The word for today is Alignment. Today we discuss what alignment is and why it is important to your team and company. Alignment is a near synonym of disagreement. The difference is a disagreement puts up barriers in a relationship and alignment is a slight difference of direction. Disagreements lead to dead ends. Getting aligned with someone opens up a much needed conversation to get back in line.

Being out of alignment  with a co-founder, team member, etc. is not a bad thing. Because alignment can be fixed with a discussion and plan. As long as there is a follow-up conversation following the initial disagreement. We talk about how changing this one word choice can completely change your team’s and company’s effectiveness. We also discuss how encouraging alignment and transparency will cut down on negativity.

Our main points for today include:

Knowing when you are out of alignment with someone.

How to productively have the needed conversation.

Deciding on the next step to get back into alignment.

Encouraging others to see disagreement as just a difference in alignment.

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Transcript:

Steli: Hello, everyone. This is Steli Efti.

Hiten: And Hiten Shah.

Steli: And in today’s episode of the Startup Chat, we’re going to talk about alignment. I'm looking at a smiling face full of expectations, curiosity and the wonderful wonder of where will this conversation go, and the funny thing is, it’s noåt even my topic. Hiten wanted to talk about this but I thought I'll do the intro as he was downloading a new timer app to make sure that we stay on point and within the 20 minute mark. So Hiten, why did you want to talk about alignment?

Hiten: I don't know. I feel like that is going to be my theme for the year, this year.

Steli: Oh, nice.

Hiten: Yeah. I just feel like it’s the one, big hammer that I'm gonna use to sort of get things going the way I think they should be in my businesses. And I've been thinking about it all year; it’s not been that long.

Steli: All right, so let me quickly stop you there. Is that something that you do? Because I've seen a number of people give the year a theme, or even just a word, as kind of a focus. And I thought that was kind of a cool idea. Is that something you typically do, or no; this has nothing to do with that?

Hiten: I got an emoji, too. It’s the rocket ship.

Steli: You have an emoji for the year?

Hiten: Emoji here, you have the word.

Steli: Nice.

Hiten: I usually just make it up. I don’t always do it; I just felt like making it up this year.

Steli: All right, I love it. I like it.

Hiten: Sometimes yo do things without a reason, right?

Steli: I like it. I'm just trying to understand –

Hiten: No, I just had a hammer. And in every situation I've seen in my own businesses, or even in my friends’ businesses, when I start using that word, people instantly know what I'm talking about. Because when you’ve got a car and you’re driving, and if you’ve ever had an alignment issue, it just veers one way, or veers the other way.