Do You See What I See? An Alignment Practice for Coordinated Action

Introduction, 1. Seeing the Fog, 2. Clearing the Fog, PART 1 – Story, 3. New Challenge (06 January), 4. Diagnostic Report debrief with CEO (12 January), 5. Alignment Practice - cycle 1, part 1 (15 January), 6. Alignment Practice - cycle 1 continued (28 January), 7. Alignment Practice – cycle 2 (27 April), 8. Prologue (23 December), PART 2 - Practice, 9. Coaching – by John Hill, 10. Conditions – by Craig G. Howe, 11. Cases, PART 3 – Research, 12. Introduction - by Johan Siebers, 13. Theory of Team Alignment Map, 14. The Science behind the Story, Point 1 - People understand the world through mental models, Point 2 - Our brains pick up inputs and try to associate them with meaning, Point 3 - If we can't reach a logical interpretation, we make an assumption, Point 4 - We co-create meaning as a social process, Point 5 - Sense-making is more difficult when the context is unclear, Point 6 - Misunderstandings happen when meaning is misinterpreted, Point 7 - Cognitive diversity poses an opportunity and a challenge, Point 8 - Different perspectives can cause conflict, Point 9 - Poor team learning behaviours lead to mistrust, Point 10 - Poor team learning behaviours undermine alignment, Point 11 - Team learning behaviours are key to addressing misalignment, Point 12 - Team learning behaviours depend on skills, Point 13 – Positivity in dialogue helps, Point 14 - Talking through ideas helps people clarify and refine their thoughts, Point 15 - Sensemaking is a personal process, Point 16 - Effective dialogue is further enabled by foundational dialogue skills, Point  17 - Personality self-awareness plays a role, Point 18 - Culture influences the quality of dialogue, Point 19 - Alignment does not always mean agreement, Point 20 - Team alignment needs continuous attention

Biography

Lindsay Uittenbogaard -  Founder and CEO of Mirror Mirror. Began her career running small businesses in the UK before spending 15 years leading employee communication in multinational organizations across energy, IT, and telecoms. IABC Accredited Business Communicator, CIPD-certified professional, member of the Reputation Institute.

John Hill - 17 years of experience as an executive and team coach, specializing in leadership development. Former director at the Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC), he has influenced the global coaching profession. Serves as a Coach Supervisor with the Coaching Supervision Academy.

Craig G. Howe - over 11 years of experience supporting more than 900 leaders and intact teams, primarily in technology and financial services. Member of EMCC Global’s Team Coaching Centre for Excellence. Holds dual accreditation from the International Coaching Federation (ICF) as a Professional Certified Coach and from EMCC Global as a Senior Practitioner.

Johan Siebers -  PhD (Leiden), Professor of Philosophy of Language and Communication at Middlesex University, London. Formerly worked in communication, external affairs, scenario planning, and HR at Royal Dutch Shell. Founding editor of the European Journal for Philosophy of Communication and series editor for Routledge. Advises organizations on building equitable, effective communication environments.

"In today’s fast-paced, distraction-filled organisations, even the most capable people and teams can lose alignment with their collective purpose—leading to inefficiencies and unnecessary challenges. In my work as a senior management consultant, I have used Mirror Mirror to diagnose misalignment, build shared understanding, and strengthen collaboration. Time and again, this process has driven meaningful behavioural shifts and measurable improvements in performance.  I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone serious about building alignment and driving meaningful change in their organisation." John Dobbin, Management Consultant

"Because humans are meaning-making beings, individually making sense of what they hear and see, over time, every organization becomes filled with fragmented perspectives, beliefs and understandings that a better slide deck or communications plan will not solve. Mirror Mirror's methodology integrates diagnostic data with structured perspective comparison - a practical way to coordinate action in complex systems. Through a detailed story, the reader will get a grounded sense of how this method works, and in later chapters, a clear sense of the principles on which coordinated action is built." Gervase Bushe, Professor of Leadership and Organization Development, Simon Fraser University and authour of Clear Leadership: Sustaining Real Collaboration and Partnership at Work.

