The Alignment Gap Is Growing
Mentions of misalignment in employee feedback rose 149% year over year. The problem isn't engagement. It's that people are engaged in different directions.
Engagement scores look fine. But something is broken.
Analysis of 500,000+ workplace interactions revealed that mentions of "misalignment" in employee feedback increased 149% year over year. Not dissatisfaction. Not burnout. Misalignment.
The mechanism: companies focused so hard on engagement that they forgot direction. You can have highly engaged teams pulling in opposite directions. High effort, low coordination, wasted motion.
Engagement surveys miss this entirely. They measure intensity, not coherence. A team can score 85% engagement while half of them are optimizing for metrics that conflict with the other half's goals.
The shift for leaders: stop asking "are people engaged?" and start asking "are people aligned?" One is a feeling. The other is a strategic capability.
The nudge: This week, ask three people: "What do you think our top priority is right now?" If you get three different answers, you have an alignment problem. No survey required.
