Team alignment is a byproduct of effective communication

When it comes to the biggest reason why all organizations fail to deliver, it all boils down to one thing, and that is — communication. It is scientifically proven that the product an organization makes is a direct reflection of the communication architecture that the organization has. If there are communication channels that are free flowing and regular, whether up-to-down or down-to-up, and there is transparency in communication, alignment is a natural byproduct. People are more than willing to rally against something if they don’t agree with it and if that is the only decisive way that it is being done. It only falters when people think that there is no way out.  

The onus of establishing the communication architecture lies only with the founder and the founder should be the one who sets the culture of effective communication. There are several ways to do it. What we do at nearbuy, for instance, is start with “All hands” where everyone gets together and discusses things. This serves a lot of purposes — it acknowledges people, we realign on the existing focus of the company and have an open Q&A. Another crucial aspect is that the management of the company should not hide anything. At nearbuy, we share data freely. Every fortnight, we have a leadership huddle and this is an extended group of 25 people who get to see the actual financial numbers, costs and P&L of the company. Leaders should communicate effectively with employees on a regular basis. I personally send emails to the entire company on a weekly basis and these are random ramblings – discussing anything and everything.  

It is fundamental and imperative for everyone to share ideas. There should be no hierarchy and structures should be built that allow effective communication to happen. nearbuy is structured that way. We are four founders and all of us speak regularly every day. And there doesn’t need to be any agenda, but such a communication channel helps everyday – it dilutes any kind of misalignment between all of us. We also have an extended group of 25 people consisting of business heads, P&L owners, team leaders and we meet every fortnight to discuss things. They report to the founders and have one-on-ones with them — through such measures we are able to establish communication channels and effective alignment throughout.

However, sharing alone cannot ensure alignment. A lot of CEOs do what we do, share information and carry out periodic meetings, but this doesn’t ensure alignment in teams. Most communication interventions are unidirectional — the minute you do not allow feedback or ‘actual’ conversations to take place, you are not communicating. Making a decision and then communicating is not communication. It needs to be more of a workshop where you discuss things, exchange ideas and have dialogues. People should have the right to challenge the things and express their points of views, irrespective of whether they feel aligned or not.  

It is often perceived that alignment is there; however, there is never a point when everyone is aligned. At nearbuy, we take anonymous feedback very seriously and with utmost honesty. So the number of times we ask people for their feedback is high and regular. For example, if we are taking some important decision about the company strategy, we have a discussion with the senior-most people and we plan it out; then we reach out to stakeholders and ask them about their opinion. Such a measure or a tool informs us whether we are aligned, or need to regroup the team and ensure that all concerns are addressed etc.  

Cross-functional alignment starts with ensuring that there is representation of all the functions in decisions or conversations irrespective of seniority and decision-making capacity. In our experience, we have seen that when you have more people in discussions, they take back a lot more than when they are communicated with in a secondary fashion. People who need to be a 100 percent aligned with you are no more than 10 percent of the entire company — and once this core team is aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it, the rest of the business unit just needs to be told about it. 

At the end, what matters are results; and alignment causes results to come through.