Our Principle of Mutual Alignment
We once talked about how we live in the 21st century of technology, but still seek 20th century skills and mindsets.
To innovate, you must take action.
To take the right action, you first need to have a discussion.
And discussions are a two-way street.
You and us.
- What we both want
- When we want it
- How we want it
Alignment essentially means figuring out and constantly working on the balance between you as an individual and the company as a whole (the group of individuals). An understatement here is that this whole thing can’t work without both sides feeling comfortable — and enabling each other to feel that way — to bring the hard things and the shy topics to the front.
That requires soft skills, which we’ll get to in a future post.
Naturally, 2 sides bring along 2 different perspectives.
Aligning you with the company
On the company’s side, we’re looking at 3 key factors that contribute to propelling the business forward.
These ones have risen from our collective experience of running different businesses across different stages. Essentially what we’ve come to expect of startups and scale-ups that aim the bar above average.
1/3 — Pace
As in how fast or slow we both want things to get rolling.
We’re a little bit above average on the speed here, to meet the challenges that arise from the goals we’ve set to our ourselves.
That doesn’t mean we’re not throwing balls around hoops and wondering at 4pm who to annoy. It means we need you to step up your game, stay sharp and be present as things move forward on the fast lane rather quickly.
2/3 — Challenge
As in how intense or comfortable we both want things to be.
As you’d expect, we don’t shy away from throwing almost constant challenges at ourselves. That is expected because the goals we’ve set are expecting it.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re maniacs who follow no structure or run deadlines at the last minute (the “yesterday” when it should be ready). It means expectations are high and you’ll need to make discomfort a part of your comfort zone, at least in the beginning, while you acclimate.
3/3 — Structure
As in how organised or adhoc we both want things to work.
It won’t come as a surprise that we’re not a conglomerate of processes with 10K people aboard across 15 countries.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re a tribe dancing around a fire, singing “wololo” to please the operational forces from the beyond. It means we’re a work in progress and we need you to take part in shaping the rest of the structure as it constantly transforms into practical solidity.
Aligning the company with you
Alignment happens both sides, or it doesn’t happen at all.
On your side, we’re looking at 3 different key factors that contribute to propelling the business forward, in equal measure.
These ones are inspired by Harvard Business Review, who revisited Maslow’s idea on the hierarchy of work-personal needs.
We found it to match the principles of honesty and directness we believe to be the core foundations of a team management that’s first and foremost based on human-centric business development.
1/3 — Purpose
Why join us. Why stay here. Why keep trying.
Purpose can range from abstract and romantic ideas all the way to practical to-dos and a passionate micro-focus, like JQL queries for Jira.
It’s not world shattering if you don’t have one that’s relevant with your day-to-day. But it’s extremely important to help define it, shape it and practice it regardless of its relevancy, because it defines who you are.
And who you are is who we work with.
2/3 — People
With who you’re working with.
A quick example is an introvert in a room full of extroverts. It’s a constant battery drain. Or a 35 year old working together with a 25 year old.
There’s a friction, but life — and thus, work — is multi-faceted. It’s important to work around the decimals between 0 and 1 and work towards defining, shaping and practicing the good and the bad parts.
3/3 — Work
What you do.
This one’s simple really. No job position in the world entails doing one thing and one thing only. If you’re a coder, you’ll start something from scratch, debug the rabbit hole, review docs, plan your day.
But you need a beacon that clearly states and helps both sides on the single most important area that’s the key happiness checker in your day-to-day. As long as the general rule makes sense and is enforced, the exceptions turn from toxicity generators — “what the hell am I doing” — to minor nuisances — “pfff”.
Why the need for alignment
No alignment, no happiness.
No happiness, no drive.
And we really believe in working with drive. That makes it our responsibility — both as leadership and a team as a whole — to help the people that choose to invest their time with us maintain their drive.
The biggest factor in low retention and you jumping the board to greener pastures is lack of alignment.
When the balance breaks and the alignment becomes “versus”.
Fast vs slow.
Comfortable vs crazy.
These type of tasks vs those type of tasks.
So, it’s the responsibility of both parties to equally care, strive for and dedicate adequate time to expressing their key factors, where they stand and how the line could move to achieve certain goals.
But you need tools to do that.
Maintaining the alignment
Let’s bring it back to the top. Remember the why.
The point of doing something in life is to move forward. That can manifest in different forms but it’s usually about making progress. As we both grow, each one of these key factors — across both sides — changes as well.
That means we must adapt and grow our alignment accordingly.
To achieve that, we revisit everything once every 3 months. Of course, we use daily, weekly and monthly syncs when needed, but the core exercise happens during that session, when it’s all about alignment.
In a nutshell, its core ingredients are:
- Happiness across these factors
Yes or no. If not, why. - Victories, defeats, what-ifs
Focusing our perspective to tangible stuff. - Soft and hard skills
What you think across a timeline of progress. - Perspective across 4 key pillars of ownership
A…shameless census, if you will. - Goals
Duh. - Feedback
Time for you to slap us.
We’ll let this cliffhanger, well, hang.
For a future post.
You know.
Questions or feedback?
Feel free to reach out to George Kary, our Director of Services.
