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The Alignment Game (2023)

55 points22 daysdmvaldman.github.io
Nevermark22 days ago

My takeaway: get people to independently create an artifact representing their priorities, share the results, discuss the differences, come to a consensus informed by everyone's insights.

Whatever artifact makes sense. Maybe a spreadsheet list. Maybe a one page, or half page, serious coherent characterization from each person.

How people independently see priorities before collective discussion, being as important as how they rate them, I would go with one page thoughtful summaries.

Having experienced partially-aligned organizations, I would want key contributors to a discussion like this to come from every major part of an organization. Emphasis on very different roles, especially important leaf roles, not just top leaders. Otherwise you get high bubble-at-the-top alignment. Top-only strong alignment is like concrete, perniciously inflexible. Which is what I experienced. End-to-end insight and discovery of alignment is needed to get adaptable, in-touch, actually effective alignment.

And as is hammered so well in "Creativity, Inc" by Ed Catmull, alignment isn't just about coordinating efforts. It is about continuously identifying and removing friction, of any kind, anywhere, for anyone, as individuals make their very different contributions in service to the common direction.

teeray21 days ago

> get people to independently create an artifact representing their priorities

Except trying to get most stakeholders to be alone with their thoughts to be condensed upon a blank document before them causes them to violently open outlook and schedule a meeting with everyone instead.

Nevermark21 days ago

Pre-alignment-meeting alignment! A good thing to explicitly exclude.

Definitely need a healthy culture when asking for honesty and openness about what people think, including they see as unclear, unknown, inconsistent with others, and/or outside the existing box.

kayo_2021103022 days ago

Maybe. It could be true. But, in the interest of folks who just want a summary with an opportunity to dig in deeper, this piece would have benefited from the addition of a worked example in the text; simply as an explanation and a teaser. I spend enough time with spreadsheets.

nonethewiser18 days ago

Took me about 5 seconds to grok it looking at the google sheet. Didn't really read the article.

thedudeabides522 days ago

what happens when you have three players, and three options that do not have a stable equilibrium?

aka Arrow's impossibility theorem?

Goofy_Coyote22 days ago

Interesting question.

Maybe we can break out of it by giving who ever is taking accountability if that thing goes wrong a tie breaker vote, or have their votes weigh a bit more?

thedudeabides518 days ago

yes, the classic solution to a hung democracy...appoint a dictator!

(kidding)

funkyfiddler6918 days ago

find a 4th player or create a game to find/build/grow an independent one within the constraints of the system. make sure it's 'fair enough' as in "no sabotage".