necessity in our fast-paced business environment.
By implementing clear communication channels, establishing cross-functional incentives, and setting SMART goals, you can effectively synchronize your teams for optimal performance.
Take the time to assess your organization’s dynamics. Identify areas where alignment is lacking and develop a plan to address the gaps.
Remember, just as in swimming, where every stroke counts toward reaching the finish line, every effort you make to align your teams will propel your business toward success and innovation.
Notes:
1. Camerer, Colin F., Ernst Fehr, Paul W. Glimcher, and Russell Alan Poldrack. Neuroeconomics. Academic Press, 2008.
2. Collins, James C., and Jerry Porras. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. Paw Prints, 2011.
3. Emich, Kyle J., Li Lu, Amanda Ferguson, Randall S. Peterson, Michael McCourt, Seán Martin, Elizabeth McClean, and Col. Todd Woodruff. “Better Together: Member Proactivity Is Better for Team Performance When Aligned with Conscientiousness.” Academy of Management Discoveries 10, no. 2 (May 9, 2023). https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2021.0208.
4. Funk, Justin. “How to Align Sales and Marketing.” Purdue Center for Food and Agricultural Business, July 30, 2024. https://agribusiness.purdue.edu/2024/07/30/how-to-align-sales-and-marketing/.
5. LaGree, Danielle, Brian Houston, Margaret Duff y, and Haejung Shin. “The Effect of Respect: Respectful Communication at Work Drives Resiliency, Engagement, and Job Satisfaction among Early Career Employees.” International Journal of Business Communication 60, no. 3 (May 20, 2021): 232948842110165. https://doi.org/10.1177/23294884211016529.
6. Lindzon, Jared. “The Art of Goal Alignment.” Rotman Management, 2024.
7. Nurhidayah, Elsa Fitri, Muhammad Rusydi, and M. Yusuf. “The Influence of Work Ability, Job Training, and Teamwork on Employee Performance at PT. Semen Tonasa, Pangkep Regency.” Eduvest Journal of Universal Studies 4, no. 8 (August 29, 2024): 7038–55.
https://doi.org/10.59188/eduvest.v4i8.1738.
8. Tkalac Verčič, Ana, Zvonimir Galić, and Krešimir Žnidar. “The Relationship of Internal Communication Satisfaction with Employee Engagement and Employer Attractiveness: Testing the Joint Mediating Effect of the Social Exchange Quality Indicators.” International Journal of Business Communication 60, no. 4 (October 26, 2021): 232948842110538. https://doi.org/10.1177/23294884211053839.
9. Wasserman, Noam. The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. Princeton University Press, 2012.