The Power of Alignment
The Power of Alignment
What a rowing crew and a set of tires reveal about keeping a leadership team on track
You’ve likely seen a rowing crew at some point; eight athletes in a slender boat, moving in perfect coordination, each oar entering and leaving the water in the same instant. It’s a display of precision engineered for speed, every stroke calibrated to add power rather than drag. If just one rower is a fraction off tempo, the whole boat loses momentum. Alignment isn’t a nice-to-have for that crew. It’s the entire strategy.
Similarly, the same principle governs something far more mundane: the tires on your car. Alignment sets the angle of each wheel, so it points flat and true down the road. Balancing distributes weight evenly across the wheel assembly. Skip either one, and the ride roughens, tires wear unevenly, and the strain spreads to other parts of the vehicle long before anyone notices the original cause. (more…)
Recently, while on vacation, I attended a magic show. The illusionist left us in awe as he disappeared and reappeared in various parts of the auditorium, passed through plate glass windows, and showed his sleight of hand. He made it look easy, even though his performance reflected decades of practice. We know that magicians manipulate perception, use misdirection, high tech props, and other psychological principles to do the impossible. But we were still trying to figure out how he did it. 
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