This article is written by Kitty Wooley, founder of the Senior Fellows and Friends network and retired civil servant from the US federal government.

  • The problem: Many people overlook the potential of alignment to help them identify mission-focused, silo-crossing work that would benefit from their unique contribution.
  • Why it matters: Obliviousness to organisational goals and objectives and how they cascade down to specific units and jobs weakens new employees’ boundary spanning efforts.
  • The solution: Those who take initiative to understand how their job and their personal capabilities relate to the big picture are more able to reach across silos effectively and be viewed as colleagues who can help.

Do you understand how your work relates to your organisation’s mission, goals and strategic objectives? If you entered public service with startup or nonprofit founder experience under your belt, chances are that you did this fundamental thinking before you took the job. One thing that prevents an organisation from fully leveraging its new hires’ unique gifts is that leaders rarely know enough about the talents and capabilities that came in with them.

Most big problems that organisations take years to solve cross organisational stovepipes, or silos.

Rather than waiting endlessly for others to realise what you know and can do, you could invite the organisation to leverage you sooner by taking a deep dive into alignment, i.e. find out what each part of the organisation is trying to accomplish and think about how what you really do could help. Most big problems that organisations take years to solve cross organisational stovepipes, or silos. One reason solutions take years is that individuals at all levels tend to be uncomfortable with initiating contact across silos (although the idea of having useful networks is generally popular).

Jump-start your understanding of alignment by building a mental model

When I moved to government from another sector 30 years ago, I built a mental model, complete with “wiring harness”, to ramp up quickly. I collected and studied the following pieces of information:

The organisation chart.

The written mission statement, goals and current strategic plan.

  • The strategic plan decomposes into objectives and information about when, how and by which office(s) each is expected to be achieved.
  • Check your understanding with others: language can be unclear. It may not always mean exactly what you think it means.

Acronyms and jargon.

  • This helps us follow conversations and understand more, faster.

Which sub-organisations do what.

  • How do the sub-organisations and their unique portfolios relate?
  • Where is the home base of each? Are some in multiple locations and, if so, why?
  • Which have missions that cut across the entire organisation (e.g. Finance, IT, HR)?
  • What are the top-level sub-organisations called – Bureaus? Components? Offices?

Visible informal networks (the “wiring harness”).

  • Which sub-organisations seem to be doing collaborative work together?
  • Where do there seem to be gaps or overlaps, and why might that be?
  • Where do you detect a friendly spirit or openness to you?

Since I am a connector and broker who has always operated at the intersection of hierarchy and network, I have used all of the above to diagnose why important tasks have fallen between the cracks, translate between offices that have different vocabularies, and make “chiropractic adjustments” that restore harmonious progress when project sponsors have reached an impasse. This is the kind of opportunity that an understanding of alignment unlocks for me. You may find that it unlocks additional opportunities for you.

Alignment can substitute for top cover and provide protection in a pinch

When would top cover even be necessary? Here are three examples in descending order of likelihood:

  • When observers grow concerned that you’ll obstruct project work they’re stressed out about. Ideally, you and your boss are communicating about your boundary spanning activity and you’ve been furnished with guardrails to prevent career mishap. However, what if you then strike up a conversation with someone you admire and you’re unexpectedly introduced to a project that you later discuss with others?
  • When you inadvertently trip over a “third rail” simply by talking with colleagues who are not on friendly terms with one another.
  • When a supervisor, manager, or executive is operating a fiefdom, hoarding information, or averse to the whole concept of reaching across. Once in a while, your boundary spanning activity may threaten someone who’s not even in your chain of command.

How can alignment mitigate risk in the absence of top cover?

If, at all times, you can explain how your actions align with what the organisation is seeking to accomplish, it’s very unlikely that the bad actor described above can do much without revealing and embarrassing themselves. Your boss will shield you from petty, unwarranted attacks, either from an enlightened approach to leadership or because your prior actions have shown that you do good work and are a valuable member of the team.

Alignment can also protect you in cases where you are asked, “why do you need to know that?” – the bane of analysts everywhere – and allow your safe return to the status quo if your inquisitiveness has alarmed someone more senior who doesn’t recognise your version of continuous learning.

What if your personal objectives and the organisation’s objectives stop lining up?

This is an inner aspect of alignment that comes up as people grow. If you become desperately unhappy in your position, think about how your core values, capabilities, and “secret sauce” line up with the organisation’s purpose, and fully consider alternative actions that are less drastic than walking out the door, so that you don’t squander the mental model and relationship capital in which you have invested time and energy. Much more could be said about this – maybe it’s an article waiting for you to write!


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