7 Keys to Marketing Genius: Alignment
The following is an excerpt from The 7 Keys to Marketing Genius by Michael Daehn
I was trying to park my truck and I banged into a curb pretty hard. For the next few weeks, until I got it repaired, whenever I took my hands off the wheel, my car would veer to the left. My truck had become misaligned. Have you ever driven a vehicle that is out of alignment? When you drive down the road, you have to hang on to the wheel with both hands or the car will swerve into the next lane. If the car is out of alignment enough, it can actually try to pull you right into oncoming traffic with disastrous consequences. As bad as that sounds, imagine a car with wheels pointed in different directions, some going forward, some in reverse. How far do you think a car like that would travel? (See figure 2.1.)
Figure 2.1: Misaligned Vehicle
Obviously a car this far out of alignment would not get you to your desired destination. The same is true for organizations that are out of alignment. In every organization people have an agenda. People have an understanding of why they are there and what they are supposed to be doing. Sometimes their understanding is correct and at other times they are way off base. Even when members of the organization are not sure what they are supposed to do, they still come to their jobs with a perception of what they think they should accomplish each day. This is just as true for the President and CEO as it is for the guy sweeping cigarette butts in the parking lot. Where each fits into the makeup of the organization is demonstrated in figure 2.2.
Figure 2.2: Sample Company
You can substitute the titles in your company for those in the illustration. For the organization to function efficiently, every level must be headed in the same direction. In reality, different levels do not typically head in the same direction. Everyone does what seems right in his or her own eyes. Without an overriding purpose that everyone is aware of and buys into, people will drift off in their own directions as seen if figure 2.3.
Figure 2.3: Company Misalignment
It is not altogether uncommon to find companies that look like the one in figure 2.3. In fact, unless the leadership is intentional about alignment, it is more likely to observe misalignment than alignment. You can see how different levels are working directly against the others. Sometimes this is intentional when you have disgruntled employees disobeying company policies or, even worse, sabotaging the progress of others out of jealousy or bitterness. It is difficult for a company to make much progress when everyone is doing his or her own thing. So how does a company become aligned? Everyone must understand and buy into an overriding purpose. You should already know where this is heading. This overriding statement of purpose is most commonly called the mission statement. After creating a mission statement, the task of leadership is to get the personnel aligned with the mission of the company as in figure 2.4.
Figure 2.4: Alignment of the Company with the Company’s Mission