How To Ensure Alignment

Hi there, I'm Ben Morton and welcome to another episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. It's the weekly micro edition of my podcast. Each episode is just six minutes long and is designed to provide you with tips, tools and tactics around specific aspects of leadership and management. It addresses some of the most common, common challenges you will face as a leader or manager. They are all recorded unscripted whilst I'm out walking in the countryside. So you'll probably hear birds tweeting in the background or just ambient noise as the people around me are going about their day to day life. That's all I'm going to say by way of an introduction. So let's dive straight in to this week's episode.

If you've ever left a meeting or presentation feeling confident that everybody there was clear on what was agreed and the next steps, only to later be shocked and amazed at the confusion or lack of alignment that actually transpired then today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag is for you. Because in this episode I'm going to share with you one simple tactic to give you the confidence that people leaving your meetings or presentations are absolutely clear and aligned on the direction you're heading in. If you've followed me for some time, you'll know that my very first career was in the military. And when I was doing my training, I was taught something that I've carried through to the business world. So a briefing or a meeting, if you like, in the military to prepare you for a task or mission was called an O group or an orders group. And I was taught at the end of giving a set of orders to never ask if people have any questions. Instead, we were taught to ask questions to test understanding. So in practice, what that looked like might be at the end of my orders, I would say to my soldiers, okay, Corporal Rushbrook, what time are we crossing the start line? Or does Corporal Roberts, what's the casualty evacuation plan? And what that does is two very significant things. Number one, it encourages people to really listen and pay attention because they know at the end of my set of orders or my briefing or meeting, anyone there might be asked to summarise or clarify what we've discussed or agreed. And number two, it means if somebody answers my question or summarises and they haven't got my point right, it allows me to recommunicate to clarify what it is I'm trying to get across. Now contrast that with what often happens in many meetings or presentations in the business world. And at the end, the person presenting will say something like, okay folks, any questions? And more often than not, there's a stony silence. People don't ask questions. And then we make the often false assumption that silence or a lack of questions means understanding. And more often than not, it doesn't. More often than not, it just means people don't want to ask a question or are afraid of asking what they consider to be a stupid question. And then we leave that meeting or presentation and we're shocked by the lack of understanding, misalignment and confusion that arises. So don't ask if there are any questions to seek clarification. Instead, ask questions of the attendees to confirm understanding. And if you're thinking, oh, I kind of get your point, Ben, but it sounds a little parent child or teacher student like, it doesn't have to be, you can avoid that situation by using your own words and language so it comes across as authentic and congruent. And more importantly, you can avoid it being a parent child like situation by sharing your intent or purpose. And that could simply be by saying something like, hey guys, so this is a really important point here. So in order to make sure we are all aligned, there's no confusion and wasted effort. Can I just ask you, Joe, to summarise what we've just agreed? And again, they'll either summarize it and everyone will nod in agreement, or somebody, potentially you will say, well, no, hang on, that's not what I thought we agreed. I thought it was this. And that again enables you to re clarify or continue the discussion until you're confident that everyone is clear. As always, hope it's been useful. Look after yourself, look after those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. And until next time, lead on.