The SHIFTPOINTS Blog

Note:  This is an excerpt from my latest book, Drive One Direction: How to Unleash the Accelerating Power of Alignment. In the One Way chapter, we highlight companies who unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with an intense focus on their corporate standards. 

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) has 254,000 employees working in 24,000 retail stores in 70 countries.

Although there are roughly 100,000 permutations of drinks, there is only One Way to make each One.

Coffee has always been my favorite beverage. So, when Starbucks barged on the scene in the early ’90s, I was an early adopter. I have lost count of how many Starbucks I have visited in my life. Countless portions of this book have been written in Starbucks coffee shops around the world.

In the beginning, we all had to learn how to “speak Starbucks.” Does “decaf” come before or after “grande”? Is it “two pump no whip” or “no whip two pump?” What’s the difference between a cappuccino and a Frappuccino^®?

Some people never became fluent in Starbucks and are embarrassed to go there.

Most people, however, have developed a basic level of Starbucks ordering competence.

As I am sure you have experienced, they also have a very specific process to ensure that your order is properly communicated to the barista. It is called the “Starbucks^® Beverage Calling & Cup Marking System,” and even specifies that a black permanent marker be used to write beverage identification codes on cups.

And of course, they had to teach all their baristas how to make all those drinks.

My sense is that being a Starbucks barista is a lot harder than most people think. They must memorize the Starbucks beverage manual, which contains the exact specifications for every drink. And these specifications  are extremely specific.

Did you know:

• Beverage temperature is between 150^oF and 170^oF not including Americanos. (Unless you order it extra hot.)
• An espresso shot should be 15–19 seconds for Verismo and 18–23 seconds for La San Marco.
• Blended beverages should be poured into the cup within 10 seconds of blending.

All of this is designed to fulfill The Starbucks Promise: “Your drink should be perfect, every time. If not, let us know and we’ll make it right.”

In order for Starbucks to fulfill their mission and deliver on their brand promise, they had to develop strict corporate standards.

There is only One Way to make a double-tall skim latte—my go-to drink.

Does your company have specific process standards for every product?

a·lign·ment

One word.  Three syllables.  Thousands of applications.

But, what does alignment actually mean? 

The etymology origin of “align” is French.  Webster’s says the first known use of the word was in 1693.  Some of the common uses include: 

• to arrange things or people in a straight line.
• to bring things or people into alignment.
• to bring people into agreement with a particular group, party, cause, etc.
• to bring things into a proper coordination (such as the wheels of a car).

Align is a verb.  Aligned is a past participle.  Aligning is a gerund.  Alignment is a noun.

Okay, enough of that. 

What does it mean for your company?

If your company is a global conglomerate, alignment means one thing. If your company is a dance company, alignment means a totally different thing.

In addition, our review of the research articles about alignment confirmed that even the scholars don’t have a common definition of alignment.

There are multiple reasons for this.

First, every company is radically different.  Synagogues are radically different from symphonies.  The United Auto Workers is radically different from the United Nations.  3M and IBM have one letter in common … and that’s about it.

Second, companies are in different life stages.  (See the chapter entitled One Life Stage.)  Startups are worried about survival, and spinouts are worried about cutting the corporate umbilical cord.

Third, companies have different operating models and management philosophies. (See the chapter entitled One Model.) Some companies run like denominations, and some churches run like corporations. 

Thus, every company is different, and you must define alignment in your unique One-of-a-Kind Way. 

After all, how can everyone Drive in One Direction if you don’t show them the way?

ACTION POINT:

One Way to get started is to take the One Definition challenge.

Ask a group of people to write a basic definition of the word “alignment.” Share the results around the table. Then, ask them to modify that definition as follows, “What does alignment mean for our company?”

Note:  This is an excerpt from my latest book, Drive One Direction: How to Unleash the Accelerating Power of Alignment. In the One Portfolio chapter, we highlight companies who unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with an intense focus on their product portfolio.

LEGO^® (www.lego.com) was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The privately held, family-owned company with headquarters in Billund, Denmark, has over 19,000 employees and operates 132 LEGO brand stores.

My mom recently spent time cleaning and sorting the LEGO bricks my brothers and I played with as kids so she could donate them to a local church. These bricks are almost 60 years old and they are still viable. In fact, all LEGO bricks produced since 1958 are fully compatible with the bricks produced today.

Every year, LEGO sells over 75 billion bricks and other components that they call “elements.” There are more than 3,700 different types of pieces, including bricks, wheels, motors, swords, figures, and more.

These are manufactured with incredible precision—the molds used to produce LEGO elements are accurate to within 0.004 mm—less than the width of a single hair. This accuracy ensures that the bricks will have what LEGO calls “clutch power.”

Since LEGO’s mission is to “inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow,” they often take on special projects to demonstrate the amazing things that can be built with LEGOs.

In 2018, they built a full-scale copy of the $3M Bugatti Chiron sports car out of LEGO bricks! It took over 13,000 man-hours to build and used over 1 million LEGO elements. It has 2,304 LEGO motors and a top speed of 12 MPH (versus 261 MPH for the real one!) The Bugatti factory test driver and multiple Le Mans champion Andy Wallace had the honor of the first drive.

The LEGO Chiron is truly amazing. But let’s just say you only have six two-by-four bricks. There are 915,103,765 ways to combine them! I spent hours as a kid building things, breaking them down, and then using my imagination to build something else.

LEGO is an amazing example of how a standardized product architecture can create alignment. There are a number of key insights that companies should consider applying.

First is backward compatibility. LEGO bricks that were built sixty years ago still interoperate with the current ones.

The second key insight is the power of modularity. People can mix and match LEGO elements to build virtually anything. Many companies struggle to create cross-divisional product portfolios. Creating a common architecture can ensure that products from division 1 interoperate with products from division 2.

It worked for LEGO. The company is worth over $7 billion, making it the world’s most valuable toy brand by far, according to consultancy Brand Finance.

Does your company have One unifying product architecture that keeps everything aligned?