How Misalignment Sneaks In During Planning Season — And How to Stop It Early

Planning season has always been one of my favorite times of the year.

New budget. New energy. New hires. New possibilities.

It’s the moment when organizations take everything they learned this year and try to build something better for the next.

But after more than 20 years as a founder, CEO, CMO, and advisor, I’ve learned something most leaders never consider:

A great strategy, a bigger budget, and fresh talent won’t save you if you enter the new year misaligned.

And most organizations don’t realize they’re starting the year with a cracked foundation.

Let me explain.

The Part of Planning Season Nobody Talks About

When leaders build a plan for the upcoming year, the focus is always on the future:

• new goals

• new budget

• new strategies

• new initiatives

• new priorities

All of that matters.

But almost no one asks the one question that determines whether the plan will actually work:

“Where are we right now?”

Meaning:

Are we aligned enough to execute the plan we’re about to build?

Everyone assumes the answer is "yes."

The uncomfortable truth?

In most organizations, the answer is "no."

Misalignment doesn’t wait until Q2 to appear.

It already exists before planning season even starts — you just haven’t measured it yet.

You Can’t Build Next Year’s Strategy on Last Year’s Misalignment

I’ve watched organizations spend months crafting a brilliant strategic plan, only to watch execution fall apart halfway through the year.

Not because the strategy was wrong.

Not because the budget was too small.

Not because the team lacked talent.

But because the foundation was misaligned before the plan ever rolled out.

People weren’t working from the same understanding of the fundamentals — who the company serves, the value it delivers, why the work matters, how success is defined, and where the organization is headed.

Some people were clear.

Others were only partially aligned.

Others thought they understood — but had a completely different interpretation.

When that’s your starting point, a new strategy cannot land cleanly.

• Execution fragments.

• Teams move at different speeds.

• Priorities get interpreted differently.

• Communication breaks down.

• Momentum stalls.

• ROI drops.

• Frustration rises.

And yes — you lose people.

You might still hit a quarter or two…

…but the cost is confusion, burnout, rework, and wasted time.

That isn’t alignment.

That’s survival.

And survival is not how you drive revenue growth in 2026.

The Years We Hit Our Goals Were the Years We Entered Aligned

Looking back at the organizations I led that consistently hit their goals, there was always a pattern:

We didn’t just plan for the future.

We aligned the present first.

Before talking strategy, we grounded everyone in the same truth — the same direction, the same purpose, the same understanding of what mattered most and how success would be measured.

The result?

Those plans didn’t just look good on paper — they worked.

• Teams moved faster.

• Execution was cleaner.

• Communication sharpened.

• Decisions were clearer.

• Momentum accelerated.

• ROI improved.

• And revenue growth followed naturally.

It wasn’t luck.

It wasn’t a heroic push.

It wasn’t a new tool or trend.

It was alignment.

Why Misalignment Sneaks in During Planning Season

Planning season is exciting.

It’s energizing.

It feels like progress.

But that excitement creates a blind spot:

Leaders rush into planning the future without validating the present.

So companies end up building next year’s strategy on assumptions:

• assuming people understand the same priorities

• assuming teams interpret success the same way

• assuming departments define value the same way

• assuming alignment based on nods, smiles, and silence

And assumptions are expensive.

Why I Built Mastering Business Alignment

After watching misalignment quietly sabotage great strategies — not once, not twice, but repeatedly across my career — I realized leaders needed something they’ve never had:

• a way to teach alignment

• a way to measure alignment

• a way to sustain alignment

An all-in-one unified solution.

So I built the Mastering Business Alignment™ Hybrid Solution, a combination of:

1. The MBA Framework

A structured way to teach leaders the language, behaviors, and decision patterns that eliminate misalignment at its root.

2. MBAAT™ — The AI-Powered Alignment Platform

A tool that measures alignment quickly, exposes misunderstandings, and gives leaders real clarity into where teams are drifting — before it becomes a performance problem.

Together, they give leadership:

• a stronger foundation

• a shared language

• clearer direction

• better decision-making

• and a system to keep teams aligned as the year unfolds

When you use these tools, your strategy doesn’t just look good — it works. It accelerates results, boosts ROI, and drives revenue growth.

Alignment isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the multiplier that determines whether your 2026 goals become real outcomes — or just another plan that never fully connects.

The Bottom Line

Planning season is the perfect time to build a better future. But if you don’t understand where your organization stands today, next year’s plan is already at risk.

A strategy built on misalignment will always struggle. A strategy built on clarity will move faster — and deliver higher ROI and stronger revenue performance.

Alignment isn’t something you hope for. It’s something you build on purpose. Planning season is a critical time to build alignment.