Pop Tarts & Ravioli
When things look right but feel wrong, misalignment is usually hiding in plain sight. The team’s working hard, the strategy sounds sharp, and the decks look clean — yet something just doesn’t add up. That’s Pop-Tarts and Ravioli. Both technically pastries. One’s breakfast, the other’s dinner. Close, but not the same thing.
Leaders make this mistake all the time — confusing things that rhyme but don’t align. Strategy with story. Brand with culture. Vision with messaging. It all looks coherent on paper, but the experience inside the organization (and out in the world) tells a different story.
When misalignment hits, it doesn’t just slow you down — it shakes the whole vehicle. The business still moves, but every conversation rattles. Trust starts leaking out of the seams.
Patterns I See
Disconnected narratives: Each department tells a slightly different story about who you are and where you’re going.
Strategic drift: Initiatives multiply without coherence. Everyone’s running hard in parallel, not together.
Tone-deaf leadership moments: Messages land wrong because leaders aren’t tuned to the cultural frequency inside the room.
Brand schizophrenia: The public face says “we care,” but the internal reality says “we’re tired.”
What Leaders Miss
Misalignment isn’t always rebellion. Sometimes it’s translation failure.
The problem isn’t that people don’t care — it’s that the story stopped making sense in their world.
When values, vision, and execution fall out of sync, people improvise their own version. That’s how “initiative” turns into chaos.
Culture isn’t built by alignment decks; it’s built by shared understanding. You can’t cascade clarity — you have to converse it into being.
Working With It
Audit for coherence. Compare what you say, what you show, and what people actually experience. The gaps tell the truth.
Balance the wheels. Revisit the alignment between strategy, culture, brand, and operations. They’re one system, not silos.
Translate the strategy. Every team should be able to explain the “why” in their own words. That’s how buy-in happens.
Catch the near-miss. Be wary of things that “sound close enough.” Pop-Tarts and Ravioli both come in foil, but only one belongs in the toaster.
Questions Worth Asking
Where are we saying the right words but living the wrong story?
What do our people experience that contradicts what we proclaim?
How many interpretations of our mission exist right now?
Are we managing alignment, or just assuming it?
Field Truth
You can’t build momentum on mixed messages.
Alignment isn’t about agreement — it’s about coherence.
