Alignment & Enrollment

Nothing happens without alignment, nothing happens without enrollment.

It is your job to get alignment from your peers, leaders and those that report to you. Any change, adjustment, new invention or product — they all require enrollment, from those around you and from your clients.

Communicating in such a way that they discover (for themselves) that what you are proposing will benefit them, or will support them or their organizations to fulfill their own intentions, is a key component of an enrollment conversation. Another key component is acknowledging and dealing with consideration, concerns and disagreements.

Oftentimes it is not necessary for everyone to end up with the same conclusion — what is however required is acknowledging these considerations, concerns and disagreements. Once the conversation is completed a commitment is made by everyone, e.g. what next steps to take is clear to everyone.

“Disagree yet commit” promotes action over paralysis.

Important: an aligned commitment is not necessarily a compromise and, most importantly, we all have to be able to disagree yet still commit.