when good people disagree on direction
alignment isn't about agreement. it's about whether you can move together even when you don't agree.
Meenakshi and I had a conversation on February 23rd about a portfolio company we both care about.
We disagreed on the next move. Substantially.
Not a "one of us is right" disagreement. A "we have different risk profiles and different information" disagreement.
Instead of debating who had the better thesis, we mapped what we'd each learn over the next quarter that would make one thesis more likely to be right.
Then we committed to moving together regardless of who was right.
That's different from "finding consensus."
I've blown up more partnerships and advisory relationships by forcing consensus than by accepting disagreement. People think alignment means agreement. It actually means "we can move forward together even though we see different futures."
The best teams I've been on had people who disagreed specifically, not people who all thought the same thing.
Meenakshi and I didn't become aligned because I changed my mind or she changed hers. We became aligned because we knew what information would matter and we committed to the company regardless.
What disagreement in your business have you been trying to resolve instead of just defining what would make each of you right?