I’m in the early planning stages for an event for a nonprofit organization. This process has reacquainted me with the need to work hard to get all parties aligned on a project before moving forward. Too often, I take it for granted that everyone is on the same page on the big things, and I skip the important step that sets the project up for success.
So what is true alignment when you’re working with others? Make sure you intentionally come to agreement on:
- Results – What are we trying to achieve?
- Reality – What is our current situation?
- Approach – How are we are going to get from current reality to desired results?
What I discovered is that two very key people on our planning group had different opinions on the purpose and scope of the event. Talk about a recipe for disaster! Luckily, we caught the disconnect early and were able to create a good framework that answered all of these questions. Otherwise, we would have operated like members of a band who each play a different song. At its worst, chaos ensues. At best, you can expect confusion and discord.
To make “beautiful music,” we stepped back. We used the delegation framework to articulate the results we wanted, how we’d get there and our methods for checking on on progress. Find more about delegation here. Now on to the (aligned) work of making this project wildly successful!
Do you want to make beautiful music (and projects)? Comment below or drop us a note here.
Photo by Pawel Bukowski on Unsplash.