Everyone’s Busy. So Why Are We Still Stepping On Each Other’s Toes?
READ TIME - 3 MINUTES
“Did anyone else notice the Teams explosion last night?” Mel set her coffee down and shook her head. “Three project leads, all saying their stream is the top priority. Not a single one matches what I thought we were focusing on.”
Zoe laughed, but it was tired. “I spent half my morning trying to fix double bookings. Two teams fighting over the same people for workshops, same time slot. We’re meant to be the eCMO, right? Sometimes it feels like herding cats.”
Raj looked up from his laptop. “We all leave meetings nodding along. Then everyone goes back to their team and does something different. It’s like we’re all rowing hard, but the boat just spins in place.”
Zoe rolled her eyes. “And if I get one more ‘urgent’ email about something I’ve never heard of, I might just start deleting them for fun.”
Mel grinned. “It’s not that we’re not working hard. It’s just… we’re not working together.”
Busy Isn’t The Same As Aligned
If your eCMO or change team is drowning in work but still missing deadlines, or if you’re getting blindsided by “urgent” requests from your own side, you already know: activity ≠ progress.
The real game-changer isn’t doing more: it’s making sure everyone’s pulling in the same direction.
Alignment is the secret sauce.
The One-Pager Alignment Check
Here’s something that actually helps: Before the week gets away from you, gather your team leads. Ask these five yes-or-no questions together.
If anything gets a “no” (or even a “not sure”), that’s the first thing to sort out.
Do we agree on the single most important priority for our team this week?
Is everyone clear on their role in delivering it?
Does everyone know what “done” actually looks like for this priority?
Are there any big risks or resource clashes we haven’t talked about?
Does each key action have a clear owner?
If you get five yeses, brilliant. If not, you’ve just saved yourself a week of headaches.
How To Use It Without The Eye-Rolls
Start your week (or sprint!) by bringing everyone together. Go through the five questions honestly.
No need for fancy language or pretending everything’s fine.
If there’s a “no,” pause and fix it before you all dash off.
Keep that one-pager where everyone can see it EVERY DAY. Bring it up in your stand-ups.
If things start to wobble midweek, check back in.
It’s not about ticking boxes. It’s about keeping everyone pointed the same way.
The Bottom Line
We can all be busy and still get nowhere.
Five honest questions and a bit of real talk can turn chaos into actual progress.
Alignment isn’t fancy. It’s just what gets us moving together, instead of spinning our wheels.
That’s it for this week.
Next time, we’ll chat about how to reduce stakeholder change fatigue by 46% (yep - 46%!).
See you then,
Team EVER
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