It’s 7:30 pm in the desert. I placed my NodPod sleep mask over my eyes (the best one ever – thank you, Sarah Stein), brown noise humming through my JBL speaker. Minutes later, I was out cold for the next 9 hours!
This is night 1 of 5. I come from the East Coast to Palm Springs. An annual trip with my high school friends I’ve known since I was 15. And my first priority – catch up on sleep. A slight shift from the keg parties and all-nighters of the past.
There were 5 of us this year. I see them only once a year. And life and schedules keep me from talking to most of them in between.
We are the same age. We have our formative years in common, and the experiences that come with being GenX in the 2020s.
Otherwise, we are so different, you might wonder why we’re all getting together. We are like a family that way. Sometimes, like distant cousins. Other times, it’s like these people know me best.
We go from barely talking to living together for 5 days. We’re there to see each other, but also for the vacation.
Chances we all want exactly the same thing from the vacation? Nil.
Each with our own priorities. A sense of what this vacation should be. Self-righteous about our own particular way of loading the dishwasher
Planning a night out.
“Do we even need to go out?” – Abra
“We’re only together once a year. Let’s go dancing.” – Stacy
“Out late dancing is going to create some real conflict in my WHOOP scores tomorrow.” – Mary
“I can go either way, but nowhere with a lineup.” – Caitlin
The event itself.
“Skip dinner. Who cares?!”
“Ummm…I’ll have a protein shake first. Where’s the spinach?”
“Who’s making cocktails?”
“Let’s go! We’re trying to miss the lineup.”
When it’s time to go home.
“Is it ever time to go home?”
“Who’s ordering the Uber? Where is Melanie?”
“Why are they being so boring?”
“Can we stop at Taco Bell on the way home?”
“Let’s make ridiculous TikTok videos in the parking lot first.”
And so it goes. A comedy of misalignment – different goals, priorities, and ideas of what “fun” looks like.
Luckily, we’ve known each other since we were riding bikes to school and sneaking out to parties, so no one’s afraid to speak their mind. We close the gap quickly. The stakes are low. It’s only five days, and it’s vacation.
But what about when the stakes are higher? What happens when you’re not just trying to pick a restaurant, but trying to align a team, lead a business, or execute a strategy?
That same gap between what leaders think, what teams hear, and what customers experience is where things fall apart.
We call it The Alignment Gap. It’s the costly disconnect between what’s in your head and what actually drives behavior, decisions, and results across the business.
According to Bain & Co., misalignment between vision and execution can cost up to 40% of a strategy’s potential value.
Closing that gap takes clarity and alignment between what drives you, how you lead and how you connect with others.
When those forces come together – inspired leadership, authentic purpose, and your unique ability to activate others – you unlock clarity, motivation, and the kind of collaboration that fuels real momentum, inside and out.
Most business problems are communication problems in disguise.
If you can see yourself or your team in this topic, join me at a very exciting event at the end of the month.
CoLABcon 2025 – a place for growth-minded leaders to connect, bring their strengths, and find ways to grow together.
I’ll be speaking about the alignment gap and how leaders can recognize their opportunities to bring who they are, what they say and how they engage others into alignment.
Join me!! It will be an amazing couple of days.
In the meantime, I have to wash the sand out of my clothes and catch up on my sleep. Until next year, Palm Desert – where the exact conversations are bound to happen again.
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Mary
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