Most finance teams treat alignment as the finish line. Taylor Otstot, VP of Finance at Dashlane, argues it's the wrong goal entirely. In this episode, Taylor unpacks why "getting everyone to nod" is one of the most expensive mistakes finance teams make, how buried dissent surfaces right after the budget locks, and a simple technique he learned from a former CEO to force honest signal out of any room: the "no sevens allowed" confidence poll.

Albert and Taylor dig into when to let a six stand, when to push for an eight, how finance leaders train stakeholders to speak up earlier, and why AI's biggest shift isn't the cost to produce analysis, it's the cost to consume it. If you run planning cycles, own a budget, or sit between execs and operators, this one is for you.

Chapters:

• 00:00 — Cold open: "Alignment is overrated"
• 00:58 — Show intro
• 01:07 — Welcome + guest intro: Taylor Otstot, VP Finance at Dashlane
• 01:29 — The Hot Take: alignment vs. surfacing dissent
• 03:17 — The "no sevens allowed" confidence poll
• 05:40 — Do it blind or in the open? Training your stakeholders
• 07:00 — When to accept a six, and when to push for an eight
• 09:20 — Operationalizing: tracking confidence scores over time
• 10:20 — Numbers over words: the HBR study on "never" and "always"
• 11:20 — Rapid fire: the most common finance team mistake
• 12:00 — Rapid fire: advice for finance leaders scaling their team
• 13:10 — Rapid fire: the next five years in finance (AI and the cost to consume)
• 14:10 — The power of subtraction
• 14:30 — Close