3 Align: Why Shared Understanding Is More Powerful Than Command

Lead with EASE delves deep into the strategies and mindset shifts you need to realign your goals and reclaim your path, with EASE. This week, we turn to the second principle of the EASE Framework: Align, the quiet discipline of helping people clearly see the intent before asking them to act, often creating a clear and shared intent together.

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

One might add, "If you want to go far and fast, then establish a shared intent."

In many workplaces, leadership is still equated with issuing directives, commanding and authoritarian.  Sometimes this may be appropriate.  However, in his research Keith Grint suggests this kind of command style, while preferred by some has led to catastrophe. Clarity is confused with control. Direction is confused with dominance. Everything becomes a crisis because someone say we do not have time to think.

Or do we?

And when things go wrong, the person in command may never have heard a word of dissent, that most vital of allies.  It is not so much an, "I told you so," moment as it is a lonely silence, and yet someone probably knew.

Therefore, in leadership situations, which really may be few and far between, you need to have already answered the question, "Why should anyone follow you?"

In my experience, the most resilient teams are not those with the most confident leader, they are those where shared understanding runs deep.

Alignment is not about forced agreement or hierarchical control. It is about helping people see the same map, even if they are taking different paths to the objective, fulfilling different roles, and yet pulling in the same direction with dynamic tension.

The most effective people in positions of authority are often those who find the courage to look to others for solutions before decisions are made.

To consider and perhaps dismiss alternatives, to avoid binary choices and to seek out the dissent that challenges them and yet may reveal a problem yet to occur.

To build a resilience that can only exist in shared consensus and collective responsibility

🎯 Why Alignment Matters

Without a shared context, teams pull in different directions, even if they are all “working hard.” Without clear roles and expectations, people become either hesitant or overreaching. Without shared intent, short-term wins mask long-term confusion.

Intent can help to provide clarity when all other information has become confused or complex.

In aviation, every flight requires a briefing of the plan. Not because people cannot think for themselves, but because knowing who is responsible for what, and why, protects both performance and trust.

We can create what Daniel Wegner called a transactive memory effect, a shared knowledge of who knows what and who does what.  In aviation CRM describes Crew Resource Management, how we work together.  Roles and responsibilities.  Once again the constraints which bind us together, set us free to go far and move fast too.

Is this true in your business? Before we move fast, we must move together.

A great tool to map this kind of thing out for any project is a RACI Matrix.

Responsible. Accountable. Consulted. Informed.

🧭 Practical Tool: Alignment in Three Dimensions

To lead through alignment and to complete a document like a RACI Matrix, consider these three domains:

1. People

Are the right individuals involved, informed, and clear on their roles? Does each person know who to trust and who to turn to?

2. Priority

What are we trying to achieve together? Are our goals understood, and do people see how their work contributes to them?

Beware of having lots of priorities.  You really should have one at a time.  Tasks may be delegated to those who have the competence and best information

3. Principles

What values or boundaries are guiding decisions? Are we aligned on how we treat others, make trade-offs, and respond to setbacks?

Even in fast-moving environments, small alignment checks in these three areas reduce confusion, protect trust, and accelerate meaningful progress.

💡 Try This:

Take one project, one team, or one meeting and ask:

• What are we assuming is already understood?
• Who needs more clarity, not more detail, but more connection?
• Where are roles, goals, or values pulling us apart?

A short conversation can prevent weeks of drift.

I am grateful to researchers like Keith Grint, and authors like David Marquet (Turn the Ship Around) for their understanding of leadership and intent.

Coming Next Week:

Support. Why even the best performers need psychological safety, not just pressure. We will explore how we can all create the conditions for people to stay resilient, learn quickly, and remain engaged under pressure.  We can achieve amzing things with the right level of support for the challenges we are set, as is explained by Arnold Bakker and Evangelia Demerouti in "Job demands and Resources Theory."

Let us lead with EASE.

If this helped clarify your thinking, please repost or tag someone building stronger teams. Leadership is not about shouting louder. It is about seeing together, then moving together.

#Leadership #TeamAlignment #OrganisationalPsychology #LeadWithEASE #ProactiveWorkplaces

‍