Alignment: The Metric Behind Every Other Metric
Why Motion Isn’t Always Progress
We begin this week with a cairn. A simple stack of stones marking a path through uncertain terrain. Hikers build them not for decoration, but for direction. They fascinate me not only because of their purpose, but also because they link more than steps, they link stories.
A cairn doesn’t tell you how fast to move or what the terrain ahead will hold. It simply reminds you that you’re still on the right path. Someone has gone before you and left you the beacon of travelers. Alignment works the same way.
It’s quiet, easy to overlook, and absolutely essential. And like Cooper, many of us only realize how much we’ve drifted when we can no longer see the markers that once kept us oriented.
We talk about alignment as if it’s an attitude or a reassuring sense that everything is “in sync.” But I’m afraid it has drifted into that territory where so many words lose their true meaning.
Alignment is not a feeling.
It is a force.
It is the silent metric beneath every other metric. When it’s present, progress feels almost natural. When it’s missing, even the smartest strategy becomes heavy, slow, or chaotic.
Last week, we left Cooper at a crossroads. He’d begun to see that the metrics he was looking at were only telling part of the story. His dashboards showed movement but not progress. His numbers were showing him what he had not yet fully admitted:
Something in his work wasn’t aligned anymore.
And that’s where we are this week because alignment isn’t just about values or vision. Those matter, but they’re only one point on the compass. True alignment has directional integrity. It requires the entire system to be oriented toward the same end.
When it’s not, you feel the drag immediately.
Even before the data confirms it.
Even before the consequences show up.
Most of us don’t lose alignment all at once. It happens slowly, quietly, almost invisibly. And like Cooper, we often notice it only when things begin to feel harder than they should.
The Four-Point Compass of Alignment
A compass is only accurate when every force influencing its needle is steady. Put it near interference, such as another magnet, a metal surface, or too many competing signals, and the needle wobbles.
Our businesses, and even our lives, for that matter, are no different. Let’s look at all of the points as forces of influence and see how this can give us the guideposts we need.
True North — Your Values
The nonnegotiables. The principles that define how you make decisions.
If you compromise here, everything downstream distorts.
East — The Market
What the market needs now, not what it needed when you built your original plan. If you’re not paying attention here, you’ll be measuring performance against a reality that no longer exists.
South — Your Capacity
A strategy built on imaginary or inadequate capacity is misalignment in its purest form. What factors into capacity? Your team, partners, and suppliers. Your time, energy, and resources. They all matter, and they all must be in alignment to anchor your performance.
West — Your Vision
Where do you want to go now and why? If your vision pulls one way and your systems pull another, friction becomes the default condition. And this isn’t just about systems, it’s also about everyone working with you to achieve that vision.
Alignment is the convergence of all four.
Anything less eventually fractures.
How Misalignment Happens (Even to Smart Leaders)
Sometimes it’s accidental and shows up as drift, distraction, or outdated assumptions.
Other times, it can be intentional when team members pull in different directions because communication is unclear, trust is low, or incentives reward the wrong behaviors.
But the outcome is the same:
Working at cross purposes destroys momentum.
When people, metrics, and decisions are aimed at different ends, the work becomes heavier. Results flat-line. And the story of the business gets confused.
Cooper is beginning to see this.
His clients have shifted.
His market has shifted.
His team is quietly unsure.
His numbers are still moving, but they aren’t pointing anywhere meaningful.
He hasn’t lost his way. But his compass is wobbling.
And that wobbling, even if just a small tremor, is often the first sign that something important is asking for our attention.
Questions to Assess Your Alignment
You can’t change what you won’t look at.
Start with honest, unhurried questions:
VALUES (True North)
Am I making decisions that reflect what matters most?
What have I compromised lately that doesn’t sit well with me?
Where does my work feel out of integrity?
MARKET (East)
What has changed in my clients’ world that I’ve not accounted for?
What are they solving for now?
What are they no longer asking for—and why?
CAPACITY (South)
Do I have the resources to deliver what I’m promising?
Where am I stretching my team too thin?
What systems or partnerships need strengthening?
VISION (West)
What am I building toward that still feels alive and true?
What do I keep postponing—and what does that tell me?
Does the future I’m aiming for align with the life I actually want?
These questions don’t generate spreadsheets.
They generate honest insights that numbers alone can’t.
If You’re Out of Alignment: First Steps
Alignment isn’t restored through speed.
It’s restored through recalibration.
A few simple starting points:
1. Slow down before you choose.
Rushing is the enemy of clarity.
2. Re-establish what’s nonnegotiable.
This resets True North.
3. Talk to the people you serve.
Markets whisper before they shout.
4. Talk to the people who serve with you.
Your team can often feel misalignment before you can measure it.
5. Name the gap between where you’re headed and what’s real.
Honest naming is the beginning of course correction.
6. Adjust one degree at a time.
Massive shifts rarely hold. Tiny, consistent adjustments do.
How to Stay in Alignment
This is where most leaders fall short. Alignment is not a once-and-done endeavor.
It is a practice.
Quarterly narrative reviews, not just quarterly performance reviews
Metrics that measure meaning, not just motion
Honest conversations about capacity
Strategic pauses built into the year
Reassessing every time the market shifts
Revisiting the story you’re telling and living
This is where alignment becomes the most powerful metric of all:
A safeguard against chasing clarity instead of creating it.
Where Cooper Goes Next
Cooper is beginning to understand that his next move isn’t about pivoting, scaling, or fixing his numbers.
It’s about knowing.
About paying attention.
About reorienting the compass before he takes another step.
He has decisions ahead.
But first, he needs direction.
True direction.
And that always begins with alignment.
Next week, we’ll follow him as he begins asking different questions that not only change his results but also change his relationship to his work.
Because the goal isn’t to move faster.
The goal is to move truer.
If this reflection sparked something for you, I’d love to hear what part of your own work or life is asking for realignment right now.
Your stories help shape where this series goes next.
If you are new to The Possibility Factor, this publication is where we are behind the scenes each week for the book I’m currently writing under that same title for the moment. Our central character is Cooper North, a business owner who is at a crossroads and learning that much of what he thought he knew isn’t giving him the answers that he needs. From an unlikely mentor, he now has a journal that is giving him better questions.
Note: You can find the earlier chapters and reflections collected here: The Possibility Factor
Thank you for another thought-provoking post. It's true that when we don't have the correct information, we may think we are in alignment but we are not. This article really opened my eyes about what I have been seeing out there:https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
Alignment is everything. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights.