Board & C-Suite Misalignment: The Damning Cost. The Only Cure.

Despite countless studies on the cost to organizations of misalignment and many proposed remedies, most solutions fail because they overlook the root cause.

Research from Lindsay Foresight & Stratagem finds the root cause is likely that the Board and C-Suite are themselves misaligned on concepts fundamental to profitable growth, margins, and competitive advantage. Worse, they don’t even realize it.

When the board and C-Suite are not aligned on fundamentals, it is like the child’s game of "Telephone." Variances and misunderstandings multiply as talk spreads through the organization. Inefficiencies missed opportunities and costs multiply, too.

C-Suites and Boards don’t see the cost of their own misalignment. It doesn’t just slow competitive advantage—it can damn it. Any edge the company hopes for is being sabotaged from within.

Misalignment causes not just variance and diffusion, but it also fuels hesitation, contradiction, and paralysis. This is the opposite of what is needed to sustain an edge or adapt in a volatile market.

Our study identified 11 concepts fundamental concepts for leading and governing in a way that enables alignment. The 11 are interrelated and impact one another:

The first three often surprise people:

•What strategy is and isn’t.

•What competitive advantage is and isn’t.

• The single best metric for tracking competitive advantage.

The eight remaining fundamentals build on these three. They concern factors such as emerging marketplace dynamics all top executives should realize and apply when planning for future advantage. And how to create a truly strategic playbook for future advantage in a way that aligns people across an enterprise.

When an organization’s leaders don’t even realize they’re not in agreement on what strategy is and isn’t, or haven’t a common definition of competitive advantage, then others in the organization (divisions, departments, teams, and individuals) can’t execute an effective or efficient plan for future success. When there is no agreement on the metric specifying advantage, no group can agree on whether a proposed plan can deliver advantage. No one can agree on whether a proposed pivot from a previous strategy will improve an organization’s situation.

The cure for organizational misalignment is clear: a strategically facilitated workshop where the 11 fundamentals are taught to the C-Suite and Board simultaneously, then “test-driven” as a group in application to an organization’s situation.

In this way, everyone in leadership understands, internalizes, and operates with the same 11. They see how the 11 interrelate and impact each other. This keeps people aligned in the future. And of particular interest to Directors and Management, it means that their future meetings will be more focused, productive, and personally rewarding.

For more detail on a workshop such as that noted here, go to the Lindsay Foresight & Stratagem Workshop page and see comments on my recent Linkedin post.