This article explains why announcing a strategy or project does not create alignment, even with loyal teams. It defines launch alignment in three parts, outcome, accountability, and behaviour, and outlines two practical steps to build it before kickoff: an executive alignment sprint and a people manager alignment loop. It also includes a quick reference checklist leaders can use to reduce churn and rework and create traction early.

Your 2026 Leadership Toolkit What’s inside: • A guided reflection to capture your wins and lessons from 2025 • A simple framework to set meaningful leadership goals • Best practices to support your habits • A quarterly scorecard to track your progress

Micro-friction Checklist - Six small fixes that free up big change: a one-page playbook to repair everyday cracks (meeting overload, boundary bleed, tool sprawl, tacit-knowledge loss, skills gaps, and security noise) with short 30-day experiments, ready scripts and simple KPIs.