"Why can’t human organisations replicate the agility of a flock of birds or school of fish? It’s one of the most compelling questions for businesses in an increasingly complex world. Alignment in a flock of birds happens simultaneously in multiple directions. Yet most human organisations are designed around communications that are primarily vertical. Here is a book that addresses how to make instant adaptation a competitive strength." David Clutterbuck, Visiting professor, Henley Business School and special ambassador, European Mentoring and Coaching Council

"Do You See What I See? offers leaders a practical way to surface misalignment in organizations by reflecting where the system is struggling to handle the complexity of the work. This resonates strongly with what I see in my own research and practice. When leaders surface these tensions and engage multiple perspectives, they create the conditions for better judgment, coordination, and stronger connections. What I appreciate about the authors’ methodology is that it makes those tensions visible, giving leaders a mirror to see where complexity is getting stuck and where attention is needed next. The real risk is not the presence of tension in organizations, it is failing to see and act on it." Rebecca Andree, Ph.D., CEO and Founder, Vertical Leadership Consulting, Assistant Professor of Management, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Sentry School of Business and Economics

"I am so pleased that Lindsay and her colleagues decided to write about ‘Mirror Mirror’. So many of the ideas in this book have a common thread in what I’ve written over the years and apply to any team, not just those in software development. Some of the biggest issues I’ve seen over the years are due to misunderstandings and assumptions that are shared. ‘Mirror Mirror’ provides a way forward for those organizations who wish to do better." Janet Gregory, Co-author of Agile Testing, More Agile Testing, Agile Testing Condensed, Holistic Testing, Assessing Agile Quality Practices, and A Guide for Facilitating Quality Assessments

"At a time when many industries are overly focused on artificial intelligence, this book looks at human intelligence — namely how we share our intelligence. It examines how people communicate — or don't communicate — in groups and teams. The authors provide years of research and practice which have resulted in the Mirror Mirror alignment framework. Having worked with many large organizations I can attest that the insights in this book are critical in fostering sensemaking at scale." Harold Jarche, Advisor, consultant, writer, & speaker on knowledge sharing and sense-making

"Every leader has experienced a moment when everyone leaves the meeting believing they are aligned only to later discover later that everyone interpreted the conversation slightly differently. This powerful book tackles that invisible problem brilliantly. It reveals how small differences in perspective quietly allows the ‘fog’ that slows organisations down and instead offers a powerful method for turning conversation into coordinated action. Insightful, practical and deeply relevant, this is a book for any leader who wants their team not just to agree but to truly move forward together." Damian Hughes, Best Selling Author and Catalyst for High Performance Cultures

"This book offers not only a methodology for aligned delivery, but also theories behind the practice, and insights into the skills needed to get to and maintain alignment. Shining through it is ‘practice what you preach’. The strong, very different voices and perspectives of the author team have clearly aligned to create the perfect guide to help get better outcomes from organisational teams." Naomi Stanford, Organization Design Consultant and Author.

"When I picked up this book, I didn't expect to feel so seen. After leading teams of 300 people and supporting owner relationships involving more than $400 million in assets, I've learned that the real challenges inside organisations rarely show up in the board slides. They show up in the spaces between people, where assumptions live, interpretations drift, and well-intentioned teams start rowing in different directions.  It's rare to find a book covering this that is both intellectually rigorous and deeply practical. I believe it will become a staple for leaders who are serious about coordinated action because we're operating in a world where technology scales output but also scales misalignment, across functions, time zones, and priorities. "Communicating more" or "working harder" no longer cuts it. What this book offers is something far more valuable: a way to build alignment as an ongoing capability, not a one-off intervention." Mitra Gholam, Lead, EMCC Global Team Coaching Centre for Excellence, Partner, Alira Consulting LLC

"Do you think you're having people problems? Are you wondering why your hardworking teams aren't executing your carefully crafted strategies effectively? This book provides leaders with useful insights into the intricacies of helping people work better together by building shared meaning and ownership that transforms disjointed activities into coordinated action." Mary Boone, President, Boone Associates and Author of Managing Interactively: Executing Business Strategy, Improving Communication, and Creating a Knowledge-Sharing Culture

