Active alignment

- Design of great products and services…today is team-based, and teams need to…fully engage with creative ambiguity in order…to push what's possible.…Having a goal provides structure that helps…the team decide where to apply that push best.…But goals can be tricky.…Goals must be open for evolution…so that a breakthrough solution may be found.…But in the moment, they often need to be…focused enough for the team to do…their best thinking.…So balancing immediate focus and momentum…with longer-term ambiguity can really…be challenging.…

To balance these needs, set a recurring cycle…of reflection, where the team looks at the…work so far and asks if the core program goal…has shifted, and when it has, the team takes…the time to integrate new thinking into the…next cycle of experimentation.…For example, we've been asked to design…a collaboration space, and had met with…our stakeholders in an alignment workshop…to set success criteria and explore that…goal in more depth.…We did a mission countdown activity…which is shared elsewhere in this course…