# Chapter 260

You must create alignment of interests across the entire company. - Masterminds

This is the getting all the right people on the right bus going in the right direction to the right destination! That is what alignment looks like in the real world. If you live and work in the idea world or knowledge work world, then it is gaining consensus about where you are going and what it takes to get there, and agreement on when you have arrived. This is alignment. This alignment is critical otherwise you will be working at cross purposes and wasting resources. Few companies or organizations can move toward two goals at one time, especially radically different goals. There is profit, efficiency, investment and focus at stake here at the very least.

One of my clients in the recent past, generated new businesses within their primary business on what seemed like a daily occurrence. That is stretching the truth, but not by much. The fractured misalignment this caused was exhausting and not all that productive. Not to mention it was practically impossible to become profitable when we continually changed directions and financed new directions. It wasn’t controlled chaos, it was just plain old chaos. You can’t run your life like this and you can’t run your business like this and your employees don’t want to work for a company like this.

It is time to spend intentional energy on getting things moving in the same direction all across the board.