BTM #11: Why Vision Alone Doesn’t Create Alignment
- Alexandra Grant
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
You spent months refining the company vision.
You unveiled it at All Hands.
You shared the big themes—bold, clear, future-focused.
But a few weeks later…
Your leadership team is still debating priorities.
Your managers are interpreting it five different ways.
Your employees are asking, “So… what does that actually mean for me?”
Here’s the problem: Vision alone doesn’t create alignment.
It never has.
The Gap Between Vision and Execution
You might assume that clarity at the top means clarity across the org.
But in reality? That clarity often gets lost somewhere between the C-suite and the frontline.
A recent Gallup study found that only 40% of employees strongly agree they know what their company stands for.
Even fewer understand how their work connects to it.
So while you may be thinking, “We just explained this,” your team is thinking, “We’re still guessing.”
If the only people who can explain your vision sit on your exec team, it’s not alignment—it’s isolation.
What Alignment Actually Takes
Vision is step one. Alignment takes four more:
Clarity – Strip the jargon. What does this vision actually mean for day-to-day decisions?
Consistency – Repetition matters. Your message needs to show up in All Hands, Slack, onboarding, and manager 1:1s.
Context – People need to know how they fit into it. Otherwise, the vision feels like a poster, not a plan.
Reinforcement – You need systems. Not just one great talk.
Because here's the thing. Alignment isn't an event, it's a habit.
What CEOs Can Do to Fix It
If you’re in high-growth mode and things feel fuzzy internally, here’s where to start:
✅ Build a cascade system: One-pagers, messaging toolkits, and strategy briefs to help leaders translate top-level priorities into team-level clarity.
✅ Create communication rituals: Think monthly strategy pulses, async recaps, and skip-level Q&As. Simple formats, repeated often.
✅ Equip your managers: They are the most powerful (and often weakest) link in the communication chain. Invest in helping them lead the message.
✅ Infuse it into operations: Your strategy should show up in onboarding, performance reviews, and retros—not just investor decks.
What Happens When You Get It Right
When you turn your vision into a system—not just a story—here’s what happens:
Faster execution
Fewer mixed signals
More confident decision-making at every level
Stronger retention—because people feel grounded, not guessing
Higher trust in leadership
One of our clients was struggling to rally their teams around a new strategy.
We helped build a system to cascade that strategy from execs to managers to ICs—through messaging toolkits, internal pulses, and manager enablement.
Within 60 days, confidence in leadership’s direction jumped 29%, and teams started moving faster with fewer crossed wires.
Real Talk
You don’t need more words. You need systems that make your message stick.
So if you’re scaling and wondering why the vision isn’t landing—this is where we can help.
