Alignment or Orientation?

At VFS we like to make a subtle distinction between orientation and alignment because the term alignment to some people conjures up thoughts of constraints. Whereas orientation suggests more autonomy with clarity of where we're aiming for.  But this isn't necessarily the case.

If we know exactly where we need to get to - for example we have "a North Star" or a crystal clear vision, then we can be aligned towards it.

“When the diversity in a group is small, the error of the crowd is large.”

– JP Castlin

However, if we don’t know and we are exploring new business or market opportunities, then maybe we orientate people….point them away from where we know we don’t want to go, so that we are all at least facing in the right direction.

Oriented but not fully aligned suggests that we require people to explore a wider range of opportunities, to be more comfortable with ambiguity and to be flexible.

Note that neither term should suggest the degree of autonomy or empowerment afforded to people.

Related Pages:

• Achieving Alignment

• The VFS 4A Framework