{"id":11639,"date":"2023-04-11T19:53:05","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T19:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.managementcenter.org\/?post_type=resources&p=11639"},"modified":"2025-07-15T17:35:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T17:35:45","slug":"conspire-and-align","status":"publish","type":"resources","link":"https:\/\/www.managementcenter.org\/resources\/conspire-and-align\/","title":{"rendered":"Conspire and Align: A New Approach to Management"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ver este recurso en espa\u00f1ol.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being a great manager is more than tools and techniques and knowing your way around a MOCHA<\/a>. Don\u2019t get us wrong\u2014we love a great tool! But we believe that your management should be grounded in an overarching approach<\/em>\u2014a set of values or principles to guide your actions and decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A clear approach will help you navigate both the routine and unexpected parts of being a manager. It\u2019ll help you improvise when you confront unfamiliar challenges and contexts where there\u2019s no playbook or quick fix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most importantly, for managers and leaders working for social justice and educational equity, an intentional <\/em>approach helps you avoid defaulting to the status quo. This status quo looks like command-and-control<\/em>, a style of management that values efficiency and productivity over all else\u2014including diversity, inclusion, and belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever worked somewhere where you felt like a cog in a machine? You were expected to execute someone else\u2019s orders without being able to share your own ideas or offer any input. Or maybe you\u2019ve been on a team where you had to compete with your colleagues for resources and recognition, even when you were supposed to be collaborating. Perhaps you didn\u2019t even know why your work mattered in the long run or how it fit into the bigger picture of your organization\u2019s goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what happens under a command-and-control <\/em>management approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if your work (and your staff\u2019s) could be fulfilling and enjoyable? What if, even though there might be hard parts of your job, you felt valued, respected, and supported by your teammates and manager (and vice-versa)? Imagine a job where you have no doubt that your contributions are meaningful. You see how your efforts help your team and organization achieve your mission. You know that you belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At TMC, that\u2019s what we\u2019re after. And we believe that managers play a key role in making this experience a reality for their staff. That\u2019s why we take a different management approach: conspire and align.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conspire and Align<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Conspiring and aligning means coming together with our team members for a collective purpose, and getting on the same page about how to realize that purpose. When we conspire and align, everyone understands where we\u2019re going and <\/em>what role they play in getting us there.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Illustrated by Kiely Houston<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The word conspire<\/em> comes from the Latin conspirare<\/em>, which means \u201cto breathe together,\u201d and shares a root with the words inspire <\/em>and aspire<\/em>. When we conspire, we co-inspire <\/em>our team with a shared, co-crafted vision of success. When we align<\/em>, we get in formation\u2014the way birds flock, dancers get in place, and people assemble at marches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If conspiring <\/em>sounds like you might be \u201cup to something,<\/em>\u201d you\u2019re right about that too! But we\u2019re not talking about being sneaky or nefarious. We\u2019re talking about making \u201cgood trouble,\u201d as the late Rep. John Lewis put it, so that we can disrupt the status quo to advance social justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As managers, we view staff as partners\u2014people we exercise power with<\/em>, not over. But we don\u2019t pretend power dynamics don\u2019t exist; quite the opposite! The conspire-and-align <\/em>approach is about recognizing power, being honest about it, and exercising it responsibly, for the good of the work, the organization, and your team.<\/strong> This approach can work in all kinds of settings\u2014from more traditional hierarchical structures to flat or cooperative ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of you might already take a conspire-and-align approach to management. If you\u2019ve ever brainstormed a vision of success with your team, sought input before making an important decision, or tapped your team\u2019s knowledge and expertise to solve a tricky problem, you\u2019ve conspired and aligned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But command-and-control management is so pervasive that most of us have experienced it at some point (and can default to it). Perhaps you (like many of us) have picked up some bad habits along the way from these experiences, and you\u2019re still working to unlearn them. You know there\u2019s a better way\u2014one that better reflects your values and commitment to social justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we reframe management as an act of conspiring and aligning,<\/em> a whole new world opens up. We gain a new understanding of what it means to manage effectively<\/em>. And we adopt new mindsets<\/em> and different tools<\/em> to help us match our management practices to our values. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Three Dimensions of Effective Management<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Under the command-and-control style, management is considered \u201ceffective\u201d as long as it\u2019s \u201cproductive\u201d\u2014even if that \u201cproductivity\u201d harms the well-being and dignity of employees, the greater good of society, or the health of our planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under a conspire-and-align<\/em> approach, on the other hand, we understand that management can only be truly effective<\/em> if it has three dimensions<\/a>: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equitable<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To get the best work from our team, we need to make sure all of our team members have what they need to succeed, and that none of them are being held back by disparate impacts or unfair treatment due to a marginalized identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainable<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We can\u2019t afford to lose our co-conspirators to burnout! We must align with our team on a vision that\u2019s both inspiring in the long run and achievable in the short run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results-driven<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re here to get things done and make real change for the people and movements we care about. If we support each of our team members to make the best use of their talents, we\u2019ll get much better results than we ever could on our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Illustrated by Kiely Houston<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Equity, sustainability, and results are like three strands of a braided rope. The rope weakens if you try to separate the strands. Effective managers don\u2019t play favorites\u2014they don\u2019t routinely focus on one dimension at the expense of the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Three Mindsets of Effective Management<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A conspire-and-align <\/em>approach leads us to think about effective management in three ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Management is a practice<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Like any craft or discipline, effective management is something we do.<\/em> And those things we do can be broken down into fundamental component parts\u2014skills and techniques that we apply over and over,  like delegation<\/a>, goal-setting<\/a>, and relationship-building<\/a>. We don\u2019t get good at management just by reading, thinking, and talking about it. We figure it out through consistent and rigorous practice, which includes trying, making mistakes, experimenting, and (hopefully) getting better over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Management is a duty<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We have a duty to our movements and communities to get the best results we can. Whether it\u2019s registering enough voters to build local power or increasing math scores for 4th graders, we are doing this work because we feel a duty to make real change in the world. We also have a duty to our team members to exercise our power responsibly and to be good stewards of their time and energy. People spend a lot of their lives at work, and how we manage people influences whether they feel a sense of purpose or dread coming back the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Management is a balance<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To conspire and align effectively, we must learn how to balance seemingly competing ideas and priorities\u2014like balancing our care for an exhausted colleague with our need to get a press release out about a horrible bill being proposed, or finding a balance between giving clear guidance and letting our team members truly own their work. \u201cBalance\u201d doesn\u2019t just mean finding a compromise or happy medium; it can also mean switching between different approaches depending on the circumstance (like taking a week off after putting in extra hours for a sprint), or grounding yourself in two different values at the same time to stay stable (like caring for your people and <\/em>committing to getting great results). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tools for Putting Conspire and Align Into Practice<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These are the five most important tools<\/strong> we use daily in a conspire-and-align approach to management:<\/p>\n\n\n\n