In our last two posts, we’ve explored what team alignment is and how the right survey questions will help you gauge your own team’s alignment. In this final post of the series, we’ll delve into why behavioral science is a must-have in your strategy for setting a shared vision and creating a shared game plan (one that Sales and Service can both get behind).

In our previous post, we gave a working explanation of what team alignment really is and why it’s so important. Here’s the recap: true team alignment involves a vital connection between individual, departmental, and organizational goals. It means that C-suite strategy and teams’ day-to-day tactics actively support each other.

Understanding how their teams align (or don’t) guides leaders in cultivating a shared perspective of both problems and opportunities. From that shared perspective come new solutions to increase efficiency, improve sales, and generate revenue-reaping innovations.

As we continue through the COVID-19 crisis, team alignment might not look like a top priority. Here’s our theory, though: it will be critical for rebuilding healthy business.

In theory, team alignment is straightforward and goes something like this: the CEO or another C-suite member lays out goals and a vision for reaching them, the goals are written down, managers say “Sure!” and help workers understand what they’re working toward. Alignment!

In reality, team alignment goes much deeper than verbal agreement or the absence of dissent—and there’s a lot at stake for both an organization’s health and a CEO’s tenure when members of one department or across departments are out of alignment.

Employee engagement surveys are essential tools that allow employers to take the pulse of their workforce. Now, imagine you had a health tracker that checks your heartbeat, and it was strapped to your kneecap. Turns out the kneecap is a terrible place to check your pulse, as there’s not a major vein or artery passing over the knee.

When you’re collecting survey data, time is of the essence. Participants can give you high-quality data for only about five minutes. After that, they tend to lose focus and interest—and the data quality plummets. To maximize research effectiveness, you need to collect the most data possible from each participant in the shortest amount of time. Paring down a lengthy list of questions can be challenging, but the effort pays off in a better-quality data set.

But when you’re limited to explicit-only questions and responses, you’re unlikely to gather sufficient data in five minutes. It might appear to happen sometimes, but in such cases your participants are probably rushing through the survey.

Traditionally, the number of participants is the primary measurement of significance when you’re conducting a research study. But while volume of participation is key, it misses another dimension—the quality of that participation. Was the respondent overwhelmed by your questions, uncertain about their answers, or worse—bored and distracted?

We live in the age of big data. It’s a fast-moving, ever-growing ocean of information that can easily overwhelm those who are leading research projects. How do you gain access to the highest quality of data? And once you have it, what will you do with it?

Human beings are complicated creatures. You know that, but does your workplace design survey know it?

How do people really work? When you’re designing an office environment, understanding this can seem like a holy grail of insights—powerful and elusive. (Learn five reasons so many workplace design surveys don’t help you reach that understanding.)

Architects, interior designers, how often do you survey your client’s workforce to get the data you need—and then you end up relying on prior experience or resorting to educated guesses to create the best office environment for them?