Aligned to Achieve

Chapter 8Leading-Edge Concepts for Reaching Complete Alignment

You've now read our thoughts on alignment, our ideas for how to align, and what dozens of analysts, thought leaders, and executives had to say about the benefits of alignment. Now what are you going to do about it?

It may seem overwhelming today, but think about how alignment is going to make your job so much more satisfying—and fun! It'll be more rewarding and you'll feel more trust, especially on a personal level. When there is trust, there can be experimentation. You'll want to try new things and stretch beyond the status quo. We both love coming to work but that wasn't always the case. The biggest source of stress for sales and marketing employees is each other. Alignment (nearly) eliminates that stress.

When we started thinking about this book, we split the journey to alignment into four key sections: leadership, culture, process, and technology. Even if you're starting from a place of slight alignment, your move to full alignment isn't going to be a tiptoe through the proverbial tulips.

When you think about your immediate future and how you're going to begin, realize that this is going to be difficult at some points and seemingly impossible at others. We want to prepare you to stretch outside of your comfort zone, to step beyond the boundaries of what you know, and what you're currently responsible for. We want to show you where you might step on some toes. The most important thing is to never forget that your ...