Misalignment Looks Productive: The Hidden Cost of “Almost Working”

by Marina Lukyanova It doesn’t always look chaotic.

In fact, misalignment inside a company can look impressively calm. Teams are busy. Slack is active. Plans are being made. Things are getting done.

Until you dig deeper.

And you find:

• Smart people duplicating work

• Priorities that shift from meeting to meeting

• Projects that stall because no one’s quite sure who owns what

This kind of misalignment is harder to spot and more dangerous. Because it lives under the surface of systems that appear functional.

What I See in the Field

I work with founders and executives at growth-stage companies or mid-sized firms navigating significant change: new markets, restructuring, post-MVP expansion.

No matter the context, the pattern is consistent:

• Teams executing without shared context

• Leaders making decisions in parallel (not aligned)

• Middle managers improvising between silos

• Initiatives drifting because no one is “anti” but no one is fully responsible either

And then the pain emerges:

• Strategy seems right on paper, but traction is stalling

• Teams are moving, but not gaining speed

• Leaders feel exhausted, even when growth is happening

This isn’t a process problem. It’s an alignment problem.

The Real Cost

Misalignment erodes speed in ways that don’t show up on the dashboard:

• Decisions take longer

• Work has to be redone or re-explained

• Teams start solving the same problem five different ways

Eventually, morale dips. Not because the team lacks motivation but because no one’s quite sure what we’re really doing anymore.

Even small misalignments compound fast under pressure.

Why Strategy Isn’t Just “Top Down”

One of the smartest points that emerged in the thread after my last post was this:

“When the ‘why’ behind decisions isn’t clear, teams fill in the blanks differently and that’s where silos form fast.”

Exactly.

Strategy isn’t just alignment from the top. It’s coherence across layers: the story of why, how, and who, told in ways that guide action.

When people aren’t told why things are changing, they don’t resist the change. They resist the confusion.

What Alignment Actually Looks Like

• Clear strategic direction

• Priorities that cascade in a way teams understand

• Decision rights that are explicit, not assumed

• Leaders aligned not just on outcomes but on how tradeoffs will be made

Without that, even a great strategy will slowly unravel in delivery.

If this sounds familiar, whether you’re growing fast or navigating change, you’re not alone.

The fix isn’t more meetings. It’s designing alignment into how your company operates.

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Marina Lukyanova is a Strategy & Operations Leader helping founders and executives turn big visions into aligned strategies that actually deliver results — from revenue growth to execution clarity.

👉 Want help with alignment? Reach out to me on LinkedIn to turn strategic intent into operational traction that moves the needle.