Do you sometimes feel like everyone's on a different page? Is your leadership focused in one direction, your program in another and your contracting office moving in yet another? Do your stakeholders seem clustered in heavily fortified stovepipes with conflicting goals, policies and interests? Your organization is out of alignment.

Alignment reconciles those competing positions and agendas to promote synergy and high performance. Aligning stakeholders involves developing a common understanding and commitment to a goal, outcome, or way of doing things. When leaders and stakeholders align on outcomes, operations proceed smoothly, efficiently and effectively.

Without alignment, getting things done becomes hard like slogging through mud or pushing a boulder uphill.

Getting aligned starts with identifying all parties with an interest in the acquisition process, assessing their level of influence, and engaging them appropriately from the outset in the conversation about key process objectives and desired outcomes. Many have a stake in acquisition at the enterprise level, including agency leadership, operational managers, program managers, contracting officers, finance officers, the user community, oversight organizations, suppliers and other parties who affect or who are affected by the acquisition.

Even for a specific contract, stakeholders extend beyond the contracting officer and program manager to ensure that the program executive, users, the contractor, administrators and beneficiaries are involved in decision making... and therefore accountable for success of the acquisition.

Reconciling disparate interests and getting all parties working together is difficult work requiring focus, discipline and specialized skills. As in international affairs or auto mechanics, most will benefit from professional help in getting stakeholders to line up in a common undertaking. An objective outside party often is better situated to mediate competing agendas and objectives to get alignment.

Maintaining alignment comes with establishing a governance structure to set priorities and make decisions at key intervals in the acquisition life cycle. Setting up governance involves defining the respective roles and responsibilities for participants, implementing a communications process, articulating fundamental criteria for making decisions and getting commitment to abide by the decisions of designated governance body against those criteria. The governance structure includes the program officials responsible for cost, schedule, and technical issues, as well as the warranted contracting officials with fFAR responsibilities.

Governance also ought include counterparts in the contractor's organization and provide for representation of other key stakeholder groups. Effective governance will promote collaborative decision making and meaningful multi-lateral communications to keep everyone moving in the same direction.

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