The Illusion of Alignment—A shot of fearless culture #425

Your weekly dose of culture insights and exercises, one topic at a time.

May 20, 2026

I walked into a company that felt like three different ones.

The executives were operating under the same strategy buy everyone interpreted it differently.

The CEO believed his leadership team was perfectly aligned. Everyone had agreed on the same vision: becoming truly customer-centric. But alignment was an illusion.

When I interviewed key executives, everyone had a different interpretation of the vision and how it affected their teams.

Operations was eliminating steps to move faster. Compliance was adding layers that slowed everything down. Marketing was chasing personalization data nobody else was using.

They were aligned in principle and at war in practice.

Companies often rely on vague language and top-down compliance to ensure everyone’s on the same page. But this alignment illusion leads to confusion, delay, and frustration down the line.

Breaking the illusion requires spotting the signs, clarifying the narrative, and understanding what healthy alignment looks like.

Explore this week’s newsletter:

→ 5 Signs Your Team Isn’t Really Aligned (Even If No One Is Pushing Back)

→ Exercises and practical resources

Stay fearless, my friend.

Gustavo

In Case You Missed It

→ Your team probably has no clue what alignment really means

Ask Your Team This

What did you understand we decided? And how will you work differently because of it?

⚠️ Try This

Spot Your Alignment Debt

Share the table below with your team. Ask each person to go through each row and mark whether the left side or right side apply to your team right now.

Discuss together and identify the areas where alignment debt is accumulating and costing your team the most.

This is not a pass/fail test. The goal is to identify the alignment gaps that need fixing. Building alignment is a journey.