"I disagree with much of the theory and many of the methods in this book, but agree with some. That's precisely why it's worth reading: it's interesting. The structure of stories, cases, and short, easily digestible theory pieces makes the agreements and disagreements genuinely productive. Any book that challenges my thinking and holds my attention earns my recommendation." Prof Dave Snowden, Cynefin Centre & Cognitive Edge

"Drawing on a clear, research-informed account of how people make sense of their situations at work—through mental models, assumptions, social sensemaking, and dialogue— Do You See What I See offers a practical guide for addressing the cognitive and interpersonal gaps that quietly erode performance. Aligning teams around performance goals takes both skill and wisdom, and the authors show how and why this is about enabling the team learning that drives performance in today’s uncertain world." Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School. Author, Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well (2023).

"Do You See What I See?' is one of those books that will stop you mid-read and think - yes, that's exactly what's happening in my team right now. It takes you through real case studies and stories from inside organisations, showing just how much hangs on how teams communicate and align together. And how much goes sideways when they don't. Well researched and genuinely useful - this isn't a book you read and then shelve. You'll finish it ready to take what you've learned straight back into your team." Emma Weber, Author, Coach and Facilitator - Being Human in the Age of AI

"We are not short of books that describe the mess of interpersonal dynamics in teams. Nor is there any shortage of promised solutions to problems that are never going to be ‘fixed’ by oversimplified models and tools. In Do You See What I See?, the authors strike this balance well. They offer hope without pretending that the work of achieving alignment and clarity in teams is straightforward. At the heart of the book is a simple but powerful idea: people act on their own interpretations of reality, shaped by their experiences, mental models, and biases. When those interpretations diverge, so does coordinated action. This is where the fog sets in. What many organizations overlook is that this misalignment sits beneath a wide range of visible performance issues. The book unpacks how these dynamics play out in practice and, importantly, how to engage with them constructively. Blending theory with application, it offers a grounded perspective on tensions that anyone working in teams will recognize, along with practical ways to work more effectively through them. Highly recommended." Steve Hearsum, Consultant, Supervisor, Coach, Author of 'No Silver Bullet: bursting the bubble of the organisational quick fix'

"Alignment isn’t about thinking the same. It’s about acting in sync. Do You See What I See? shows how coordination breaks down—and how to fix it before it’s too late. As you move through the stories and model, you’ll start to see your own organization differently. Gaps that were invisible become concrete and actionable. Strategy sets direction. But only coordinated action gets you there." Gustavo Razzetti, Bestselling author of Forward Talk and Remote Not Distant

"Shared sense making is vital for collaborating in complexity, but we don’t have this embedded in our organisations yet. This book provides a very useful and practical contribution for developing this habit, and weaving it into the way leaders make decisions, relate and solve problems so they can be better equipped and fit for our context." Joan Lurie, Executive Coach, Consultant, and Organisational Ecologist, Orgonomics

"Misalignment is one of the most pervasive and costly problems in organizational life, and one of the least systematically addressed. Do You See What I See? names it precisely: the fog of differing interpretations that compounds across teams, slows delivery, and drains leadership energy. Its combination of scientific grounding and practical method gives teams a structured way to surface coordination gaps before they become crises, something I recognize as missing in virtually every organization I encounter." Jeroen Kraaienbrink, Strategy & Leadership Expert, Cofounder of Strategy.Inc and Big 5 of Strategy

"Inspiring and insightful. Practical and relevant. Rooted in science and novel in design. A captivating exploration of team alignment with a compelling new approach to achieving it." Cheryl Breukelman, President, Epiphany Coaches Inc.

"A lack of alignment is the often hidden factor in many business failures; wasting time, energy and money. I think alignment is such an important factor in success that I created a performance review process for my last company that surfaced the gaps in alignment instead of rating employee performance. This approach increased revenue, retention and employee satisfaction. This book not only identifies this common unseen disruptor but outlines ways to create alignment and use it to power success. I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to figure out why your carefully crafted strategy is not working as you expected." Lori Mazan, Managing Director, Sounding Board, a BTS company